Ep:11 Happy International Women's Day! A Look Into Women Who Made History And Paved the Way for Us

 Hello everyone I'm so excited to be here today. I am especially excited because this is not just any ordinary Wednesday, today is International Women's Day! Happy International Women's Day to you all! It also happens to be March, and every year March is designated Women's History Month. - Women's History Month -  is set aside for "commentating and encouraging the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. 

 On today's podcast we'll be looking at the history of Women's History Month and take deep dive into three women who have made their profound contributions in American history. I hope you enjoy today's episode as much I enjoyed recording it. 

Transcript

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Hello everyone. I'm so excited to be here. I'm especially excited because this is not just any ordinary Wednesday. Today is International Women's Day. Happy International Women's Day to you all. It also happens to be March, and every March is designated Women's History Month. Now, women's History Month is set aside for commemorating, encouraging the study observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. On today's podcast, we'll be looking at the history of Women's History Month and take a deep dive into three women who've made their profound contributions in American history. I hope you enjoyed today's episode as much as I enjoyed recording it. Hi, and welcome to the Brave Pivot Podcast. I'm your host, Cindy Marie Ferguson. I'm a former corporate girl turned entrepreneur, business educator, and mentor here to help you build a profitable and successful business after the kids' corporate and chaos. On the podcast, we'll have honesty, meaningful conversations around becoming an entrepreneur, starting a business, building a brand, and my favorite, systems and processes and so much more. If this sounds like your thing, stick around. Each Wednesday through guest interviews and solo episodes, I'll be providing insights, tools, business strategies, and actionable support to help you along the way on your entrepreneurial journey. Get ready for some candid conversations, inspirations and invaluable insights. I'm so delighted you're. Let's dive in and get started. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Brave Pivot Podcast. As I mentioned earlier, today is International Women's Day and in honor of today, I wanted to record a special episode honoring some wonderful women who had made significant contributions to society and beyond with their courage, unyielding dedication, indelible impacts, and lasting legacies. Before we get into the remarkable women that I'll be featuring in today's podcast, let's take a look back at the history of women's history month. Did you know that Women's History Month actually started as Women's History Week? Yep, it's true. Women's History Month began as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. The education task force of the Sonoma County Commission on the status of women planned and executed a Women's History Week celebration in 1978. The organizer selected the week of March 8th to correspond with International Women's Day. The movement spread across the country as other communities initiated their own Women's History Week celebrations the following year. In 1980, a consortium of Women's Group and historians led by the National Women's History Project, now the National Women's History Alliance successfully lobbied for national recognition. In February, 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation declaring the week of March 8th, 1980, as National Women's History Week. Now subsequent presidents continued to reclaim a National Women's History Week in March until 1987 when Congress passed public law 100-9 designating March as Women's History Month. Between 1988 and 1994, Congress passed additional resolutions requesting and authorizing the president to proclaim March of each year as women's history month. Since 1995, each president has issued an annual proclamation designating the month of March as Women's History Month. I, for one am happy, they changed it to Women's History Month, so we can properly celebrate and recognize all those deserving and amazing women who've made profound contributions to this country. Next up on the podcast we're gonna ha have a look at into women who made history and paved the way for you and me, beginning with Alice Stokes Paul."Alice Stokes Paul was an American suffragist and women's right activist, who played a pivotal role in securing the right to vote for American women. She was born on January 11th, 1885 in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, where she was raised in a Quaker family that valued education and social justice. She earned degrees in biology and sociology from Swarthmore College, and later obtained a PhD in political science from the University of Penn. In 1912, she became involved with the National American Women's Suffrage Association and quickly rose through the ranks, organizing protests and lobbying Congress for women's suffrage. She was instrumental in organizing the 1913 Suffrage Parade in Washington D.C, which drew thousands of participants and helped raise awareness about the cause. In 1917, she and a group of fellow suffrages formed the National Women's Party, which advocated for a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's rights to vote. The N WP staged numerous protests and pickets, including a month long demonstration outside the White House that resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of many of its members. Now despite facing widespread opposition and hostility, her tireless efforts paid off when the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, granting women the right to vote. She continued to fight for women's rights throughout her life, advocating for equal pay and an end to discrimination in education and the workplace. And she didn't stop there. Now, after the 19th Amendment was ratified, she enrolled at two law schools, taken day and evening classes so that she can finish much faster. She later received her law degrees from Washington College of Law at American University in 1922, and in 1927, she earned a master of law's degree, and in 1928, a doctorate in civil law from American University. In addition to her activism, she was a prolific writer and speaker penning numerous articles and books on women's suffrage and women's rights. She also co-founded The World Women's Party, which worked to advance women's rights on a global scale. Alice Stokes. Paul's contributions to the women's suffrage movement helped pave the way for generations of women to come. Her steadfast commitment to justice and equality serves as an inspiration to avid activists around the world."Amazing. The next woman in history I chose to feature is Associate Justice Sonya Sotomayer."Sonya Sotomayer was born in Bronx, New York on June 25th, 1954. She earned a BA in 1976 from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude and a member of the five Beta Cap and receiving the Pyne Prize, which is the highest academic honor Princeton Awards to an undergraduate. In 1979, she earned a JD from Yale Law School where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as an assistant District attorney in New York County District Attorney's office from 19 79 to 1984. In 1979, she earned a JD from Yale Law School where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She served as an Assistant District attorney in New York County District Attorney's office from 1979 through 1984. She then litigated International Commercial Matters in New York City at Pavia and Har Court, where she served as an associate and then partner from 1984 to 1992. In 1991. President George Walker Bush nominated her to the US District Court, Southern District of New York, and she served in that role from 1992 to 1998. In 1997, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit where she served from 1998 to 2009. President Barack Obama nominated her as an associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 26th, 2009, and she then assumed this role on August 8th, 2009." And finally, my last featured woman in history is none other than Vice President Kamala D. Harris."Kamala D. Harris is the Vice President of the United States of America. She was elected Vice President after a lifetime of public service having been elected district attorney in San Francisco, California Attorney General and the United States Senator. She was born in Oakland, California to parents who immigrated from India and Jamaica. She graduated from Howard University and the University of California Hastings College of Law. On August 11th, 2020, the Vice President accepted the President's Joe Biden's invitation to become his runny mate. She's the first woman, the first black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected vice president. And on January 20th, 2021 is sworn as the first woman of color, Vice President of the United States. As Vice President, Kamala Harris has worked in partnership with President Joe Biden to get America vaccinated, rebuild our economy, reduce child poverty, and pass an infrastructure law that will lift up communities that have been left behind. She has led the administration's efforts and rallying broad coalitions to protect the freedom to work to vote, expand worker rights to organize and collectively bargain and stand up for women's rights, supporting women in our workforce addressing the maternal health crisis and defending reproductive rights. The Vice President also played a key role in engaging world in strengthening our nation's alliances and partnerships. In everything she does, she remains focused on our, on the people of our nation and our collective."Wow. Talk about Brave Pivots. These women wrote the book and led the charge on Brave Pivots. Their contributions and legacies will live on forever. I had such a great time researching these women and learning so much more about them. I hope you enjoyed learning about them too. All of these women's are wonderful examples of what can be achieved through unwavering strength, vision, determination, and fortitude. I'm happy to have these women be examples to not only to me, but also to the special women in my life who mean so much to me. I'd re remiss if I didn't mention my mom, my best friends, my sisters, my nieces, and of course you, our wonderful community. I'm grateful to each of you. You all remind me how important it is to have women in our lives, to keep us brave, inspired, grounded, and motivated to go for our dreams and achieve anything we set our hearts and minds to do. So, thank you to all of you for being in my life and in my community. As I close today's podcast. I'll leave you with this thought. We have come so far as women and we humbly stand on the shoulders of so many amazing women who went before us today. I shared with you a small group of women who stood steadfast and resilient to pave the way for many of us. I know there are countless others who've made similar contributions in their own right. If it weren't for the collective whole, we wouldn't be as far as we are today. While there's been tremendous progress, there is still work to be done. I look forward to doing my part and supporting women in many varied aspects of my life and business, not just today, but every day. If there's someone you admire and would like to recognize, please feel free to tag this episode and me@cindymarie.co on Instagram. I'd love to hear from. I hope you enjoyed this special episode and I wish all of you a Happy International Women's Day! Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed our conversation. If something I shared today resonated with you, please tag me@cindymarie.co on Instagram. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave an honest five star review. When you do, it helps us to grow the podcast and helps others to find us as well. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you know when the new episodes are being. You can subscribe right from the app that you're using to listen to this podcast, or you can sign up for email alerts@cindymarie.co. Lastly, if there's something you'd like to hear about in a future episode or if you just wanna stop by and say hello, please feel free to DM me@cindymarie.co on Instagram. Thanks again for listening to The Brave Pivot Podcast and I'll see you next time.