Women’s History Month 2023 Part II
Join us in celebrating Women's History Month as we honor the achievements of trailblazers past and present who have shaped our society!
Dr. Ellen Ochoa (b. 1958 ), Ph.D., is an American engineer, former astronaut and former director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. Before she became an astronaut Ochoa was a research engineer and inventor who created patented optical systems for aerospace missions. She applied to be an astronaut three times before she was selected in 1990; in 1991 became the first Latina woman astronaut upon completion of her training; and in 1993 became the first Latina astronaut to travel to outer space, on a mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. She spent almost 1,000 total hours in space aboard four different missions. In 2013 Ochoa became the first Latina and second female appointee as Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX where she served from 2013-2018. She continues to speak publicly to advocate for representation and inclusion of women and minorities in STEM and leadership roles and to inspire young girls to focus on their education – which she regards as the key to her success.
Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005). A graduate of Columbia Law School, she became the first woman attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where she served as a lead trial attorney and key legal strategist in a number of early and significant civil rights cases. A protégé of civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall, she represented Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Freedom Riders and the Birmingham Children Marchers, among others. In 1950 she wrote the original complaint in the groundbreaking case of Brown v. Board of Education, and as the first Black woman to ever argue a case for the U.S. Supreme Court, she won James Meredith’s effort in Meredith v. Fair to integrate the University of Mississippi in 1962. She went on to win eight more cases she argued before the Supreme Court, paving the way to desegregate Southern schools, buses, and restaurants.
In 1964 she became the first African American woman to serve in the New York State Senate, where she advocated for housing equality, and in 1965 was chosen as the first woman Manhattan Borough President. In 1966, pursuant to nomination by President Lyndon B. Johnson, she became the first Black woman federal judge in the U.S. During her judicial tenure Judge Motley presided over many high-profile cases, including Blank v. Sullivan & Cromwell, a landmark sex discrimination case for women lawyers, and Ludtke v. Kuhn, in which she ruled that a female reporter must be allowed into a Major League Baseball locker room. In her speech accepting President Biden’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson cited Judge Motley as an influence on her own career.
Ibtihaj Muhammad (b. 1985) in 2016 became the first Muslim-American woman to represent the U.S. at the Olympics (in sabre fencing), compete wearing a hijab (headscarf), and win an Olympic medal (bronze). During the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign in which Muslim assimilation in America was an issue, many pointed to Ibtihaj as a symbol against intolerance in the U.S. The same year TIME named her to the magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” list. In 2017 Mattel, as part of its International Women’s Day campaign, announced a “Shero” line of female boundary-breaking Barbies and later introduced Barbie’s first hijab-wearing doll and first doll fencer, modeled on Ibtihaj’s likeness, as an inspiration to girls everywhere. In 2018 she published two books about her life growing up as an African American woman Muslim in New Jersey and her Olympic experience. Her third book, a children’s picture book, The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab & Family, became a New York Times best-seller. Ibtihaj continues as an entrepreneur, writer, activist and ambassador advocating equality, and the importance of sport and Muslim representation in sport.
