March is known for basketball, spring break and Saint Patrick’s Day, but the UK Journalism and Media School tweeted on Tuesday, “It’s Women’s History Month all through March.”

This may come as a shock, but March has been Women’s History Month since March 1987, according to the website. So why aren’t more Americans informed that this month is devoted to great women of the past and present? 

Criticisms like, “Why isn’t there a Man’s History Month?” come up, but people should remember what it is like to be a woman in 2016.

Brie Larson, who won the Oscar for best actress, told The Guardian, “There were many times that I would go into auditions and casting directors would say, ‘It’s really great, really love what you’re doing, but we’d love for you to come back in a jean miniskirt and high heels.’” 

Hollywood struggles with sexism just as it does with racism, which has been highlighted in recent weeks. So to even still have a category for actors and actresses speaks enough on sexism, not only in the Oscars, but in our society.

“If you want black nominees every year, you need to have black categories. You already do it with men and women — think about it. There’s no real reason for there to be a men and a women category in acting. It’s not track and field,” said Oscars host and comedian Chris Rock during his opening monologue at the event. “You don’t have to separate them.”

It is sad that a comedian has to make a joke before society starts to understand just how sexist Hollywood can be.

“We haven’t yet fully integrated the monumental history, the daily history and the business history of women into our understanding and our knowledge, or even our schools curriculums — including the universities,” said UK JAM School Facebook and Twitter Administrator, and Associate Professor Kakie Urch. “I think it is important to have a women’s history month to highlight every year a growing body of knowledge, among the general public in a more accessible way, the accomplishments of women.”

It is great that we can celebrate the history of women, and for a whole month, but it means nothing unless we celebrate these accomplishments, like we would any other month devoted to one group of Americans. 

Great women have made history, and more increasingly since we were given more opportunities than in the past. Women have gained grounds for change in our country. 

But it is a problem that there is a Woman’s History Month and many women aren’t even informed of this. The accomplishments of women aren’t celebrated in March, but instead a bracket of college basketball.

Jamilyn Hall is the opinions editor of the Kentucky Kernel.

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