January 27-28, 2024: AmericanStudying Groundbreaking Women: 21st Century Icons

[175 years ago Tuesday, Elizabeth Blackwell became Dr. Blackwell, the first woman to graduate from a US medical school. So this week I’ve AmericanStudied Blackwell and four other groundbreaking women from American history, leading up to this special weekend post on folks from our own moment!]

On five 21^st century American women (and one global icon) who exemplify continued, impressive groundbreaking achievements.

1)      Jessica Meir and Christina Koch: I’m not gonna say too much for these entries, preferring to let the stories and the amazing women highlighted in them do the talking. So please make sure to click on these hyperlinks and learn more about, for example, the first all-woman spacewalk and their plans to be the first women on the moon!

2)      Linda Lee Singh: Both NASA and the US military have for far too long been boys’ clubs (and generally white boys at that), so what I especially love about these first two entries is the direct challenge and alternative they offer to that artificially homogeneous vision of American communities and society. What the current attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs miss is that there is no more vital work still to be done than to make sure every part of our society mirrors those fundamental realities of who and what America is.

3)      Kathryn Bigelow: Representation matters in that process too, and that doesn’t just mean who we see in our cultural works—it also (and relatedly) means who is creating them, and how we recognize and celebrate those creators and artists. Bigelow becoming the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar was painfully belated, but we’ve got to start somewhere, and that was a truly groundbreaking cultural moment to be sure.

4)      Kamala Harris: As I wrote in that Saturday Evening Post Considering History column, Harris’ heritage and identity are complicated, which of course makes her all the more symbolically and importantly American. What isn’t complicated at all, though, is that she’s the first woman Vice President of the US, and that’s a fact that reflects everything I’ve said in the prior entries in this list—breaking into and challenging a boys’ club (and an overwhelmingly white one at that), representation and diversity that better reflects our culture and community, all of it.

5)      Malala Yousafzai: Malala is both deeply linked to her native Pakistan and an inspiringly global icon, and I don’t want to elide either of those layers of identity by highlighting her in an AmericanStudies post. But at the same time, one of the best things about the 21^st century is the way we can truly connect to and be inspired by the whole world, and a case in point is that our Fitchburg State Community Read book a few years back was I Am Malala. Groundbreaking Women without Borders!

Next series starts Monday,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Other groundbreaking women, past or present, you’d highlight?