When Julia Chase-Brand was growing up, women didn’t run. Born in 1945 in Groton, Connecticut, Chase recalls being surrounded by four active brothers, in a time where girls couldn’t run, play soccer, and if they were to play basketball, it was at the half court line. Inspired by local distance runner John J. Kelley, Chase […]
Admiral “Amazing Grace” Hopper, pioneering computer programmer
United States Navy Admiral Grace Hopper (1906–1992) was one of the first programmers in the history of computers. Her belief that programming languages should be as easily understood as English was highly influential on the development of one of the first programming languages called COBOL. It is largely due to Grace Hopper’s influence that programmers […]
Carmen Rupe, drag performer, brothel keeper, and LGBT activist
Carmen Rupe (1936–2011) or “Kiwi Carmen” was a vivacious performer, businesswoman and brothel keeper, and LGBT rights and HIV/AIDS activist. She was a cultural icon in the transgender community who paved the way for many transgender men and women after her, and has been named a role model for many, including Georgina Beyer, the world’s […]
Fanny Blankers-Koen, wife, mother, and four-time Olympic gold medalist
Fanny Blankers-Koen (1918–2004) was a Dutch Olympic athlete known as the Flying Housewife. In the 1948 Olympics in London, the 30-year-old mother of two won four gold medals and set world records — while pregnant with her third child. She was the first woman to win four Olympic gold medals, and the first one to […]
Wilma Rudolph, Olympic gold medalist & civil rights pioneer
Wilma Rudolph (1940–1994) was considered the fastest woman in the world in the ‘60s, and the first American woman to win three gold medals in track & field in the 1960 Olympics. This was the first year that the Olympics were covered internationally on television, which helped Wilma become an international star. In the 1960 […]
Gay Allis Rose Clifford, poet & scholar
Gay Allis Rose Clifford (1943-1998) was a poet and a literary theorist whose most influential piece, Transformations of Allegory, has been cited by over a hundred subsequent works and is still a major work today in the field of allegory in literature. Gay Clifford left her mark not only in the world of literature, but […]
Randy’L He-dow Teton: the face of Sacagawea
Randy’L He-dow Teton is a Shoshone woman who posed for the image of Sacagawea on the Sacagawea dollar coin, first issued in 2000. She’s the only woman besides Martha Washington to appear on US currency, the only Native-American woman to pose for an American coin, and the only living person whose image appears on American […]
