“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.” –Maya Angelou
Women have been making a difference in our world since the beginning of time, but sometimes they have been sidelined and gone unrecognized for their achievements. There’s no better time than Women’s History Month to pay tribute to some of the amazing women who have changed the world!
Fun Fact: Each of the women listed in this post has an elementary or middle school named after her in the Tri-Cities in Washington state!
You may know their names, but how much do you know about what these incredible women accomplished? In honor of March being Women’s History Month, we’re taking a look at 5 women who helped shape history:
Sacajawea
Sacajawea (also sometimes spelled “Sacagawea”) was a young Native American woman who helped guide the Lewis and Clark Expedition through unknown parts of the country.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase from France, acquiring 828,000 square miles of unexplored land. President Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore and map this new territory, but Lewis and Clark needed help. Sacajawea joined the expedition as a guide and interpreter.
Sacajawea had knowledge of languages, foods, and difficult terrains that made her critical to the success of the expedition. She could identify edible and medicinal plants, and she was able to translate to obtain horses from the Native American Shoshone tribe. When a boat capsized on the Missouri River, she saved important documents and supplies.
With Sacajawea’s help, the Lewis and Clark Expedition completed their mission, safely traveling more than 8,000 miles and successfully mapping the Louisiana Territory from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean.
Marie Curie
Marie Curie was a physicist and chemist who made important scientific breakthroughs and won multiple Nobel Prizes over the course of her life.
In 1903, Curie won her first Nobel Prize in Physics, which she shared with her husband Pierre and another scientist named Henri Becquerel, for their groundbreaking investigations into radioactivity—a term coined by Curie herself.
She also discovered two new elements: polonium and radium. These discoveries led to her winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice, and the only person (so far) to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields.
Curie later applied her knowledge of radioactivity to the study of medicine by improving the accuracy of X-rays. In 1914, during World War I, she created small X-ray units, called “Petite Curies” (or “Little Curies”), that could be used on the battlefield. These X-rays are very similar to the X-ray machines now helping billions of hospital patients every day.
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin was a chemist whose research into DNA provided valuable information about its double helix structure.
Franklin began her research at the Biophysical Laboratory at King’s College in London in 1951, where she worked to get a clearer picture of the pattern of DNA molecules. In 1952, she captured “photo 51,” an image that revolutionized our understanding of DNA.
In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick announced that they had discovered the double helix structure of DNA, which eventually won them the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Maurice Wilkins, with whom they shared the Nobel Prize, had been Franklin’s research partner and showed photo 51 to Watson and Crick. The scientists based their DNA model on Franklin’s photo, but they failed to give Franklin credit.
The discovery of DNA’s double helix allowed scientists to understand how DNA is copied. Each half of the double helix acts as a template, so when DNA strands unwind and are pulled apart, a new strand can be built from each of the separated strands, resulting in two identical copies.
Unfortunately, Franklin did not receive recognition for her work during her lifetime, but we now know that her research contributions were vital to the discovery of the double helix and our current understanding of genetics.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was an author, poet, scholar, and activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and more.
Angelou became active in the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s after hearing Martin Luther King Jr. speak. In 1960, she was named Northern Coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, of which King was president. In the early ’60s, she became friends with another civil rights activist, Malcolm X, and in 1964, she worked with him to build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
In 1969, Angelou published her most famous work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The book is an autobiography of Angelou’s early life and explores her childhood trauma and the racism she faced. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was an immediate bestseller and remained on The New York Times bestseller list for two years. This book was one of the first times a Black woman was able to publicly discuss her life, and its success discredited the idea that readers were not interested in Black women.
In 1993, Angelou delivered a poem at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration with the title, “On the Pulse of Morning.” The poem called for peace, harmony, and social justice for all people. Today, Angelou’s work continues to inspire millions of people all over the world.
Ellen Ochoa
Ellen Ochoa is an engineer and astronaut who has flown into space four times and spent nearly 1,000 hours in orbit.
She began her career with NASA in 1988 as a research engineer at Ames Research Center, where she studied optical systems and information processing. She discovered new ways of helping computers process images and is the co-inventor of three patents. These inventions allow us to better capture detailed images in space.
Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman to go to space in 1993 when she served a nine-day mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery. After playing her flute in low orbit, she also became the first astronaut to play a musical instrument in space. From 1993 to 2002, she flew to space a total of four times.
In 2013, Ochoa was named director of flight operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. She was the first Hispanic director and second female director. As director, she guided more than 10,000 NASA employees in advancing human space exploration and launched initiatives to expand diversity and inclusion.
Though each of these women came from different backgrounds and worked in different fields, they all shaped the course of history in some way! We recognize Women’s History Month so we can acknowledge and honor women’s accomplishments and inspire the next generation of girls to achieve great things.
These are just five of the many, many women who have changed the world and deserve recognition. Who inspires you? No matter what field of study you’re interested in, women have made a difference in it!
