Women's History Month

Can you identify these women?

1. Which mother led a 125–mile march of child workers all the way from the mills of Pennsylvania to President Theodore Roosevelt’s vacation home on Long Island?

2. One of the most important Union spies and scouts during the Civil War was a Black woman who had escaped from slavery. Can you name her?

3. Before the 1960s, farm workers in the U.S. were not paid even the minimum wage, and had no influential representatives to fight for their rights. What part did Dolores Huerta play in changing this situation?

4. The line of beauty products she created for African–American people made her the first Black woman millionaire in the United States. Who was she, and when did she do this?

5. She came to the U.S. when she was a teenager to study science and stayed to become “the world’s foremost female experimental physicist.” Her most famous experiment disproved what had been thought to be a fundamental scientific law. Who is this outstanding Asian–American scientist?

6. She took her job as “First Lady” seriously, traveling the country and the world to gather information about the problems and concerns of workers, children, minorities, and the poor. She wrote a daily newspaper column and made frequent radio broadcasts. Who was this active wife of a president?

7. When the Mexican Revolution of 1910 reached the Texas border, she and her friends organized La Cruz Blanca, The White Cross, to take care of the wounded. They nursed people from both sides of the fighting. She was also known as a journalist and community activist. Who was she and where did she live?

8. Who was the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Islands, deposed when American business and military interests wanted to annex Hawaii to the U.S.?

9. She opened “Hull House” in a run–down Chicago neighborhood, a community center to improve conditions for poor immigrants. The program of English–language classes, childcare, health education and recreational opportunities soon inspired hundreds of other settlement houses throughout the country. Her name?

10. Daughter and granddaughter of Paiute Indian chiefs from Nevada, she lobbied Congress, wrote extensively, and traveled across country during the late 1800s lecturing on the hardships brought upon Native Americans by the U.S. Government. Her name?

11. Her 1939 Easter Sunday concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial drew a crowd of 75,000. Who was she, and why was she singing there?

12. Who printed the first copy of the Declaration of Independence that included the signers’ names?

13. Clara Barton (1821–1912) is best known for founding the American Red Cross, but she also played a vital role during the Civil War. What did she do?

14. She is regarded as the greatest ballerina born in America. Her father was the Chief of the Osage Indians. Can you name her?

15. Why is Rachel Carson (1907–1964) considered the mother of the environmental movement?

Answers

1. The feisty labor organizer, Mary Harris Jones (1830–1930), did just that in 1903. Called “Mother” Jones by everyone, her goal for the march was to bring the evils of child labor to the attention of the president and the national press
2. Harriet Tubman (1820–1913), who also led over 300 people in their escape from slavery via the system of safe–houses known as the Underground Railroad.
3. Dolores Huerta (b. 1930), a long–time Chicana labor activist, co–founded the United Farm Workers union in 1962. She served for over two decades as the union’s vice–president and chief lobbyist, savvy labor contract negotiator, and nationwide speaker.
4. In 1905, Madam C.J. Walker (1867–1919) began developing an effective hair lotion, and then a special comb to straighten curly hair. She eventually employed 3,000 people, mostly Black women, to work in her factories and sell her line of products.
5. Chien–Shiung Wu (1912 – 1997) received both the National Science Medal and the internationally respected Wolf prize for her scientific research. Her most famous experiment showed that conservation of parity could be violated in nature.
6. Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) was America’s First Lady for 12 years. Later, she served as U.S. delegate to the United Nations where she was instrumental in securing passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
7. Jovita Idar (1885–1946) lived in Laredo, Texas. As a journalist, she wrote articles for Spanish–language newspapers, like El Progreso and El Heraldo Cristiano, which argued for Mexican Americans’ equal rights.
8. Queen Liliuokalani (1838–1917). A revolution, encouraged and actively assisted by American interests backed by a U.S. Navy gunboat, established a provisional government in 1893. Among her lasting legacies: she composed over 200 songs, including “Aloha Oe”.
9. Jane Addams (1860–1935). One of the first generation of female college graduates at a time when the world was not yet ready to give educated women positions of responsibility, found her own way to lead a useful life. She won the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize for her lifetime dedication to the cause of international peace.
10. Sarah Winnemucca (1844–1891), later named a chief in her own right. Her autobiography, Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims, was one of the first books by a Native American.
11. Marian Anderson (b. 1902), who had earlier been barred from the singing in the Washington’s Constitution Hall because she was Black. Her open–air concert was a triumph over bigotry for this international star.
12. Mary Katherine Goddard (1738–1816), newspaper publisher, had such a strong reputation in the colonies that when Congress fled to Baltimore in 1776 they trusted her with the revolutionary task of printing their treasonous document. Goddard risked arrest by the British when she included her own name as printer.
13. No provisions had been made for taking care of Union soldiers. Clara Barton (1821–1912) solicited donated supplies and took them directly onto battlegrounds, to get food, bandages, and medical supplies to the wounded. She also helped document the 22,000 men killed or missing in action so their families could be notified.
14. Maria Tallchief (b. 1925), gained international stardom as prima ballerina of the New York City Ballet in a career that spanned 23 years. In 1980, she and her sister, Marjorie, founded the Chicago City Ballet.
15. Rachel Carson (1907–1964), a writer and biologist, touched off an international controversy about the environmental effects of pesticides with her 1962 book, The Silent Spring. The book became a best–seller and the foundation of modern ecological awareness.

View the CSPAN tribute: First Ladies, Influence and Image. Click on the image below for more information, including links to archived broadcasts.

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

March 1, 1987 - A Congressional resolution designating March as Women's History Month is passed  

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

March 8 - International Women's Day; its origins trace back to protests in US 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 American interracial, non-sectarian 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  

Mar 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; it is the oldest non-sectarian women's organization in U.S.  

Mar 31, 1776 - Abigail Adams writes to her husband John who is helping to frame the Declaration of Independence: "Remember the ladies..."  

Information courtesy of National Women's History Project