Trailblazing Women!

Impressive! Innovative! Influential! Discover and celebrate the amazing stories and achievements of 120 of America's most inspiring women! Women have accomplished incredible things throughout American history. They've made and changed history. They've contributed revolutionary new ideas and moved science forward. Their inventions, businesses, literature, art, and activism helped build the nation. They've succeeded in a whole host of professions, including media, medicine, politics, government, education, sports, and the military. Trailblazing Women! Amazing Americans Who Made History shines a welcome light on some of America's most remarkable women and their enduring stories and amazing accomplishments.

This fun and fascinating read covers the long history of America's heroic women. It brings you the biographies of some of America's boldest and bravest. Read about obstacles they overcame and how they flourished. It covers the lasting legacies of well-known and lesser-known stars, including ...

• As a young child, she sang solos and duets with her Aunt Mary at the Union Baptist Church and by the age of 6 was earning money singing at local functions throughout her hometown of Philadelphia. (Marian Anderson (1897-1993), Singer)
• She made headlines when she became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in the science of geology from the elite Baltimore research university, Johns Hopkins. (Florence Bascom (1862-1945), Geologist)
• She said about the "me too” movement she founded: "When one person says, 'Yeah, me, too,' it gives permission for others to open up.” (Tarana Burke (1973-), Civil Rights Activist)
• The nation's first four-star woman general has a long family history of U.S. military service—going back five generations. (Ann E. Dunwoody (1953-), Army Officer)
• When this celebrated U.S. Supreme Court justice served on the high court with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as one of only two women justices, she and O'Connor decided to wear special collars on decision days to carve out their visual space in a sea of black robes and ties. (Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020), Attorney, U.S. Supreme Court Justice)
• She made many discoveries in physics, but the most important was identifying the "magic numbers” that make protons or neutrons stable within an atomic nucleus. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for her work. (Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906-1972), Physicist)
• A soccer icon who was the first woman inducted into the World Football Hall of Fame, she started playing the sport at the age of two, while her family was living in Italy. (Mia Hamm (1972-), Soccer Player)
• Her first name means "lotus” in the Sanskrit language, and her name, Devi, means "goddess.” (Kamala Harris (1964-), Vice President of the United States of America)
• She coined the term "bug” to describe computer errors after she found a moth inside one of her team's computers. (Grace Hopper (1906-1992), Computer Scientist, Navy Rear Admiral)
• An acclaimed architect and artist best known for designing Washington, D.C.'s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Lin once said, "I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.” (Maya Lin (1959-), Architect)
• When this former first lady was growing up, she was a great athlete, but she didn't like playing competitive sports. The reason, her big brother said, was that "she hated losing.” (Michelle Obama (1964-), Attorney, First Lady)
• A Cuban American and the first Latinx elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, she delivered a Spanish version of the Republican rebuttal to President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address in 2014. (Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (1952-), Congresswoman)
• This acclaimed prima ballerina was the daughter of an Osage Indian father and a white mother. The Osage people gave her the name Wa-Xthe-Thomba, meaning "Woman of Two Worlds.” (Maria Tallchief (1925-2013), Ballet Dancer)
• A labor leader and educator, she is the current president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the former president of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), and she became the first openly gay individual to be elected president of a national American labor union. (Randi Weingarten (1957-), Educator, Labor Leader)
• This mathematician is the hidden hero behind the development of GPS apps on cell phones. (Gladys West (1930-), Mathematician)
• And many more.

  America has had more than its share of amazing women. The influence, inspiration, and impact of women on U.S. society and culture cannot be ignored. Explore the vital roles and vibrant experiences of some of the most impressive women in American history with Trailblazing Women! Amazing Americans Who Made History. It brings to light all there is to admire and discover about these extraordinary women.