Written by HRCap, Inc.
March 31, 2022
The national celebration started in 1981 when Congress passed Public Law 97-28, which authorized and petitioned for the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982, as “Women’s History Week”. In 1987, Congress declared the entire month of March as Women’s History Month to remember the impactful contributions and accomplishments women made to our history, culture, and society.
Over the past month, HRCap has highlighted women of diverse cultural backgrounds, past and present, to acknowledge how women have made a difference across all industries. By sharing the resilience, growth, and achievements of these women leaders, we hope to inspire all to make a lasting impact as a transformational leader in their respective fields.
Celebrating Women Making History
1. Katherine Johnson
Breaking societal norms of gender and race, Katherine Johnson became one of the first Black women to work as NASA's mathematician. She provided vital information for many of NASA's orbital missions, which allowed an astronaut to orbit around the Earth. Not only that but she provided calculations that landed a man on the moon. She later received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contributions to space exploration.
2. Grace Lee Boggs
Grace Lee Boggs was a Chinese American civil and labor rights activist that supported causes such as the Black Power movement and feminism in the Detroit area. Wanting to change the communities, she founded Detroit Summer to engage and empower local youth. Grace Lee Boggs was such a prominent supporter of the Black Power movement that the FBI files once assumingly described her as "probably Afro Chinese."
3. Yuri Kochiyama
Yuri Kochiyama was a Japanese American that fought for civil rights causes in the Black, Latino, Native American, and Asian American communities. During WWII, Kochiyama and her family were discriminated against and sent to incarceration camps. After the war and relocating to Harlem, she spent time at Harlem Freedom School and learned about Black history. Her experience and education guided her to become a passionate human rights activist.
4. Malala Yousafzai
Malala Yousafzai, one of the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureates, is a Pakistani activist who has fought for every child's right to receive an education, despite Taliban death threats. She was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman because of her advocacy of education for girls. Fortunately, she survived after months of surgery and rehab.
Graduating from Oxford University in 2020, she continues to fight for equal rights to education.
5. Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu
Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu, a Chinese American physicist, was the first woman hired as a faculty member in Princeton's Physics Department. Her research on beta decay led to advancements in atomic science. Although one of her experiments won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, she did not receive the recognition due to her gender, even though it was named after her: the Wu Experiment. However, she received many other awards, such as the National Medal of Science (1975), and also became the first living scientist to have an asteroid named after her.
6. Youn Yuh-Jung
Dropping out of college to pursue her acting career, Youn Yuh-Jung made her acting debut in a 1967 television drama. When she acted in her first film in 1971, she performed so well that she won Best Actress at the Sitges Film Festival. She temporarily retired in 1974 but made a comeback in 1984. At the 2021 Oscars, she has made history by becoming the first Korean actress to win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the film Minari.
7. Maya Lin
Maya Lin, a Chinese American designer and architect, went to Yale University. At the age of 21, she won a competition with her design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. However, she faced much criticism for her winning design because it was unconventional. She did not let that stop her and continued to make amazing contributions. For her Vietnam Veterans Memorial design, she received the National Medal of Arts (2009) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016).
8. Patsy Takemoto Mink
Patsy Mink originally wanted to pursue a medical degree but was rejected because she was a woman. So instead, she earned a law degree, but firms refused to hire her because she was a mother. Her inability to get a job motivated her to become a politician to fight for gender equality. Overcoming gender and racial discrimination, Patsy Mink, a Japanese American attorney, became the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first Asian American woman to serve in Congress.
Celebrating Women at HRCap
We would like to also recognize the amazing women that have made meaningful impact at HRCap. Building relationships and supporting one another, they have continued to work with compassion and resilience. Becoming experts in the HR & recruiting space, they have provided clients with the highest service excellence and built meaningful relationships with candidates across all industries. With integrity and professionalism, they have prioritized growth and learning, performed beyond expectations, and have set new industry standards in Human Resources and Recruiting Services.
We are incredibly grateful for our diverse and growing team at HRCap and humbly acknowledge each member for their ongoing dedication and leadership to our company, clients, and communities!
Source: HRCap, The Library of Congress, NASA, Zinn Education Project, The Nobel Prize, NPS, IMDB, American Academy of Achievement
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