Why is Women’s History Month important?

George Mason University professor Christy Pichichero calls women's history, “history with a capital H.”

“Women's history is just telling history as it was,” said Pichichero, an associate professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “You cannot tell the history of this continent or of universal suffrage without talking about indigenous women like Sacajawea or Marie Baldwin.”

Pichichero teaches in Mason’s African and African American Studies Program, and in the Departments of History and Art History and Modern and Classical Languages. This semester she is teaching HIST 535 The Black Atlantic World, which focuses on the complex relationship between Europe, Africa, and the Americans from the 15th century until today.

As for her own role in history, Pichichero aspires to help others broaden their perspectives. “I hope to change history by helping people think differently—to realize how many histories, how many people have been brushed aside and neglected and forgotten.”

“New histories, new perspectives, new languages are keys to uncovering information about the past, the present, and the future of humanity and our universe,” she said. “They're also keys to a better world for all of us.”