In Praise of Women Making History Together

Here at GenBioPro, the only thing we find more inspiring than stories of ingenious, brave, persistent individuals are stories of ingenious, brave, persistent groups who work together to achieve something greater than any one person could. This year we are celebrating Women’s History Month with a short list of movements that accomplished big things thanks to the countless actions of many.

TitiNicola via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Montgomery Bus Boycott. We often hear about Rosa Parks, who received a much-deserved Congressional Gold Medal in 1999 for her role in the Civil Rights Movement. When Parks was arrested and fined for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, she became the face of a movement built by The Women’s Political Council (WPC). The WBC was a group of Black women working for civil rights across the South. In advance of Parks’ court trial in December 1955, WPC called for a boycott of the bus system. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began the day of the trial with approximately 40,000 Black bus riders forgoing the bus. For more than a year, dedicated participants walked long distances and organized carpools and other transportation alternatives to support the movement. Finally, in December 1956, the US Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision requiring Montgomery to integrate their buses. The WPC was a key part of this victory and created a template for other large scale civil rights actions.

“Ni Una Menos” or “Not (Even) One Less.” This movement to end gender-based violence started in Argentina in 2015 and has since spread throughout Latin America and beyond. It brought about a range of policy changes in Argentina, including “budget allocations to support victims of gender violence; the creation of an official record to track femicides across the country; the provision of government-sponsored, free legal assistance to individuals experiencing domestic violence or sexual abuse; educational efforts to bring gender-equality awareness to public schools; and…legalized abortion.” Today, political and cultural backlash threaten these gains, but as one of the movement’s founders put it in an interview for International Women’s Day 2025, “Todas unidas jamas seremos vencidas,” which translates to “the people, united, will never be defeated.”

Abortion Law Reform in Ireland. Abortion was already illegal in the Republic of Ireland in 1983 when 67% of voters supported a referendum to amend their Constitution to give fetuses the same legal rights as pregnant women. It took 35 years for nearly the same share of the electorate to support another referendum to repeal that Eighth Amendment and make abortion care legal and free up to 12 weeks of pregnancy – and beyond under certain circumstances. The policies Ireland has implemented since that 2018 referendum are far from perfect, but they are a massive improvement brought about by committed grassroots advocates, activists, and volunteers who worked tirelessly for years to combat stigma and raise awareness about the importance of access to safe abortion care.

When we feel discouraged by setbacks for reproductive health care, these stories remind us that even deeply entrenched political and cultural systems can change if enough people work together toward common goals. GenBioPro takes heart that we are playing our part  –  among millions of others – in putting reproductive health care within reach for all.