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Origin of Women's History Month

Kiera Zetkin, a German woman, was the first to organize an International Women's Day on March 19, 1911. Zetkin was inspired by working-class American women and wished to have a day that would commemorate the strength of women everywhere, as well as women's rights. Although at first well received, the celebration of International Women's Day began to dwindle as the decades went on and was not rekindled until the women's movement of the 1960s. It was during this time that women began to look back on their contributions throughout history and began to strongly feel that they too deserved acknowledgment. In March 1978, female historians took on the task of integrating the accomplishments of women into history by promoting the celebration of Women's History Week. The week quickly grew popular, and in 1987, Congress proclaimed March as National Women's History Month.

To celebrate, DiversityInc offers the "Women We Love" issue. In it you will find eight beautiful women who deliver stories of personal triumph and positive impact.

Facts

• As of Oct. 1, 2007, there were 153.6 million women in the United States, compared with 149.4 million men. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• In 2006, women ages 16 and older who worked full time year-round earned 77 cents for every $1 males earned and had a median annual income of $32,649. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• Washington, D.C., is the only state or district in which women had the closest earnings ($49,544) to those earned by men--98 cents to every $1. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• In the 2007--2008 school year, women will earn 59 percent of bachelor's degrees and 61 percent of master's degrees. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• Sixty-five percent of women ages 18 and older voted in the 2004 presidential election, compared with 62 percent of males. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• There are 84,000 female police officers in the United States. In addition, there are about 9,000 women firefighters, 315,000 lawyers, 278,000 physicians and surgeons, and 37,000 pilots. (U.S. Census Bureau)

People Government

• Victoria Claflin Woodhull became the first woman presidential candidate in the United States when she was nominated by the National Radical Reformers in 1872. In 1964, Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman nominated for president of the United States by a major political party at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
• Susanna Medora Salter was the first woman elected mayor of an American town: Argonia, Kan.
• Shirley Chisholm was the first African-American woman in Congress. She served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 14 years.
• In 1990, Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as U.S. Surgeon General, becoming the first woman (and first Latina) to hold that position.
• Frances Perkins, appointed Secretary of Labor by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, is the first female member of a presidential Cabinet.
• Sandra Day O'Connor, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, was the first female Supreme Court Justice.

Literature

• The first published American woman writer was Ann Bradstreet in 1850 with her book of poems entitled The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America.
• Edith Wharton was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize, which was for her fiction novel The Age of Innocence

Miscellaneous

• In 1975, Elizabeth Ann Seton became the first native-born American to be made a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
• Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She traveled from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Ireland in approximately 15 hours.
• Lettie Pate Whitehead was the first American woman to serve as a director of a major corporation, The Coca-Cola Co., No. 4 in the 2007 Top 50.
• Wilma Mankiller is the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
• Effa Manley, co-owner of the Negro League team Newark Eagles, is the first woman elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
• In 2007, Harvard University named Drew Gilpin Faust its first woman president in the school's 371-year history.
• Jacqueline Cochran was the first woman to break the sound barrier by flying an F-86 over Roger's Dry Lake in California at the speed of 652.337 miles per hour. Eleven years later, she flew at a speed of 1,429.2 miles per hour--more than twice the speed of sound.
• Muriel "Mickey" Siebert was the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and the first woman to head one of its member firms.

Science and Medicine

• Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive a medical degree in 1849 from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y.
• Ellen Swallow Richards was the first woman to be admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After attaining her bachelor's degree, she became the first female professional chemist in the United States.
• Dr. Sally K. Ride was the first American woman to be sent into space.

Women of the Suffrage Movement

• Susan B. Anthony (Feb. 15, 1820--March 13, 1906): famous civil-rights activist and prominent leader of the 19th-century women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was the founder of the National Women's Suffrage Association, which was one of the most prominent and aggressive suffrage organizations up until the 19th Amendment was passed. After Anthony's death, in honor of her legacy, she became the first non-allegorical American woman to appear on a circulating U.S. coin.
• Mary Church Terrell (Sept. 23, 1863--July 24, 1954): a writer, civil-rights and women's-rights activist born to formerly enslaved parents. She was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and was a member of the National Women's Suffrage Association, where she aggressively fought to make sure that Black women were also given the right to vote.
• Lucy Stone (Aug. 13, 1818--Oct. 19, 1893): a reformer and leader in the women's-rights movement and the first woman to receive a college degree in Massachusetts. Believed to be the first woman to keep her last name upon marriage. Anthony was also the founder of the Woman's Journal, the official magazine for the American Woman Suffrage Association, and later on, the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
• Margaret Higgins Sanger (Sept.14, 1879--Sept. 6, 1966): an American birth-control activist and founder of the American Birth Control League, which is currently known as Planned Parenthood. Her ideas on birth control were presumed to be radical by many, and even led to her being incarcerated for 30 days due to the opening of a family-planning and birth-control clinic in New York City.

Source: Infoplease.com

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