Celebrating Women’s History Month

By SA Tripi

honoring three extraordinary women whose impact has shaped countless lives

“Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.”

In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States gave women the right to vote. Thank you, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone and Sojourner Truth.
The 1960s and 1970s came along, and freedom was in the air. Activists worked for equal employment opportunities, reproductive rights, personal freedom, and accessible childcare.

Thank you, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, and so many others. We could not pass the Equal Rights Amendment; we lost Roe v Wade, and there is still no pay equality between men and women. But we will never stop fighting. Thanks to the women who march and protest and carry signs and lift their voices to be heard all over the country. So many strong women have been
there and are still there.

Thanks to Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The hill that we climbed so many years ago was beginning to level out, but has steepened again. In a world where democracies feel increasingly fragile and autocracies appear more emboldened, our work continues. History proves that women will persist, adapt, and prevail.

This month, we honor three extraordinary women whose impact has shaped countless lives.

Dr. Mathilde Krim (1926-2018)
Medical Researcher, amfAR Founding Chairperson

In the 1950s, Dr. Krim worked at Israel’s Institute of Science as part of the team that developed the amniocentesis technique, a technique that identifies fetal gender and detects chromosomal abnormalities and genetic disorders. At Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research she became a leader in genetics and virology.

Dr. Krim devoted her life to increasing public awareness of AIDS and conducted extensive AIDS research through her work with interferons (used in the treatment of certain viral and neoplastic diseases). She was the heart and soul of amfAR at a time when few were willing to confront the AIDS crisis. She had a need to protect AIDS victims from bigotry, abandonment and rejection from a wide community.

Author Charles Kaiser wrote of Dr. Krim in his (1997) book, The Gay Metropolis, “One scientist outside the government was more important than any other heterosexual in New York City in sounding the alarm about the growing AIDS crisis. Her name was Mathilde Krim.”

Nikole Hannah-Jones (1976-
Investigative Journalist, Creator of the 1619 Project

When Nikole Hannah-Jones was eleven years old, her first letter to the editor was published in her local newspaper. From that point on, she fell in love with journalism and eventually got her first job covering the (majority) Black public schools for a newspaper in Raleigh, N.C.

She worked as an investigative reporter in New York City at ProPublica. Her work chronicled how official policies create and maintain segregation in housing and schools. Eventually, she found her way to The New York Times.

In 2015, Ms. Hannah-Jones became a domestic correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, and that eventually led to a series of articles on The 1619 Project, the four hundredth anniversary of the beginning of American Slavery, that eventually led her to create the book, The 1619 Project, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize. The book is filled with poetry and narratives from numerous authors. It is an immersive exploration of American slavery and its everlasting impact on society in America.

Nikole Hannah-Jones has received numerous awards throughout her career, including the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, the Knight Award for Public Service, the Peabody Award, the George Polk Awards, the National Magazine Award, and an Emmy Award for the 1619 Project on Hulu.

This book is here at a pivotal time in our country’s history. Certain people in our government are attempting to rewrite history as if slavery never existed. But it did. And in many ways still does.

Heather Cox Richardson (1962-
Author, American Historian, Professor of History at Boston College

Whether you listen to Heather Cox Richardson, watch her, or read her articles and books, her narrative is always clear, concise, and fully vetted. In 2019, she launched a daily Facebook essay in the middle of a Trump Impeachment, breaking down the enormous amount of news we were receiving. Today, she has millions of readers who rely on her expertise to explain what is going on and to give us a historical perspective of why it is happening.

The forward to her book, Democracy Awakening, states, “The key to the rise of authoritarians is their use of language and false history.” We have seen, over the last few years, a change in our country, our democracy. Some think it is happening faster than we thought, but it has been happening for quite a while. In Richardson’s very calm voice, written or vocal, she is realistic and optimistic about the future of democracy.

I am never sure how she does what she does, and so consistently that it amazes me. She is not full of loud, dramatic hyperbole. Her words are steady, reassuring in a way that it’s nice to know that we have a peaceful person speaking to us who actually knows what she is talking about.

You can sign up to listen to her Letters from an American, or you can read her pieces. Heather Cox Richardson is America’s historian.

Sources: Democracy Awakening, The 1619 Project, The New York Times, amfAR, Wikipedia, Britannica

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