Research Guides: Women's History: 2023 Women's History Month Theme: "Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories"

Celebrating Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Image created by the National Women’s History Alliance; used here in accordance with terms as stated on the NWHA website

Designated by the National Women's History Alliance, the 2024 theme " recognizes women throughout the country who understand that, for a positive future, we need to eliminate bias and discrimination entirely from our lives and institutions."

Below is a list of notable women who have spent their lives advocating for equity, diversity, and inclusion:

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) – African-American abolitionist who dedicated her life to fighting and defending gender equality.
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) – a pioneer crusader for the women’s suffrage movement in the United States and president (1892–1900) of the National Woman Suffrage Association.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) – African American journalist and educator, early civil rights leader and one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) – Mexican painter who used her work to portray taboo topics such as abortion, miscarriage, birth, and breastfeeding, among other things.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) – U.S. jurist, co-founder of the Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, outspoken defender of gender equality rights for women.
Gerda Lerner (1920-2013) – Austrian-born American historian and woman's history author, single most influential figure in the development of women’s and gender history since the 1960s.
Gloria Steinem (1934-) – American journalist and social-political activist who was an articulate advocate of the women’s liberation movement during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992) – African American drag queen and activist, pioneer of the gay rights movement in the late 1960s, spent the next two decades advocating for equal rights for the LGBTQ community.

eBooks

Amazing Texas Girls: True Stories from Lone Star History by Mary Dodson Wade
Publication Date: 2018
Tells the stories of notable girls who spent most or all of their childhood in Texas And shaped the history of the Lone Star State.
American Indian Women by Liz Sonneborn
Publication Date: 2016
Profiles American Indian women who have had an impact on American Indian society and the world at large. This volume introduces the reader to numerous women whose stories have often remained untold until now.
How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America by Sara Sinclair (Editor)
Publication Date: 2020
In myriad ways, each narrator's life has been shaped by loss, injustice, and resilience—and by the struggle of how to share space with settler nations whose essential aim is to take all that is Indigenous.
Our Bodies, Their Battlefields: War Through the Lives of Women by Christina Lamb
Publication Date: 2020
In this book longtime intrepid war correspondent Christina Lamb makes us witnesses to the lives of women in wartime.
Twenty years, Twenty stories: Women, Peace, and Security in the Western Hemisphere by Fabiana Sofia Perera (Editor), Duilia Mora Turner (Editor)
Publication Date: 2020
Marking the 20th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325), this volume contains professional reflections on the advancement of Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) efforts.
Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by Susan Ware
Publication Date: 2019
Inspiring story of the dedicated women who carried the banner in communities across the nation, out of the spotlight, protesting, petitioning, and demonstrating for the right to become full citizens

Streaming Videos

100 Percent Woman: The Story of Michelle Dumaresq
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A post-operative transsexual, Michelle Dumaresq has provoked outrage by entering the sport of women’s mountain bike racing. This program studies complex issues of gender identity surrounding the controversy and manifested in Dumaresq’s personal and professional relationships
Amy Tan, Unintended Memoir
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Journey through this groundbreaking author's life and career with archival imagery, artful animation and original interviews.
Cristine Lagarde
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As IMF chief, Lagarde has the daunting job of monitoring the global economy. She opens up about the responsibility she feels as the first woman in her position and shares personal stories, including why she walked out on a job interview.
Untold: Women and the American Story
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Produced in partnership with the New York Historical Society, this series on Women in the American Story illuminates diverse women’s contributions to the American past.
Women of Impact, Changing the World
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From household names to rising stars, meet the women who are changing our world. They live among primates in the jungle, dive the oceans for clues to the health of our planet, discover our human origins in African caves, and test new technologies in outer space.
Zoe Dunning, Repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
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Maria Zoe Dunning is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and gay rights activist. She is known for being the only openly gay person remaining on active duty following a series of lawsuits against the U.S. Military and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy during the 1990s. This is her story.