the National Women's History Project

[Kobi]

In 1980, the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) was founded in Santa Rosa, California by Molly Murphy MacGregor, Mary Ruthsdotter, Maria Cuevas, Paula Hammett and Bette Morgan to broadcast women’s historical achievements.

The NWHP started by leading a coalition that successfully lobbied Congress to designate March as National Women’s History Month, now celebrated across the land.

Today, the NWHP is known nationally as the only clearinghouse providing information and training in multicultural women’s history for educators, community organizations, and parents-for anyone wanting to expand their understanding of women contributions to U. S. history.

History helps us learn who we are. Multicultural American women are overlooked in most mainstream approaches to U.S. history, so the National Women’s History Project champions their accomplishments and leads the drive to write women back into history.

Recognizing the achievements of women in all facets of life – science, community, government, literature, art, sports, medicine – has a huge impact on the development of self-respect and new opportunities for girls and young women.

The impact of women’s history might seem abstract to some, and less pressing than the immediate struggles of working women today. But to ignore the vital role that women’s dreams and accomplishments play in our own lives would be a great mistake. We draw strength and inspiration from those who came before us – and those remarkable women working among us today. They are part of our story, and a truly balanced and inclusive history recognizes how important women have always been in American society.

--------


The National Women's History Project is an awesome resource for information about women's history and accomplishments.

Amongst their many resources is a calendar of women's accomplishments which impressed me. So much to learn about the brave, trailblazers who came before us, and are still amongst us.

As long as I give them credit for it, their calendar can be reposted here - The information on this website is © NWHP 2011, but users are invited to use any and all of our web content, as long as credit is cited to the National Women's History Project.

Check out the web site for some incredible info and watch this thread for their monthly calendar of women's accomplishments throughout the years and a birthday listing for even more women who deserve our thanks for what they did, and are still doing.

[Kobi]

January Highlights in US Women's History

•January 3, 1949 – Margaret Chase Smith(R-Maine) starts her tenure in the Senate, where she stays in office until 1973, became the first woman to serve in both the House and Senate as she previously served in the House (R-Maine, 1940-49)

•January 5, 1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross is inaugurated as the first woman Governor in U.S. history (Governor of Wyoming)

•January 7, 1896 – Fanny Farmer's first cookbook is published in which she standardized cooking measurements

•January 7, 1955 – Marian Anderson is the first African American woman to sing at the Metropolitan Opera

•January 8, 1977 – Pauli Murray is ordained as the first female African American Episcopal priest

•January 11, 1935 – Amelia Earhart makes the first solo flight from Hawaii to North America

•January 12, 1932 – Hattie Wyatt Caraway (D-Arkansas) is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, becomes the first woman to chair a Senate Committee and the first to serve as the Senate's presiding officer

•January 25, 1980 – Mary Decker became the first woman to run a mile under 4 1/2 minutes, running it at 4:17.55

•January 29, 1926 – Violette Neatly Anderson is the first black woman to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court

-----------------------------------

January Birthdays

•January 1, 1909 (1993) – Peggy Dennis, Communist activist, first editor of women’s pages of the Communist Paper USA, became critic and resigned from the Party in 1976

•January 1 , 1921 (1999) – Jeanne Chall, her research into reading stressed the importance of phonics in beginning reading, worked with Sesame Street teaching ABCs, wrote Stages of Reading Development (1983)

•January 2, 1895 (1989) – Sadie Alexander, first black woman to edit the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, helped craft state civil rights act, desegregated Washington National Airport in late 1940s, worked with the Urban League and ACLU

•January 2, 1895 (1977) – Edith Jackson, pediatrician and psychoanalyst at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital beginning in 1929, worked on prevention and treatment of child abuse

•January 2, 1919 (1979) – Beatrice Hicks, engineer, worked on design, production and testing of quartz crystal oscillators during World War II, chaired the First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists in New York (1964)

•January 3, 1793 (1880 ) – Lucretia Mott, women's rights pioneer, Quaker minister, pacifist (NWHP co-founder Molly Murphy MacGregor is honored to share her birthday)

•January 3, 1897 (1979) – Dorothy Arzner, the sole woman film director between 1927 and 1943, made “The Wild Party" starring Clara Bow (1929), “Christopher Strong" with Katherine Hepburn (1933), and “Craig’s Wife” with Rosalind Russell (1936)

•January 3, 1916 (1994) – Betty Furness, television reporter for Westinghouse during the 1950s and 60s, consumer affairs advocate in the Johnson administration, helped to enact regulations on flameproof fabrics and credit card billing

•January 3, 1926 (1989) – Maria Sanchez, activist for bilingual education for Puerto Ricans, elected to school board then the Connecticut General Assembly (1988)

•January 4, 1892 (1982) – Helen Hull, director of Henry Street Settlement House, appointed by FDR to Committee on Economic Security which created Social Security Act of 1935 and Unemployment Compensation

•January 4, 1943 – Doris Kearns Goodwin, historian, awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Lincoln, also wrote The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys and Lyndon Johnson

•January 5, 1893 (1987) – Elizabeth (Libba) Cotton, singer/songwriter, wrote “Freight Train” at age 11, worked as cook for Ruth Crawford and shared Southern songs, still sang in festivals at 67, named one of 75 influential African Americans in I Dream a World (1989)

•January 5, 1893 (1980) – Sigrid Schultz, war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, interviewed Hitler, reported on German-Russian non-aggression pact, wrote articles on German concentration camps

•January 5, 1895 (1981) – Rebecca Lancefield, pioneer microbiologist, overcame sexism, published effects of streptococcal infections in army in Texas (1919), president of Society of American Bacteriologist (1943), elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1970)

•January 5, 1895 (1981) – Jeannette Piccard, first female Episcopal priest, first woman licensed balloon pilot, attained almost 58,000 feet - the record altitude for women until 1963

•January 5, 1901 (1991) – Aryness Wickens, statistician, worked with Federal Reserve Board to refine index of industrial production, president of the American Statistical Association (1952)

•January 7, 1891 (1960) – Zora Neale Hurston, author, pioneering scholar of African-American folklore

•January 7, 1905 (1987) – Nella Morton, feminist educator, pushed for full integration for black students at the Biblical Seminary of New York, worked with retarded children and developed curricular theories from 1956 to 1971

•January 8, 1867 (1961) – Emily Greene Balch, economist and sociologist, co-founder of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom with Jane Addams and others (1919), awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946, shared with John Mott

•January 8, 1911 (1995) – Thelma (Butterfly) McQueen, danced with Katherine Dunham as Butterfly in "A Midsummer’s Night Dream,” played Prissy in "Gone With the Wind"

•January 9, 1859 (1947) – Carrie Chapman Catt, nationally recognized woman suffrage leader, led suffragists to victory in 1920 as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association

•January 9, 1897 (1994) – Felisa Rincon De Gautier, appointed Mayor of San Juan in 1946 and re-elected until 1969, created elder-care centers, distributed clothes and food, encouraged women to participate in the economy

•January 9, 1941 – Joan Baez, folk singer and songwriter, supported human and civil rights, peace activist, founded the Humanitas International Human Rights Committee (1979)

•January 10, 1863 (1934) – Katharine Gibbs, founded the Katharine Gibbs Schools, which became the most famous and prestigious secretarial institution in the country, insisted that even though few women worked in business, “Young women have to be trained beyond the technical to act as a personal representative, to display initiative, and to assume larger responsibilities.”

•January 10, 1898 (1979) – Katharine Blodgett, physicist and inventor, first woman research scientist for General Electric’s Schenectady, NY laboratory (1920), first woman awarded a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Cambridge (1926), received eight U.S. patents, most famously for inventing low-reflectance "invisible" glass

•January 11, 1885 (1977) – Alice Paul, suffrage leader and attorney, founded the National Woman's Party (1916), her innovative nonviolent strategies and political sophistication helped win passage of the 19th Amendment (1920), initiated the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment (1923)

•January 11, 1899 (1991) – Eva LeGallienne, actress, toured with Ethel Barrymore, starred with Basil Rathbone in 1923, first Peter Pan to fly out over the audience, produced and founded the Civic Repertory Theatre (1926-33), last performance was a 1984 episode of TV’s “St. Elsewhere”

•January 12, 1820 (1914) – Caroline Severance, early suffragist and social reformer, women's clubs pioneer, co-founded the American Woman Suffrage Association (1869), first woman to register to vote in California (1911)

•January 13, 1850 (1911) – Charlotte Ray, first female African-American lawyer and first woman admitted to the bar in Washington D.C.

•January 13, 1917 – Edna Hibel, artist and colorist, first woman to win the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts

•January 13, 1926 (1999) – Melba Liston, self-taught jazz trombonist, member of Dizzy Gillespie’s tour of the Middle East in 1956, recorded, taught, and performed in Women’s Jazz Festivals

•January 14, 1900 (1987) – Marion Martin, elected to Maine House of Representatives, (1930-34), Maine Senate (1934-38), first woman to head Department of Labor and Industry (1947-62), worked for minimum living wage, industrial safety and child labor laws

•January 15, 1892 (1968) – Jane Hoey, director of the Bureau of Public Assistance, Social Security Board (1936-53), helped states develop programs of assistance, especially mothers’ aid programs, bequeathed millions to Trinity College and Columbia University School of Social Work

•January 15, 1898 (1995) – Irene Kuhn, journalist, scooped the world when a tidal wave hit Honolulu in 1923, worked on Thomas Dewey’s campaign, penned conservative nationally syndicated column for nearly 25 years

•January 16, 1906 (1984) – Ethel Merman, actress, singer, performed “I Got Rhythm” in “Girl Crazy” in 1930, continued with “Annie Get Your Gun” in 1946 and "Gypsy" and “Hello Dolly “ in the 1970s

•January 16, 1927 (1998) – Estela Trambley, teacher, writer, playwright, pioneer in Chicano literature, addressed challenges of life in the Southwest and explored the cultural demands of gender roles and marriage

•January 16, 1932 (1985) – Dian Fossey, primatologist and naturalist who studied, lived amongst, and befriended the gorillas of Rwanda for 18 years, wrote Gorillas in the Mist (1983) emphasizing the need to protect them from the constant threat of poachers and neglect

•January 16, 1933 (2004) – Susan Sontag, intellectual, critic, filmmaker, and writer, first influential essay "Notes on 'Camp'" (1964), wrote On Photography, Against Interpretation, and recently released journals and diaries

•January 17, 1910 (1987) – Edith Green, elected to Congress in 1954 and served 9 terms, worked on women’s rights, education, and equal pay

•January 17, 1920 (1987) – Nora Kaye, ballerina, choreographer, and film producer, joined George Balanchine's American Ballet (1936), collaborated on films with husband Herbert Ross including "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1969) and "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" (1976), produced "The Turning Point" (1977) and "Pennies from Heaven" (1981)

•January 17, 1922 – Betty White, veteran actress, her latter TV roles included “Mama’s Family,” "The Golden Girls," and “Hot in Cleveland," advocate of animal welfare

•January 17, 1939 – Martha Cotera, pioneering Chicana feminist, author of two seminal texts Diosa y Hembra and Chicana Feminist, founding member Raza Unida Party in Texas (1969), one of the mothers of Chicana Feminism

•January 19, 1905 (1995) – Oveta Culp Hobby, second women in the U.S. Cabinet (20 years after Frances Perkins), first Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1953), awarded the Distinguished Medal of Service for her work as Director of the Women's Army Corps (1945)

•January 19, 1905 (1996) – Anne Hummert, producer of popular radio soap operas “Just Plain Bill" (1933-55), “Ma Perkins,” and “Stella Dallas" (1937-55)

•January 19, 1946 – Dolly Parton, singer and songwriter best known for country music, her most famous movie, “Nine to Five,” dealt with sexism in the workplace

•January 21, 1905 (1996) – Agnes Mongan, published material on French artists despite restrictions on her movements because she was a woman, director at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum (1969-71), mentored many female scholars

•January 22, 1877 (1981) – Rosa Ponselle, soprano, debuted with Enrico Caruso in 1918, sang with Baltimore Civic Opera after 1950, mentored Beverly Sill

•January 23, 1902 (1999) – Lucile Leone, upgraded programs of the U.S. Nurse Corps, which grew to 180,000 by 1948, chief nurse officer of U.S. Public Health, Assistant Surgeon General (1949-66)

•January 23, 1909 (1985) – Tatiana Proskouriakoff, artist for life possibilities, inspired by Mayan hieroglyphs on first visit in 1936, also traveled to Mexico and Guatemala

•January 23, 1910 (1993) – Irene Sharaff, costume designer for 40 movies and 60 Broadway shows, created costumes for “An American in Paris” (1951) and “West Side Story” (1961), nominated for fifteen Academy Awards

•January 23, 1918 (1999) – Gertrude Elion, biochemist, one of only 10 women to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1988)

•January 23, 1921 (1994) – Merija Gimbutas, author, emigrated to Boston, began with Lithuanian beliefs and rituals, folklore, and ancient practices, wrote The Prehistory of Modern Europe (1956) and The Civilization of the Goddess (1994)

•January 24, 1968 – Mary Lou Retton, first and only American woman to win a gold medal in the All-Around in gymnastics at the Olympics (1984) and first American woman to win a gold medal in gymnastics, first woman featured on a Wheaties cereal box

•January 25, 1896 (1987) – Helen Heffernan, strong supporter of United Nations’ education of bilingual education, recognized that children who were interned in World War II needed health and family services

•January 26, 1872 (1957) – Julia Morgan, first licensed female architect in California, innovative architect of Hearst Castle and over 700 other buildings

•January 26, 1892 (1926) – Bessie Coleman, first African-American woman in the world to fly a plane and earn an international pilot's license

•January 27, 1898 (1995) – Georgia Clark, first female U.S. Treasurer (1949-53), appointed by President Truman

•January 27, 1937 (1997) – Nancy Dickerson, producer of “Face the Nation” (1960), first woman on NBC to go on assignment worldwide (1986-91)

•January 27, 1941 (1981) – Beatrice Tinsley, astronomer, studied how light changes as stars age, found that young galaxies are brighter and bluer

•January 28, 1913 (1988) – Hazel Garland, editor-in-chief of The Pittsburgh Courier (1974-77), a pioneer in communicating with people of diverse backgrounds

•January 29, 1941 – Robin Morgan, poet, political theorist, activist, co-founder of the Women’s Media Center, author of over 20 books, edited trailblazing anthology Sisterhood is Powerful in the 1970s

•January 30, 1890 – Angie Debo, spent lifetime examining historical implications of settlements of Native Americans Indians, wrote And Still the Waters Run in 1940 describing the “criminal conspiracy” that defrauded Oklahoma’s Five Civilized Tribes of their lands

•January 30, 1912 (1989) – Barbara Tuchman, author, historian, awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1958 for The Guns of August and in 1971 for Stillwell and the American Experience in China

•January 31, 1960 (1982) – Betty Parsons, gallery owner and artist, exhibited watercolors in 1935, created the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1946, showed the work of many avant garde expressionists

[Sweet Bliss]

Thank you Kobi.

[Smiling]

•January 30, 1912 (1989) – Barbara Tuchman, author, historian, awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1958 for The Guns of August and in 1971 for Stillwell and the American Experience in China

Barbara Tuchman is my favorite author! I am really excited to see her name on this list of amazing and accomplished women. Her books bring history to life; not just in the way she writes, but also in her astute insights.

I love her! Great thread, Kobi!

[Sorry for the derail]

[Kobi]

Originally Posted by Huge-Smile

•January 30, 1912 (1989) – Barbara Tuchman, author, historian, awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1958 for The Guns of August and in 1971 for Stillwell and the American Experience in China

Barbara Tuchman is my favorite author! I am really excited to see her name on this list of amazing and accomplished women. Her books bring history to life; not just in the way she writes, but also in her astute insights.

I love her! Great thread, Kobi!

[Sorry for the derail]

I would love people to post their fondness for any woman they admire. It's our herstory. Feel free to celebrate it!

[Kobi]

[Kobi]

February Highlights in US Women's History

February 1, 1978 - First postage stamp to honor a black woman, Harriet Tubman, is issued in Washington, DC

February 4, 1987 - First "National Women in Sports Day" is celebrated by Presidential Proclamation

February 12, 1869 - The Utah Territorial Legislature passes a bill allowing women to vote

February 15, 1921 - The Suffrage Monument, depicting Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott, sculpted by Adelaide Johnson, is dedicated at the U.S. Capitol

February 15, 1953 - Tenley Albright became the first American woman to win the World Figure Skating championship

February 17, 1870 - Esther Hobart Morris in Wyoming became the first American woman Justice of the Peace

February 24, 1912 - Henrietta Szold founds Hadassah, the largest Jewish organization in American history, focusing on healthcare and education in the Israel and the U.S.

February 24, 1967 - Jocelyn Bell Burnell makes the first discovery of a pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star

February 27, 1922 - U.S. Supreme Court upholds the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees women the right to vote
---------------------------

February Birthdays

February 1, 1878 (1950) - Hattie Wyatt Caraway, first woman elected to the U.S. Senate (1932, D-AR), first woman to preside over the Senate (1943)

February 1, 1910 (1988) - Ursula Nordstrom, children's book editor, worked at Harper & Brothers after secretarial course in 1931, became director of the Department of Books for Boys and Girls (1940) where she edited landmark books including Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight, Moon, E.B. White's Charlotte's Web and Stuart White, Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, and "I Can Read Books" with Elsie Minarick's Little Bear

February 1, 1930 (1986) - Ruth Ross, magazine editor, helped found inaugural issue of "Essence" (1970), which included articles of leading African-American scholars and writers, however the Black Perspective, first to address issue of race in the media, feared advertising losses and removed her so the magazine became "less black"

February 3, 1821 (1910) - Elizabeth Blackwell, the first fully accredited female doctor in the U.S. (1849), along with her sister Emily, founded the first medical school for women

February 3, 1874 (1946) - Gertrude Stein, poet, author, art critic, famous for her phrase, "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose"

February 4, 1865 (1921) - Lila Valentine, Southern suffrage leader, introduced kindergartens and vocational training into public education in Virginia, recognized health needs with the Visiting Nurse Association fighting tuberculosis, supported the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and the National American Woman Suffrage Association after visiting England and realizing that many health issues required women's voice, made 100 speeches in Virginia

February 4, 1913 (2005) - Rosa Parks, "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement," her arrest after refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparked a boycott of the bus system, which eventually led to the Supreme Court decision to integrate buses

February 4, 1918 (1995) - Ida Lupino, prolific American woman director and actress, born in England, emigrated to Hollywood in the 1930's, involved with movies dealing with social issues, bigamy, polio, unwed mothers, and rape more than 40 years before the topics were widely discussed

February 4, 1921 (2006) - Betty Friedan, author and activist, wrote The Feminine Mystique (1963), cofounded the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966

February 5, 1905 (1999) - Mirra Komaroysky, Russian born, fled first to Kansas and then to Brooklyn, studied effect of male unemployment in families and conflicts in women's lives, wrote Women in the Modern World (1953), predating Betty Friedan by 10 years

February 5, 1914 (1994) - Hazel Smith, Mississippi journalist, first woman to win Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing (1954), although a segregationist, she supported law and justice and wrote that society must follow the law on integration, which led to bankruptcy and extreme poverty, a TV movie, "A Passion for Justice," (1994) was based on her life

February 6, 1887 (1985) - Florence Luscomb, architect and reformer, first woman to graduate from MIT (as an architectural graduate) in 1909, gave 222 speeches for woman suffrage in 14 weeks, learned to drive and repair her party's touring car, sold copies of "The Woman's Journal," ardent outdoorswoman, joined ACLU in 1919, helped to derail anti-communism crusade in Massachusetts, NAACP official (1948), ardent opponent of the Vietnam War

February 7, 1867 (1957) - Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of beloved Little House books

February 9, 1849 (1941) - Laura Clay, anti-slavery proponent from childhood, woman's rights advocate from 1869, president of Kentucky Woman Suffrage Association (1881) and the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, popular lecturer for suffrage but states' rights position led her to oppose the 19th amendment in Tennessee in 1920

February 9, 1944 - Alice Walker, writer, first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, for The Color Purple (1983)

February 10, 1883 (1959) - Edith Clarke, first woman to earn an M. S. in electrical engineering from MIT (1919), first woman professor of electrical engineering (1947), invented the Clarke Calculator, a graphical device for solving power transmission line equations

February 10, 1901 (1992) - Stella Adler, family fled from Russia in 1892 when Yiddish plays were prohibited, debuted in 1922 in New York, developed 2-year curriculum at Stella Adler Acting Studio in New York and Los Angeles, graduates include Marlin Brando and Robert De Nero

February 10, 1907 (1992) - Grace Hamilton, first African-American in the Deep South's state government, elected to the Georgia General Assembly 1966-84, credited with Andrew Young's victory in Georgia's Congressional election in 1980

February 11, 1925 (1998) - Aki Kurose, interned in 1942, the American Friends Service Committee funded her college work, anti-war projects included treatment for cancer victims of Hiroshima, taught peace education in Seattle schools where she used Martin Luther King's nonviolent example

February 12, 1884 (1980) - Alice Roosevelt Longworth, "Princess Alice," the first political celebrity of the 20th century, when her father Theodore Roosevelt was asked why he could not discipline her, he explained that he do that or rule the country but he couldn't do both, as adult she espoused isolationist ideas of America First

February 13, 1906 (1990) - Pauline Frederick, journalist, first woman network radio correspondent (1939), first woman to moderate a presidential debate (1976)

February 14, 1847 (1919) - Anna Howard Shaw, woman suffrage leader, exceptionally fine orator, licensed as Methodist Protestant minister in 1880, graduated as M.D. in 1886, organizer with Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association 1888-92, lectured in every state, beloved president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (1904-15), awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for her work during World War I

February 14, 1914 (1976) - Nancy Love, pilot, ferried planes to Canada during World War II as Commander of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) 1940-42, group later absorbed into WASPs

February 15, 1820 (1906) - Susan B. Anthony, inspirational leader of 19th century women's right movement, national suffrage strategist, lecturer, activist

February 15, 1935 - Susan Brownmiller, writer, also known as Susan Warhaftig, writes novels and conducts historical research, including Against Our Will: Men, Woman and Rape (1975) and a memoir, In Our Time

February 16, 1870 (1927) - Leonora O'Reilly, labor organizer, founding member of the Woman's Trade Union League, helped found NAACP

February 16, 1905 (1988) - Louise Larson, first Chinese American and first Asian American reporter in a mainstream daily paper (1926), received many awards, wrote memoir Sweet Bamboo (1989)

February 17, 1912 (2005) - Andre Norton, writer, Alice Mary Norton used "Andre" thinking that it would be more salable in science fiction and fantasy, also used pseudonyms "Andrew North" and "Allen Weston," 50 years later she was named "Grand Dame of Science and Fantasy"

February 17, 1930 - Ruth Rendell, author who under the pseudonym "Barbara Vine" became popular in America for her psychological crime thrillers novels but she is really the English Baroness of Babergh, C. B. E.

February 18, 1931 - Toni Morrison, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, first African-American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993)

February 18, 1934 (1992) - Audre Geraldine Lorde, writer, authored a book of poetry or essay almost every year, fought sexism and homophobia, joined the struggle for civil rights and feminism, created Kitchen Table Women of Color Press with others in 1988, wrote A Burst of Light to highlight her response to liver cancer

February 19, 1902 (1992) - Kay Boyle, writer and political activist, involvement in anti-Vietnam war demonstrations led to jail sentence in Oakland, CA, considered by some a better writer than Djuna Barnes and Anais Nin but has not yet earned similar acclaim

February 19, 1952 - Amy Tan, novelist, mother-daughter relationships are subject of The Joy Luck Club, now in 35 languages, The Kitchen God's Wife (1991), and The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001)

February 20, 1805 (1879) - Angelina Grimké, abolitionist, joined the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835 and addressed "mixed" audiences in 1837, wrote An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South criticizing slavery in 1836, after which a price was placed on her head should she return to South Carolina

February 20, 1902 (1995) - Katharine Way, Ph. D. in nuclear theory at the University of North Carolina (1938), developed the Way-Wigner formula for fission produced decay, her concern for the health of retirees led to Durban Seniors for Better Health in the City of Medicine

February 21, 1855 (1902) - Alice Freeman Palmer, educator, founded the predecessor organization to the American Association of University Women (AAUW) in 1881

February 21, 1903 (1977) - Anais Nin, began her 69 volumes of journals with a letter to her father, found she liked recording her thoughts in stream of consciousness style, some journals were published in 1966, also wrote novels and D.H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional Study (1932)

February 21, 1927 (1996) - Erma Bombeck, humorist and columnist, began writing obituaries and columns on gardening, eventually wrote books of humor, supported the Equal Rights Amendment, appeared on "Good Morning America" for 11 years

February 21, 1936 (1996) - Barbara Jordan, politician, star debater at Texas State University, served in Texas state legislature 1962-72, elected to the House of Representatives 1973-78 where she sponsored expanding the coverage of the Voting Rights Act and voted to impeach Nixon, taught 17 years at University of Texas, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1994)

February 22, 1876 (1938) - Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkala-Sha), writer; Sioux Indian activist, founded the National Council of American Indians (1926)

February 22, 1892 (1950) - Edna St. Vincent Millay, first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1923)

February 22, 1900 (1996) - Meridal LeSueur, passionate poet and writer of short fiction and essays dealing with unfair labor conditions and the land rights of Southwest and Minnesota Native American tribes

February 25, 1910 (1992) - Millicent Fenwick, fashion editor, member of the New Jersey General Assembly (1969-73), earned the nickname "Outhouse Millie" for her fight for better working conditions for migrant workers (including portable toilets), won seat in Congress in 1974 and served three terms, turned up in comic strip "Doonesbury" as "Lucy Davenport," champion of gun control, campaign spending limits, and ERA

February 26, 1859 (1953) - Louise Bowen, Chicago philanthropist, saved Hull House financially in 1935, funded the Woman's Club building, demanded removal of health hazards from Pullman Company, obtained minimum wage for women at International Harvester Company and raised $12,000 for families of strikers

February 26, 1921 (1985) - Wilma Heide, educator and women's studies pioneer, president of National Organization for Women 1971- 72, spearheaded sex discrimination charges against ATT

February 27, 1890 (1989) - Mabel Staupers, graduate of Freedman's Hospital of Nursing (now Howard University) in 1917, led Harlem Committee of the New York Tuberculosis and Health Association, organized health education, public lectures, free exams and dental care for school children, fought for full racial integration with the help of Frances Bolton, integrated Army and Navy nurses

February 27, 1897 (1993) - Marian Anderson, opera singer, first African-American member of the New York Metropolitan Opera (1955)

February 28, 1898 (1992) - Molly Picon, Yiddish actress, performed around the world beginning with "Baby Margaret" at age 5, entertained troops in Korea and Japan during World War II, renowned for her somersaults and flips well into her seventies, wrote one-woman show, "Hello, Molly" (1979), and an autobiography, Molly (1980)

February 29, 1916 (1994) - Dinah Shore, singer and actress, performed on WSM in college with Frankie Laine, Dennis Day, Frank Sinatra and others, became a regular on Eddie Cantor's show in 1940, entertained USO troops during World War II (12,000 at Versailles), won first of 10 Emmy Awards in 1955 for "The Dinah Shore Show," which ran until 1962

[Kobi]

March Highlights in US Women's History

March 1, 1978 – Women's History Week is first observed in Sonoma County, California

March 1, 1987 – Congress passes a resolution designating March as Women's History Month

March 4, 1917 – Jeannette Rankin (R-MT) took her seat as the first female member of Congress

March 8 – International Women's Day, whose origins trace back to protests in the U.S. and Europe to honor and fight for the political rights for working women

March 11, 1993 – Janet Reno is confirmed as the first woman U.S. Attorney General

March 12, 1912 – Juliette Gordon Low assembled 18 girls together in Savannah, Georgia, for the first-ever Girl Scout meeting

March 13, 1986 – Susan Butcher won the first of 3 straight and 4 total Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Races in Alaska

March 17, 1910 – Camp Fire Girls is established as the first interracial, non-sectarian American organization for girls

March 20, 1852 – Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," is published and becomes the best-selling book of the 19th century

March 21, 1986 – Debi Thomas becomes first African American woman to win the World Figure Skating Championship

March 23, 1917 – Virginia Woolf establishes the Hogarth Press with her husband, Leonard Woolf

March 31, 1888 – The National Council of Women of the U.S. is organized by Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Julia Ward Howe, and Sojourner Truth, among others, the oldest non-sectarian women’s organization in the U.S.

March 31, 1776 – Abigail Adams writes to her husband John who is helping to frame the Declaration of Independence and cautions, "Remember the ladies..."

[Kätzchen]

Kamala Harris: The 1st African American & Asian American woman to be elected Vice President of the United States of America. Kamala Harris will be sworn in, on January 20th, 2021, by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer who is the 1st Latina to be seated as an Supreme Court Justice.

LINK: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/harr...trip_icymi_hed