International Women's Day Wed, Mar 08, 2017

What better day to explore some interesting facts about some badass womyn (yup, I see you feminists) than today. For if you didn’t know, today is International Women’s Day!!! At this very moment, womanhood is being rejoiced and the power of femininity is being acknowledged across the globe…I can almost feel it in the air.

 

All of the women mentioned below, whether they were aiming for it or not, are only a few amongst the millions of women who have made a social, economic, cultural and/or political achievement for women. The last one is just for fun and also mind-blowing. 

 

- Marie Sklodowska Curie was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, and today remains the only person in history to be awarded two Nobel Prizes in two different fields of science…she was once denied admission to a university because she was a woman.

- Victoria Woodhull, an American stockbroker, was the first woman to run for U.S. President in 1872 - before women even had the right to vote!

- Sally Kristen Ride was an American physicist and astronaut. Ride joined NASA in 1978, and, at the age of 32, became the first American woman in space. Ride remains the youngest American astronaut to be launched into space.

- Edith Wilson, Woodrow Wilson’s wife, ran the Oval Office for 17 months. Nobody voted for her, and she never actually referred to herself as president, but she did take charge of many executive duties after her husband was left incapacitated by a massive stroke.

- Helen Keller was a member of the Socialist Party and actively campaigned and wrote in support of the working class from 1909 to 1921. Many of her speeches and writings were about women’s right to vote and the impacts of war.

- Emma Watson opened the door to a new way of thinking about gender inequality, which affects both men and women within our society during her UN speech on December 20, 2014. 

- Mrs. Vassilyev gave birth to a total of 69 children - sixteen pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets – between 1725 and 1765, in a total of 27 births. 

 

Because I can't keep you here reading all day about all the numerous women that have made a difference in accelerating gender equality, I leave you with a quote that sums up what today means to me. 

 

“A woman is human. She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man. Likewise, she is never less." -Vera Nezarian