As Women’s History Month wraps up, I found myself wanting to go back and research its original mission. Not the polished version. Not the brand-safe version. The actual beginning.

I wanted to understand what this month was built to do, who built it, and what the mission really was. So I started researching the organization behind it and writing a résumé on one of the women who helped create it: Molly Murphy MacGregor.

This movement was born because women were being erased in plain sight. Women’s History Month was created to put women back into the historical record at a time when women’s history was virtually unknown in K–12 education and barely visible in public memory.

And the more I read, the more obvious it became: this movement has not merely been watered down. It has been softened, stripped of its teeth, and made safe for consumption by the very institutions it should be challenging.

Women are asked to feel celebrated while still being underpaid. Asked to feel visible while still being overlooked for leadership. Asked to feel honored while still being excluded from capital, sponsorship, and decision-making power.

That is the pain in it.

What began as a movement to confront women’s erasure has, in too many cases, been sanitized into a PR-friendly ritual for institutions that want credit for supporting women without paying for it, building it, or surrendering any power to it. Performance is useful precisely because it lets them look progressive while changing almost nothing.

Molly Murphy MacGregor and the women around her were not building a marketing moment. They were trying to correct a record, change what was taught, and make women impossible to ignore in classrooms, institutions, and public life.

What they built was not a vibe. It was a correction.

And yet every March, we get beautifully packaged appreciation. We get polished messaging. We get campaigns designed to sound empowering. We get companies and institutions eager to be seen celebrating women.

But when you go looking for the real evidence, it gets very quiet.

Quiet around pay equity.
Quiet around promotion.
Quiet around who gets funded.
Quiet around who gets sponsored.
Quiet around who gets protected when budgets tighten.
Quiet around who actually gets access to power.

If we are going to talk about giving, then let’s talk honestly about what women actually need: not just admiration, not just visibility, and not just a campaign designed to sound supportive without costing anything meaningful.

Real support looks like funding women-led organizations. It looks like equitable pay. It looks like sponsorship that changes careers. It looks like leadership opportunities, ownership, access to capital, and decision-making power. It looks like institutions backing women in ways that still matter long after March is over.

So yes, celebrate women. Absolutely.

But then ask harder questions.

Ask where the money is going.
Ask who is getting paid equitably.
Ask who is being promoted.
Ask who is being sponsored into leadership.
Ask who has access to capital, ownership, and decision-making power.
Ask what, exactly, is different for women because of their so-called support.

Challenge them to show you. Show you the investment. Show you the data. Show you the policies. Show you the outcomes. Show you that their celebration of women has substance behind it.

That is what support looks like.

And because this kind of change happens one career move, one voice, and one act of self-advocacy at a time, that is exactly the kind of work we do at Get Her Hired.

It is our mission every day to help 10,000 women, thems, and cool men land their next boss roles, and to do it in a way that moves beyond visibility into real opportunity, real power, and real change.

If you want to join us in doing exactly that kind of work, come to our open Q&A this week.

Too Long? Too Vague? Too Weird? Let’s Fix Your LinkedIn About Section.

Your LinkedIn About section can feel oddly high-pressure: too long, too short, too vague, too detailed, too personal, too polished, not polished enough. In this webinar, we’ll break down what this section is actually for, why it matters, what to include, what to leave out, and how to write one that sounds like you while still making your value clear.

Come with your questions, your half-written draft, your identity crisis, and your weird LinkedIn anxiety. We’ll fix it.

Register now. Registration is required.

-Kate

Not interested in receiving our newsletters? We understand. Unsubscribe below.