March is....Women's History Month

Alright Women!!!
This is OUR month!!
So let's celebrate, learn something and spread a little or a lot of knowledge!!

Women's History Month
The public celebration of women's history in this country began in 1978 as "Women's History Week" in Sonoma County, California. The week including March 8, International Women's Day, was selected. In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) co-sponsored a joint Congressional resolution proclaiming a national Women's History Week. In 1987, Congress expanded the celebration to a month, and March was declared Women's History Month.

Women's HistoryTrivia
National Women's History Month's roots go back to March 8, 1857, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. International Women's Day was first observed in 1909, but it wasn't until 1981 that Congress established National Women's History Week to be commemorated the second week of March. In 1987, Congress expanded the week to a month. Every year since, Congress has passed a resolution for Women's History Month, and the president has issued a proclamation.

As of Oct. 1, 2008, there are 154.7 million females in the United States.
The number of males was 150.6 million.
At 85 and older, there were more than twice as many women as men.

Check here for more of the History of Women's History Month


Firsts In Women's Achievement

Ann Teresa Mathews 1715 - First woman whose invention received a patent (for cleaning and curing corn) - it was granted to her husband

Mary Katherine Goddard 1775 - First woman postmaster

Betsy Ross 1776/77 - First person to be a U.S. flagmaker

Hannah Adams 1784 - First woman to become professional writer

Lucy Brewer 1812 - First woman marine

Elizabeth Blackwell 1849 - First woman to receive a medical degree

Amelia Jenks Bloomer 1849 - Publisher/editor of first prominent women's rights newspaper

Harriet Tubman 1850 - First woman to run underground railroad to help slaves escape

Lucy Hobbs 1866 - First woman to graduate from dental school

Susan B. Anthony 1869 - Co-Founder of first US woman's suffrage organization

Arabella Mansfield Babb 1869 - First woman admitted to the bar

Frances Elizabeth Willard 1871 - First woman to become a college president (Evanston College)

Victoria Chaflin Woodhull 1872 - First woman to be presidential candidate

Helen Magill 1877 - First woman to receive a Ph.D. degree (Boston University)

Belva Ann Lockwood 1879 - First woman to practice law before U.S. Supreme Court

Clara Barton 1881 - Founder of the American Red Cross

Maud Booth 1887/96 - Co-Founder of Salvation Army and Volunteers of America

Suzanna Madora Salter 1887 - First woman mayor (Argonia, Kansas)

Mary McLeod Bethune 1904 - First woman to establish secondary school that became 4-year accredited college

Mary McLeod Bethune 1935 - Founder of National Council of Negro Women

Blanche Scott 1910 - First woman to fly an airplane

Jeannette Rankin 1916 - First woman U.S. House Representative (Montana)

Kate Gleason 1917 - First woman president of a national bank

Jeannette Rankin 1917 - First woman in Congress

Florence E. Allen 1920 - First woman judge

Hallie Ferguson 1924 - First woman governor of U. S. state (Texas)

Katherine Bement Davis 1929 - First person to conduct national survey of sexual attitudes

Jane Addams 1931 - First woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize

Hattie Wyatt Caraway 1932 - First woman elected to U.S. Senate

Amelia Earhart 1932 - First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean

Bessie Coleman 1921 - First black woman in the world to earn an aviator's license

Ruth Bran Owen 1933 - First woman foreign diplomat

Pearl S. Buck 1935 - First woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature

Hattie McDaniel 1939 - First African-American of any gender to win an Academy Award (she won for Best Supporting Actress in the film, Gone with the Wind)

Linda Darnell 1941 - First woman to sell securities on the New York Stock Curb Exchange

Conchita V. Cintron 1949 - First U.S. woman bullfighter in Spain

Georgia Nesse Clark 1949 - First woman treasurer of the United States

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova 1963 - First woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6

Muriel Siebert 1967 - First woman to own seat on the New York Stock Exchange

Janice Lee York Romary 1968 - First woman to carry U.S. flag at the Olympic Games

Mary Clarke 1978 - First woman to be named major general in U.S. Army

Ella Grasso 1978 - First woman governor to be re-elected (Connecticut)

Sandra Day O'Connor - 1981 First woman a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court

Sally Kristen Ride 1983 - First American woman to reach outer space

Joan Benoit (Samuelson) 1984 - First woman to win an Olympic marathon

Penny Harrington 1985 - First woman police chief of major U. S. city (Portland, OR)

Ann Bancroft 1986 - First woman to walk to North Pole

Christa McAuliffe 1986 - First woman citizen passenger on a space mission

Lt. Col. Eileen Collins 1995 - First American woman to pilot a Space Shuttle

Madeleine K. Albright 1997 - First woman Secretary of State and highest ranking woman in the U.S. government

Hillary Rodham Clinton 2000 - Only First Lady ever elected to the United States Senate

Halle Berry 2002 - First African-American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar

Condoleezza Rice 2005 - First African-American woman to be appointed Secretary of State

Nancy Pelosi 2007 - First woman to become Speaker of the House



National Women's History Museum