Famous Women In History

Jane Austen, Nichelle Nichols, Dr.Chien-Chung Wu, Sojourner Truth

 March is National Women’s History Month! Women have been making history right alongside men since the beginning of time, but they don’t always get the same amount of praise and recognition. So I have picked these extraordinary women throughout history to shine a light on, and give them praise for their accomplishments and impact on our society. 


Jane Austen was an English Novelist born in 1775, she famously tackled ideas of class and gender in 19th century England through her satirical exploration of issues concerning marriage and morality. Believe it or not, Austen was completely anonymous in her day. 

She wrote her first novel Sense and Sensibility at the age of 20, and released it 16 years later under the pen name “A Lady.” Jane Austen lived as a single woman with her family until her death in 1817. She was only 41 years old which seems awfully young, but was the standard at the time. Although her books were popular, no one knew who she was. Austen’s identity as an author was revealed only after her death when her sister Cassandra and brother Henry arranged the publication of her novel Persuasion and Northanger Abbey,  in which Henry included a note introducing his sister, Jane Austen as the author.


Sojourner Truth was an African American evangelist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist and author who was born into slavery in 1797 and escaped to freedom in 1826. After gaining her freedom, Truth preached about abolitionism and equal rights for all. After the New York Anti-Slavery Law was passed, John Dumont (Her previous owner) illegally sold Truth’s five-year-old son Peter.

She filed a lawsuit to get him back and months later, Isabella won her case and regained custody of Peter. She was the first black woman to sue a white man in a United States court and prevail. Sojourner Truth passed away in November of 1883, records show she was 86 years old, yet her memorial tombstone states she was 105. 


Dr.Chien-Chung Wu was a pioneer and pivotal figure in the history of physics. Chien-Shiung was born in 1912 in a small fishing town just north of Shanghai, China. Although relatively uncommon for girls to attend school, Chien-Shiung went to a school founded by her father, who believed that girls should receive an education. Chien-Shiung went on to get a degree in physics and graduated at the top of her class.

Her mentor, Dr. Jing-Wei Gu, another woman working in the field of physics, encouraged Chien-Shiung to continue her education in the United States. She was the first woman hired as faculty in the Physics Department at Princeton. Shortly afterwards, in 1944, Dr. Wu took a job at Columbia University in New York City, and joined the Manhattan Project. In 1956, physicists Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang  asked Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu to create an experiment. The experiment, known as the Wu Experiment, is named after her.

Yet, in 1957, Lee and Yang were awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. Like the contributions of many women in science at the time, Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu’s work was not acknowledged. Although denied recognition with the Nobel Prize, Dr. Wu received many honors during her career.

These include becoming the seventh woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1958); the Comstock Prize in Physics given by the National Academy of Sciences; the first woman to be president of the American Physical Society (1975); the first person to receive the Wolf Prize in Physics (1978); and the first honorary doctorate awarded by Princeton University to a woman. In 1990, she had an asteroid named after her (2752 Wu Chien-Shiung).

Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu retired from Columbia in 1981 and passed due to a stroke in 1997. Her ashes were buried in the courtyard of the Mingde School in China that she had attended as a girl.



Nichelle Nichols was born in 1932, in Robbins, Illinois near Chicago. Her family later moved to Chicago, where she studied dance at the Chicago Ballet. During the late 1940s, Nichols was discovered by jazz legend Duke Ellington and toured with both Ellington and Lionel Hampton as a lead singer and dancer. Her acting career began in the film “Porgy and Bess”(1959); and her first television role was in “The Lieutenant” (1964).

In 1966, Nichols was cast as Lieutenant Commander Uhura in Star Trek, which marked one of the first times that an African American actress was portrayed in a non-stereotypical role on television. Uhura’s very presence was an exclamation that there are black people in the Future. It was the era of marches, freedom rides and sit-ins. Malcolm X was already dead. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was still preaching.

In 1975, Nichols established Women in Motion, Inc., a company that produced educational materials using music as a teaching tool and was expanded to become an astronaut recruitment tool after Nichols won a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This resulted in thousands of women and minorities applying to NASA’s space program such as Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, and Ellison Onizuka.

In October of 1984, Nichols was presented with NASA’s Public Service Award for her many efforts towards integrating the U.S. space program. She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992, and became the first African American actress to place her handprints in front of Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, along with the rest of the Star Trek cast. After a long fulfilling life, Nichelle Nichols passed away on July 30, 2022 at the age of 89.

There are so many incredible women throughout our history, and so many incredible women conspiring today. Hoping and planning for a better future. It is important for us as women to support and uplift each other as we grow and experience new careers and challenges. As a collective women have a powerful, demanding, and beautiful voice; Let them hear us.

 
Kimani Curtis