ASB is helping to celebrate Women's History Month this March! Women's History Month is a month to celebrate the many accomplishments and important impacts of women throughout history.
We will still be looking at a prominent woman each week, providing background info as well as some great quotes announced by Bradley. We do hope and believe that you will be able to learn a lot more about these very important women!
Week 5: Marie Curie
Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, 1867 and was a famed physicist and chemist. She pursued education and science early on, going to the University of Paris in 1891 and began her unwavering career through the investigation of magnetic properties of steel. She then began research on radioactivity, discovering that it originated from atoms themselves, which earned her a Nobel physics prize in 1903. She then was able to earn a Nobel prize in chemistry for helping to discover and isolate Radium. During WWI, Marie Curie served as the director of a unit of the Red Cross which helped to treat a million soldiers through x-ray technologies. Curie later died of radiation side effects in 1934 but is still remembered as a champion pioneer in the field of radioactivity.
Week 4: Dorothy Height:
Dorothy Height was born on March 12, 1912, in Richmond Virginia. During her childhood years and especially high school, she became socially and politically active as a great orator in topics such as lynching. After getting a degree, she eventually joined the Young Women’s Christian Association, where she helped to improve and integrate all of its facilities, as well as establish its Center for Racial Justice. Through this, she became a leading figure in the civil rights movement, working with Martin Luther King Jr. as well as many other prominent names. She later received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 in retirement and has been remembered as one of the most famed persons of equality and justice.
Week 3: Oprah Winfrey:
Oprah Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi and became a co-anchor for the local evening news by 19. Her emotional and extemporaneous performances led her to great success, and she eventually launched her own production company. She then refocused her show with a focus on literature, mindfulness, and has been praised for being a benefactor to many people. Oprah became the richest African American as a billionaire, being occasionally ranked as the most influential women in the world and continues to have an enormous positive influence on the lives of many audiences.
Week 2: Susan B. Anthony:
Susan B. Anthony was born in 1820 in Massachusetts and was guided throughout her life by the Quaker belief that everyone was equal. After many years of teaching, she returned to New York State and became an abolitionist, and later met Elizabeth Cady Stanton who she would work with for 50 years. With her, Susan B. Anthony traveled the entire country giving speeches and demanding that women be given the right to vote. She was also arrested for voting in 1872, which brought national attention to the suffrage movement, and is now remembered as one of the most visible champions of the women’s rights movement.
Week 1: Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama was born in 1964 in Illinois. She first worked at the law firm Sidley Austin, and later worked at nonprofits as well as a few other positions in universities. She then helped campaign for her husband’s presidency, and during her time as a first lady, became an advocate for poverty, awareness, nutrition, education, and more. Even after Obama’s presidency, she still has an immense influence and has ranked as the most admired woman in America for the third year in a row.