I have the pleasure of starting out Susquehanna University’s chapter of Her Campus’ women’s history week! So, I decided to look for some interesting and empowering facts to get you guys ready for this awesome week of articles!
- In almost every country in the world, the life expectancy for women is higher than men
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I mean, of course :D Scientists say it’s because the estrogen we have improves our immune function. I think it’s just because guys are not very smart and they don’t think things through. Therefore, this just makes sense.
- Over 60 percent of college degrees awarded in the U.S. every year are earned by women
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Once again, of course. My philosophy professor also brought this up the other day. She said that at the end of the school year, each department gives out awards for different things, and every year almost all of the awards go to women.
- Mary, Queen of Scots, is reported to be the first woman to play golf in Scotland
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I love this chick. Also, I find it kind of wild that no woman before her in Scotland played golf. Weird question, are women allowed to wear kilts?
- Women often wrote under pen names before it was seen as appropriate for them to contribute to literature
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The Bronte sisters did this, and I love them so I love this fact. This is also a wild fact considering men write so badly that it should’ve been obvious that a woman was writing. Sorry, not sorry.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony spent their lives fighting for women’s suffrage, but neither lived long enough to see the Amendment granting them the right to vote
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Yo, I love Elizabeth Cady Stanton so much. Her and Susan B. Anthony are so cool, and if you do any research on Elizabeth, you can see how much of an icon truly she is.
- The earliest recorded female physician was Merit Ptah, a doctor in ancient Egypt who lived around 2700 B.C.
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Also, many historians think that she was the first woman to be recorded by name in history.
- The first woman to run for U.S. president was Victoria Woodhull, who campaigned for the office in 1872 under the National Woman’s Suffrage Association
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That’s right, there was no law against women running for President even though women weren’t allowed to vote.
- The first person to make the daring attempt to go over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel was a woman
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Her name was Annie Edson Taylor, and she did it in 1901. She survived with just a gash on her forehead, because women are perfect, but I don’t encourage anyone else to try this.
- In 1770, a bill proposing that women using makeup should be punished for witchcraft was put forward to the British Parliament
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This is wild. Basically women wearing makeup was just too sexy, it had to be the devil’s work. I’m all for it.
- In 1903, Mary Anderson was granted a patent for the windshield wiper
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We have her to thank for being able to drive in the rain. Women have also invented white out, the dishwasher, non-reflective glass, and bras. I’m a little disappointed that women created the boob jail, but I guess it makes sense.
I hope these facts have you pumped to read the rest of our articles this week, all focused on women and women’s history.