March is Women’s History Month

Celebrate Women’s History Month with us! We’ve chosen three prominent women who achieved “firsts” in women’s history.

Juliette Gordon Lowe founded the Girl Scouts in 1912. From that first gathering of a small troop of 18 culturally and ethnically diverse girls, Juliette broke the conventions of the time – reaching across class, cultural, and ethnic boundaries to ensure all girls, including those with so-called disabilities, had a place to grow and develop their leadership skills. girlscouts.org

Constance Kopp became the first woman Under Sheriff in Hackensack, NJ. Born in Brooklyn, NY she moved to a farmhouse on Sicomac Avenue in Wyckoff, NJ. Author Amy Stewart stumbled upon her story while researching for a book. Girl Waits With Gun, a mix of fiction and Kopp’s life with her two sisters, was her first in a series.
loc.gov and amystewart.com

Bessie Coleman was an American aviator and the first black woman to earn a pilot’s license. Because flying schools in the United States denied her entry, she taught herself French and moved to France, earning her license from France’s well-known Caudron Brother’s School of Aviation in just seven months. Coleman specialized in stunt flying and parachuting, earning a living barnstorming and performing aerial tricks. She remains a pioneer of women in the field of aviation.
biography.com

Click here to to hear Historian Matthew Pinsker speak about the 19th Amendment.

The Fight for Women’s Suffrage

Alice Stokes Paul was an American suffragist, feminist, and women’s rights activist, and one of the main leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits sex discrimination in the right to vote.