Women’s History Month is a celebration of opportunity, progress

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Arthur I. Cyr is author of “After the Cold War.”

The decisive election victory in February of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first woman prime minister, and her party is historic.

That victory also provides a fitting introduction to March, Women’s History Month. The eighth of the month is International Women’s Day.

The past century, a period of extraordinarily costly global conflict and war, also has been a time of unprecedented human progress and positive development. The proliferation of women in business, government and other sectors of society has been a driver of as well as reflection of extraordinary human advancement.

These unprecedented developments deserve attention at any time, but arguably especially at the present strangely uncertain time in history.

Key to this progress has been the power of the vote, which in turn has provided leverage for other progress.

You may be surprised to learn that the first self-governing nation to introduce universal suffrage was New Zealand, in 1893. Reform leader Kate Sheppard spearheaded the remarkably successful movement that secured passage of the Electoral Act shortly before national elections on Nov. 28 of that year.

Significantly also, the right to vote was expanded comprehensively, to include indigenous Maori women. On the downside, women could not run as candidates until 1919.

Similarly, women achieved the right to vote in Britain’s colony of South Australia in 1895, and throughout Australia in 1902 along with being candidates. Nonwhites however were excluded. Also notable, Finland initiated universal female and male suffrage in 1906.

Universal adult suffrage became the law in the U.S. in 1920 with the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Similar legislation passed in Great Britain in 1918 and 1928.

Jeannette Rankin, Republican from Wyoming, was the first woman elected to Congress in 1916. She served two terms in the House of Representatives, 1917-19 and 1941-43, and courageously voted against entry in both world wars. After beginning slowly, recent decades have witnessed rapid expansion in the numbers of women elected to both houses of Congress, as well as local and state offices in all parts of the country.

As of 2026, an unprecedented total of 155 women are serving in the 119th Congress, 28% of the total.

Internationally, steadily increasing involvement and influence of women in government and other occupations across the board is also taking place. The Carter Center, based in Atlanta, has been a catalyst for such reform internationally for over four decades.

President Jimmy Carter, after being defeated for reelection by Ronald Reagan in 1980, did not retire. Rather, he immediately went to work founding and building the now universally respected and influential Carter Center.

From the start, a sustained priority of the institution has been promoting female literacy in low income newly industrializing nations. Data provide undeniable confirmation that basic literacy for girls and women leads directly to other concrete positive changes, including decline in high birthrates, greater stability and economic development.

Complementing education, the Carter Center emphasizes conflict resolution, comprehensive development and public health. In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Traditionally, the military has been a source of upward mobility. Today, women comprise approximately 18% of our military forces. The same proportion is found in the Army alone. Women are essential to success of our all-volunteer forces.

Contemporary trends include a dramatic increase in the average human lifespan, movement of the vast mass of our planet’s population out of poverty, and the spread of democracy.

The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on the equivalent of U.S. $3 per day, and estimates only approximately 10% of the world’s population is in that condition.

Continued expansion of women in the public, private and nonprofit sectors worldwide has been and remains essential to this extraordinary progress.