March is Women’s History Month.  Yes, I missed nearly all of it working on my thesis, going to NYC, and getting hit by that d*mn flu.  However, today is still technically March.  So, I thought I’d hop on the Women’s History Month train and share five women who I find deeply inspiring, motivating, and a little under-appreciated.

1. Nellie Bly: “an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world.”  Bly was probably my first girl-hero.
2. Michele Gregg, and all the other abortion counselors in the 1960s.  Plus the women fighting the good fight today in SD, ND, TX, and all the other states.
3. Mothers, mommies, and moms everywhere: working moms, God Mothers, stay-at-home moms, accidental moms, adoptive moms, and foster moms.  Especially my mom, a quiet feminist who has never been afraid of a challenge.
4. Susan Kare, who was instrumental in developing GUI for computer systems.  I’m also a huge fan of women in tech (via Feministing) generally both because I’m jealous of their skills and because they’re breaking into what is too often thought of as a boy’s club.
5. Liz Claiborne: although I don’t personally care for her clothes, I recognize that she was the first woman to found a Fortune 500 company and that by making office clothing affordable she served a lot of women very practically.

There are more, of course, lots more.  I thought about including a few of my favorite authors, some political figures (like Madeline Albright, a personal hero), a couple more historical figures (the suffragettes, hello?), some media figures (Rachel Maddow), poets, artists, doctors… well, the list goes on and on.

By the way, Feministing has a great women’s history month quiz.  I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t quite get as many right as I’d like…