Welcome to Women's Wednesday! ♀ Each hump day, we’ll be sharing innovative and influential women who overcame hardships, broke records, shattered glass ceilings, and more. We're paying homage to those who paved the way and changed the world for women. These women act as a reminder of how far we've come and inpsire us to be our best self in remembering we still have a ways to go.
Before we introduce our first inspirational woman, try and guess who it is with these emoji clues!
HINT: It's not Kamala Harris.
Meet Shirley Chisholm, an American politician, a catalyst for change, an educator, and an author.
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Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 30, 1924, Chisholm was the oldest of four daughters to immigrant parents Charles St. Hill, a factory worker from Guyana, and Ruby Seale St. Hill, a seamstress from Barbados. She graduated from Brooklyn Girls’ High in 1942 and from Brooklyn College cum laude in 1946. Although professors encouraged her to consider a political career, she replied that she faced a “double handicap,” being both black and a woman.
Initially, Chisholm worked as a school teacher. She earned a master’s degree from Columbia University in early childhood education in 1951. By 1960, she was a consultant to the New York City Division of Day Care. Aware of immense racial and gender inequality, she joined local chapters of the League of Women Voters, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Urban League, as well as the Democratic Party club in Brooklyn.
In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, representing New York's 12th congressional district for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In the 1972 United States presidential election, she became the first black candidate for a major party's nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Of her legacy, Chisholm also said, “I want to be remembered as a woman … who dared to be a catalyst of change.”
What boss women in history inspired you? Follow us on Instagram @volitionbeauty for more Women Wednesday's and comment your favorite, inspirational women we should feature next!
Source: Michals, Debra. "Shirley Chisholm." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2015. Date accessed.
Photo: Don Hogan Charles/New York Times Co./Getty Images
