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Davids is the first openly LGBT Native American elected to the United States Congress, the first openly gay person elected to the United States Congress from Kansas, and the first Native American woman along with Deb Haaland of New Mexico elected to Congress. She is a member of the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) people and is an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. She is also a former mixed martial artist and is an American attorney.
Born in Winslow, Arizona and being an enrolled member of the Laguna Pueblo, Deb Haaland and her fellow Democrat Sharice Davids of Kansas, became the first two Native American women to be elected to the United States Congress. To her swearing in ceremony on January 3rd, 2019, she wore a traditional Pueblo dress, necklace and boots. Prior to this, she served as the state's vote director for the Native Americans in Obama's 2012 presidential reelection campaign. She was then elected to a two-year term as the Chair of the Democratic Party of New Mexico in April 2015, and the New Mexico Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives in New Mexico.
Khoeun was the first Cambodian-American woman elected to public office at any level of government in the United States. She arrived to Chicago when she was six months old in 1981 from Sa Keo, a Thai refugee camp where her family went after escaping the Khmer Rouge genocide. Compared to the Cambodian communities in Long Beach, California and Lowell, Massachusetts, her victory deified the expectations from Skokie's Cambodian population. Running on a simple platforms of ensuring friendly, sustainable parks and spaces for all the families in the community and managed to pick up an endorsement from Mayor George Van Dusen.
Judy Heumann was sent home as a “fire hazard” in elementary school and went on to become the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. The New York City Board of Education initially denied her a teaching license based on doubts that she could get to the bathroom alone or help students in an emergency. She sued for discrimination, won a settlement out of court, and was the first wheelchair user to teach in New York City. She then moved on to be the Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the US Department of State from 2010-2017.
Fresh out of graduate school, Kara Walker succeeded in shocking the nearly shock-proof art world of the 1990s with her wall-sized cut paper silhouettes. At first, the figures in period costume seem to hearken back to an earlier, simpler time. That is, until we notice the horrifying content: nightmarish vignettes illustrating the history of the American South. Drawing from sources ranging from slave testimonials to historical novels, Kara Walker's work features brutal stereotypes in a host of situations that are frequently violent and sexual in nature. Initial audiences condemned her work as obscenely offensive, and the art world was divided about what to do. Was this a step backward or forward for racial politics? Several decades later, Walker continues to make audacious, challenging statements that question and challenge. From her breathtaking and horrifying silhouettes to the enormous crouching sphinx cast in white sugar and displayed in an old sugar factory in Brooklyn, Walker demands that we examine the origins of racial inequality, in ways that transcend black and white.
An independent film mastermind who has taken the world by storm with her documentary "13th" and the historical drama "Selma". She has helped shine the light on the plights of people of color in the U.S. and she continues to open doors for others with her collective ARRAY. ARRAY works to help people of color and women to get their films out in the world for everyone to see. Her work has and will continue to break ground as people are forced to face the facts of our country's history of oppression, racial injustice, and sexism.
On June 26, 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made history when she thoroughly defeated 10-term Congressman Joe Crowley, the fourth most powerful Democrat in the House, in New York's 14th congressional district in the state's Democratic primary. On November 6, less than a month after her 29th birthday, she emerged victorious in the general election to become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. It was her first time running for office, and as a Democratic Socialist of Puerto Rican descent, her stunning triumph was a boon to the progressive hopes of her liberal supporters.
Tracey Norman, who often went by Tracey Africa, is known for being the first African American transgender woman model. Norman appeared on a box of Clairol in the 1970's and landed a contract with Avon for a skincare line. In 1971, renowned photographer Irving Penn photographed Norman for Italian Vogue. She was also photographed for Essence in 1980, but when her transgender identity was discovered she was blacklisted in the United States. She then moved to Paris and signed a six-month contract with Balenciaga. When it became more difficult to find modeling work, Norman began appearing in a burlesque peep show for trans women and became active in the ball community.
After receiving her master of social work and J.D. from Arizona State University, Sinema worked as an adjunct professor and faculty member for the Center for Progressive Leadership. Her career in public service began in the Arizona State Legislature in 2005, where her advocacy included getting in-state tuition for veterans at all Arizona public universities, combating sex trafficking, and calling for improvements to children's healthcare. In 2018 she was elected senator of Arizona, Sinema’s high-profile win is particularly historic. She is the first out bisexual person ever elected to the U.S. Senate and only the second openly LGBTQ person. Sinema is also the Grand Canyon State’s first female senator and its first Democratic senator since 1995.
In October 2018, Sahle-Work Zewde became Ethiopia's first woman president and the only serving female head of state in Africa. A seasoned diplomat and veteran of the United Nations, Zewde was appointed with a unanimous vote by parliament. In her first address to parliament, Zewde promised to be a voice for women and stressed the importance of unity. Traditionally a ceremonial role, Zewde's appointment is a tremendously symbolic move for the country, opening the door for gender parity.
Lois O'Donoghue was born in 1932 in a remote Aboriginal community. She never knew her white father and, at the age of two, was taken away from her mother, who she was not to see for 33 years. After a long struggle to win admission to a training hospital, Lois became the first black nurse in South Australia. In 1976, she was the first Aboriginal woman to be awarded an Order of Australia. In 1983 she was honoured with a CBE and in 1984 she was made Australian of the Year. In 1990 she became the founding chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
Jacques, Ben. "14 Women and the 19th Century's Big Lie: 185 Years Ago, Abolitionists North of Boston Defied their Church and their Town Leaders to Openly Decry the Evils of Slavery." Boston Globe, Mar 20 2022, ProQuest. Web. 21 Mar. 2022 .
185 years ago, abolitionists north of Boston defied their church and their town leaders to openly decry the evils of slavery. In 1837, 14 women in Stoneham publicly stated that they could no longer be silent about their era’s big lie: the belief, subscribed to by many in the North as well as the South, that the Black race was inferior, even subhuman, and as such could justifiably be enslaved.
Empress Theodora. Mosaic. Museum of Ravenna, Ravenna. Europeana, www.europeana.eu/en/item/22/_427.
Empress Theodora Co-Ruled With Her Husband Justinian - They were jointly crowned as rulers of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire in 527.
In the codification of Roman Law, Justinian and Theodora gathered the best judges and lawyers to write a text book on Roman Law, Statue Law Codes, and a Primer for Judges. Theodora was responsible for creating laws favorable to women that prohibited trafficking in girls/women, and laws that altered divorce regulations to benefit women.
As the Byzantine Empire continued its rule aristocratic women who belonged to powerful political or economic families, were able to contribute and participate in many ways in Byzantine society. Social Status could be transmitted through both the matrilineal and patrilineal lines. If one’s mother offered greater social prestige because of her family, then her children would take their mother’s surname.
Kaʻiulani was heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii and held the title of Crown Princess. Kaʻiulani became known throughout the world for her intelligence and determination. After the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, she visited the United States to help restore the Kingdom; she made many speeches and public appearances denouncing the overthrow of her government and the injustice toward her people. While in Washington D.C., she paid an informal visit to U.S President Grover Cleveland and First Lady Frances Folsom Cleveland Preston, but her efforts could not prevent eventual annexation.
Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian. Valentina Tereshkova Cosmonaut.
June 16 to 19, 1963, Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space. She was launched into orbit aboard Vostok and made 45 revolutions around the earth in a 70-hour 50-minute space flight. Tereshkova orbited the earth once every 88 minutes by operating her spacecraft with manual controls. Tereshkova parachuted from the Vostok 6 after re-entering the earth's atmosphere and landed about 612 km (380 miles) northeast of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, in central Asia. In the years following her flight, she made many public appearances and trips to other countries. Tereshkova went on to graduate from the Zhuykosky Air Force Engineering Academy in 1969 and earned a degree in Technical Science in 1976. The United States wouldn't send a woman into space for another 20 years..
2022. Open Access Images. National Gallery of Art, www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.177255.html.
The Greeks making clear reference to female doctors and making the same distinction we do between midwives and doctors. Thus, the first woman doctor we know by name is Phanostrate (I; c. 350 D.C. from Acharnai in Attica), who is called on her gravestone "midwife and doctor." The Greek language itself attests to the existence of women doctors. The regular word for a woman doctor in the inscriptions, papyri, and most literature is the specifically feminine (variously spelled), with a feminine nominal suffix.
