Women in History
Fire escape in New York City
The modern metal fire escape was first patented by Anna Connelly, introducing a cost-effective way to add safety to both existing buildings and new construction in the 1900s.
Exploring the History of Women Inventors
Jackie Mitchell and Babe Ruth
Touted as "The Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth," Jackie Mitchell was a pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts, a Class AA minor league team. She was the second woman to ever play in the minor leagues (the first was Lizzie Arlington in 1898). Mitchell was only 17 at the time she pitched two memorable, back-to-back strike-outs to baseball legends Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig during an exhibition match with the Yankees in 1931.
More about Jackie and other female ball players
Mary Robinson
Mary Robinson, the 7th President of Ireland (and 1st female), also served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She is currently the Chair of Council of Women World Leaders, an international organization that, among other things, works to identify and address the particular challenges facing women in ministerial leadership positions, and to increase their visibility both nationally and internationally.
More about the Council of Women World Leaders
List of women leaders past & present
Madam C.J. Walker
"There is no royal, flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it for if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard," proclaimed American business woman Madam C.J. Walker. Walker was the first female--black or white--to become a millionaire.
Grace Hopper
Grace Hopper (young)
Rear Admiral Grace Hopper served in the U.S. Navy Reserves and changed the path of computer technology. Through her work as a computer scientist, Hopper developed the first computer program compiler, expanding the capabilities and setting the standards for modern programming languages.
Wilma Rudolph receiving awards
Wilma Rudolph overcame phisical disability to be the first woman to win 3 gold medals in track & field events in an Olympics at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy. Rudolph was heralded as "the Fastest Woman on Earth" for her record-breaking times, earning her fans around the globe and elevating women's track and field to a major sport in the United States.
Time Magazine article about Rudolph from 1960
Stephanie Kwolek
kevlar vests used to keep
soldiers safe
Stephanie Kwolek developed kevlar while working at DuPont in 1965. The invention of this versatile material, used in many things from tires to flack jackets, created a new area of research in polymer chemistry.
General Dunwoody receives her
four stars
General Ann E. Dunwoody is the first woman in U.S. Military history to achieve a four-star officer grade. In 1992 she became the first woman to command a battalion in the 82nd Airbone Division. General Dunwoody is a DoDEA graduate, recieving her diploma from SHAPE Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) American High School in 1971.
Katherine Blodgett explains
experiments in the G.E. Lab
Katherine Blodgett had her masters at the young age of 19 and was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in Physics, earning her doctorate from Cambridge University. Her work on the absorbtion of gases led to the life-saving development of gas masks. Blodgett continued her work in the field of surface chemistry at G.E., eventually producing non-reflective glass that has far-reaching applications such as automobile windshields, store windows, showcases, camera lenses, spectacles, telescopes, picture frames, and even submarine periscopes.
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi is one of many women to receive the Nobel Prize for Peace. Her non-violent stuggle for human rights and democracy in Burma has been a costly one that continues today. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest off and on for more than 15 years, held captive by the Burmese military junta, and preventing her from taking office as the elected Prime Minister of Burma in 1990. She remains under detention until at least May 2009.
A List of Female Nobel Laureates
Dorothy Levitt
Danica Patrick
Dorothy Levitt paved the way for women motorists as the first reported female to finish a motor race in 1903. Levitt was also a writer, inventor, journalist, and activist. Her pioneering spirit and passion for the sport of motor racing broke down barrier early on for drivers like Betty Skelton Erde, the first woman inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and Danica Patrick, the first female Indy race winner.