5 Black Women Founders and Inventors You Should Know
African American women have founded various organizations, they’ve been the masterminds behind innovative products, and they’ve paved the way for new generations’ thought leaders. These champions of change have solved medical mysteries, fought poverty, served on congressional committees, and have helped lead the movements against racism, sexism, and class barriers.
I credit many of my family members for bringing such #BlackGirlMagic to my own awareness. My grandmother chartered an NAACP chapter in Fort Madison, Iowa; my mother works to eradicate domestic violence; and my aunts have broken barriers in the fields of engineering and mental health. I’d like to shed light on the accomplishments of five other trailblazing black women founders and inventors who saw needs and chose to find solutions.
1. Patricia Bath, ophthalmologist and laser scientist (b. 1942)
Bath was an advocate for preventing and treating blindness. Not only was she the first African American to complete a medical residency in ophthalmology, but she also co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness and established a new discipline known as community ophthalmology. Bath also became the first black woman doctor to receive a medical patent when she created the Laserphaco Probe, a new device for cataract surgery. As a young girl growing up in Harlem, New York, Bath noticed that surgery, and medicine in general, was a male-dominated profession. After receiving her medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., Bath joined the University of California, Los Angeles, as the first woman faculty member in the department of ophthalmology.
2. Anna Arnold Hedgeman, co-founder of the National Organization for Women (1899–1990)
Arnold Hedgeman was an author, politician, and educator who fought to end segregation among teachers of color. She was the first black woman to hold a mayoral cabinet position in New York. As one of the founders of the National Organization for Women, she was an advocate for education, feminism, and poverty issues. Hedgeman was also the first African American to hold a Federal Security Agency position in her role as executive director of the National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practice Commission. Instrumental in organizing the March on Washington in 1963, it was Hedgeman who pushed for female speakers to be part of the event that initially lacked the recognition of women civil rights heroes.
3. Miriam E. Benjamin, inventor of the Gong and Signal Chair (1861–1947)
In 1888, Miriam E. Benjamin became the second black woman to receive a patent. Her invention, the Gong and Signal Chair, revolutionized customer service practices. The chair included a small button that relayed a signal to an attendant when pressed. This invention would later be used in steamboats, restaurants, and even the U.S. House of Representatives. Today, Benjamin’s creation is used to signal flight attendants on planes.
4. Maggie Lena Walker, founder of St. Luke Penny Savings Bank (1864–1934)
Maggie Lena Walker founded the highly successful St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, an accomplishment for which she’s recognized as being the first African American woman to charter a bank in the United States. Under Walker’s leadership, the bank served a membership of more than 50,000 in 1,500 local branches. From 1903 to 1929, the bank issued more than 600 mortgages to black families, allowing many to realize the dream of home ownership. Walker also served as grand secretary of the Independent Order of St. Luke, an umbrella organization dedicated to the social and financial advancement of African Americans, and she actively campaigned for women’s rights and desegregation.
5. Marva Collins, founder of Westside Preparatory School (1936–2015)
Marva Collins, recipient of AAUW’s 1989 Achievement Award, was one of the most influential education activists of the 20th century. In 1975, Collins founded the Westside Preparatory School in the impoverished community of Garfield Park in Chicago, Illinois. Collins was well known for providing education to low-income African American children who she felt the Chicago public school system had wrongly labeled as “learning disabled.” Through her teaching methods, which focused on phonics, reading, math, and English, Collins tackled behavioral issues and is credited for her techniques of classroom management. At one point, President Ronald Reagan even nominated her to become secretary of education.
We salute these women of change who saw needs, found solutions, and created opportunities for those around them. They remind us all why it’s important to continue to equip today’s young women with the tools they need to become the next generation of leaders and innovators.
This post was written by Media Relations and Social Media Intern Khallilah Beecham-Watkins.
Happy birthday to Zora Neale Hurston!
When Hurston was born on January 7, 1891, African Americans, particularly African American women, faced restrictions and unfair treatment that limited their opportunities. But Hurston was too driven, intelligent and resourceful to be held back — she took the few opportunities she had, and made others appear when needed. Today she is acclaimed for books that include Their Eyes Were Watching God and Mules and Men; however, there are other aspects of her story that are less well-known, but just as interesting.
Chris Rock: If Jennifer Lawrence Were Black, 'She'd Really Have Something To Complain About'
Chris Rocks hits on an important fact: The gender pay gap affects all women, but it doesn’t affect all women equally.
Black women were paid 63 percent of what non-Hispanic white men were paid in 2014. That means it takes the typical black woman nearly seven extra months to be paid what the average white man took home back on December 31. That’s even worse than the national pay gap for women of all races, 79 percent, as reported by AAUW’s research.
Think about how that adds up in the course of a career, and we’re talking about losing a daunting chunk of change over a lifetime.
The Challenges of Being in Academia from a Black Feminist, and How She Has Addressed Them
Navigating academia as a woman of color researching black feminism — a widely misunderstood topic — has not been without its challenges for
Sherie Randolph, an associate professor at the University of Michigan.
Randolph, who researched black feminism, shares how she has found ways to succeed as a woman of color and feminist in academia.
1. Don’t rely solely on publications; build personal relationships, too.
For many people of color in academia who have decided to focus on controversial or less popular areas of study, the old adage “publish or perish” is not always a sufficient guide. In Randolph’s opinion, it is also important to establish and maintain a wide circle of relationships in your department. This allows colleagues to better understand and appreciate your work.
In Randolph’s experience, this is especially important because “sometimes even when you publish in the established journals and with the presses that the mainstream academy approves of, your work on feminism, queer theory, [or similar subjects] is often not fully understood or prized by your colleagues.” This misunderstanding can impact how your research is received, what you are paid, and how your courses are valued.
2. Create and find accepting spaces.
Finding an accepting space where you can build relationships, get advice, and share experiences can be crucial to personal and professional growth. One such space that Randolph found and has utilized over the years is the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity. She says that the organization is a great place for any woman of color to start their search. “They have a great team that helps you continue to write and research when you are often one of the only persons of color in your department or field, or when your research is not fully understood and appreciated by your department or university.”
3. Find supporters!
Randolph notes that having genuine supporters of your work is invaluable. She proactively garnered support for her work from other colleagues at her university, including AAUW alumna Tiya Miles. These supporters “read my work, advocate for me, and encourage me to have a balanced life both inside and outside of the field.”
The support that may have started it all, Randolph says, came in the form of an AAUW American Fellowship. “Without AAUW’s support I would not have finished [my] dissertation on time” or crafted a strong enough study to enter the job market competitively. “It was a great honor to receive the AAUW fellowship,” she goes on. “It gave me a win at a time when I needed to feel that other scholars appreciated and understood my work and that I was not alone in valuing black feminism as a field of study.”
Read the full blog post.
7 Women of Color Who Fought for Gender Equality
August 26 is Women’s Equality Day. The date commemorates a historic step for women’s equality: the passage of the 19th Amendment, which secured women’s right to vote, on August 26, 1920.
Women’s Equality Day is a time to celebrate the women who fought for the right to participate in the democratic process, but it’s also a day to acknowledge that the amendment didn’t further the equality of all women.
Women of color routinely faced racism within the women’s suffrage movement. After the passage of the 19th Amendment, state laws and racial discrimination continued to keep women of color from voting. It wasn’t until 1956 that any Native Americans could vote in Utah, and black women remained effectively disenfranchised until the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Even today we continue to see passage of a variety of laws that threaten to prevent women, especially women of color, from voting.
Of course women of color haven’t remained silent in the face of these setbacks. Although they have often been the leading voices and innovators in the fight for equality, history has a tendency to erase their legacy and voices. So in honor of Women’s Equality Day, here are seven amazing women of color who have helped fight for — and win — greater equality for women.
1. Sojourner Truth (1796–1883)
Famous for her 1851 speech “Ain’t I a Woman?,” Sojourner Truth was a strong abolitionist and women’s rights advocate. Today her speech still resonates and continues to encapsulate the intersection of race and womanhood.
2. Ida B. Wells (1862–1931)
Ida B. Wells was a prolific investigative journalist and suffragist who campaigned tirelessly for anti-lynching legislation. Her activism began in 1884 when she refused to give up her train car seat, leading to a successful lawsuit against the train company. Motivated in part by racism within the women’s suffrage movement, Wells went on to found and co-found a variety of civil rights organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Association of Colored Women, and the Alpha Suffrage Club.
Visit AAUW’s website to read the full blog post.
Seven months extra work, 64% of the pay.
Today, July 28, marks how far into 2015 black women must work to earn as much as white men did in 2014.
That’s an extra 208 days of hard work. Outraged? Us, too.
Learn more, including how you can take action at fightforfairpay.org.
9 photos of Serena Williams slaying from day one
Yup. #crushedit
WOW! What a week for women in sports.
Congrats, Serena Williams! #yasqueen
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11 Projects That Will Inspire You to Fight Gender Stereotypes
We dare you to walk away uninspired!
This Is What Happens When Women of Color Redefine the Racism and Sexism They Face
Women of color deal with subtle and unsubtle racial and gender-based microaggressions every day, insults that whether blatant or backhanded reinforce ideas about inferiority and belonging that are harmful and infuriating.
Students at the UMBC Women’s Center and UMBC’s womenofcolorcoalition decided to do something about it.
Thanks to a 2014-2015 AAUW Campus Action Project grant sponsored by Pantene, they launched the Telling Our Stories: I’m Not/I Am campaign to bust stereotypes faced by women of color.
READ MORE: http://www.aauw.org/2015/06/16/telling-our-stories/
See more empowering posters here.
INFOGRAPHIC: The Wage Gap for Women of Color
