MONTH: March is Women’s History Month.
The first Presidential Proclamation declaring it so came from President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
On social media, an interviewer asked a woman if men or women contributed more to the world. She said women. He listed the achievements of men, like Bill Gates and Neil Armstrong. She responded, “A woman gave birth to them.”
So much of history is filled with the accomplishments of women — First Lady Dolley Madison saving the portrait of George Washington and the Declaration of Independence from the White House before the British set it ablaze in 1814; future first lady Abigail Adams urging her husband, Founding Father and future president John Adams to “remember the ladies” when crafting the new American government; suffragettes working for the passage of the 19th Amendment; Amelia Earhart’s solo flight; Rosa Parks and the launch of the Civil Rights Movement; investigative journalist Nellie Bly and so many more.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, retired National Guard lieutenant colonel who lost both of her legs following a helicopter attack in the Iraq War. She’s the first woman with a disability elected to Congress. And the first to give birth in office.
Wilma Mankiller was the first woman to be elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, a position she held for a decade. During her tenure, infant mortality dropped, tribal enrollment grew and employment grew, according to Time Magazine, which selected her for a cover.
Physician and researcher Jane Cooke Wright was among the researchers to discover chemotherapy for cancer treatment. In 1964, she was the only woman among the seven physicians who helped to found the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
