What Woman In History Would You Most Like To Meet? [Patch Survey]

ACROSS AMERICA — March is Women’s History Month, and we thought it would be interesting and insightful to ask readers what woman in history, either living or deceased, they’d most like to spend a day getting to know.

Please fill out the form at the bottom of this story — and invite your daughters and sons to fill it out as well for stories to be published during Women’s History Month, March 1-31. To get you started, the photos above are of a handful of U.S. women who have made history, but choose your own and tell us why you would like to know them.

Women’s History Month has been observed informally since 1978, when the Sonoma, California, school district organized a monthlong celebration of the contributions women have made to history, culture and society. Other schools picked up on the idea, and, in 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week.

“From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation,” he wrote. “Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose name we know so well.”

A year later, Congress approved a resolution designating the week of March 8 as Women’s History Week, and six years later, the National Women’s History Project — now the National Women’s History Alliance — successfully petitioned Congress to expand the observance to the entire month of March.

Here is the form. And don’t worry — we won’t collect your email address.