Women's History Month, 2013

Proclamation 8935 of February 28, 2013

Women's History Month, 2013

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

For more than two centuries, our Nation has grown under
the simple creed that each of us is created equal. It
is a notion that makes America unlike any other place
on earth--a country where no matter where you come from
or what you look like, you can go as far as your
talents will take you.

Women's History Month is a time to remember those who
fought to make that freedom as real for our daughters
as for our sons. Written out of the promise of the
franchise, they were women who reached up to close the
gap between what America was and what it could be. They
were driven by a faith that our Union could extend true
equality to every citizen willing to claim it. Year
after year, visionary women met and marched and
mobilized to prove what should have been self-evident.
They grew a meeting at Seneca Falls into a movement
that touched every community and took on our highest
institutions. And after decades of slow, steady,
extraordinary progress, women have written equal
opportunity into the law again and again, giving
generations of girls a future worthy of their
potential.

That legacy of change is all around us. Women are
nearly half of our Nation's workforce and more than
half of our college graduates. But even now, too many
women feel the weight of discrimination on their
shoulders. They face a pay gap at work, or higher
premiums for health insurance, or inadequate options
for family leave. These issues affect all of us, and
failing to address them holds our country back.

That is why my Administration has made the needs of
women and girls a priority since day one--from signing
the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to helping ensure
women are represented among tomorrow's top scientists
and engineers. It is why we secured stronger
protections and more preventive services for women
under the Affordable Care Act. It is why we have fought
for greater workplace flexibility, access to capital
and training for women-owned businesses, and equal pay
for equal work. And it is why we have taken action to
reduce violence against women at home and abroad, and
to empower women around the world with full political
and economic opportunity.

Meeting those challenges will not be easy. But our
history shows that when we couple grit and ingenuity
with our basic beliefs, there is no barrier we cannot
overcome. We can stay true to our founding creed that
in America, all things should be possible for all
people. That spirit is what called our mothers and
grandmothers to fight for a world where no wall or
ceiling could keep their daughters from their dreams.
And today, as we take on the defining issues of our
time, America looks to the next generation of movers
and marchers to lead the way.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim March 2013 as Women's
History Month. I call upon all Americans to observe
this month and to celebrate International Women's Day
on March 8, 2013, with appropriate programs,
ceremonies, and activities. I also invite all Americans
to

visit www.WomensHistoryMonth.gov to learn more about
the generations of women who have shaped our history.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord
two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
seventh.