Frances Perkins

"It is up to you to contribute some small part to a program of the human betterment for all time"

As we spend our week recovering from the end of the summer cookouts and a last time on the beach, it is important to remember the history of Labor Day, and the men and women that worked so hard to improve our society. One woman who does not get the recognition that she deserved in history is Frances Perkins.

Perkins served as the head of the New York Consumers League, where she lobbied for better working conditions. She became especially passionate about labor issues after she witnessed 146 garment workers die inside the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911. Working under then-New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Perkins successfully shortened workweek to 48 hours for women, and sought minimum wage and unemployment protections.

When Roosevelt was sworn in as President in 1933, Frances Perkins became the United States Secretary of Labor. She was the first woman to hold a cabinet position and to be included in the line of Presidential succession. In this position, she was instrumental in creating Social Security Act of 1935, and helped pass the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

After Roosevelt's Presidency, Perkins served on the US Civil Service Commission under President Harry Truman, and then taught after her husband's death in 1952. Though many public servants receive little to no recognition of the work that they do behind the scenes, Frances Perkins tore down barriers and helped save the United States economy with her work on the New Deal. It is therefore only just that, in 1980, the United States Department of Labor building was named in her honor.

"The door may not be opened to a woman again for a long, long time, and I had a kind duty to other women to walk in and sit down on the chair that was offered, and so establish the right of others long hence and far distant in geography to sit in the high seats"

Muriel Siebert

You create opportunities by performing, not complaining. 

On Saturday, one of the pioneers for women in the business world passed away. Muriel "Mickey" Siebert broke the glass ceiling of finance for women when she became the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1967.

Siebert attended Case Western Reserve University from 1949 to 1952, but left without graduating when her father fell ill. As a college drop out, she moved to New York City to begin her career. After working at Bache & Co. and becoming partner at Brimberg & Co., Siebert established her own firm in 1967. In the same year, she bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange floor, after struggling for months to join. Out of the first ten men that she asked to be her sponsor, nine denied her, but she eventually was successful in finding the required two sponsors. Siebert even had to lobby to get a ladies room on the seventh floor of the New York Stock Exchange by warning the exchange's chairman that she would arrange to have a portable toilet delivered!

In her very successful life, she was awarded 17 honorary doctorates, was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994, and the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2009, and received an Honorary Doctorate from Wagner College in 2010, with an Honorary Doctorate.

Instead of the media and society fixating on stories about Miley Cyrus twerking and the latest antics of the Kardashians, we need to remember women like Mickey Siebert, and that we've come a long way, but that there is still a long road to come.

Do not be afraid to go into uncharted territories. You might find some pretty good things there.

Septima Poinsette Clark

"I believe unconditionally in the ability of people to respond when they are told the truth. We need to be taught to study rather than believe, to inquire rather than to affirm."

Septima Poinsette Clark is yet another example of a woman that deserves more credit in history books than she has been provided. In case you don't know her story, Poinsette Clark was an American educator and civil rights activist, who is often referred to as the Grandmother of the American Civil Rights Movement. She created literacy and citizenship schools, and paved the way for the engagement of the Civil Rights Movement.

Born during reconstruction and the daughter of a former slave, Poinsette Clark believed that "knowledge could empower marginalized groups in ways that formal equality couldn't." After graduating high school, Clark's family did not have enough money for college, so she began work as a school teacher. After school, she would spend hours teaching illiterate adults how to read at night.

In response to legislation in Southern states which required literacy in order to vote, Poinsette Clark began citizenship schools and participated in the Highlander Literacy Courses. With these literacy classes, individuals learned how to read within a week. The program spread to so many states that it was transferred to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1961. The citizenship schools trained 10,000 teachers, and taught more than 25,000 citizens.

Poinsette Clark made such an impact on civil rights that, when Martin Luther King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965, he insisted that she accompany him to the ceremony in Sweden. If you would like to learn more about her, Katherine Charron told her story last year in a biography entitled Freedom's Teacher: The Life of Septima Poinsette Clark.

"I have a great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift" 

Veronika Scott

When I started this blog, I wasn't sure how I would find stories that were diverse enough, and wanted to make sure that I was able to highlight women in my age group and the great things that they are doing. What I wasn't expecting was that, once I started, how quickly I would find so many inspirational women, and how hard it would become to choose a person to highlight each week - there were so many to choose from!

But Veronika Scott and the Empowerment Plan really just jumped off the page, and I have found myself incredibly moved by her mission. I first heard about Veronika when she received the New Frontier Award at the JFK Library last year, and have been inspired by following her progress since. As many great ideas happen, Scott conceived The Empowerment Plan during a school project. She was a product design student who received an assignment to fill a need, and visited a local homeless shelter to brainstorm ideas. After coming in to meet with women at the shelter three times a week for five months, they created a coat that transforms into a sleeping bag, and is revolutionizing the way of life for the over 20,000 homeless people in Detroit bearing the frigid winters.

 Soon after producing the prototype, Scott realized that she needed to make more impact than individually sewing each coat in her basement. She hired two women from the shelter, and paid them to learn to sew, and began producing higher quality coats. The Empowerment Plan now has over ten employees who from local shelters, who have become full-time seamstresses, and are able to make a living and even afford their own apartments again.

Every day, Veronika and her team are touching the lives of others, and are just getting started. To learn more about the project, watch this incredibly inspirational TEDx Talk:

"Everyday, I enjoy proving that the homeless women I hire are powerful and driven. I am so privileged to be a part of their lives.”

Mary Woolstonecraft

"Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience"

Mary Woolstonecraft was a woman centuries ahead of her time. Though she wrote many articles and books, her most lasting work was A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which was published in 1792. A Vindication for the Rights of Woman is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy, which argues that women ought to have an education, and that women are human beings deserving of the same fundamental rights as men.

Woolstonecraft had a very challenging personal life - she was the second of seven children, and watched her family gradually become more and more financially unstable. Her father was abusive, and she assisted her sister Eliza in leaving her husband and infant. She had two affairs, the second of whom she had her first daughter with, and then married William Goodwin, one of the fathers of the anarchist movement. She died while giving birth to her second child.

Her life story and works were embraced with the advent of the modern feminist movement, and are still studied today.

Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.

Sheryl Sandberg

"There is no such thing as work-life balance. There is work, there is life, and there is no balance."

When all of my friends started talking about reading Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg a few months ago, I immediately downloaded the book on my Kindle. Not only was I incredibly inspired by Sandberg's philosophy that women need to ask for what they need and Lean In,  but I was also very impressed by her resume and outlook on life.

Sheryl Sandberg enrolled in Harvard College and Harvard Business School, where she met then-professor Larry Summers, who then became her mentor and thesis advisor. When Larry Summers was appointed US Treasury Secretary, Sandberg served as his Chief of Staff from 1996-2001. She then served as the Vice President of Global Online Sales at Google, and was involved in the launch of Google.org. Sandberg is now the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, where she oversees the firm's business operations including sales, marketing, business development, legal, human resources, public policy and communications. Sandberg has two children, and was named in the Time 100 in 2012.

Her book Lean In sold 150,000 copies in the first week, and has been #1 on the nonfiction bestseller list since. The premise of the book is that women need to ask for what they need from an employer, and that everyone needs a team of friends and loved ones to make life go smoothly. The Lean In movement aims to help women achieve their professional and professional goals by "leaning into their ambitions." It provides support by providing a community, education, and collaboration.

Young professional women like myself rely on women such as Sheryl Sandberg as pillars of what one can accomplish if we work hard, ask for what we want, and get the support that we need.

"A truly equal world would be one where women ran half of our countries and men ran half of our homes"

Margaret Thatcher

"If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman"

In celebration of the birth of the future King of England, I wanted to celebrate a woman from the United Kingdom who was never afraid to make enemies, The "Iron Lady." Though I do not personally agree with her politics, Thatcher broke many barriers and glass ceilings as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979-1990.

Margaret Thatcher came from Gratham, where her parents owned a grocery business and her father was a local councilor. She was a good student, and was admitted to Oxford University, where she studied Chemistry at Somerville College. While at Oxford, she was elected President of the student Conservative Association at Oxford, where she gained recognition within the Conservative Party. After graduation, she ran twice as Conservative Candidate for Labour Seat at Dartford at the General Elections, where she gained national notoriety as the youngest woman candidate in country. Lost both times but had gained enough support that sh was elected to Parliament in 1959.

Thatcher was elected Leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, and became Prime Minister 1979. She was the first woman to lead a major Western Democracy, and is the only British Prime Minister of the 20th Century to win three consecutive terms. From economic policies to the Falkland War, Thatcher lead with conviction, even though there were many who did not agree with her. In the end, she was forced to resign due to political challenges within the party, but she left a legacy of leadership and conviction that is still admired today.

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't"