Women's History

Worn-Out Teeth Expand the Narrative of the Ancient Egyptian Career Woman

Wear patterns suggest a woman buried in the ancient city of Mendes processed papyrus reeds, a job women were not previously known to do

Norma Miller photographed in 2015

Norma Miller, the ‘Queen of Swing,’ Has Died at 99

An electric performer of the Lindy Hop, Miller dazzled audiences on stage and screen

At nearly 91, Dr. Ruth is still committed to the cause

Dr. Ruth Changed the Way America Talked About Sex

A new documentary chronicles the revolution Ruth Westheimer brought to the air

The Awakening, February 20, 1915 Chromolithograph

Nine Women’s History Exhibits to See This Year

Museums around the country are celebrating how the contributions of remarkable women changed everything from human rights to mariachi music

Suranne Jones stars as Anne Lister in "Gentleman Jack."

The 19th-Century Lesbian Landowner Who Set Out to Find a Wife

A new HBO series explores the remarkable life of Anne Lister, based on her voluminous and intimate diaries

Young Thug wore a dress by designer Alessandro Trincone on the cover of his 2016 mixtape

Boston Museum Launches First Large-Scale Exhibition on Non-Binary Fashion

The show features a tuxedo worn by Marlene Dietrich, a suit worn by David Bowie and contemporary designs by Rei Kawakubo

Shortly after the first human space flight, the Soviet Union began planning to send a woman to space.

The First Group of Female Cosmonauts Were Trained to Conquer the Final Frontier

Two decades before the first American woman flew to space, a group of female cosmonauts trained in Star City of the Soviet Union 

Margaret Dayhoff was a pioneer of using computers to tackle some of the biggest scientific questions of the day.

How Margaret Dayhoff Brought Modern Computing to Biology

The pioneer of bioinformatics modeled Earth’s primordial atmosphere with Carl Sagan and made a vast protein database still used today

In 1917 when it was highly unusual for women to protest, a suffrage procession walked the streets of Washington, D.C. towards the White House carrying purple, white and gold banners.

How Women Got the Vote Is a Far More Complex Story Than the History Textbooks Reveal

An immersive story about the bold and diverse women who helped secure the right to vote is on view at the National Portrait Gallery

Twitter helped identify the identities of the women involved in excavations at Skara Brae, Orkney, in 1929.

Internet Sleuths Were on the Case to Name the Women Archaeologists in These Excavation Photos

A caption in a book about the excavation at Skara Brae, Scotland, had identified them as ‘visitors’ to the dig

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Works of Pioneering Photographer Constance Stuart Larrabee to Be Digitized

The work of Constance Stuart Larrabee, a pioneering photographer, will soon be digitized

The 404th AFS Band pictured in Fort Des Moines

Seventy-Five Years Ago, the Military’s Only All-Black Female Band Battled the War Department and Won

The women of the 404th Armed Service Forces band raised morale and funds for the military, but they had to fight discrimination to do so

Meet the Female Inventor Behind Mass-Market Paper Bags

A self-taught engineer, Margaret Knight bagged a valuable patent, at a time when few women held intellectual property

Roxie Laybourne's work changed the role of museums in public life by turning the Smithsonian’s collection of thousands of birds into an applied science tool.

Meet Roxie Laybourne, the Feather Detective Who Changed Aviation

A new Sidedoor episode tells the story of Roxy Laybourne, a Smithsonian scientist who pioneered the field of forensic ornithology

Jennifer Levasseur from the National Air and Space Museum notes that the museum’s supply of popular astronaut foods is less comprehensive than its collection of rejects. “We only get what they didn’t eat (above: Apollo 17's spiced fruit cereal is now in the collections)."

Rita Rapp Fed America’s Space Travelers

NASA’s food packages now in the collections of the Air and Space Museum tell the story of how a physiologist brought better eating to outer space

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony c. 1870

Women’s Rights Monument in N.Y.C. Approved Amid Accusations of Whitewashing

The original design, which has since been altered, was criticized for minimizing the contributions of black suffrage leaders

Researchers found that white individuals represented 97 percent of artists featured in the National Gallery of Art's permanent collection

Survey Finds White Men Dominate Collections of Major Art Museums

A comprehensive study reveals that 85 percent of artists featured in permanent collections are white, while 87 percent are men

The humor magazine Puck—a pre-TV version of “The Daily Show”—published this illustration in 1915, five years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment.

The Long Battle for Women's Suffrage

With the centennial anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment approaching, a look back at the surprising history of giving women the vote

In 2016, 5,712 American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls were reported missing, which is likely the tip of the iceberg,

These Haunting Red Dresses Memorialize Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women

Artist Jaime Black says the REDress Project is an expression of her grief for thousands of Native victims

The museum's new display takes a look at the implied expectation that women will always take care of the housework.

In the Home, a Woman’s Work Is Never Done, Never Honored and Never Paid For

Two historic firsts at the American History Museum; a woman steps into the director’s seat and a new show examines the drudgery of housework

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