Women’s History Month: Honoring the Stories That Shaped Us

Women’s History Month is more than just a celebration of the trailblazers whose names have made it into textbooks—it's a call to recognize the untold stories, the everyday heroes, and the women whose impact has shaped generations without ever making headlines.

For centuries, history has been written with a noticeable absence of women’s voices. As historian Dr. Bettany Hughes pointed out, "Women have always been 50% of the population, but only occupy around 0.5% of recorded history."

So how do we change that? How do we move beyond Women’s History Month and ensure that women’s contributions—past and present—are woven into the fabric of our daily lives, not just highlighted every March?

The answer lies in storytelling.

The Power of Storytelling and Our Place in History

For much of history, women weren’t the ones writing it.

Oral traditions—the way knowledge was passed down before written records—were often shared by travelers, scholars, and leaders who moved from place to place. But women were largely bound to the home, raising children, tending to daily needs, and building the foundations of family life.

That meant women’s stories were often told quietly, passed from mother to daughter, from sister to sister, hidden in kitchen conversations, bedtime tales, and shared wisdom over the generations. These stories—though rarely recorded—were just as powerful as the written history we know today.

Women’s History Month is about bringing those stories back to the forefront. It’s about acknowledging that history isn’t just made in battlefields and boardrooms—it’s made in gardens, kitchens, classrooms, and homes. It’s made in the moments of care, resilience, and quiet strength that have built the world as we know it.

The Other 49.5% and the Importance of Sharing Women’s Stories

If half the population has been left out of history, then half of our understanding of the past is incomplete.

Women’s erasure from history isn’t accidental—it has been reinforced by limited access to education, restrictive societal expectations, and structural discrimination. Because of these barriers, we only see traces of courageous women celebrated throughout history—but there are countless more whose legacies deserve to be known.

We have the power to rewrite that imbalance. To be the storytellers our ancestors couldn’t be.

How? By sharing the stories of the women in our lives.

Not just the ones who made headlines—but the grandmothers, mothers, sisters, and friends who have shaped us. The teachers who inspired us. The healers who nurtured us. The quiet warriors who carried burdens no one else saw.

Their stories matter.

And so does yours.

A Personal Story: My Grandmother & The Raspberry Patch

To Grandma Bonnie Pelzer, may you live on through this story.

Some of my earliest childhood memories are wrapped in the scent of sun-warmed raspberries and the feel of my grandmother’s hands guiding mine through the brambles of her garden.

Grandma Bonnie lived with Grandpa Max on a farm in rural Iowa, where she cared for me while my mother worked. She was a woman of quiet strength, and without realizing it, she became my first teacher in herbalism.

One summer, when I was no more than five years old, she handed me a yellow plastic bowl—one that had seen years of garden harvests, fishing trips, and family meals. With that bowl in my small hands, I followed her out to the raspberry patch.

She knelt beside me, picking three different berries—one overripe, one underripe, and one perfect. She let me taste each one, teaching me not just how to harvest, but how to understand what the plant was offering.

For every few raspberries that made it into my bucket, just as many went into my mouth. By the time we walked back to the house, my fingers were stained red, my arms were itchy, and my heart was full.

That day, I learned about patience, about the rhythm of the earth, and about how the land gives when we take only what we need.

And I learned the power of a woman’s knowledge—passed down, quietly, from one generation to the next.

Women’s History & Herbal Wisdom: The Stories We Carry

Herbs, much like history, have been preserved through storytelling. Without the wisdom passed down over centuries, many of the medicinal herbs we rely on today might have been forgotten.

Take a raspberry leaf (Rubus idaeus), for example—the very plant my grandmother taught me to harvest.

For centuries, raspberry leaf tea has been known as a women’s herb, highly regarded for its ability to support reproductive health, ease menstrual discomfort, and strengthen the uterus during pregnancy. Its history is intertwined with midwives, healers, and generations of women who used it long before modern medicine confirmed its benefits.

This tradition of herbal wisdom is a testament to women’s role as healers, caregivers, and knowledge keepers.

Just like my grandmother, countless women have quietly passed down healing traditions, nurtured families, and preserved cultural heritage through plants, food, and storytelling.

And those stories? They deserve to be told.

How Will You Celebrate Women’s History Month?

Women’s History Month is a reminder that we are still writing history. That the stories of the women who came before us are not finished.

So, how will you honor the women in your life this month?

Will you:
📖 Share a story about a woman who has shaped your life?
🌿 Explore the herbal traditions passed down in your family?
💬 Start a conversation about the forgotten women of history?
🖊️ Write down a memory that deserves to be preserved?

Every story told fills in the gaps of history that were never recorded.

Every voice raised ensures that future generations won’t have to search so hard to find themselves in the past.

Let’s be the storytellers our ancestors needed.

Let’s write women back into history.

Final Thoughts: The Legacy We Leave Behind

When I think of my grandmother, I don’t just think of raspberries and the summer sun—I think of the knowledge she carried, the resilience she embodied, and the quiet legacy she left behind.

Women’s history is made not just in the textbooks, but in the kitchens, the fields, the classrooms, and the conversations we have every day.

Who are the women who have shaped your story?

And more importantly—how will you make sure their stories live on?