Here are 19 women to inspire you this Women’s History Month!
Margaret Abbot – Abbot became the first female American Olympic champion. She won gold in women’s golf in Paris 1900.
Dolores Huerta – Huerta is considered the most influential labor activist of the 20th Century. She fought for the rights of immigrant farm workers and economic rights for Hispanic communities. She helped to found the Agriculture Worker’s Association and was a constant advocate for the rights of labor workers in America.
Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson, and Mary Jackson – Vaughan, Johnson, and Jackson all played major roles in the computing unit at NASA. Vaughan previously worked as a math teacher before working at Nasa and becoming the first African American manager at NACA (The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics). Johnson joined NACA in 1953 and later when into flight research. Jackson joined NACA in 1951 and became NASA’s first African American female engineer.
Adele Goldstine – Lead by Goldstine, her and six women (Kay McNulty, Betty Jennings, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Meltzer, Fran Bilas, and Ruth Lichterman) programmed and operated the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. They became the first ever computer programmers of a mainframe computer.
Jeannette Rankin – In 1917, Rankin became the first woman elected to Congress. In her candidacy, she spoke about her dedication to social welfare issues and ensuring a constitutional amendment to grant voting rights to women. She was also heavily opposed to the US involvement in both the World Wars.
Patsy Takemoto Mink – In 1964, Hawaiian Takemoto Mink was elected to Congress, making her the first woman of color and first Asian American woman to be elected to Congress. She was an advocate for women’s issues, the Women’s Education Equity Act, and Title IX.
Sister Mary Kenneth Keller – In 1965, Kenneth Keller became the second person and first woman to earn a PhD in Computer Science in the US. After earning her PhD she went on to create a Computer Science department at now Clarke University.
Shirley Chisholm – Chisholm became the first black woman elected to Congress as a representative from Brooklyn. She was an advocate for the poor and marginalized members of her community. Chisholm later became the first woman to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Yvonne Braithwaite Burke – Braithwaite Burke was not only the first black woman to be representing the West Coast in Congress, but also she was the first ever representative to give birth while in office. She was focused on issues such as issues surrounding children and garnishing of wages.
Sally Ride – In 1983, Ride became the first woman in space, also being one of five other women in NASA’s class of 1978. Ride inspired many future women such as Mae Jemison, and Ellen Ochoa.
Maria Mitchell – Mitchell was the first female to be a professional astronomer in America. In 1847 she was the first American to discover a comet. She was also the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Gertrude Ederle – Ederle made history becoming the first woman to swim across the English Channel. When swimming the across the channel she also beat the previous record which had been set by a man. Her achievements paved the way for many future female athletes.
Rachel Carson – Carson was an American marine biologist who is credited for advancing the global environmental movement from her book Silent Spring. Her work would eventually lead to the establishment of Earth Day.
Daisy Bates – Bates was a major part of school desegregation, suing the Little Rock school board for not enforcing the Supreme Court ruling of Brown v. Board of Education. Bates was also the president of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP and co-owned the largest black newspaper in Arkansas.
Grace Banker – Banker served as a chief operator for the American Expeditionary Forces in the US Army Signal Corps. She received many honors such as medals for her services and receiving a Distinguished Service Medal for her service in WWI.
Elizabeth Magie – Magie was a game designer who made the original version of Monopoly, called The Landlord’s Game. Along with being a game designer, she was a writer, comedian, actor, engineer, and feminist.
Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu – Wu was a famous physicist who helped with the Manhattan Project and made huge impacts on the field of physics. She also served as the first female president of the American Physical Society.
Grace Hopper – Hopper was a member of the team who created the COBOL programming language. She was also a professor of mathematics and earned a PhD in mathematics from Yale.
Elizabeth Blackwell – Blackwell was the first woman in American to receive a medical degree from Geneva Medical College (now our very own Hobart College). She went on to be an advocate for women in medicine, opened her own all-women’s medical college, and was a well known abolitionist and suffragette.