HerWiki

Clara Barton was born on Christmas Day 1821 in a small Massachusetts farming town.

When the Civil War broke out, she showed up on battlefields nobody wanted her on, carrying her own supplies.

She nursed wounded men at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and a dozen other battles.

At Antietam, a bullet ripped through her sleeve and killed the soldier she was tending.

Soldiers called her the “Angel of the Battlefield.”

After the war, Lincoln let her search for missing Union men.

Using death records smuggled out of Andersonville prison, she identified 13,000 dead soldiers.

She answered 41,855 letters from grieving families.

Exhausted, she went to Switzerland to recover and learned of the International Red Cross.

She came home in 1873 and asked the U.S. to start an American branch.

President Hayes refused, calling the Geneva Convention an “entangling alliance.”

She lobbied for 8 more years.

On May 21, 1881, at age 59, she finally founded the American Red Cross in her own apartment.

She led relief for floods, famines, tornadoes, hurricanes, and the Johnstown disaster.

She was still working in Cuba at 77.

In 1904, an all-male board forced her out at 82 over her “management style.”

She died at home in Glen Echo, Maryland, in 1912 at age 90.

The organization she built would later segregate donated blood by race through all of World War II.

The woman was gone. Her name stayed. The principles she fought for did not always follow.

Hi, I’m Olivia—I’m the author of “She Did What Now?” and the founder of HerWiki—Wikipedia for Women.

If Parton’s story moved you, there are 500 more women like her in my book “She Did What Now?”.

Comment “She” to grab a copy at a price of your own choice (as low as $1). 100% proceeds go towards HerWiki’s research and development initiatives.

All my love,
Olivia 💖

Patricia Roberts Harris was the daughter of a railroad dining car waiter.

She grew up in Chicago, Illinois raised by her mother after her parents split when she was six.

She was so bright that five different colleges offered her scholarships.

In 1943, while still a student, she joined one of the nation’s first lunch counter sit-ins.

In 1960, she finished first in her law school class of 94 students.

In 1965, President Johnson named her America’s first Black woman ambassador.

She felt proud, but also a little sad.

Being the “first” meant Black women had been overlooked for far too long.

In 1969, she became the first Black woman to lead a U.S. law school.

In 1971, she became the first Black woman on the board of a major company, IBM.

Then in 1977, President Carter chose her for his cabinet.

She became the first Black woman ever to hold a cabinet post in U.S. history.

At her hearing, Senator William Proxmire said she was too privileged to understand poor people.

Patricia did not flinch.

She responded, “I am a Black woman, the daughter of a Pullman (railroad) car waiter. I am a Black woman who even eight years ago could not buy a house in parts of the District of Columbia. I didn’t start out as a member of a prestigious law firm, but as a woman who needed a scholarship to go to school. If you think I have forgotten that, you are wrong.”

The room went quiet. Pin-drop silence.

She ran two of the largest government departments and pushed to rebuild struggling neighborhoods instead of tearing them down.

She broke barrier after barrier, holding doors open for every woman who came after her.

Patricia died of cancer in 1985, at just 60 years old.

She earned a postage stamp and a place in the Women’s Hall of Fame.

But today, almost no one says her name.

Hi, I’m Olivia—I’m the author of She Did What Now and the founder of HerWiki—Wikipedia for Women.

If Patricia’s story moved you, there are 500 more women like her in my book She Did What Now.

Comment “She” to grab a copy at a price of your own choice (as low as $1). 100% proceeds go towards HerWiki’s research and development initiatives.

All my love,
Olivia 💖

Bessie Lee Pittman was born in a Florida mill town around 1906.

She started working in a cotton mill at age eight.

She had almost no schooling and could barely read or write her whole life.

She fled that life, took a new name, and reinvented herself as Jacqueline Cochran.

A friend gave her a ride in a small plane, and everything changed.

She earned her pilot’s license in just three weeks.

By 1938 she had won the Bendix Trophy, the biggest air race in America.

During World War II, she led the Women Airforce Service Pilots, over 1,000 women flying military aircraft for their country.

Then, on May 18, 1953, she set out to break the sound barrier.

But the U.S. Air Force refused to lend her a jet to do it.

So Canada stepped in and sent her its only Canadair Sabre, plus a 16-man support team.

Over Rogers Dry Lake, California, she climbed to 45,000 feet.

Then she threw the jet into a near-vertical dive at 652 mph.

Two sonic booms cracked across the desert below her.

Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman in history to break the sound barrier.

Her chase pilot that day was Chuck Yeager, the man who had broken it first.

The same flight set a speed record that knocked French rival Jacqueline Auriol off the top spot.

She landed, got the news, and did the whole thing again that same afternoon.

She kept flying for decades, hitting Mach 2 in an F-104 at nearly 60 years old.

When she died in 1980, she held more speed, altitude, and distance records than any pilot who ever lived, man or woman.

I’m Olivia, the author of “SHE DID WHAT NOW?” and the founder of HerWiki.

If my cause resonates with you, like/repost and follow for more.

You can also comment “SHE” and grab a copy of SDWN (WORLDWIDE FREE SHIPPING INCLUDED).

100% proceeds go to HerWiki’s research and development initiatives.

All my love,
Olivia 💜

•

Barbara grew up in 1940s California. Her Berkeley math class had 2 women out of hundreds.

Princeton rejected her for grad school, not for grades, but for being a woman.
She started programming and realized she was better than everyone else.

At Stanford in 1968, she earned one of the first U.S. computer science PhDs for a woman.

Her thesis taught computers to play chess endgames perfectly while men still argued if women could do math.

She saw the real problem: computers were islands, unable to share information.

So she invented abstract data types—ways for computers to package ideas so others could understand them.

She created CLU, a programming language that let computers share complex ideas.
Every app on your phone uses her principles.

While she revolutionized computing at MIT, they paid her less than men with a fraction of her skill.

She trained male professors who got promoted over her and watched them win awards for her theories.

The Liskov Substitution Principle—the foundation of modern software—is hers, though most programmers don’t know it.
It powers Instagram ads, Uber matching drivers, and Netflix recommendations.

In 2008—forty years later—she became the second woman to win the Turing Award.

Men said her work was “too theoretical.”

Translation: too female.

Before her: computers were expensive calculators. After her: they became digital universes.

At 85, she still teaches at MIT, still paid less, still watching men take credit for problems she solved before they were born.

Barbara Liskov didn’t just write code—she coded a new universe while men were figuring out how to turn on the lights.

Like/repost HerStory and follow to join the cause • comment “book” to grab a copy of “YOU STAND ON HER SHOULDERS.” 100% proceeds go towards HerWiki’s reseach and development initiatives.

In 1872, Mary Engle Pennington was born in a country where women couldn’t even get a college degree.

At 12 years old, she read a chemistry book and fell in love.

She walked into the University of Pennsylvania and asked a professor to teach her.

He laughed and told her to come back when she was older.

She did.

She finished every requirement for a chemistry degree in 1892.

But the university refused to give her a diploma because she was a woman.

They handed her a “certificate” instead.

Mary didn’t stop.

She pushed harder and earned her PhD in chemistry by 1895.

In 1908, the U.S. government opened a new Food Research Lab to stop people from dying of food poisoning.

Her boss told her to apply, but warned her no man would hire a woman.

So she signed her application “M.E. Pennington.”

They hired her thinking she was a man.

When she showed up, it was too late to fire her.

She became the first female lab chief in U.S. government history.

Back then, milk killed babies and spoiled chicken killed families every single week.

Mary invented the rules for how to safely kill, cool, store, and ship poultry.

She designed the first refrigerated train cars that carried food across America without rotting.

Every cold truck, every grocery store fridge, every safe chicken dinner you’ve ever eaten traces back to her.

During World War I, she helped feed American soldiers safely overseas.

She earned 5 patents and a medal from President Hoover.

But most history books never mention her name.

The men who built food empires off her research got rich and famous.

Mary died in 1952, still working at age 80.

She saved more lives than almost any scientist of her century.

And almost no one knows she existed.

I’m Olivia, the author of YOU STAND ON HER SHOULDERS and the founder of HerWiki.

If my cause resonates with you, like/repost and follow for more.

You can also comment “BOOK” and grab a copy of YSHS (WORLDWIDE FREE SHIPPING) to join the cause.

100% proceeds go to HerWiki.

All my love,
Olivia 💜

Belva Ann Lockwood started teaching at 14.

Married at 18. A widow with a baby at 22.

In the 1850s, single mothers had no options.

Women teachers earned half what men did.

Belva decided to do the impossible: become a lawyer.

Everyone called her delusional.

Colleges rejected her.

Judges mocked her.

One even had her dragged out of court.

She fought anyway.

Wrote to President Grant demanding her diploma.

Got it.

Built her practice.

Won cases no one thought she could.

She lobbied Congress for 5 years until they passed a law forcing the Supreme Court to admit women.

In 1879, she became the first woman to argue before the Court.

She didn’t just break the door down—she held it open.

She sponsored one of the first Black lawyers to the Supreme Court bar.

Then she won a $5M case for the Cherokee Nation—the largest settlement ever paid to a tribe at the time.

In 1884, she ran for President.

The first woman to appear on official ballots.

She couldn’t even vote for herself.

Still got 4,149 votes.

Ran again in 1888.

Belva died in 1917—three years before women got the vote.

Every woman lawyer, every woman who owns property, signs contracts, or keeps her wages stands on ground she carved with her bare hands.

Most people don’t know her name.

But in WWII, a Liberty Ship was christened the USS Belva Lockwood.

The figurehead carved in her image looked toward the horizon. Fitting.

She was always staring at a future others couldn’t imagine.

Hey, If you’re new here, I’m Olivia:

- the author of You Stand On Her Shoulders and

- the founder of HerWiki

If Belva’s story inspired you, like/share/repost and follow for tomorrow’s story.

All my love
Olivia 💕

Samantha Smith was born in 1972 in Maine.

At 10, she asked her mother why people feared the new Soviet leader, Yuri Andropov.

Her mom said, “Why don’t you ask him?”

So Samantha did. She wrote to Yuri and asked if the Soviets wanted war.

Andropov invited her to visit.

In 1983, Samantha flew to Moscow with her parents.

She visited schools, met children, stayed in a dorm at Artek camp.

Reporters followed her everywhere.

In press conferences she said, “The Russians are just like us.”

Her innocence pierced Cold War propaganda.

Americans called her “the youngest ambassador.”

In Japan she told leaders: “Trade granddaughters, not bombs.”

Her idea spread: if world leaders loved children, they wouldn’t risk nuclear war.

She wrote a book about her journey.

Then became a child actress.

She interviewed presidential candidates for The Disney Channel.

She played Robert Wagner’s daughter in the TV series Lime Street.

But on August 25, 1985, Samantha and her father boarded Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808.

The plane crashed short of the runway in Maine.

All eight people on board died.

She was 13 years old.

In the U.S., President Reagan wrote that “millions of people will remember Samantha, her smile, her idealism, her sweetness.”

In the Soviet Union, thousands mourned.

They remembered the little American girl who came not with threats, but with a letter asking for peace.

Her funeral drew a thousand people in Maine.

In Moscow she was eulogized as a
champion of peace.

Her ashes were buried in her home state.

Samantha Smith is remembered as the child who asked the question adults were too afraid to ask.

Why not peace?

Anna was the only woman among the Big Six planning committee for the March on Washington.

The men wanted a small protest.

She said no.

She recruited churches and white allies.

The male organizers told her to handle women’s participation.

Anna smiled and recruited 40,000 Protestants to march.

More than any man brought.

The crowd that heard I Have a Dream?

She built it.

When the march happened, no woman was allowed to speak from the main podium.

Anna had organized the bodies.

The men took the microphones.

She stood in the crowd she created, watching history forget her in real time.

She was the first Black student at Hamline.

First Black woman in NYC mayor’s cabinet.

She created positions that didn’t exist.

Then watched men fill the ones that came after.

In Mayor Wagner’s office, they gave her a basement room.

She turned it into Harlem’s direct line to City Hall.

When the mayor couldn’t show up for Black communities, Anna was there.

She co-founded the National Organization for Women.

Fought for Civil Rights and women’s rights when Black women were told to pick one.

She chose both.

The March on Washington photos show rows of men at microphones.

Anna is somewhere in the crowd.

250,000 people came because she knew how to move churches.

She knew how to organize.

She wrote two books about her work.

Publishers barely promoted them.

Male organizers wrote bestsellers about their march.

They got rich telling stories about crowds that Anna delivered.

She died in 1990 at 90 years old.

The March on Washington’s success is credited to men.

But 40,000 of those witnesses came because a woman in a basement office knew revolution needs bodies, not just speeches.

Anna Arnold Hedgeman orchestrated the audience for America’s most famous speech.

Then she was deleted from the story.

Another woman who built the stage for men to stand on.

And got erased from the production credits.

Hey, I’m Olivia:

- the author of You Stand On Her Shoulders &
- the founder of HerWiki

If HerStory inspired you, like/repost & follow for more.

You can also grab a copy of YSHS from the bio to support the cause. 100% proceeds go to HerWiki.

All my love
Olivia 💕

For ten years, Martha hired and fired chemist after chemist.

They all failed her.

Then in 1858, she stood in New York City watching fireworks celebrating the transatlantic telegraph cable.

And she saw the missing piece.

A bright blue flare to pair with the red and white she’d already cracked.

Three colors. Infinite combinations.

On April 5, 1859, she was granted U.S. Patent No. 23,536 for a pyrotechnic night signal and code system.

But the patent listed Benjamin as the inventor.

Martha was named only as his “administratrix.”

Ten years of her sweat. His name on the paper.

When the Civil War broke out, she went straight to Washington and offered Congress to buy the patent so the Navy could use her flares.

She asked for $40,000.

They gave her $20,000 and called it “generous.”

Her flares caught Confederate blockade runners trying to break the Union blockade.

They coordinated the battle of Fort Fisher.

The Navy used them in every major operation.

During wartime inflation, she supplied the flares at less than cost.

She estimated the government owed her $120,000.

She fought them for over ten years.

They offered $15,000.

A woman who helped win the Civil War.

And they couldn’t even pay her what they owed.

In 1871, she finally received a patent in her own name.

Twelve years after the first one.

Every station of the U.S. Life-Saving Service was eventually equipped with Coston flares.

They warned ships off rocks.

They summoned rescuers to wrecks.

They saved thousands of lives along America’s coastline.

Her company stayed in business until at least 1985.

Martha Coston died in 1904, still fighting for the credit and the money she was owed.

A widow with no training who spent a decade finishing a dead man’s sketches, armed the Navy through a war, saved thousands of sailors, and spent the rest of her life battling her own government just to be acknowledged.

And they still put his name on the patent first.

If Martha’s story moved you, like/repost and follow for more.

You can also comment “BOOK” and grab a copy of YOU STAND ON HER SHOULDERS.

100% proceeds go towards HerWiki’s research and development.

All my love,
Olivia 💜

Audre Lorde was not here to make people comfortable.

She came to tear down the walls that shut out women like her.

And she did it.

She was born legally blind in 1934 in Harlem.

While kids her age read storybooks, she memorized poems.

By 4 she spoke only in verse.

Her own mother disliked her dark skin & called her “too Black.”

At 17 she sent a poem to her school magazine.

They rejected it as “inappropriate.”

In 1968 she taught at a Black college in Mississippi.

White feminists invited her to speak.

She asked: “Where are the Black women?”

The room fell silent.

They wanted her talent.

But not her Blackness or her q***rness.

They wanted a "softer" version that erased truth.

She refused.

In 1979 she gave the line that broke white feminism.

“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”

She showed how white women copied exclusion.

She asked where the poor women, the Black women, the le****ns were.

Their answer: “we don’t have time for that.”

Her reply: “Then you don’t have time for liberation.”

She refused to rank which part of her was most oppressed.

She was Black, q***r, woman, mother, poet—at once.

And she demanded space for every part.

In 1984 she met Black German women who had never met each other.

She gave them the name Afro-German and they became a movement.

That is power: naming yourself before others name you.

In 1978 cancer took her breast.

She refused prosthetics and showed her scars.

Doctors gave her three years.

She lived eight more because her body resisted limits.

She called herself Gamba Adisa, warrior who makes her meaning known.

She said living with cancer was about living full, not waiting for death.

She co-founded Kitchen Table Press in 1981.

It was the first U.S. press for women of color.

If others will not publish you, become the publisher.

If they will not seat you, build your own table.

Even dying, she kept writing and teaching.

Her last words: “Your silence will not protect you.”

Audre Lorde died in 1992, but she left a fire that still burns.

Today, every time a woman refuses to choose between her identities and we demand space for our whole selves, that's Audre's legacy breathing.