This March, in honor of Women’s History Month, we will launch our 31 Days of Women’s Impact Initiative, during which we’ll highlight the achievements of women past and present in a wide range of industries while highlighting how we’re continuing the work of empowering the women of today and tomorrow.
Follow along on social media and engage with us as we celebrate women in law, finance, sports, and more, while empowering women and girls through such programming as trauma-informed care, entrepreneurship, and STEM. #WomensHistoryMonth #31DaysOfWomensImpact
Women History Month
Inspiring Reads
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- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
- What Do You Do with a Voice Like That? The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman by Christ Barton and Ekua Holmes
- The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict
- The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
- For Colored Girls who Have Considered Politics by Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry, Minyon Moore
- Quiet by Susan Cain
- O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
- Firebird by Misty Copeland
- The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
- The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway
- Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
- Remember the Ladies: Celebrating Those Who Fought for Freedom at the Ballet Box by Angela P. Dodson
- The Most Powerful Woman in the Room is You by Lydia Fenet
- Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- Self Made by Nely Galan
- Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Personal History by Katharine Graham
- This Little Trailblazer – A Girl Power Primer by Joan Holub and Daniel Rodde
- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
- Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward by Valerie Jarrett
- Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
- My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie
- Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anee Lamott
- Dear Malala, We Stand with You by Rosemary A McCarney
- Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- More Than Ready by Cecilia Munoz
- Dreamers by Yuyi Morales – Parallel Spanish edition, Sonadores
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from Over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs Know Your Power by Nancy Pelosi
- From this Day Forward by Cokie and Steve Roberts
- Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
- Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
- Persepolis, The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
- My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
- 24 Years of House Work … and the Place Is Still a Mess: My Life in Politics by Pat Schroeder
- Swing Time by Zadie Smith
- A Computer Called Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Helped Put America on the Moon by Suzanne Slade
- Keep It Moving by Twyla Tharp
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- Useless Magic: Lyrics and Poetry by Florence Welch
- Educated by Tara Westover
- Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf
- All the Women in My Family Sing: Women Write the World — Essays on Equality, Justice, and Freedom by Various Authors
Women in Civil Rights
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- Audre Lorde – Author, Activist
- Bell Hooks – Activist, Author, Feminist Historian
- Claudette Colvin – refused to give up her seat on the bus nine months before Rosa Parks
- Dorothy Height – Civil Rights and women’s rights activist, Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee, YWCA Harlem Staff, former President of the National Council of Negro Women
- Eleanor Roosevelt – Advocate for human and women’s rights
- Emma Gonzalez – Civil Rights Activist
- Grace Lee Boggs – Civil Rights Activist, Author
- Harriet Tubman – Abolitionist
- Ida B. Wells – led a movement against lynching in the 1890s through written essays and other forms of activism
- Janet Mock – Transgender Rights Activist, New York Times bestseller, “Redefining Realness”
- Jazz Jennings – LGBTQ+ Activist, Author
- Joanne Bland – Cofounder and former director of the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama, Youngest person to have been jailed during nay civil rights demonstration during that period.
- Laverne Cox – Actress, Transgender Activist
- Lucy Acosta – former Mexican American activist with the League of United Latin American Citizens
- Marsha P Johnson – “Mayor of Christopher Street” transgender woman who helped lead the Stonewall uprising
- Rosa Parks – Montgomery Bus boycott
- Ruby Bridges – First African American child to desegregate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana
- Sylvia Rivera – Latinx Stonewall Activist, founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR)
Women in the Food and Beverage Industry
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- Amelia Simmons – American Cookery (first known American cookbook) author
- Barbara Lynch – Boston restauranteur, 2017 listee on Time’s Top 100 Most Influential People of the Year”
- Bethenny Frankel – Skinny Girl Margarita Founder
- Cristeta Comerfeld – Former White House Chef
- Edna Lewis – African American chef known for refining the image of Southern cooking
- Ina Garten – host of Barefoot Contessa
- Joyce Chen – popularized Northern-style Chinese restaurants in the US, invented and held the patent for the plat bottom wok with a handle
- Julia Child – author, Mastering the Art of French Cooking and The French Chef host
- Maggie Timoney – CEO of Heineken
- Malinda Russell – first-known cookbook by an African American woman in the US
- Marcella Hazan – Cookbook Author, famous for introducing the techniques of traditional Italian cooking to the US
- Marion Nestle – Food activist, nutritionist, and author, Professor at NYU
- Nancy Silverton – James Beard Foundation Outstanding Chef Award (2014)
- Padma Lakshmi – Host of Top Chef
- Rachael Ray – Food Network chef
Women in Media
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- Jill Abramson – former Executive Editor of the New York Times
- Christiane Amanpour – Chief International Anchor for CNN
- Kylie Atwood – National Security Correspondent for CNN
- Brooke Baldwin – Host of CNN Newsroom
- Dana Bash – Chief Political Correspondent for CNN
- Melissa Block – former host of NPR’s All Things Considered, special correspondent for NPR
- Kate Bolduan – Anchor and Host of “At This Hour” on CNN
- Gloria Borger – Chief Political Analyst at CNN
- Tina Brown – Journalist and Talk-Show Host, President and CEO of Tina Brown Live Media
- Vanessa Bush – Editor-in-Chief of ESSENCE
- Ana Cabrera – CNN Anchor
- Gretchen Carlson – Journalist
- Kaitlan Collins – White House Correspondent for CNN
- Audie Cornish – co-host of All Things Considered on NPR
- Katie Couric – Journalist
- Ann Curry – Journalist and Photojournalist
- Morgan DeBaun – founder and CEO of Blavity Inc.
- Nina dos Santos – Europe Editor for CNN
- Alice Allison Dunnigan – first African-American female correspondent to receive White House credentials as well as for the Senate and House Press Galleries
- Katharine Graham – former owner of The Washington Post, Publisher
- Terry Gross – Host of Fresh Air on NPR
- Brianna Keilar – Senior Political Correspondent for CNN
- Megyn Kelly – Journalist
- Lisa Ling – Journalist, host of This is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN
- Rachel Maddow – host of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC
- Alicia Menendez – Television Commentator, Host, and Author of The Likeability Trap
- Renée Montagne – Journalist and former co-host of NPR’s Morning Edition
- Ariana Huffington – founder of The Huffington Post
- Gwen Ifill – Journalist, first woman of African descent to host a nationally televised US public affairs program with Washington Week in Review
- Abby Phillip – White House Correspondent for CNN
- Sylvia Poggioli – Senior European Correspondent for NPR’s Internal Desk
- Joy Reid – National Correspondent at MSNBC
- Cokie Roberts – former political reporter and analyst for NPR and ABC News
- Robin Roberts – Anchor of Good Morning America
- Ann Newport Royall – first female journalist in the United States
- Diane Sawyer – Anchor of ABC World News
- Susan Stamberg – Special Correspondent for NPR
- Helen Thomas – longtime member of the White House press corps from the start of the Kennedy Administration to the Second year of the Obama Administration
- Robin Toner – Journalist, first woman to be National Political Correspondent for The New York Times
- Nina Totenberg – legal correspondent for NPR
- Barbara Walters – Journalist, former host of Today, The View, 20/20, and the ABC Evening News
- Ida B. Wells – Journalist, a founder of the NAACP
- Anna Wintour – Editor-in-Chief of Vogue
- Oprah Winfrey – founder of The Oprah Winfrey Network, longtime TV Host and Media Executive
- Judy Woodruff – Journalist, Anchor and Managing editor of the PBS NewsHour
Women In Business
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- Ana Corrales – COO for Google’s Consumer Hardwar Business
- Abigail Johnson – President and CEO of Fidelity
- Ana Corrales – COO for Google’s Consumer Hardwar Business
- Barbara Corcoran – Real Estate Mogul
- Bea Dixon – CEO/Founder of The Honey Pot Company
- Bessie Coleman – First African American and Native American woman to hold a pilot license
- Mary Kay Ash – Founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics
- Janice Bryant Howroyd – CEO of Act One
- Tory Burch – Founder of Tory Burch and Tory Burch Foundation
- Safra Catz – CEO of Oracle
- Ester Choo – Founder of Time’s Up Healthcare
- Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner – Inventor of menstrual pads
- Melinda Gates – Co-Founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Former GM at Microsoft
- Ariana Huffington – Founder of the Huffington Post and CEO of Thrive Global
- Kylie Jenner –Founder and CEO of Kyle Cosmetics
- Sheila Johnson – Co-Founder of BET, CEO of Salamander Hotels and Resorts
- Lesa Kennedy – Chairperson of Board of Directors of NASCAR
- Marjorie Merriweather Post – Owner of General Foods, Inc
- Kim Ng – MLB Executive, Senior VP of Operations
- Indra Nooyi – Former CEO of PepsiCo
- Maria Rios – CEO of Nation Waste, Inc.
- Michele Roberts – Executive Director, NBA Players Association
- Sheryl Sandberg – COO of Facebook and Author of Leanin.org
- Madam C.J. Walker – First African America woman to become a self-made millionaire
- Lettie Pate Whitehead – First woman to serve on board of directors of a major corporation (Coca-Cola)
- Oprah Winfrey – Chairwoman and CEO of Harpo Production and Chairwoman, CEO, and CCO of Oprah Winfrey Network
Women In Science
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- Annie Easley – Computer Scientist, Mathematician, and Rocket Science. Worked for the Lewis Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
- Alice Ball – African American chemist credited for developing the “Ball Method,” the best treatment for leprosy during the early 20th century
- Alex Canady – Neurosurgeon, first African American and Black person to become a neurosurgeon
- Barbara McClintock – Scientist and Cytogeneticist, awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology
- Dorothy Vaughn – scientist behind the NASA space race
- Flosse Wong-Staal – Virologist and Molecular Biologist, first scientist to clone HIV and determine the function of its genes, which was a major step in proving that HIV is the cause of AIDS
- Gertrude B. Elion – Biochemist, 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology recipient
- Gladys West – Mathematician known for her contributions to the mathematical modeling of the shape of the Earth, and her work on the development of the satellite geodesy models that were eventually incorporated into the Global Positioning System
- Dr. Gwen Nichols – Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
- Hadiyah-Nicole Green – Dr. Known for her development of a process that has the potential to help in the evolution of a novel cancer treatment using laser-activated nanoparticles
- Henrietta Lacks – originator of HeLa cells, which are used to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones, and viruses on the growth of cancer cells without experimenting on humans
- Henrietta Leavitt – American astronomer, measured and cataloged the brightness of stars
- Joy Buolamwini – Founded the Algorithmic Justice League. Research Assistant at MIT Media Lab and TedTalk presenter
- Katherine Johnson – American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent US crewed spaceflights
- Mae C Jemison – first Black woman to travel into space
- Mary Jackson – African American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
- Maryam Mirzakhani – Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University, honored with the Fields Award
- Mayly Sanchez – Particle Physicist
- Patricia Bath – Opthamologist and early pioneer of laser cataract surgery
- Ruby Hirose – Biochemisty and Bacteriologist, researched blood clotting and Thrombin, allergies, and researched cancer using anitimetabolites
- Sunita Williams – Astronaut, former record holder for total spacewalks by a woman and longest spacewalk time for a woman
- Susan La Flesch Picotte – Doctor, first Native American to earn a medical degree
Women in Law
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- Ada Kepley – first American woman to graduate from law school (1870)
- Alta Hulett – helped draft the nation’s first anti-sex-discrimination law (1872) at age 17
- Arabella Babb Mansfield – first woman admitted to a state bar in the US (June, 1869)
- Arlinda Locklear – first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court and is an expert in Native American law and tribal recognition litigation
- Belva Ann Lockwood – first woman member of the US Supreme Court Bar (admitted 1879), first woman to have her name printed on an official ballot for president
- Charlotte E. Ray – first African American woman lawyer (1872) in DC
- Clara Foltz – first female lawyer on the Pacific Coast
- Elena Kagan – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
- Florence Ellinwood Allen – first female federal appellate court judge in the country (1934)
- Gloria Allred – prominent women’s rights lawyer
- Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw – Lawyer and Civil Rights Advocate who coined the term “intersectionality”
- Lucy Terry Prince – first African American woman to argue a case in front of a US Supreme Court justice
- Lutie Lytle – first American woman to teach law in a chartered law school, first black woman to be admitted to the Kansas and Tennessee bars
- Lyda Burton Conley – first Native American woman lawyer
- Mabel Walker Willebrandt – appointed the first female assistant attorney general of the US by President William G. Harding
- Margaret Brent – first recorded woman to practice law in the US
- Michelle Obama – former first lady, Lawyer
- Myra Bradwell – one of America’s first women lawyers
- Ramona Romero – Current General Counsel of Princeton University, former General Counsel of USDA
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg – US Supreme Court Justice
- Sandra Day O’Connor – former Associate justice on the Supreme Court, first woman to serve in this capacity
- Sonia Sotomayor – Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, first Hispanic and Latinx Justice
Women in Comedy
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- Ali Wong
- Amanda Seales
- Amy Poehler
- Amy Schumer
- Anjelah Johnson
- Aparna Nancherla
- Aubrey Plaza
- Awkwafina
- Carol Burnett
- Cat Cohen
- Chelsea Peretti
- Corinne Fisher
- Cristela Alonzo
- Ellen DeGeneres
- Gilda Radner
- Hannah Gadsby
- Issa Rae
- Jenny Wang
- Julia Shiplett
- Karen Chee
- Kate McKinnon
- Kristen Wiig
- Krystyna Hutchinson
- LaWanda Page
- Leslie Jones
- Lily Tomlin
- Lucille Ball
- Luenell Campbell
- Margaret Cho
- Marie Faustin
- Mary Beth Barone
- Mary Tyler Moore
- Maya Rudolph
- Maya Eskrine
- Mindy Kalin
- Mo’Nique
- Natasha Rothwell
- Nicole Byer
- Phoebe Robinson
- Rachel Sennott
- Sherri Shepherd
- Sherry Cola
- Sheryl Underwood
- Tiffany Haddish
- Tig Notaro
- Tina Fey
- Tracee Ellis Ross
- Wanda Sykes
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Yumi Nagashima
31 Days of Impact Playlist
Tune in as we set the vibe and celebrate 31 days of women’s impact this March!
Don’t forget to share on your social media #YWCAPlaylist