ìWell-behaved women seldom make history.î – Laurel Thatcher UlrichThe focal point of National Womenís History Month is March 8, International Womenís Day; however, the entire month of March is dedicated to celebrating women.According to the National Womenís History Alliance, in February 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the Week of March 8, 1980, as National Womenís History Week. In 1987, Congress declared March as National Womenís History Month in perpetuity.There are many famous women who have influenced history: Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, Harriet Tubman, Marie Curie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Ella Fitzgerald, Sally Ride, Margaret Thatcher, Michelle Obama and most recently Vice President Kamala Harris. Some women, however, have made amazing achievements but received little of the spotlight.Dr. Mary Walker was the first and only woman to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor. From the U.S. Army website, Walker was born in Oswego, New York, to abolitionist parents. In 1855, she graduated as a doctor from Syracuse Medical College. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, she volunteered for the Union Army. In 1863, her medical credentials were finally accepted by the Army, and she moved to Tennessee, where she was appointed as a War Department surgeon. Dr. Walker was captured in April 1864 by the South and held as a prisoner of war for about four months. She and other Union doctors were eventually exchanged in a prisoner-of-war swap for Confederate medical officers. In 1865, having left government service for good, Dr. Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Andrew Johnson. However, because she was a civilian, her medal was rescinded in 1917, along with 910 others. Dr. Walker refused to return the medal and continued to wear it until she died two years later. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter restored the honor in her name, thanks to efforts made by her family.Madam C. J. Walker was the first self-made female millionaire in history. According to the National Womenís History Museum, she was born Sarah Breedlove on Dec. 23, 1867, on a plantation in Delta, Louisiana. Her parents, former slaves-turned sharecroppers after the Civil War, died when she was age 7. Walker lived with her older sister, Louvenia, and the two worked in the cotton fields.At age 14, Walker married Moses McWilliams. He died in 1887, leaving Walker a single parent of their 2-year-old daughter, Lelia. In 1905, Walker moved to Denver, where she married Charles Joseph Walker. She renamed herself Madam C.J. Walker; and, with just $1.25, she launched her own line of hair products and straighteners for African American women ó ìMadam Walkerís Wonderful Hair Grower.î Ultimately, Walker employed 40,000 African American women and men in the U.S., Central America and the Caribbean. Her total worth topped $1 million, with properties in New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago and St. Louis. Just prior to dying of kidney failure, Walker revised her will, bequeathing two-thirds of future net profits to charity, as well as thousands of dollars to various individuals and schools.Gloria Steinem is an acclaimed journalist and a trailblazing feminist. From the National Womenís History Museum, Steinem was born March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio. She graduated magna cum laude in 1956 from Smith College in Massachusetts. She earned the Chester Bowles Fellowship, which enabled her to spend two years studying and researching in India. Her time abroad inspired an interest in grassroots activism, which would later manifest itself in her work with the womenís liberation movement and the Equal Rights Amendment.Steinem started her professional career as a journalist in New York, writing freelance pieces for various publications. Her early articles tended to be published in what was called ìthe womenís pagesî ó lifestyle or service features about female-centered or fashion topics such as nylon stockings. She gained national attention in 1963 when Show magazine hired her to go undercover to report on the working conditions at Hugh Hefnerís Playboy Club. While Steinemís expose óìI Was a Playboy Bunnyîórevealed the not-so-glamorous, sexist and underpaid life of the bunny/waitresses, she struggled to be taken seriously as a journalist after the assignment. She worked hard to make a name for herself; and, in 1968, she helped found New York magazine, where she became an editor and political writer. In 2013, President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor.Malala Yousafzai is the youngest Nobel Prize Laureate at age 17. From her biography on the Nobel Prize website, Yousafzai was born July 12, 1997, in Mingora, the largest city in the Swat Valley, Pakistan. In 2007, the Taliban began to control Swat Valley and quickly became the dominant sociopolitical force throughout much of northwestern Pakistan. Girls were banned from attending school, and cultural activities like dancing and watching television were prohibited. Suicide attacks were widespread, and the group made its opposition to a proper education for girls a cornerstone of its terror campaign.Malala used the media and created a public campaign for her right to go to school. Over the course of a few years, she and her father became known throughout Pakistan for their determination to give Pakistani girls access to a free quality education. On the morning of October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala was seated on a bus heading home from school, talking with her friends about schoolwork. Two members of the Taliban stopped the bus. A young bearded Talib asked for Malala by name, and fired three shots at her. One of the bullets entered and exited her head and lodged in her shoulder. That same day, Malala was airlifted to a Pakistani military hospital in Peshawar and four days later to an intensive care unit in Birmingham, England.In October 2014, Yousafzai, along with Indian childrenís rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, was named a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Accepting the award, Malala said, ìThis award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.î She remains a staunch advocate for the power of education and for girls to become agents of change in their communities.
