Community Corner

International Women's Day 2022: 18 Photos Of Influential Women

From Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks to Judge Ketanji Jackson, the U.S. Women's Soccer Team and Wally Funk, these women will inspire you.

Peggy Newell's profile picture
Peggy Newell, Patch StaffVerified Patch Staff Badge
|
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks after President Joe Biden announced her as his nominee to the Supreme Court in the Cross Hall of the White House on Feb. 25. If confirmed, she will be the first Black woman to serve on the high court.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks after President Joe Biden announced her as his nominee to the Supreme Court in the Cross Hall of the White House on Feb. 25. If confirmed, she will be the first Black woman to serve on the high court. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

ACROSS AMERICA— The theme of International Women's Day on Tuesday is "gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow." The entire month of March is set aside as Women's History Month.

Patch takes a look at some of the most historically significant American women for their political and cultural achievements. Among those making recent history: Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman, African American and Asian American to serve in the second-highest elected position in the United States; and the U.S. women's soccer team, which won a landmark gender equity lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Foundation.

They are building on the legacy of Rosa Parks and Sylvia Rivera, who fought for racial and LGBTQ equality.

Find out what's happening in Across Americafor free with the latest updates from Patch.

United States women's national soccer team member Alex Morgan (left) listens as teammate Megan Rapinoe speaks to reporters during a news conference in New York, on May 24, 2019. U.S. women soccer players announced a landmark agreement Feb. 22 with the sport’s American governing body to end a six-year legal battle over equal pay, a deal in which they are promised $24 million plus bonuses that match those of the men. The U.S. Soccer Federation and the women announced the deal, which will have players split $22 million, about one-third of what they had sought in damages. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks to lawmakers during a House Committee on Financial Services hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 1, 2021. Yellen became the first woman to head the Treasury Department since its founding in 1789. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
American poet Amanda Gorman reads her commissioned poem “The Hill We Climb” during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20, 2021. Gorman is the nation's youngest inaugural poet.(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool, File)
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a Black History Month celebration event in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 28. Harris became America's first female, African American and Asian American vice president. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Simone Biles performs on the balance beam during the artistic gymnastics women's apparatus final at the 2020 Summer Olympics on Aug. 3, 2021. Biles became the only woman to ever attempt — and complete — a Yurchenko double pike vault in competition at the US Classic. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Wally Funk (right) is a trailblazing aviator who had her first flight lesson at age 9, became a licensed pilot at 17 and has logged more than 19,000 flying hours. At 82, she not only fulfilled a lifelong dream to go to space, she was the oldest person ever to travel to space, doing so aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin New Shepard rocket. She is pictured here describing the experience at a news conference near Van Horn, Texas, on July 20, 2021. Also pictured are Mark Bezos (left) and Jeff Bezos (center). (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
In this photo provided by the Library of Congress, Harriet Tubman in seen in a photograph dating from 1860-75. Tubman was born into slavery, escaped and worked on the Underground Railroad to help free other slaves. (Harvey B. Lindsley/Library of Congress via AP)
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, pictured during a photo shoot at the U.S. Supreme Court on March 3, 2006, in Washington, D.C., was the first Jewish woman and second woman ever to serve on the high court. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
This Oct. 28, 1986, file photo shows Rosa Parks at Ellis Island in New York. Parks was a civil rights activist best know for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. The ensuing Montgomery Bus Boycott marked a turning point in the fight against racial segregation. (AP Photo/File)
In this Dec. 15, 1992, photo, American poet and writer Maya Angelou speaks in Washington, D.C. Angelou was a poet and civil right activist. She is best known for her autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," documenting how her love of literature helped her overcome racism. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, File)
In this 1971 photo, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.) is shown. The pioneering lawmaker was the first Black woman elected to Congress. (AP Photo)
Astronaut Kalpana Chawla, a 41-year-old flight engineer and mission specialist for Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-107, poses for a formal photograph March 8, 2002. Chawla was the first Indian American to go to space. (Photo by NASA/Getty Images)
Four of 10 young women selected by Mademoiselle magazine as "Young Women of the Year" receive the 1946 Mademoiselle Merit awards on Dec. 30, 1946. Presenting the awards is Betsy Talbot Blackwell (right), editor of Mademoiselle. The four winners (from left) are Pauli Murray, a New York lawyer; Dorothy V. Wheeler, Wichita, Kansas, and New York, director of nursing service, American Veterans Administration; Judy Holliday, a New York actress; and Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu. Wu was a pivotal figure in physics and best known for her work in the Manhattan Project. (AP Photo/John Lent)
This Oct. 21, 1982, photo shows Dorothy Lynde Dix's portrait hanging above her desk at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Washington, D.C. Dix, who believed that the mentally ill could be returned to normal health, persuaded a farmer to sell the land which now constitutes the Dorothea Dix Hospital, which opened its doors in 1855 with 60 beds. Today, the hospital admits over 3,000 patients a year. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
Mamie Till-Mobley (right) of Chicago, mother of lynching victim Emmett Till, and Wilma Allen of New Orleans search for their relatives' names on the Black granite table at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, on Nov. 5, 1989. Emmett Till was beaten, mutilated and shot in the head before his body was dumped in the Tallahatchie River. His mother famously insisted his casket remain open at the funeral, noting, "I wanted the world to see what they did to my boy." (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
LGBT pioneer Sylvia Rivera leads an ACT-UP march past New York's Union Square Park on June 26, 1994. Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson were two LGBT rights activists who took part in the 1969 Stonewall rebellion and founded an organization that helped homeless gay youths. (AP Photo/Justin Sutcliffe, File)
This file photo from the 1940s shows Henrietta Lacks, whose cancer cells were used without her consent to discover the HeLa cells that are still used for medical and cancer research today. (The Henrietta Lacks Foundation)

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

More from Across America