👩🏾‍🦱👑 Who runs the world? Renaissance women!

March is Women’s History Month, a time set aside to honor the often overlooked contributions of women in American history. Women’s History Month first began as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. The Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women planned a “Women’s History Week” in 1978. Each year, the celebration was held the week of March 8 to correspond with International Women’s Day. Almost a decade later (1987), Congress designated March as National Women’s History Month. Today, Women’s History Month is celebrated worldwide, honoring the achievements and development of women across the globe. I have always been drawn to the idea of a nationwide celebration of women, especially because Women’s History Month includes the celebration of Black women. One woman who inspires me to take up space and live courageously as a young Black woman is actress Viola Davis, whose career in theater, film and activism spans four decades. Davis is widely known for her role as Annalise Keating in ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder, for which she became the first Black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in a drama series (2015), and for her role as Rose Maxson in the film adaptation of the August Wilson play Fences, for which she won the Academy Award for best supporting actress (2017). Outside of acting, Davis is not one to shy away from using her public platform to discuss race, equal rights for women of color, the impact sexual violence has on women and basic human rights. On several occasions, she raised the issue of colorism in America, a form of discrimination based on skin tone, typically favoring lighter skin. Davis, who is a dark-skinned Black woman, has openly spoken about the “brown paper bag test,” a discriminatory practice in which a person’s skin tone is compared with a brown paper bag. If a person’s skin matched or was lighter than the brown bag, they were more likely to be accepted than a person with darker skin. Anyone darker than the brown paper bag was frowned upon, viewed as less-than and often denied employment, goods and services. Davis maintains that this practice still exists in Hollywood, especially when it comes to securing leading roles. “If you are darker than a paper bag, then you are not sexy, you are not a woman, you shouldn’t be in the realm of anything that men should desire,” she said in a 2015 interview with The Wrap Magazine. As someone who has darker skin and who would presumably not pass the “paper bag test,” I appreciate Davis and her advocacy for a broader range of roles for dark-skinned Black women, especially as I pursue a career in broadcast journalism and entertainment. Her advocacy will allow me to see myself reflected in more women on the big screen. Most importantly, it can help further break down the barriers designed to keep dark-skinned Black women confined to stereotypical and unappealing roles (see The Help). Women like Davis motivate me to appreciate my womanhood and to speak loudly and proudly about who I am, what I can do and what I believe in. So, in celebrating women in March, I choose to begin with Viola Davis. What about you? — Sarah Jones-Smith