More HerStories

Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso – Celia Cruz – was born in 1925 in Barrio Santos Suarez in Havana, one of 4 children. In a career that spanned six decades, Celia became the “Queen of Salsa,” and was central to the genre’s rising popularity. Celia was…
María Rebecca Latigo de Hernández was born July 29, 1896 in Garza García, outside of Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, to Eduardo Frausto and Franscica (Medrano) Latigo.  She taught elementary school in Monterrey before immigrating to Texas as part of the…
“Women will run the 21st Century….  This is going to be the women’s century and young people are going to be its leaders.” Bella Abzug, April 1997   Bella S. Abzug (1920-1998) was one of the most influential and recognizable female politicians and…
That’s how Phebe A. Hanaford, author of Daughters of America (c. 1882), described naturalist Graceanna Lewis, one of the first three woman to be accepted into the Academy of Natural Sciences. But Lewis was not only one of the first professionally…
Gertrude Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on February 3, 1874, to wealthy German-Jewish immigrants. At the age of three, her family moved first to Vienna and then to Paris. They returned to America in 1878 and settled in Oakland, California.…
The first issue of Vice Versa was published in June 1947. At just fourteen pages in length, the lesbian magazine was the first of its kind in the United States. It was published by Lisa Ben, a young lesbian and recent arrival to Los Angeles from…
Pauli Murray (1910-1985) was a civil rights activist, a pioneering feminist, a labor organizer, a lawyer, an Episcopal priest, and a writer of nonfiction, memoir, and poetry. Born Anna Pauline Murray in Baltimore, she was raised by aunts and maternal…
Billie Jean King  (1943-) https://www.billiejeanking.com/?fbclid=IwAR0N1sYVaFI_xZ76BhSrScyVt9amRx2n_84-MNZkkC2mX7lvgAMVCLl0Rm4 One of the greatest tennis players of all time and a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient for her advocacy for women in…
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Alice Babette Toklas (April 30, 1877 – March 7, 1967) was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century, and the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein. Alice B. Toklas was…
Sarah McBride  (1990 - ) The first openly transgender person elected to a state senate in the United States, Sarah McBride won a seat in the Delaware Senate on November 3, 2020. She was also the first openly transgender person to address a major party…
Marsha P. Johnson  (1944-1992) Marsha P. Johnson was an African American transgender women who was an LGBTQ rights activist and an outspoken advocate for trans people of color. Johnson spearheaded the Stonewall uprising in 1969 and along with Sylvia…
Audre Lorde  (1934-1992) Poet and author Audre Lorde used her writing to shine light on her experience of the world as a Black lesbian woman and later, as a mother and person suffering from cancer. A prominent member of the women’s and LGBTQ rights…
Malala Yousafzai  (1997-  ) At seventeen Malala Yousafzai became the youngest ever Nobel Prize winner for her work in support of education for all girls.  She was born July 12, 1997, in the Swat District of northwest Pakistan to a Sunni Muslim family.…
Toni Ko, a first-generation South Korean immigrant, made a name for herself in the business world as the founder of NYX Cosmetics and now helps fund and develop other women-run brands. Thanks to her work ethic and business savvy, Ko has been named one…
Chien-Shiung Wu  (1912-1997) Chien-Shiung Wu was born May 31, 1912, in a small fishing village just north of Shanghai, China, the second of three siblings.  Her father was an engineer; her mother a teacher.  Both her parents valued education and…