As many already know, March is Women’s History Month. The reason we have a Women’s History Month, similar to Black History Month, is that we typically don’t know about the hundreds of women who accomplished so much in the past. Here are five iconic women in history who we usually don’t know or recognize.
- Grace Hopper (1906-1992)
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Grace Hopper was a mathematician and United States Navy rear admiral who earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale. The computer programming language she created was extended to create COBOL, which is still in use today. In 2016, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996)
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Ella Fitzgerald, also known as First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz, and Lady Ella, was a jazz singer. She was also awarded 14 Grammys, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A woman of many firsts, Fitzgerald created a legacy for musicians, women, and the Black community.
- Althea Gibson (1927-2003)
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Althea Gibson was both a golfer and tennis player, being one of the first Black athletes to break the color barrier of international tennis. Gibson has been inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame as well as the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame for her accomplishments as a tennis player and a female athlete.
- Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886-1954)
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Lucy Hicks Anderson was a transwoman, socialite, and chef. Her parents and doctor were supportive of her choice and always treated her as a woman. In 1945, after marrying her second husband, she was arrested, tried, and convicted of perjury because she “lied about her sex on the marriage certificate.” After being released from prison, she moved to Los Angeles to live out her life happily with her husband. The Handbook of LGBT Elders refers to Anderson as “one of the earliest documented cases of an African-American transgender person.”
- Florence Howe (1929-2020)
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Florence Howe was an author, publisher, literary scholar, and historian who was considered a leader of the contemporary feminist movement. She’s published over a dozen books and has a feminist scholarship named in her honor. Her knowledge and legacy continues to prosper in the lives of others.
Happy Women’s History Month! Let’s continue to celebrate all women, every single day.