[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 10 (Monday, March 9, 1998)]
[Pages 362-363]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7071--Women's History Month, 1998

March 2, 1998

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    The Preamble to the Constitution begins, ``We, the people.'' Yet 
that phrase, inspiring as it is, has not always included all Americans. 
Women's history in America has been the story of the struggle of women 
of all racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds to be included in that 
simple but powerful statement. It is the story as well of how, in 
striving to reach their own great potential, women have strengthened and 
enriched our Nation.
    In every era of American history, women have braved enormous 
challenges to change our world for the better. Women of faith in the 
early 17th century dared a dangerous journey and the unknown wilderness 
to seek freedom of conscience in a new land. As our Nation struggled for 
independence and to establish a new, more enlightened form of 
government, women like Esther DeBerdt Reed and Sarah Franklin Bache 
supplied food, clothes, and funds for Washington's soldiers. Freedom 
fighters like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman led hundreds of 
enslaved men and women to liberty through the Underground Railroad, and 
social reformers like Gertrude Bonnin advanced the human rights of 
American Indians. Suffragists like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady 
Stanton, and Luisa Capetillo challenged the conventions of their times 
and sought to secure for women one of the most basic rights within our 
democracy.
    This year marks the 150th anniversary of the women's rights movement 
in America and its immeasurable contributions to our Nation's promise of 
justice and equality for all. The visionary women and men who gathered 
in Seneca Falls, New York, in July of 1848 for the first Women's Rights 
Convention in history gave voice so powerfully to women's aspirations 
for inclusion and empowerment that their vision continues to shape our 
world today.
    Once disenfranchised, American women now serve at the highest levels 
of government, as Justices of the Supreme Court and in increasing 
numbers in the Cabinet and the United States Congress. Once denied the 
resources and opportunities to play organized sports, American women 
made sporting history this year by winning the first-ever Olympic Gold 
Medal in women's ice hockey. Women are cracking the glass ceilings of 
corporate management to lead some of our country's most prominent 
businesses. As parents and partners, entrepreneurs and artists, 
politicians and scientists, women are helping to build an America in 
which all citizens, regardless of gender, are free to live out their 
dreams.
    Thanks to the efforts of women leaders, little girls across America 
today know far fewer limits than did their mothers and grandmothers. But 
there still remains work to be done to create a more just America, and 
we must rededicate ourselves to ending the discrimination that women 
still face. We must continue our efforts to help women succeed at work 
and at home, to be free from violent crime, and to enjoy quality health 
care. In doing so, we will confirm our conviction that ``We, the 
people'' includes us all.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 
1998 as Women's History Month. I encourage all Americans to observe this 
month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities, and to 
remember throughout the year the many voices and stories of courageous 
women who have made our Nation strong.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of 
March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of 
the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-second.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:31 a.m., March 3, 
1998]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on March 
4.

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