American hockey player Kendall Coyne (center)
Credit: © Iurii Osadchi, Shutterstock

March is Women’s History Month, an annual observance of women’s achievements and contributions to society. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature woman pioneers in a variety of areas. 

Hockey is not a sport that has traditionally provided many opportunities for women. But one of the fastest players on ice is working to change all that.

Kendall Coyne is one of the greatest women’s hockey players of all time. Coyne is known for her blazing speed. In 2019, she became the first woman ever to compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) All-Star Skills fastest skater challenge. Coyne finished seventh with a time of 14.346 seconds, less than 1 second off the lead time.

Coyne was born in Oak Lawn, Illinois, near Chicago, on May 25, 1992. She grew up in Palos Heights. Her parents enrolled her in figure skating at the age of 3, but she protested that she wanted to play hockey. For much of her youth, she played on boys’ teams. Topping out at 5 feet 2 inches (157 centimeters) in height and 125 pounds (57 kilograms), she was eventually deemed too small to continue to play boys’ hockey. She began competing on women’s teams, but continued to skate practice with men.

Coyne played hockey at Northeastern University, becoming the leading scorer in the history of the school at 249 points. She earned a B.A. degree in 2015 and an M.S. degree in 2017, both from Northeastern.

Coyne has played for the United States in a number of international competitions. She won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in 2018 and a silver medal in 2014. She won gold medals at the Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championships in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019.

The professional women’s team Boston Pride selected Coyne third overall in the first round of the 2015 National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) draft. In 2016, she signed with the independent Minnesota Whitecaps. Coyne played for the Whitecaps through the 2018-2019 season, when the team joined the NWHL. Coyne became one of more than 200 top players to sit out the 2019-2020 NWHL season, citing low wages and lack of health insurance. Coyne and others joined to form the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association to work to improve opportunities for women in hockey.

The NHL Chicago Blackhawks hired Coyne as a player development coach in 2020. She has also worked as a hockey broadcaster. In 2018, she married the American football player Michael Schofield and began going by the name Kendall Coyne Schofield.

American skier Mikaela Shiffrin
© Stefan Holm, Shutterstock

March is Women’s History Month, an annual observance of women’s achievements and contributions to society. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature woman pioneers in a variety of areas. 

Last month, on February 15, the champion American alpine (downhill) skier Mikaela Shiffrin won her sixth combined World Championship. A combined competition consists of a downhill race and a slalom. (In a slalom, the skier must pass through marked gates in a zigzag fashion.) Shiffrin has won more world championship titles than any other American skier.

Shiffrin won the slalom gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, becoming the youngest slalom champion in Olympic history. In 2018, she won the giant slalom gold medal and the combined silver medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She also won the slalom World Championship in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019 and the super G (once called the super giant slalom) World Championship in 2019.

The slalom and the super G are two of the skiing races that make up the alpine World Cup. The cup is awarded annually to the men and women who have won the most points in a series of five races—the slalom, giant slalom, downhill, super G, and combined. Shiffrin initially concentrated on the slalom and giant slalom. She won the World Cup slalom title in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019. In 2019, she also won the World Cup giant slalom title. In 2016, she began competing in the other three World Cup events. Shiffrin won the World Cup super G title in 2019. She won the overall World Cup title in 2017, 2018, and 2019 for earning the most combined points in all the events. In 2018, Shiffrin won her 36th slalom race, breaking the record of 35 victories held by the Austrian skier Marlies Schild.

Shiffrin was born on March 13, 1995, in Vail, Colorado. She began skiing at the age of three. Her family moved to New Hampshire when she was eight. Shiffrin graduated in 2013 from Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont, a high school for young skiers. In 2011, she made her World Cup debut at the age of 15, winning the bronze medal at Lienz, Austria. Later that year, at the age of 16, she won the slalom title at the United States National Championships in Winter Park, Colorado. She thus became the youngest skier to win that event. In 2012, she won her first World Cup race and was named World Cup Rookie of the Year.

An International Women’s Day rally in Lisbon, Portugal
Credit: © Sonia Bonet, Shutterstock

Monday, March 8, is International Women’s Day (IWD). It is observed annually in many countries around the world. It serves to recognize and celebrate women’s cultural, economic, political, and social achievements and to promote women’s rights and gender equality. In some countries, IWD is a national holiday. In Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the day falls within Women’s History Month.

Many different groups, such as businesses, charities, governments, international and nongovernmental organizations, and schools organize activities and events for International Women’s Day. Some groups declare a different IWD theme each year. Many people observe the day with political actions, including marches and rallies for women’s rights, and protests against sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and violence against women. Others participate in such activities as conferences, exhibitions, labor strikes, performances, and sporting events. Women in some countries traditionally receive flowers and small gifts, or time off from work.

International Women’s Day has its origins in the women’s labor and suffrage (voting rights) movements of the early 1900′s. The first National Woman’s Day was observed in the United States on Feb. 28, 1909. It was designated as such by the Socialist Party of America to commemorate a women garment workers’ march in New York City in 1908 demanding suffrage and better work conditions. In 1910, an International Conference of Working Women met in Copenhagen, Denmark. German attendees Luise Zietz and Clara Zetkin proposed an annual international women’s day to further women’s rights, especially woman suffrage. The proposal was received with great enthusiasm.

International Women’s Day first was held in 1911. It was observed on March 19 by more than 1 million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. Men and women participated in hundreds of demonstrations. They demanded the right of women to vote and hold public office, and protested sex discrimination in employment. People later began observing IWD on March 8. This date corresponds with protests by Russian women in the 1910′s against World War I (1914-1918) and conditions preceding the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1975, as part of International Women’s Year, the United Nations (UN) began celebrating IWD on March 8. Today, IWD is celebrated in more than 100 countries.

Kamala Harris
Credit: California Attorney General’s Office

March is Women’s History Month, an annual observance of women’s achievements and contributions to society. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature woman pioneers in a variety of areas. 

Kamala Harris and Stacey Abrams have reshaped the American political landscape not only for women and people of color, but for all Americans. Regardless of political affiliation, both have opened doors for women, rising to new heights in government and politics.

Kamala Devi Harris was born in Oakland, California, on Oct. 20, 1964. Her mother, a physician and cancer specialist, was born in India. Her father, who was born in Jamaica, became an economics professor. In 1986, Harris received a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Howard University. In 1989, she earned a law degree from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

From 1990 to 1998, Harris served as deputy district attorney for Alameda County, in California. In 1998, she became the managing attorney of the Career Criminal Unit of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. In 2000, she was named to lead the San Francisco City Attorney’s Division on Families and Children.

In 2003, Harris won election as San Francisco district attorney. She was reelected in 2007 and served through 2010. Her victory in the 2010 campaign for state attorney general marked the first time that a woman and—because of her mixed ethnicity—a person of Black and South Asian ancestry won the post. Harris took office in 2011. As attorney general, she gained attention for her work to combat transnational gangs and investigate banks that engaged in mortgage fraud. She was reelected in 2014 and served until 2017.

In June 2016, Harris finished first in California’s open primary for a U.S. Senate seat. She defeated Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, a fellow Democrat, in the November election. As a U.S. senator, Harris served on a number of committees, including the Judiciary Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence.

In January 2019, Harris began a campaign for her party’s 2020 nomination for president. She dropped out of the race in December 2019, while trailing her competitors in fundraising and in support in public opinion polls.

In August 2020, Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, named Harris his vice presidential running mate. Issues in the campaign included the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and tensions between Black communities and police. Biden and Harris won the November 2020 election. Harris resigned her Senate seat in January 2021, days before she and Biden took office. On Jan. 20, 2021, Harris became the first woman to serve as vice president of the United States. She also became the first person of Black and South Asian ancestry to serve in the position.

Stacey Abrams
Credit: © Cheriss May, NurPhoto/Getty Images

Stacey Abrams also played a major role in the 2020 election. Get-out-the-vote drives championed by Abrams are widely credited with helping Biden and Harris to win the state of Georgia. They are also said to have helped two Democrats to victory in state runoff elections, tipping the balance of the U.S. Senate.

Stacey Yvonne Abrams was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on Dec. 9, 1973. She grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi. When Abrams was 16, her family moved to Atlanta, Georgia. In 1991, Abrams graduated from Avondale High School, where she was the first Black valedictorian. The valedictorian is the graduate with the highest marks. In 1995, she graduated magna cum laude (with great honor) from Spelman College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in interdisciplinary studies. The major combined political science, economics, and sociology. She then attended the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, receiving a master’s degree in public policy in 1998. The next year, Abrams earned her J.D. degree from the law school of Yale University.

After graduating law school, Abrams began working at a law firm in Atlanta. In 2003, she started her career in government. She became the deputy attorney for the city of Atlanta’s law department. In 2006, Abrams was elected to Georgia’s House of Representatives from the state’s 84th district.

After four years as a representative, Abrams was chosen by the Democratic Party to serve as minority leader in the House of Representatives of Georgia. She became the first woman to serve as leader of either party in the Georgia General Assembly, the state’s legislature.

In 2018, she became the first Black woman nominated by a major political party to run for governor of Georgia. In the primary contest, Abrams defeated the Democrat Stacey Evans. But, in the general election, she was narrowly defeated by the Republican candidate Brian Kemp.

In addition to holding political office, Abrams has founded several political organizations. In 2014, she founded the New Georgia Project to counteract challenges to voter rights and increased barriers to voter registration. In 2018, she founded Fair Fight, an organization promoting voter education and fair elections.

March 25, 2020

World Book celebrates Women’s History Month with birthday wishes for the American writer Flannery O’Connor, who was born 95 years ago today on March 25, 1925. O’Connor is described as a Southern Gothic writer, meaning her stories often reflected the tensions and darker sides of the American South during her lifetime. Her novels and stories are filled with characters who are physically deformed or emotionally or spiritually disturbed. Some are obsessed with religion and the possibility of their own damnation or salvation. However, O’Connor’s works also contain humor, irony, and satire. O’Connor died of the disease lupus at age 39 on Aug. 3, 1964.

The American writer Flannery O’Connor was born 95 years ago today on March 25, 1925. credit: Will Schofield (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia. Her family later moved to Millidgeville in central Georgia, where she attended the Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College and State University). O’Connor edited the college’s literary magazine and contributed essays, fiction, and cartoons. She later received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa’s famous writers’ workshop.

O’Connor suffered from poor health most of her life and could complete only a few works. They include two novels, Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away (1960). Her stories were collected in A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955) and Everything That Rises Must Converge, published in 1965 after her death. The stories in these two collections are included in Flannery O’Connor: The Complete Stories, published in 1971. This collection won the 1972 National Book Award for fiction. Mystery and Manners, essays and lectures on literature and writing, was published in 1969. A collection of her letters called The Habit of Being was published in 1979. In 1988, the Library of America published an authoritative edition of her Collected Works.

March 16, 2020

In honor of Women’s History Month in the United States, World Book travels to New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and its special exhibition on the American photographer Dorothea Lange, “Words & Pictures.” Lange was best known for her pictures of migratory farmworkers of the 1930′s. “Words and Pictures” features iconic Lange works from the MoMA collection as well as some lesser known photographs of street scenes and from her series on criminal justice reform. The exhibition began February 9 and runs through May 9.

Dorothea Lange poses with her camera along a highway in California. credit: Library of Congress

Lange’s photographs were known for honestly and sympathetically portraying families who were victims of drought and the Great Depression, a global economic slump of the 1930′s. Her pictures, which appeared in several newspapers and magazines, helped create support for government relief programs for migrant workers. Many of Lange’s photographs were published in her book An American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion (1939).

Migrant Mother, a photograph taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936, captures the despair of a migrant family during the Great Depression in the United States. credit: Library of Congress

Lange was born on May 25 or 26, 1895, in Hoboken, New Jersey. She studied photography at Columbia University. In 1919, she opened a portrait studio in San Francisco. During World War II (1939-1945), Lange photographed Japanese-Americans whom the government moved to relocation camps from their homes on the West Coast. After the war, she photographed Mormon towns, life in California, and other subjects. She also took photographs in Asia, Egypt, Ireland, and South America. Lange died on Oct. 11, 1965.

March 13, 2019

March is Women’s History Month in the United States. In honor of the celebration, World Book looks at U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In 2018, AOC—she is often referred to by her initials—became the youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress. She turned 29 less than one month before her election victory in November 2018. Ocasio-Cortez is a Democrat from the Bronx borough of New York City.

In 2018, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She is 29 years old. Credit: U.S. House of Representatives

Ocasio-Cortez was born on Oct. 13, 1989, in the Bronx. Her father was from the Bronx, and her mother came from Puerto Rico. The family later moved to Westchester County, New York. Ocasio-Cortez graduated from high school in 2007. She received a bachelor’s degree in international relations and economics at Boston University in 2011. While a college student, she worked as an intern for Senator Edward Kennedy, focusing on immigration issues. After college, AOC returned to the Bronx, where she worked for a nonprofit organization promoting education and literacy. She also started a company that published children’s books emphasizing positive aspects of the Bronx, much of which has historically been troubled by crime and poverty. For several years, Ocasio-Cortez also worked as a waitress and bartender.

Ocasio-Cortez later became an organizer for the 2016 presidential campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. In 2017, AOC announced that she would challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Joe Crowley for the party’s 2018 nomination for New York’s 14th Congressional District. The district includes parts of Bronx and Queens counties in New York City. During the campaign, Ocasio-Cortez described herself as a democratic socialist. In democratic socialism, a democratically elected government enacts policies that encourage private companies to act in the public interest. Millions of users of the social media site Twitter followed AOC because of her lively, confident personality and her criticisms of both President Donald J. Trump and her own Democratic Party.

Ocasio-Cortez defeated Crowley in the Democratic primary held in June 2018. As a candidate for Congress, she advocated for universal health care, tuition-free public college, and increasing the income tax rate paid by Americans who earn more than $10 million per year. Since taking her seat in the House in January 2019, AOC has promoted a number of major reforms, including a platform known as the “Green New Deal,” which calls for a system in which all the nation’s electricity would be produced by renewable sources such as the sun and wind.

March 29, 2018

The subject of World Book’s final installment for Women’s History Month is Geraldine A. Ferraro, a politician who was the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president of the United States in 1984. Ferraro was the first woman chosen as a vice presidential candidate by a major U.S. political party. Ferraro and her presidential running mate, former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, were defeated by their Republican opponents, President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush. Previously, Ferraro had served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Democratic presidential candidate Walter Mondale and his running mate, Geraldine Ferraro, wave as they leave a campaign rally in Portland, Oregon, in September 1984. Credit: © Jack Smith, AP Photo

Geraldine Anne Ferraro was born on Aug. 26, 1935, in Newburgh, New York. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Marymount Manhattan College in 1956 and a law degree from Fordham University in 1960. Also in 1960, she married John A. Zaccaro. She and her husband had three children. From 1961 to 1974, Ferraro occasionally handled legal matters for her husband’s real estate business. She started her career in government service in 1974, when she became an assistant district attorney in Queens County, New York.

In 1978, Ferraro was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She represented a district in Queens, from which she won reelection in 1980 and 1982. Ferraro served on the House committees on post office and civil service, public works and transportation, and budget. In 1981, she became a member of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which controls committee assignments for Democrats in the House. In Congress, she was known for her liberal views on domestic issues. She regularly voted for bills designed to benefit workers, women, and elderly people, and she opposed efforts to ban abortion. In 1992 and 1998, she tried unsuccessfully to win the Democratic nomination for one of New York’s U.S. Senate seats. Ferraro died of cancer on March 26, 2011.

In 2008, Republican presidential nominee John McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton became the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major American political party.

March 14, 2018

World Book’s celebration of Women’s History Month continues with a look at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C. The museum, which opened in 1987, exhibits the work of women artists of all periods and nationalities. The NMWA collection of more than 4,500 works includes paintings by such celebrated artists as American Mary Cassatt and Mexico’s Frida Kahlo. The museum emphasizes, however, works by lesser-known women artists who have often gone overlooked by larger galleries. The NMWA occupies Washington’s old Masonic Temple, a building that dates from 1903 and appears on the National Register of Historic Places.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., is dedicated to celebrating women’s achievements in the literary, performing, and visual arts. Credit: U.S. Department of State

The NMWA is the only major museum in the world “solely dedicated to championing women through the arts.” It was founded by art collectors Wilhelmina Cole Holladay and her husband, Wallace Holladay. Inspired initially by a work by Flemish painter Clara Peeters (see below), the couple sought to collect and promote the works of women artists neglected by art museums as well as art history. After many years, the Holladay Collection became the core of the NMWA, which was incorporated in 1981. After giving private tours in the Holladay home, the NMWA purchased the Masonic Temple in 1983. After significant renovations, the museum opened there in 1987. The museum’s first exhibition was “American Women Artists, 1830-1930.”

Still Life of Fish and Cat by Flemish artist Clara Peeters caught the eye of collectors Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay, and inspired them to create the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Credit: Still life with fish and cat (1620′s), oil on panel by Clara Peeters; National Museum of Women in the Arts

In addition to its permanent collections, the NMWA features temporary exhibitions each year. (Chinese-American artist Hung Liu is currently featured in “Hung Liu In Print,” an exhibition running through early July.) The museum also runs a public program highlighting the power of women in the arts as catalysts for artistic, political, and social change. The NMWA’s 17,500-volume Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center serves as a leading resource on women artists as well as on gender disparity in the arts. The NWMA also publishes art history books and Women in the Arts magazine.

March 1, 2018

World Book kicks off March’s Women’s History Month with a profile of Brenda Hale, a British judge who is the president of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Hale has served on the Supreme Court since 2009. She became the first woman president of the court in October 2017.

Brenda Hale became president of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in October 2017. Credit: Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal for civil cases in the United Kingdom, and for criminal cases in England, Northern Ireland, and Wales. The court has a president, a deputy president, and 10 permanent judges. The British monarch appoints Supreme Court judges with the recommendation of the prime minister and the Judicial Appointments Commission.

Women’s History Month is celebrated each March. This year’s theme, selected by the National Women’s History Project, is “Nevertheless she persisted: honoring all women who fight forms of discrimination against women.” Credit: © National Women’s History Project

Hale was born on Jan. 31, 1945, in Richmond, North Yorkshire, in northern England. She graduated from the Richmond High School for Girls before studying law at Girton College, Cambridge. Hale joined the University of Manchester law faculty in 1966, and she was called to the bar (qualified as a lawyer) in 1969. Hale taught at Manchester until 1984, when she became the first woman appointed to the Law Commission, a body that reviews laws in England and Wales. In 1994, Hale became a judge of the family division of the High Court of Justice (the United Kingdom’s main civil court). In 1999, she was appointed to the Court of Appeal.

Hale was made a life peer as Baroness Hale of Richmond in 2004 as she became the first woman Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as a law lord. At that time, the House of Lords functioned as the highest court of appeal in the United Kingdom, except for criminal cases in Scotland. In 2009, a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom took over the judicial functions previously held by the House of Lords. The sitting law lords—including Judge Hale—then became the first justices of the Supreme Court. Hale served as deputy president of the Supreme Court from 2013 to 2017.