It’s easy to forget how lucky we are to be women today. We top the world charts in music, we rise through the ranks of corporations, and we have a voice in our government. Things aren’t perfect and they may never be, but at some point, we need to stop and think about how far we’ve come. No one helped us get here, women fought for women and they succeeded.
This week I want to recognize a few women that have made leaps and bounds through history. These are the women that we need to thank for what we have today because they were the firsts. They weren’t the first to hear “no you can’t” but they were the firsts to say, “watch me.”
In 1865, Mary Edwards Walker was the first woman to win the Medal of Honor. She is the only woman who has ever received this honor. Walker graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree from Syracuse Medical College in 1855. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, she volunteered her talents to the armed forces and was eventually sent to Tennessee where she was appointed assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland. She was captured and held in a confederate prison in Richmond, Virginia for several months. Even after she was released, she didn’t stop working for the military. She supervised a hospital for women prisoners, then an orphanage. She retired from government service in 1865, and a few months later she was awarded the medal of honor. After her retirement she lectured on issues such as dress reform and women’s suffrage. Mary Edwards Walker proved that women can reach even the most out of reach dreams through hard work and refusing to hear the word “no.”
If you were to look up Lettie Pate Whitehead, almost every result you would be for a scholarship or foundation left in her name. Lettie was raised by elderly women that struggled for money and weren’t formerly educated. These circumstances influenced her philanthropic outlook. At 22 she married Joseph Brown Whitehead, one of the owners of the Coca-Cola franchise. In 1906 Mr. Whitehead dies and Lettie is appointed by his business partner Robert W. Woodruff, to the Coca-Cola board of directors. This made her one of the first women in history to sit on the board of a major corporation. She holds this leadership role for over 20 years and after retiring she establishes the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation (she was remarried to a man named Arthur Kelly Evans). This foundation makes grants to education, arts, and cultural institutions in Georgia and Virginia. Lettie continues to grant gifts until her death in 1953. Lettie Pate Whitehead was unqualified to hold her position for many reasons. She was uneducated, inexperienced, and a woman, but she impressed everyone around her until the day of her death.
In 1905, Daily Mail, a London newspaper, recounted the events of a women’s activist rally and coined the term “suffragette.” This word was meant to describe the militaristic manner in which the women at the rally conducted themselves. They did not shy away from police confrontation and they welcomed arguments from onlookers. They were a group called the Women’s Social and Political Movement. In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst was driven by her passion for women’s rights to create a group solely dedicated to women’s suffrage. Their slogan “Deeds Not Words” set them apart from the more commonly seen “suffragists” at the time. While “suffragists” believed in peaceful protest, “suffragettes” believed that action generated results. Emmeline led this group to attend meetings and speak up, to hold rallies and spread the word, and to undermine politicians that actively protested their cause. The WSPM’s actions escalated until almost all of them, Emmeline included, was being dragged in and out of prison. However, in WW1 recognizing the country’s need for leadership, Emmeline convinced her followers to aid the war efforts. They took up factory jobs, led businesses, and convinced the government to grant them partial rights. Emmeline Pankhurst fought for women’s suffrage until her death on June 14, 1928 and was sadly unable to witness the successes of her efforts when, less than a month later, on July 2, 1928 women were granted full rights in government.
This is only a glimpse into the multitudes of amazing women that have influenced great change. Reading their stories makes me wonder what they would think of the changes in our society today. I think that they would strive for more, but since they aren’t here it’s our turn to make change happen.