Happy Women’s History Month! March is a dedicated time to honor and celebrate the remarkable contributions woman have made to US history. Originating from a celebration by the Sonoma, California school district in 1978, it has since blossomed into a nationwide acknowledgment of women's invaluable roles in culture, history, and society. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week. The following year, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution creating a national celebration. Thanks to the National Women’s History Project’s advocacy, the celebration was expanded to encompass the entire month of March in 1987.
The ESC’s Equity Committee selected 7 incredible women to feature for Women’s History Month. Learn about their amazing accomplishments below.
Claudia L. Gordon (born March 1972)
- First deaf Black female attorney in the United States
- First deaf graduate of American University’s law school
- First deaf person to work at the White House in a detailee capacity
Deborah Anne Batts (April 13, 1947 – February 3, 2020)
- United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
- Became the nation’s first openly LGBT federal judge during Gay Pride Week in June 1994
Maryam Mirzakhani (May 3, 1977— July 14, 2017)
- Iranian mathematician who became the first woman and the first Iranian to be awarded a Fields Medal
- While a teenager, Mirzakhani won gold medals in the 1994 and 1995 International Mathematical Olympiads for high-school students
- Became a professor at Stanford University
Wangari Muta Maathai (April 1, 1940 - September 25, 2011)
- First woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree
- Assisted women in planting more than 20 million trees on farms, schools and churches
- She became chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and an associate professor in 1976 and 1977
- Elected to parliament with an overwhelming 98% of the vote in 2022
Henrietta Lacks (born Loretta Pleasant; August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951)
- African American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line
- The HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data
Marie Curie (November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934)
- Polish and French physicist and chemist who pioneered research on radioactivity
- First woman to win a Nobel Prize, first person to win a Nobel Prize twice, and only person to win a Nobel Prize in two fields
- She became the first female professor at the University of Paris in 1906
Junko Tabei (September 22, 1939 – October 20, 2016)
- Japanese mountaineer, author, and teacher
- First woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and first woman to ascend the Seven Summits
- Tabei wrote seven books, organized environmental projects to clean up rubbish left behind by climbers on Everest, and led annual climbs up Mount Fuji for youth affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake
Download and share the poster version online or in your classroom!
This content has been curated by the ESC's Equity Committee. To learn more about our internal DEI efforts, click here. To learn more about bringing DEI efforts to your classroom, visit our DEI Support page.