Remembering the forgotten history of the Women's Suffrage Movement's "Night of Terror"

The Silent Sentinels picketing the White House in 1917.

When we tell our children about the fight for women's suffrage in America, we often tell a sanitized version of the story. We talk about letter-writing campaigns, activist conferences, and stirring speeches — and occasionally, we mention defiant suffragists being hauled to jail. But we often shy away from the darker truths about the sacrifices and suffering many suffragists had to endure in the fight for women's right to vote. Continue reading → Continue reading

From soldiers to spies to peacemakers, these remarkable women made tremendous contributions during "The Great War."

On the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" in 1918, World War I finally came to an end after four devastating years. The day of the armistice became a national holiday in many countries, a solemn day to remember the nine million soldiers and the seven million civilians who died during the Great War which was deemed, at the time, the "war to end all wars." When stories are told of wartime heroism, most focus on the brave men who fought in the trenches along the front lines, but heroes played many roles during those long years of war. Continue reading → Continue reading

Meet 16 Trailblazing Female Scientists Who Dared to Discover!

For centuries, women have made important contributions to the sciences, but in many cases, it took far too long for their discoveries to be recognized — if they were acknowledged at all. And too often, books and academic courses that explore the history of science neglect the remarkable, groundbreaking women who changed the world. In fact, it's a rare person, child or adult, who can name more than two or three female scientists from history — and, even in those instances, the same few names are usually mentioned time and again. Continue reading → Continue reading

A Mighty Girl's top picks of books for children and teens about real-life girls and women who fought for a more just, equal, and peaceful world.

When people think about what it means to love their country, some assume patriotism requires unwavering support, and that questioning or disagreeing with their government's choices is unpatriotic, disruptive, and even dangerous. But the truth is that dissent makes countries stronger: when citizens demand the best from their leaders and their countries — justice, accountability in government, and equal rights for all — everyone benefits. In fact, throughout history, progress for every country has come from people's willingness to stand up for what they believe in and insist on being heard, even if their beliefs counter those of the people in power. In other words, dissent isn't distracting or divisive: it's patriotic! Continue reading → Continue reading

This trailblazing mathematician built the geodetic model of the Earth that became the foundation for GPS.

If you rely on your GPS for directions, you can thank a mathematician whose little-known contributions to the mathematical modeling of the Earth recently earned her one of the U.S. Air Force's highest honors: induction into the Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame! Dr. Gladys West, like the "human computers" at NASA who became famous with the book Hidden Figures, began her career by performing the complex hand calculations required before the computer age. However, her greatest accomplishment was the creation of an extremely detailed geodetic model of the Earth which became the foundation for the Global Positioning System. Although GPS is ubiquitous today, West says that in the moment, she wasn't thinking about the future: "When you’re working every day, you’re not thinking, ‘What impact is this going to have on the world?’" she says. "You’re thinking, ‘I’ve got to get this right.'" Continue reading → Continue reading

Betty Reid Soskin began her career as a ranger at the age 85 at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park.

Betty Reid Soskin, America's oldest National Park Service ranger, celebrated her 102nd birthday today! Soskin began her career as a ranger at age 85 at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park in California — a park that she had helped plan in its early stages years earlier. Prior to her retirement in 2022 at the age of 100, Soskin gave a popular tour called “Untold Stories and Lost Conversations" during which she gave a tour of the park, shared her personal WWII story, and encouraged others to contribute their own stories to the park's collection of oral histories. Continue reading → Continue reading

Our top picks of books for children and teens about the girls and women who fought for workers' rights.

For many children today, Labor Day is just a holiday marking the end of the summer; what they often don't know is that this special day commemorates the history of the struggle for workers' rights — one in which girls and women played important and too often forgotten roles. Held on the first Monday in September in the U.S. and Canada, Labor Day celebrates the contributions of workers and remembers the hardships they endured in their fight for justice. Continue reading → Continue reading

The top books and films for children and adults about the 72-year fight for women's suffrage in the United States.

For children today, it's hard to imagine a time when women couldn't vote; realizing that they've had that right for only just over 100 years is astounding. It's equally shocking when they learn that women had to fight for 72 years before the 19th Amendment — which stated that no citizen could be denied the right to vote on account of sex — became law. So it's imperative that we teach today's children about the struggle for women's suffrage, not only to honor the dedication and sacrifices of the women who led the Women's Suffrage Movement, but also to ensure that future generations don't take the right to vote for granted. Continue reading → Continue reading

Six downloadable posters celebrating women in science perfect for displaying in classrooms and kids' rooms!

Designer Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya has created a series of incredible posters celebrating women in science that are perfect for displaying in a classroom or kid's bedroom! The six posters featured here, which are free to download, were created by Amanda, a science-trained designer, to connect the Women's March to the March for Science part of her Beyond Curie design project focused on women in science. Continue reading → Continue reading

The Apollo 11 moon landing nearly ended in failure -- until Margaret Hamilton's flight software saved the day.

In this iconic photograph, pioneering computer scientist Margaret Hamilton stands next to the computer code that she and her team wrote to guide the Apollo spacecraft to the moon! Hamilton was the lead software designer for NASA’s Apollo program, and her forward thinking saved the 1969 Apollo 11 mission when the flight software she designed prevented a last-minute abort of the famous landing which brought the first humans to the Moon. Over the course of her career, Hamilton developed the concepts of asynchronous software, priority scheduling, and Human-in-the-loop decision capability, which became the foundation of modern software design. She also fought for programming to be given the respect it deserved, coining the term "software engineering" ; after all, as her work showed, software could make the difference between failure and a groundbreaking success. Continue reading → Continue reading