Since 1987 the accomplishments and contributions of women and their fight for rights have been honored and appreciated in the month of March every year. Women’s History Month is celebrated in the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, and Canada. It started in Sonoma county, California and was originally a week. I’d like to highlight some of the women whose work went unappreciated at their time.

Ada Lovelace helped define the modern computer we know today but was not given credit for it. Years after her discovery men like Bruce Colliker argued that her contributions were exaggerated and she was ‘delusional and manic’ and her research had no contributions. Now the early programming language Ada is named after her, and she is known as the first official computer programmer.

Another underappreciated female scientist is Rosalind Franklin. With her two partners, James Watson and Francis Crick she found that the structure of DNA was a double helix structure. She was a X-ray crystallographer and was the one who took the first picture of it too. Both her partners received Nobel prizes for their work but Rosalind’s employer took hers, and her credit. Working with lots of radiation she died of cancer in 1958.

Long before that time, Joan of Arc was born in France, 1412. She’s considered one of the best strategic generals and was able to lead France to victory. Though soon after she was burned at the stake for wearing pants, as wearing men’s clothes was a crime in those days. Joan was Catholic and is the patron saint of France and soldiers. She was only nineteen when she died.

The first woman to be signed to the WNBA, Sherly Swoops, exceeds her name, having won four WNBA titles. She’s an African American woman who was born and raised in Texas and played for the Houston Comets for eleven years. She was born in 1971 and is still alive today.

Benazir Bhutto was the first female prime minister of Pakistan, and the first woman to be the head of Muslim country. She ruled for open and fair elections and won, just three months after giving birth. She was awarded the United Nations prize in the field for human rights. She was assassinated in 2007 by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Lastly, Sojourner Truth was an escaped slave turned abolitionist and women’s rights activist. She gave herself her own name to show that she didn’t want the name she was given being born into slavery. Gave a famous speech called, ‘Ain’t I A Woman?’ which highlighted the struggles of African American women. 

Women have accomplished so much and have gone unheard for so long. I hope the stories of these brave women inspire you and continue to be honored. Happy Women’s History Month!