Women's History Month Final Recap

ICYMI: Here's our final recap featuring all the amazing women we shared about on our social media this week. 

(In order of the picture below starting from center and then clockwise)

Queen Arawelo took the throne after the death of her father and changed the stereotypical gender roles from her kingdom by packing her government with women while the men stayed at home. While critics say she was a bit of a man hater, Somalia experience a long period of prosperity under her rule and she is regarded as one of the greatest rules in Somali history.

Carla Hayden is the 14th Librarian of Congress, appointed by President Obama and sworn in on September 14, 2016. She is the first woman and the first African American to lead the national library. The Librarian of Congress manages a vast national collection of some 160 million works. While it's a somewhat obscure post, the Librarian wields considerable power behind the scenes, particularly in the area of copyright. Hayden received a B.A. from Roosevelt University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago. Check out her introductory video to the Library of Congress here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ6n7QJKS0o.

Hatshepsut surprised everyone and broke tradition when the new royal monument was unveiled, depicting her as the pharaoh. While she was the guardian to Tuthmosis III, heir to the throne but too young to rule, she named herself pharaoh and named her daughter, Neferure, Queen! She ruled for twenty years, bringing peace, prosperity and architectural advances to her kingdom, and is regarded as one of the greatest rulers of ancient Egypt.

After watching the poets Lord Byron and Percy Shelley experiment with electricity, Mary Shelley had a frightening dream which became the idea for her famous novel, Frankenstein. After nine months of writing, she had a first draft and three publishers later, “Frankenstein; or; The Modern Prometheus” was published in 1818 when Mary was just eighteen years old! Read more about her at https://goo.gl/oSMeUW. 

Tu Youyou’s discovery of two antimalarial drugs was a major breakthrough that saved millions of lives. For her work, she won the Lasker Prize in 2011 and in 2015, she won the Nobel Prize, becoming the first Chinese person to win a Lasker Prize and the first woman in China to win a Nobel in any field. To learn more about her and her work, visit https://womenyoushouldknow.net/nobel-laureate-tu-youyou-malaria-and-the-discovery-of-artemisinin/.

Emma Watson has been very busy since her Harry Potter days. In 2014, she graduated from Brown University with an English degree, helped launched the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign and was named a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador. In 2016, she launched the feminist book club Our Shared Shelf which aims to raise awareness for gender inequality. She has worked to promote fair trade and organic clothing and continues to be involved in the promotion of girls’ education around the world.

Shirley Chisholm was an independent thinker and someone who was not afraid to make a few waves. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the US Congress and in 1972, she was the first woman and first person of color to bid for a major party presidential nomination! Visit https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/shirley-chisholm to learn more about this inspiring activist and politician.

Thank you for following along! We hope you've enjoyed learning about all these amazing women. We can't wait to do this again in 2020!

Happy Reading,

Jade, Reference Librarian