These days, it may be hard for many people to imagine a time in America when women were considered so inferior that they were not allowed to vote; when they were legally denied equal protection under the law in such fields as employment and education; or when conventional wisdom said their proper place was in the home.

It wasn’t until 1920 – almost 150 years after the founding of our country – that women won the right to vote. As is often the case, California was ahead of the curve, offering women’s suffrage in 1911. But the vast majority of American women had to wait for the U.S. Congress and Senate to approve the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1919 (and approved by three-quarters of the states) in time for women to vote in the presidential election of 1920.

Two years earlier, in 1918, four women had been elected to serve in the California Assembly, though all four were voted out of office (defeated by men) in 1924. Only 10 other women served in the Assembly over the next 50 years, and it was not until 1976 that we had our first female elected State Senator – Rose Ann Vuich.

For young people today, those hard facts must seem like they come from an ancient culture on a distant planet, in a galaxy far, far away. History – particularly unpleasant history – has a way of falling by the wayside and being forgotten by those of us living in a much different time.

No one can deny how different things are today. In California, women now play a central role in public life, bringing a new perspective to the legislative arena. As a result, California leads the nation in many family-friendly policies. We were, for example, the first state in the nation to establish paid family leave for workers who need time off to care for a new child or a seriously ill family member.

Women are also making a big impact in many “non-traditional” policy areas. For example, in the California State Senate, women head several of the most influential committees that deal with some of our state’s most intractable problems. These include such powerhouse committees as Energy, Utilities and Communications; Labor and Industrial Relations; Public Safety; Judiciary; Revenue and Taxation; and Budget and Fiscal Review.

In addition, the newly-elected Speaker of the Assembly – Karen Bass – is the first African American woman elected to lead a Legislative house in the nation. In all, 10 women served in positions of leadership in either the Senate or Assembly from the outset of the 2007-2008 legislative session.

And our native daughter, Nancy Pelosi, is Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, putting her third in the Presidential line of succession.

California is also home to the first female astronaut, as well as the first Chinese-American women ever elected to statewide office in the United States.

Still, there are things we can learn from the past. The best-selling author Michael Crichton has written, “…if you didn't know history, you didn't know anything. You were a leaf that didn't know it was part of a tree.”

That’s why both Houses of Congress passed a resolution declaring March to be “National Women’s History Month.” It urges Americans everywhere to honor and celebrate the role of women in our society and asks schools, workplaces and communities to develop information programs highlighting the history of women.

Understanding women’s history can benefit everyone. It helps give men and boys a better understanding of the female experience by recognizing that women have been fighting for equal rights and recognition since the founding of our country. For women and girls, it provides a more expansive vision of their identity and an opportunity to think about their lives on a larger and bolder scale.

There are also more practical reasons to honor women’s history. By recognizing how far we’ve come, we can get a better understanding of how far we still have to go. Equality has yet to be fully attained.

As recently as 2005, women in the United States were paid only 77 cents for every dollar that men were paid in comparable jobs. The gap is even larger for African American, Asian and Hispanic women.

Such gross inequities cannot be tolerated. More than 70 percent of California women are now in the work force; that’s almost double the number of working women in 1965. Many are in low-paying service jobs with few benefits, making pay discrimination even more reprehensible.

With so many women now holding jobs, we must ensure that they are not forced to choose between care-giving demands and employment responsibilities. That’s why we both supported a bill last year to extend paid leave to workers needing to care for grandparents, grandchildren, siblings and in-laws. The bill received strong support in the Legislature but was vetoed by the Governor. More must be done.

National Women’s History Month should be a time for all of us to join together to ensure that no one in American society is left behind. It would be a good time to remember the wise words of the great anthropologist Margaret Mead. In order to achieve a richer culture, she wrote, we must “weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.”

Sen. Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) and Assemblywoman Patty Berg (D-Eureka) represent Lake County in the State Legislature.

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