Celebrating HERstory

A collection of books created by teachers and students all about women's history.

Women's History

#ProfilesOfElBarrio: Who was Julia De Burgos?

For much of her short life, Julia championed Puerto Rican nationalism and identity through her writing. She self-published her first collection of poetry in 1938 when she was 24. Outside of her writing, Julia worked tirelessly as an educator and civil rights activists for women and those of Afro-Caribbean descent. Her work explored issues like Puerto Rico's colonial past and the legacy of slavery and American imperialism. In her poem “Río Grande de Loíza,” she addressed the pain and violence suffered by natives of the island and African slaves. Throughout her life she suffered many challenges, but always came back to her poetry. She is now considered one of the literary foremothers of Puerto Rico and the Nuyorican movement in New York City.

Rita Moreno Opens Up About Being The First Latina Woman To Win An Emmy, Grammy, Oscar & Tony | TIME

is a Puerto Rican actress, dancer, and singer. Her career has spanned over 70 years; her notable acting work includes supporting roles in the musical films Singing in the Rain, The King and I and a starring role in West Side Story. Moreno is one of the few artists to have won all four major annual American entertainment awards: an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and a Tony. She has won numerous other awards, including various lifetime achievement awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award for her contribution to American culture through performing arts, and the Peabody Career Achievement Award in 2019. She is regarded as one of Puerto Rico and America's most accomplished women.

Valentina Tereshkova was born in Russia. She blazed trails as an astronaut, piloting the Vostok 6 back in 1963 and becoming the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/worlds-1st-woman-space-valentina-tereshkova-turns-80-45942360">first woman in space</a>. Tereshkova had been a sky diving enthusiast since the age of 22, which helped her beat out hundreds of candidates in the selection process. Due to extreme secrecy surrounding the Soviet space program, Tereshkova told her family that she was simply going to attend a parachuting competition. But her space trip wouldn’t remain a secret for long. Tereshkova eventually became a global celebrity after completing her historic three-day mission.

Valentina Tereshkova for 2nd Graders

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This Is the 'me too.' Movement

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Tarana Burke is an African American civil rights activist. She's most well-known as the founder of the "Me Too" movement in 2006 which has blossomed into a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about sexual harassment, abuse, and assault in society. In 2017 Burke and other influential female activists were named "the silence breakers" by Time magazine. She currently serves at the Girls for Gender Equity in Brooklyn as its senior director.

Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient - Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende is a Chilean journalist and author. Her best-known works include the novels The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts. She has written over 20 books that have been translated into more than 35 languages and sold more than 67 million copies. Allende's life was forever changed after the military coup of General Pinochet forcing her to flee with her family to Venezuela and live in exile for 13 years. Her experience led to her first novel The House of the Spirits. Allende has received numerous awards for her work including the Chilean National Prize for Literature and the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction. She was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President<a href="http://www.biography.com/people/barack-obama-12782369"> Obama</a>.

Co-founder of the United Farm Workers Association, Dolores Huerta is one of the most influential labor activists of the 20th century and a leader of the Chicano civil rights movement.   Throughout her work, Huerta organized workers, negotiated contracts, advocated for safer working conditions including the elimination of harmful pesticides. She also fought for unemployment and healthcare benefits for agricultural workers. She was the driving force behind the nationwide table grape boycotts in the late 1960s that led to a successful union contract by 1970. Huerta received the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award in 1998 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. As of 2015, she was a board member of the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Secretary-Treasurer of the United Farm Workers of America

Dolores Huerta is still organizing and pushing for change 60 years on | Women of the Century

Jane Goodall set out to Tanzania in 1960 to study wild chimpanzees. A highly respected member of the world scientific community, she advocates for ecological preservation through the Jane Goodall Institute. In the 1960's, women in science were few and not respected. Jane Goodall applied multiple times to university science programs in England before finally being accepted. Her work with chimpanzees revealed major discoveries no other scientist had made before.  Today Jane Goodall is a world-wide environmental activist, Founder of Roots and Shoots as part of the Jane Goodall Institute. She has published numerous children's books about animals and our duty to protect the earth.

Jane Goodall: Living with Chimpanzees

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Artist Frida Kahlo was considered one of Mexico's greatest artists who began painting mostly self-portraits after she was severely injured in a bus accident. Kahlo later became politically active and married fellow communist artist Diego Rivera in 1929. She exhibited her paintings in Paris and Mexico before her death in 1954.

Frida Kahlo: A Brief History (School Friendly)

Christiane Amanpour is considered one of television's leading news correspondents. Though initially facing resistance from being put on the air due to her accent and dark hair, she first gained notice for her 1985 report on her home nation of Iran, winning the DuPont Award. But it was her historical coverage of the Bosnian crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s that helped make her the internationally recognized correspondent she is today. She has interviewed top world leaders and has received multiple Emmys and countless other honors for her work, including several Peabody awards and an Edward R. Murrow Award.

"I never assumed ever that because I was a woman that anything was off limits to me."

Christiane Amanpour | On Truth and Courage

"Every successful social movement in this country's history has used disruption as a strategy to fight for social justice." 

Alicia Garza

#BlackLivesMatter Co-Founder Alicia Garza on the Meaning of Citizenship | Define American

Alicia believes that Black communities deserve what all communities deserve — to be powerful in every aspect of their lives. On February 26, 2012, when an unarmed black teenager named Trayvon Martin was fatally shot by neighborhood security guard in Florida, Garza took her frustration and rage to Facebook posted the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” In 2013, Garza along with Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, officially created the Black Lives Matter. The movement works to end the violence towards African Americans particularly by the police and fights against the institutional issues of racism, poverty and mass incarceration. An innovator, strategist, organizer, and cheeseburger enthusiast, Alicia founded the Black Futures Lab and is the co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global Network.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Supreme Court Judge | Mini Bio | Biography

Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduated from Columbia Law School, going on to become a staunch courtroom advocate for the fair treatment of women and working with the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. Following a successful and embattled career in law and political activism, she was appointed to the Supreme Court by President <a href="https://www.biography.com/us-president/bill-clinton">Bill Clinton</a> in 1993 where she presided until her death at age 87. She presided over several landmark cases in her efforts to uphold justice for all citizens and is considered one of the most influential women in American history.

"Women belong in all places where decisions are being made." 

Wilma Mankiller | First Female Chief of the Cherokee Nation | #SeeHer Story | Katie Couric Media

In 1985, Wilma Mankiller became the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation. She sought to improve the nation’s health care, education system and government. After leaving office, Mankiller remained an activist for Native American and women's rights until her death in 2010. Mankiller shared her experiences as a pioneer in tribal government in her 1993 autobiography, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People. She also wrote and compiled Every Day Is a Good Day: Reflections by Contemporary Indigenous Women (2004), featuring a forward by leading feminist Gloria Steinem. For her leadership and activism, Mankiller received numerous honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. She continues to be remembered as a driving force for Native American and women's rights today.

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Dr Urvashi Sahni is a disruptive innovator, social entrepreneur, and women’s rights activist, working to transform education for 35 years. She believes education is a powerful force to transform lives if we can transform education itself. 30 years ago she founded the Prerna Girls School in her garage with 5 students that has now grown to three K-12 schools that has reached over 6,000 low-income children in India. She continues to fight for equality in education, and women's rights worldwide, including being a vocal opponent to child marriage.

The Obama Foundation Global Girls Alliance

After attending Howard University and the University of California's Hastings College of the Law, Kamala Harris embarked on a rise through the California legal system, emerging as California State Attorney General in 2010. Following the November 2016 elections, Harris became just the second African American woman and the first South Asian American to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. She declared her candidacy for the 2020 U.S. presidential election on Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2019. In August 2020, Joe Biden announced Harris as Vice Presidential running mate and after a close race, Harris was elected as the first African American and South Asian American female Vice President in U.S. History.

Kamala Harris breaks barriers to become 1st female vice president

Wangari Maathai Tribute Film

Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, first female scholar from East and Central Africa to take a doctorate, and the first female professor ever in her home country of Kenya. Maathai played an active part in the struggle for democracy in Kenya. In 1977 she started the Green Belt Movement aimed at ending the deforestation that was threatening Africa's agriculture. The campaign encouraged women to plant trees in their local environments and to think ecologically. This spread to other African countries, and led to the planting of over thirty million trees. Maathai believed tree-planting had the power to bring different people together by spreading democracy, women's rights, and international solidarity. Maathai died in Kenya in 2011 at age 71.

At age 11, Thunberg’s  teacher showed a video of starving polar bears, extreme weather and flooding. The teacher explained that it was all happening because of climate change. Thunberg began a global movement by camping out in front of the Swedish Parliament, holding a sign that read “School Strike for Climate.” In the 16 months since, she has addressed the United Nations, met with the Pope, sparred with the President of the United States and inspired 4 million people to join the global climate strike on September 20, 2019, in what was the largest climate demonstration in human history. She continues to travel the world, speaking to world leaders in every country, and inspiring young people to demand justice for the planet. 

"I want you to act as if your house in on fire. Because it is." 

Who is Greta Thunberg? | Newsround

Known as the Iron Lady of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto opened the doors of politics for women in Pakistan. Not only did she become the first woman to head a major political party, but she went on to become the first and still only female Prime Minister of Pakistan. Born in a prominent political family, she was exposed to political thoughts and beliefs since a young age. Most of her ideals were centered on democratic policies. Her charismatic presence, political shrewdness and unabated courage earned her the nickname ‘Iron Lady’. During her term as the Prime Minister she brought about several political and economic policies for industrial development and growth. After being removed from office, she was forced into exile for over 10 years and upon return to Pakistan was assassinated in 2007. She is respected as a fighter for women's rights and equality across the world.

"Life is too short to spend time worrying about people who oppose you." 

Trung Trac: Resisting the Chinese Empire

From AD 39–43 the Trung Sisters were heroines of the first Vietnamese independence movement, who headed a rebellion against the Chinese <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Han-dynasty">Han-dynasty</a> overlords and briefly established an <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/autonomous">autonomous</a> state. Their determination and apparently strong leadership qualities are cited by scholars of Southeast Asian <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture">culture</a> as testimony to the respected position and freedom of women in Vietnamese society, as compared with the male-dominated societies of China and India.

Top 5 Amazing Facts About Malala

As a young girl, Malala Yousafzai defied the Taliban in Pakistan and demanded that girls be allowed to receive an education. She was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 but survived. In 2014, she became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

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