Hopefully we will soon reach the day when the celebration of women’s history is not limited to one month, but is celebrated throughout the entire year. But until then we must take this opportunity to celebrate the special women who helped make our world a better place. Not just famous suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, but women from all walks of life who labored for years for the simple rights of having their voices heard, earning equal pay for equal work, and following their own path, their own dreams.

Women like Abigail Scott Dunaway who led the Oregon Equal Suffrage Association, and despite being pelted by rotten eggs became the first woman to vote in Oregon;

The Smith Sisters of Glastonbury, Connecticut, who refused to pay taxes because they could not vote, and faced losing their cows, their farm and their livelihood;

Elaine D. Harman, pilot in the Women Airforce Service Pilots who flew planes and trained men to do the same during World War II, whose service to the Nation was finally recognized in 2016 when she was buried with honors in Arlington National Cemetery;

Louisine Havemeyer, wealthy art collector who in her late sixties picketed the White House and was imprisoned in the dreaded Occoquan workhouse;

Clara Lemlich, who, in 1909 risked beatings and imprisonment for leading young garment workers to strike for better wages and working conditions.

And in each of our families, work places, and communities there are remarkable women doing remarkable things every day. Let’s notice, celebrate and honor them, not just in March, but every day of the year.