Ida was an African-American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. Her voice was clear and strong in the face of extreme intimidation. Her reporting covered the horrific practice of lynching, incidents of racial segregation, and inequality.
Hannah is known as one of the originators of collage. With her feminist photomontages she explored gender and identity, with much of her work focused on androgyny, political discourse, and the shifting of gender roles. Her desire to use art to disrupt and unsettle the norms was consistent. In fact it was her criticism of constructed gender roles that distinguished her work from that of her contemporaries in the dada period. Contemporaries, mainly men, who thought of her as merely a charming amateur. Thankfully, her work was later uncovered and is now recognized for what it is, a significant contribution to the German avant-garde that continues to reverberate.
When an automobile plowed into Constance’s buggy (turning it into a pile of splinters) she did what anyone would expect, she requested to be compensated for the damages. When the notorious silk factory owner (who drove the automobile into her car) refused to pay up, Constance was not deterred. Despite the man’s use of intimidating tactics including threatening letters and strangers with guns - Constance’s persistence paid off and eventually she was repaid what she was owed. Through this ordeal, Constance found herself possessed of a certain strength of mind, body, and spirit. This same grit made her well suited for the career that she would pioneer. America’s first female Sherif.
“Little Sure Shot” Annie, was trapping at 7 years old and hunting with a gun at age 8 to support her widowed mother and siblings through poverty. At 15, Annie won a shooting match with sharp-shooter, Frank Butler, whom she married a year later. They joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West together and Annie kept her audience on the edge of their seat with her gun - easily hitting a dime tossed into the air or a cigarette from her husband’s lips. President McKinley made the mistake of rejecting her offer of “a woman sharpshooter service” for the war. Annie went on to teach more than 15,000 women how to use a gun, influencing not only the image of the American cowgirl, but empowering women with the opportunity to prove themselves every bit as capable as men.
Bessie taught herself how to ride a motorcycle at 16 years of age. At the time, motorcycles weren’t common and female riders were rare. By the time she was 19, Bessie was confident as a rider and took a solo trip across the United Sates. This made her the first African-American woman to ride a motorcycle across the US on her own. Which was no small feat, because as a Black woman she was faced with with consistent racism. Including initially being relentlessly harassed by local Police in her new Miami home, forbidding her to ride. Of course she wasn’t going to let that stop her, she was an exceptionally couragous woman. In fact, her legacy as “The Motorcycle Queen of Miami” continues to inspire riders to this day.
Mary Jayne Gold was an American heiress who played an important role helping European Jews and intellectuals escape Nazi Germany in 1940-1941, during World War II.
Marie’s work overturned established ideas in physics and chemistry. She has become an icon in the scientific world, receiving recognition for her pioneering research in radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only woman to win twice for two different sciences. She conducted her research in Paris and was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris. Marie discovered two chemical elements, polonium and radium. She set in motion the first studies where radioactive isotopes where used in the treatment of neoplasms. And although she never received any formal recognition for it from the French government, during World War 1, Marie developed mobile radiography units or “petites Curies” and it’s estimated that more than a million wounded soldiers were treated with her X-ray units.
Nettie’s research provided critical evidence for chromosomal theories of inheritance and expanded the fields of genetics, cytology, and embryology. Her scientific accomplishments are now inseparably incorporated into the big picture. She is known for illuminating the significance of the (Y) chromosome in sex determination. While others were pursuing the idea that sex determination was the result of environmental factors, Nettie was carefully watching mealworms. Which, she noted, produced two kind of sperm. Each type of sperm possessed a different chromosome, which fertilization would reveal, produced two different results in the sex of offspring. The truth was right in front of the eyes, but it took Nettie to see it, test it, and make it history - although the credit was often misplaced along the way.
A more engaging version of Nettie’s story can be heard in this episode of Babes of Science podcast, check it out!
Moved by the poor living and health conditions of her community growing up, Susan was compelled to become the first Native American physician in the United States. She is known for advocating for modern hygiene, disease prevention standards, and more, all while investing her own resources in caring for as many people as possible and challenging the woman’s role in a family as a working mother. I honor Susan, her story, and her place in history.