This March is Women’s History month, meaning it is an appropriate time to reflect on the innumerable impacts made by women. Often, history highlights the accomplishments of white cis males, rather than giving credit to those deserving of it. Below is a list of incredible women whose actions we are still benefiting from today.
Claudette Colvin
When Colvin was 15 she refused to give up her seat to a white woman on the bus 9 months before Rosa Parks had been arrested for the very same action. Colvin was dragged off the bus and arrested for her protest, however, her name is rarely mentioned in the same way as Rosa Parks. Colvin speculated that this had to do with her age and how much darker her skin was than Parks. Colvin is still alive today and lives in the Bronx.
Zelda Fitzgerald
Zelda Fitzgerald was the wife of American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald who famously wrote The Great Gatsby. She was an important figure in the 1920s because she was seen as the blueprint for the “flapper” girl look, which was so popular during the time. She was also an author and artist separate from her husband. However, the couple was known for their free-spirited and extravagant lifestyle, which was often captured in Fitzgerald’s novels. Zelda Fitzgerald is best known for her lavish lifestyle and her descent into madness.
Dorothy Height
Dorothy Height was a Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Activist active in the 1930s. President of the National Nego Council for Women for 40 years. She is credited as one of the first people to recognize the inequality faced by women and black people in America. She is also an author, having written four novels. She was considered an influential figure in the Civil Rights Movement.
Margaret Hamilton
Margaret Hamilton was a mathematician and computer scientist engineer. She was considered a pioneer in her field of study for having coined the term software engineering. She did so while developing the guidance and navigation system for the Apollo spacecraft. Hamilton was the head of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumental Lab. It was thanks to Hamilton’s code that astronauts were able to land on the moon. Without the technology she designed the mission would have likely been aborted.
Marsha P. Johnson
Born as Malcolm Michaels Jr., Johnson was a gay liberation activist and drag queen. Johnson was one of the most vocal figures in the Stonewall protests in 1969. Johnson also founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, which was a gay, gender-nonconforming and transgender street activist group created in the 1970s. STAR was created to help transgender and gay homeless youths find safe housing. It has had a large impact on the LGBTQ+ community even today as it is remembered as a pioneer organization for the cause.