Leona Woods was the only woman physicist on the team which built the world’s first nuclear reactor as part of the Manhattan Project. She became a mother during the Project but hid her pregnancy as not to miss work. Afterwards as a professor, she authored >200 papers in physics and astrophysics.
women
Jeannette Rankin, the first…
Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the US, was a lifelong pacifist; she voted against entering WWI, voted the sole vote against declaring war against Japan after Pearl Harbor, and later led peace activism against US military intervention in Vietnam while in her 80s.
The first Soviet citizen to visit….
The first Soviet citizen to visit the White House was a female WWII sniper with 309 confirmed kills, one of which was a sniper she dueled for 3 days.
But as the tour progressed, Pavlichenko began to bristle at the questions, and her clear, dark eyes found focus. One reporter seemed to criticize the long length of her uniform skirt, implying that it made her look fat. In Boston, another reporter observed that Pavlichenko “attacked her five-course New England breakfast yesterday. American food, she thinks, is O.K.”
Soon, the Soviet sniper had had enough of the press’s sniping. “I wear my uniform with honor,” she told Time magazine. “It has the Order of Lenin on it. It has been covered with blood in battle. It is plain to see that with American women what is important is whether they wear silk underwear under their uniforms. What the uniform stands for, they have yet to learn.”
Since 1953, women in South Korea…
Since 1953, women in South Korea have been allowed to take one day off a month if they have painful periods.
The Carribean nation of St. Lucia…
The Carribean nation of St. Lucia is the only country to be named after a woman. It was named after St. Lucy of Syracuse when French sailors landed on the island on St. Lucy’s day in 1502.
The majority of Baywatch fans were female…
The majority of Baywatch fans were female. 65% of its fans were women between the ages of 18 and 34. Focus groups revealed that women liked the show’s strong, independent women who were heroic, saved lives, and treated as equal to men.
Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman…
Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to be accepted at a medical school in the US, because the students thought her application was a prank from a rival school and voted to let her attend.
A sports writer wrote a rude and snarky…
A sports writer wrote a rude and snarky article about the Women’s National Basketball Association even though he had never been to a game. He was confronted by a WNBA star who chided him and invited him to watch her play. Two years later they were married.
90% of Icelandic women went on strike…
90% of Icelandic women went on strike both professionally and domestically in 1975. This led to the passage of equal pay legislation the following year.
During the battle of Fort Washington, when her husband…
During the battle of Fort Washington, when her husband fell in action, Margaret Corbin took control of the cannon and fired well aimed shots at the enemy before being seriously wounded. She later became the first woman in U.S. history to receive a pension from Congress for military service.