{"id":14747,"date":"2019-03-22T21:22:15","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T13:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intimina.com\/blog\/\/?p=14747"},"modified":"2020-03-03T12:06:59","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T11:06:59","slug":"badass-women-for-womens-history-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intimina.com\/blog\/badass-women-for-womens-history-month\/","title":{"rendered":"The Babes with the Power \u2013 Badass Women to Celebrate This Women\u2019s History Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

You already know the male-centered stories from elementary school history class. Been there, done that, and all while skipping over the\u00a0real\u00a0<\/em>human rights pioneers who forged our freedom with their own blood, sweat and tears. Now it\u2019s time to get the true story!<\/p>\n

Women have been at the helm for more historical milestones that any history textbook will ever admit. And what\u2019s more, these babes definitely didn\u2019t take any days off from fighting the power to tend to PMS. Anything men can do, women can do #whilebleeding, and that statement resonates louder than ever as our modern youth culture works hard for the equality and empowerment for all people.<\/p>\n

March is Women\u2019s History Month, and what better time to take a peek back into the past to discover the often passed-over female figures who paved the way for today\u2019s feminist boss babes.<\/p>\n

If you need any inspiration to kick ass in your career, take a cue from some our favorite women in history who did whatever it took to build a better world for all humans.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Blackwell \u2013 The First Person to Earn an MD #WhileBleeding<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Even in today\u2019s tense career climate for women, it\u2019s hard to imagine a time when women weren\u2019t even allowed through the doors of medical school, but that was exactly the case in the early to mid 1800s.<\/p>\n

British-born\u00a0Elizabeth Blackwell<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0was brought up in a generation that gave zero rights to women and girls. Women weren\u2019t able to obtain higher education, and their identities were homogeneous with that of their husband. But Blackwell was the first to defy the rules in the medical field.<\/p>\n

After moving to America with her family as a child, Blackwell later rejected the cultural ideals of slavery, racism, and sexism. She sought to break free from her employment with Southern families who kept slaves, but found the idea of a stifling marriage \u2013 at the time, a women\u2019s only ticket to a better life \u2013 unlivable. Against all odds, she decided to attend medical school \u2013 a chapter of the so-called academic \u201civory tower\u201d that found women \u201cmorally unfit, ignorant, inexact, untrustworthy, un-businesslike, lacking in sense and mental perception, and contemptuous of logic.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 1845, the now 24-year-old Blackwell decided to pursue her dream. It took her two years of teaching jobs to save up for the cost of tuition. She was rejected from 29 medical schools across Philadelphia and New York City. After an exhausting search, she was finally accepted by Geneva Medical College, where she was shunned for her gender and forced to catch up after enrolling mid-semester.<\/p>\n

But Blackwell quickly caught up and became the head of her class, where she graduated and again began the fight to practice medicine in a male-dominated world that didn\u2019t allow women a mere foot in the door. After her sister, Emily, also obtained her own medical degree, the pair opened their own clinic, and eventually went on to found The New York Infirmary for Women and Children. The hospital still exists roday as the Beekman Downtown Hospital.<\/p>\n

Meet the Original Reproductive Freedom Fighter \u2013 Margaret Sanger<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This\u00a0feminist activist<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0started her campaigns for women\u2019s birth control rights in 1912 with a newspaper column titled \u201cWhat Every Girl Should Know,\u201d which preached the gospel of sex education. She later championed\u00a0The Woman Rebel\u00a0<\/em>magazine\u00a0<\/em>in 1914, where Sanger further promoted her beliefs on giving women the right to choose to become pregnant, calling it a sign of true freedom.<\/p>\n

Sanger, a practicing nurse, often came to the aid of young, impoverished women who suffered at the hands of botched, back-alley abortions. Sanger saw there was a desperate need to prevent unwanted pregnancy during a time when religion and morals reigned over reproductive health.<\/p>\n

Sanger was prosecuted for distributing \u201cobscene material\u201d due to the country\u2019s obscenity laws and fled to England, but she returned with a vengeance in 1915. Soon after her return, Sanger and her sister opened the first family planning clinic in 1916 in Brooklyn, NY, and in 1921, she founded the American Birth Control League, a precursor to Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n

You might have heard that the first birth control pill hit the market in 1960, but did you know that Sanger helped the pill obtain research and funding? Yep \u2013 if you\u2019ve ever taken an oral contraceptive, you can thank Margaret Sanger for making it possible.<\/p>\n

Black and Queer Lives Always Mattered \u2013 Barbara Smith and Inclusive Feminism<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the 60s and 70s, career advancement opportunities for women were already scarce. If you were also black and part of the LGBTQ+ community, your voice was even more harshly silenced. But in 1969, after being told her gender precluded her from climbing the corporate ladder at airline Pan-Am, Barbara Smith\u00a0took matters into her own hands.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Smith, a black lesbian, felt the black rights\u2019 movements of the time lacked representation for women, especially those in the gay community. Along with her sister, Beverly Smith, and former Chicago Black Panther Demita Frazier, she helped form the Combahee River Collective in 1974.<\/p>\n

Named after Harriet Tubman\u2019s 1853 raid that freed 750 slaves in South Carolina, this activist group filled the gaps left by the white feminist movement and the black mens\u2019 rights movement. Smith focused on issues unique to black women, such as low-wage labor, sexual assault, and sterilization.<\/p>\n

Throughout the 1970s, this radical group of women worked to dismantle the forces of American capitalism that held down other marginalized peoples, often joining forces with other political activists to strengthen their voices together. The CRC coined terms like \u201cidentity politics\u201d and ignited discussions on the intersection of race, gender, and class.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the CRC commemorated their 40th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary with a celebration of the growth of black feminism, though with the acknowledgment that we\u2019ve got a long way to go before black women are truly free.<\/p>\n

If They Can Do It #WhileBleeding, So Can You!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Today\u2019s cultural climate can seem daunting for modern young women, but a brief look at history will tell how much has changed. By comparison, the current career world seems like a walk in the park for women! If these incredible historical characters could overcome adversity as far back as the 1800s, there\u2019s no reason any woman can\u2019t follow her dreams today. If they could do it #whilebleeding centuries ago, then so can you, and don\u2019t let anyone lead your tenacity astray.<\/p>\n

Please note that advice offered by Intimina may not be relevant to your individual case. For specific concerns regarding your health, always consult your physician or other licensed medical practitioners.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You already know the male-centered stories from elementary school history class. Been there, done that, and all while skipping over the\u00a0real\u00a0human rights pioneers who forged our freedom with their own…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":16882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPowerful Females to Celebrate During Women's History Month<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Women have changed the course of history several times over. 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