“Women’s history is women’s right,” wrote Gerda Lerner, who organized the first Women’s History Day in the U.S., the precursor to Women’s History Month. “It is an essential, indispensable heritage from which we can draw pride, comfort, courage, and long range vision.”
"Naturally talented, Mabley quickly became one of the most successful entertainers on the Chitlin’ Circuit. However, as a Black woman, her wages were meager as compared to her peers."
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"Jobs in science and technology are some of the most exciting out there (and, let’s be honest some of the most lucrative too). I want to live in a world where my gender doesn’t hinder my chances, or the chances of people like me, from thriving in this industry."
"Halle was an incredible testament to what Black women could achieve when given the opportunity to study medicine. She is also an important example of how the first BIPOC women MDs often made a point to raise the quality of healthcare in their communities."
"So…many…dudes… oh! Is that a woman? Hmmm, no… she’s on the catering team. Oh wait! Is that another one? NOPE just a dude with a man bun.”
"Even now I smile remembering feeling like I owned that shop. In my jeans and work apron, I switched the lights on and started our days there. I remember rubbing my hand over a well-sanded table, or helping to lift a 20-foot piece of angle iron. I was fit, strong and every bit a woman. And I am proud of that."
"Storytelling is an art form, and it would be limiting to prescribe a 'correct' amount of female or male screen time. Different stories are just that: different. Some might require a greater or smaller number of female characters, and those characters might be more or less important to the plot. With that said, it is good to keep in mind that the world is made up of men and women and that sometimes a male character could just as easily be rewritten as a female character."
"As younger adults opt for “wellness” products, many are practicing alcohol abstinence. Sometimes referred to as “sober curious,” this trend of often forgoing alcohol has forged public conversations on the health benefits of abstinence. Few, however, reflect on its connections to the temperance movement, one of the major social movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries."
"The study of natural history, especially entomology, was considered the province of wealthy and lettered men — at worst, a quaint eccentricity. But for women, the same interest was regarded with hostility — as an indication that something was terribly awry."
"In the 1950s, she played the part of the perfect housewife: inconspicuous and softly spoken, with a penchant for baked goods and community gatherings. But the middle-aged Adelaide widow was in fact one of ASIO’s most effective penetrative agents, known as a ‘sparrow.’”
"They were well-educated, high-society suffragettes who wanted to play a part in the war effort. Having been denied this request by the British government with a 'go home and sit still' rebuttal, they turned to France and were granted the abbey of Royaumont, a then desolated, dirty place, without running water, heat, or electricity, to turn it into a war hospital."
"Today, women in American popular music (which includes everything from pop to hip-hop) are largely confined to the singer-songwriter lane. Looking back at our musical history canon, it would seem like it was always that way... Only, it wasn’t actually that way. There were great female composers, bandleaders, and instrumentalists in the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s. After the Second World War, they were largely erased from the mainstream music industry and from official histories."
"If you’re a developer, how many times a day do you use the word 'debug'? For that we can credit Grace Hopper, an American who served in the navy in World War II... Hopper and her associates found an actual moth caught inside a switch on one of their machines and had to remove it (literally de-bug) because it was obstructing the machine’s operation. The remains of that moth are now in the Smithsonian."
Margaret Hamilton loved kids and animals more than anything. She’d been a kindergarten teacher for ten years before the stage called her name... leading her to embody the role of the Wicked Witch of the West in 'The Wizard of Oz.'
"S. E. Hinton was an Oklahoma high school student when she completed the manuscript she was then calling 'A Different Sunset.' Her contract from Viking Press actually arrived the day she graduated from Tulsa’s Will Rogers High School. Because she wasn’t yet 21, her mother had to sign too."
"When we think of women’s roles during the Civil War, we imagine them as nurses, cooks, washerwomen, or spies. In fact, at least 400 women fought alongside men, but researchers believe that number may be greatly underestimated."
How modern-day surveillance photography began with the fight for a woman's right to vote—and an unassuming van parked in the yard of a British prison.
"I want my child — a little brown girl — to see her racial identity(s) reflected positively in the media. I also want to spare her from awareness of the male gaze, and awareness that her 'beauty' and its ability (or lack of ability) to elicit male desire are still considered paramount in this culture, for as long as I possibly can. As a mother, I consider this a core job responsibility."
"An X-ray analysis of Leyster’s self-portrait showed a different figure on the easel. Instead of the fiddler, Leyster initially painted a girl, probably herself. It would have been a self-portrait of a person painting a self-portrait. Clever."
"When we wonder why there aren’t more women physicians recorded in history books, it’s important to remember that there was a time when practicing medicine as a woman could get you killed, that women risked their lives to heal their neighbors."
