It is finally March, which means it is time to celebrate Women’s History Month! For the entire month of March, we get the opportunity to celebrate women and their contributions to contemporary society. Women have played an important role in the foundation of American life. It has been about 101 years since women got the right to vote in America, and it is time to talk about some of the most influential women from the past and present day.

On the Forbes list of The World’s 100 Most Influential Women, Vice President Kamala Harris is number 3. She has shown from the very beginning of her campaign that giving up should not be an option, and that you can do anything if you work hard. She has achieved a lot of ‘firsts’ throughout her career, from being the first female and African-American Attorney General in California to being the first Indian-American woman in the senate, until finally becoming the first female vice president. 

Continuing on in the world of politics, Sandra Day O’Connor has been a huge figure in the Supreme Court, being the first woman to be confirmed and nominated. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Her confirmation in the court led to the likes of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor to earn their spots. At the time of her nomination, conservative activists strongly disagreed with it, but she was confirmed anyway, and went on to be one of the most powerful women in the world during her tenure on the court.

In the wake of the 2020 election, Stacey Abrams has been credited with helping Georgia go blue. She organized a grassroots movement that helped register nearly 1 million people in Georgia to vote. She founded Fair Fight, an organization focused on voting rights. She aims to improve voting rights throughout the entire country, not just in Georgia. She also served in the Georgia House of Representatives as minority leader from 2011-2017.

In the world of philanthropy, Melinda Gates has achieved a number of huge accomplishments. She and her husband Bill Gates founded the largest private charitable foundation in the world, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She focuses on giving people everywhere the opportunity to get out of poverty and lead healthier lives. The foundation additionally believes every single person has value, and has donated nearly 2 billion dollars to helping primarily female farmers in Africa and Asia.

In science, Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983. This is nearly 15 years after America put a man on the moon. Even today, she is still the youngest person to have gone into space, being 32 when she went. However, 2 women from the USSR had gone to space before her, but Ride was the first from America.

Of course, there are millions of women who have done great things, but the list would be far too long if we discussed them all. Instead, take time this month to learn more about these women and about women who have made other major impacts on our society.