The Forgotten Heroes: Women Who Made an Impact, Forgotten by History

Women’s History Month is upon us, and it’s time for us to reflect that many of the changes women made in society have gone forgotten. There are memorable women like Rosa Parks and Anne Frank, and there are other lesser-known women like Mabel Stark and Mary Ann Shadd Cary. If you’ve never heard of them, don’t be surprised. According to the New York Times, “researchers have estimated that women’s stories make up just 0.5 percent of recorded history.” In school, you may have never studied these women, but they made just as big, if not more, of an impact as any other historical figure.

Woman #1: Mabel Stark

Nicknames for Mabel Stark included “Tiger Girl” and “Crazy Mabel.” But Mabel wasn’t crazy stupid. She was crazy talented. Mabel could train the fiercest of beasts, and she did so until she retired when she was nearly eighty. This made her one of the first women to become a tiger trainer. Throughout her career, she was scratched, mauled, and otherwise harmed by the tigers she trained. Those left her to get about 700 stitches in her lifetime (although, she never put the tigers to blame). But that didn’t stop her. She kept going and became one of the bravest, talented women the world never knew.

Woman #2: Jackie Mitchell

Calling Jackie Mitchell a great pitcher was an understatement. It’s rumored that she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition match when she was only seventeen years old. Even today, critics are still skeptical about the situation. She even became the first and only woman to be signed to a professional baseball team, however, it’s believed that her contract was voided by the baseball commissioner of the New York Yankees. She was the first woman to be worthy of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but she was left forgotten. It would be almost a decade later that the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League would be founded.

Woman #3: Mary Ann Shadd Cary

It wasn’t only during the 20th century that women tried to make their mark. The slavery/Civil War period was also full of hidden women figures. Mary Ann Shadd Cary was a black American-Canadian woman who helped change views on slavery during the Civil War. As a result of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Mary Ann Shadd ran away with other refugees further up north into Ontario, Canada. There, Shadd, now Cary, became the first black, female newspaper editor in North American history when she published Canada’s first antislavery newspaper called The Provincial Freeman. She published another newspaper, The New National Era when she was in America. Cary was also a founder of the Colored Women's Progressive Franchise Association. But that wasn’t all. She was part of the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) and spoke at their 1878 convention. Also, Cary was an advocate for the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments and was a vocal figure to let it pass.

Woman #4: Florence Howe

Florence Howe was one of the most vocal leaders in feminism during the 20th-21st century. Named “the Elizabeth Cady Stanton of women’s studies”, she began teaching women’s studies at universities before the subject even had a name. She also founded the Feminist Press when no other larger publishing houses would publish women’s articles. Howe was introduced to the feminist movement when she was participating in anti-war protests in the 1960s. It was then she realized there was a whole other movement for women like her. Howe publicly refused to pay her income taxes and taught at a Freedom School in Mississippi as part of an effort to improve education for black children. She had been a president of the Modern Language Association (MLA) and held almost a dozen consultancies, including the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Today, she’s known as “the mother of Women’s Rights”.

Woman #5: Wangari Maathai

You may not have heard of this woman in school, but once you hear about her, you’ll want to follow in her footsteps. Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan politician and environmental activist. She was educated in the United States, studying at Mount St. Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) and the University of Pittsburgh. She was also a Ph.D. graduate at the University of Nairobi, becoming the first woman in eastern or central Africa to earn a doctorate. Her most incredible contribution was the Green Belt Movement, which worked to improve the lives of Kenyan living. She started this when she was getting letters from Kenyan women, grieving about how difficult it was to feed themselves and their family with almost all the water dried up and other environmental difficulties. In response, she formed the Green Belt Movement in 1977, which encouraged villagers to plant trees and store rainwater. By the early 21st century, the movement had planted some 30 million trees. This movement was an inspiration not only in Kenya but all over Africa. This was a change for the better for the world. Her work was so game-changing, she became the first black African woman to earn a Nobel Peace Prize, which she earned in 2004. Unfortunately, Maathai was shunned for her opinions in her own home country because of how outspoken she was. She defied traditional gender roles, and the country wasn’t very happy with that. But that didn’t stop her from being one of the most forgotten influential women in the world.

Unfortunately, these aren’t the only women forgotten by history. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of women who have made such an important impact on the world, only to not be written down in the history books. However, the best anyone can do now is to learn about them, learn from them, and carry their virtues and values with them to show to the world. Like Michelle Obama said, “There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.”