Celebrating admirable women and girls (historical & contemporary). Their courage, resilience, perseverance, triumphs. Highlighting "firsts." Raising awareness of injustices and our struggles, obstacles, erasure, and more. #WomenInSTEM & in everything else!
Admirable Women
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Who invented Kevlar?
Chemist Stephanie Kwolek in 1965.
In a 40+ year career, her work in polymer chemistry ultimately revolutionized personal body armor, industrial engineering & space exploration. Fourth woman inducted, National Inventors Hall of Fame, 1994.
She died #OTD in 2014. #WomenInSTEM
Inspired at age 8 to be a doctor when she watched an Native American woman die bc a white govt doctor refused to treat her.
+Valedictorian, Woman's Medical College of PA 1889
+Sole doctor for the Omaha Reservation, serving >1200 people across 1350 sq miles
+Made house calls on horseback & by buggy
When Statutory Rape Laws Led to Forced Marriages
In early 20th-century New York, men accused of “ruining” women under eighteen could avoid prosecution by marrying them.
Imagine the psychological resilience required. Tereshkova was completely isolated in the dead silence of space, entirely reliant on mid-1960s vacuum-tube tech & cognizant if anything went wrong with her automated systems, she was completely on her own. A testament to the raw courage of a pioneer.
