Our history books seldom include information about the roles women performed during critical moments of American history or world history. To acknowledge some courageous women, especially during Women’s History Month, here are some highlights of their contributions.
We all learned about the Minutemen who fought for U.S. independence. We never heard about the Minutewomen, led by Prudence Cummings Wright, who organized 30 to 40 women into a militia, dressed in men’s clothing and protected the town of Pepperell, Mass., in 1775. They actually thwarted the British attempts to enter their city.
We also know about Paul Revere, but not about Sybil Ludington, a 16-year-old who rode through the night in upstate New York to warn independence fighters of a pending British attack.
The life of Harriet Tubman is well documented; however, we seldom learn about other women like Susan King Taylor, who escaped enslavement at 16. She met Clara Barton, who encouraged her to become a nurse. She traveled with her husband’s unit, the 33rd United States Colored Troops during the Civil War, and served as a nurse and launderer. After the war, she formed the Boston Branch of the Women’s Relief Corps to assist newly freed enslaved people.
Histories and stories about indigenous women have also been omitted from our history books. Susan LaFlesche Picotte lived in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A member of the Omaha Tribe in Nebraska, she is the first of her nation to earn a medical degree. She campaigned for better care for residents living on reservations who were afflicted by tuberculosis and alcoholism, and opened a hospital on the reservation to help improve health services for the Native population.
Jovita Idár was a Mexican American journalist and suffragette born in Laredo, Texas. She fought against the discrimination against Mexican people by the local, state and federal governments through her journalism at El Progreso newspaper. Idár helped organize the first Mexican Congress in order to encourage political participation and to bring awareness to the substandard pay and living conditions of Mexican American communities in Texas.
The story of the Warsaw Ghetto has been read about and seen in documentaries. However, the stories of many courageous women like Vladk Meed are probably not known by the general public. Meed used a false identification card from 1940 to 1942 on the Aryan side of Warsaw to smuggle arms to Jewish fighters and also helped Jews to escape from the ghetto. (Holocaust Encyclopedia)
During World War II, two Chinese American women joined the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) program. Hazel Lee and Maggie Gee flew non-combatant missions such as transporting planes between bases, hauling gunnery targets to be shot at by male bomber pilot trainees and tested military aircraft. Roles that women played during WWII are still being revealed.
The 6888th Postal Battalion of the Women’s Army Corps is just being recognized this year with the Congressional Medal of Honor for their work under very harsh conditions during WWII. They were the only African American women sent overseas and they were given six months to sort and clear out 17 million pieces of American and Allied mail. It was achieved in three months working in shifts around the clock. Their motto: “No Mail, Low Morale.”
Stella Young, from Australia, fought for the physically disabled by demonstrating through media, journalism, articles and TED Talk presentations, that there are no limits to the abilities of any human being no matter the physical or mental limitations of their bodies.
For Women’s History Month, I suggest that Greenbelt Recreation and the Greenbelt Museum select four women to highlight each year, whose unique stories, sacrifices and contributions helped to improve the human condition and/or served as inspirational models.