As march comes to a close, I wanted to shed some light on some remarkable women for the end of Women’s History Month.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony
These two ladies organized the National Woman Suffrage Association in order to fight and protect women’s rights, specifically, voting rights. During the Civil War, Anthony and Stanton created the Women’s Loyal National League, which was the first national women’s politcal organization. Through this, they fought for Congress to pass the 13th Amendment guaranteeing the freedom of African Americans. They also co-ran, edited, and published the Revolution, a woman’s newspaper (1868-70.) Susan B. Anthony managed most of the business related issues of the movement while Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote.
Sally Ride
Ride was the first female American astronaut in space, spending a total of six days out there. (Today, only 25% of NASA’s astronauts are female.) Sally Ride is still the youngest American astronaut to have traveled to space when she was just 32 years old. Ride flew twice on the Orbiter Challenger, then left NASA in 1987. She worked at Stanfrod University’s Center for International Security and Arms Control, and then as a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego.
Taylor Swift
In 2009, Swift was the youngest person to ever win “Album of the Year” at the Country Music Awards for her platinum album Fearless. Love Story, the hit from this album was the first country song to ever hit number 1 in the pop top 40 charts. In 2012, Swift broke records with her album Red. The album sold 1.2 million copies in just one week. In addition, her prior album, Speak Now, sold more than one million copies it’s debut week as well. Because of this, Swift became the first female artist to have two opening weeks with more than one million in album sales. Since then, 1989 sold over one million copies it’s first week, further smashing records. Swift’s albums, Fearless and 1989, are the most awarded country and pop album in history, respectively.
Georgia O’Keeffe
As an Art History major, O’Keeffe is near and dear to my heart. This legendary artist was of the modernist movement, painting images of flowers and New Mexico landscapes. Many of O’Keeffe’s paintings involved feminist undertones. She is reagrded as the “Mother of American Modernism.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe
In 1986, Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published, becoming the best-selling book of the 19th century. The novel focuses on the impact of slavery on families and particulary children, touching the nation on a deeper level than before. She was an American abolitionist and author. And, she was a Connecticut native, having passed away in Hartford in 1896.
Gloria Steinem
Steinem made her mark on the world by joining the “second wave” of feminism in the late 60s and early 70s. She was a columnisst for New York Magazine, and a co-founder of Ms. magazine. In 1984, Steinem was arrest (along with other Congress members and civil rights activists) for disorderly conduct outside the South African embassy. They were protesting against the South African aprtheid system. Check out her autobiography, My Life on the Road.