American Women's History Initiative

Hazel Scott captivated audiences with her renditions of classical masterpieces by Chopin, Bach and Rachmaninoff.

Hazel Scott’s Lifetime of High Notes

She began her career as a musical prodigy and ended up breaking down racial barriers in the recording and film industries

From the runway, to the office, and now stored away in women’s dresser draws, pantyhose have gone through several life cycles.

50 Years of Pantyhose

Love them or hate them, the once-ubiquitous women’s accessory was a revolutionary invention that helped transform women’s fashion

Ramsey's trip across the United States took 59 days to complete and covered 3,800 miles.

Alice Ramsey's Historic Cross-Country Drive

In 1909, 22-year-old Alice Ramsey made history as the first woman to drive across the United States

After a year in graduate school in New York City, Eudora Welty returned to her native Mississippi and began taking pictures (Home by Dark).

Eudora Welty as Photographer

Photographs by Pulitzer-Prize winning novelist Eudora Welty display the empathy that would later infuse her fiction

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Decade by Decade: Major Events in Women's History

Explore some of the most significant achievements made by women in the past century

Unveiled at a recent ceremony in Washington honoring Virginia Hall, this portrait will be added to the CIA's Fine Arts Collection. Painted by artist Jeff Bass, it shows her transmitting messages from occupied France using her suitcase radio. The painting was underwritten by a donation from attorney Robert Guggenhime.

WANTED: The Limping Lady

The intriguing and unexpected true story of America's most heroic—and most dangerous—female spy

Although loosely based on The Supremes (above), the movie Dreamgirls is a work of fiction. The real story of the 1960s girl groups, however, changed American music forever.

The Real Dreamgirls

How girl groups changed American music

Breck Girls

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