The achievements and abilities of female athletes are often overlooked in comparison to the strengths of male athletes. Men are considered to be stronger, faster and more capable in their respective sports than their female counterparts, and we often hear more about athletes and achievements in the NBA than in the WNBA.

Female athletes are just as capable in their fields as are men, and their grit and determination to be successful often demonstrate an equal, or higher level, of strength and power than their male counterparts. Here are some female athletes that made “her-story” and established themselves as icons in the world of sports.

Serena Williams is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, across both men’s and women’s divisions. In her 27-year-long professional career, Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, meaning she won one of the four major tennis matches in a calendar year: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. She also won fourteen Grand Slam doubles titles with her sister, Venus Williams, and the two won three gold medals across the women’s doubles events at the 2000, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games. Williams is the only tennis player to have won three of the four Grand Slam titles in a single year six times.

Alex Morgan is one of the most famous female soccer players in the world and found the spotlight after being selected first overall in the 2011 Women’s Professional Soccer draft. Her achievements on national and international teams paved the way for Morgan to help the U.S. Women’s National Team win gold at the 2012 London Olympic Games, as well as the FIFA World Cup in 2015 and 2019. Morgan and her teammates fought for gender equality in 2019 in a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation, asking for equal pay; their requests were finally granted in February of 2022.

From the early beginnings of the film industry, women have played crucial roles both on and off screen.

Alice Guy-Blaché has solidified her place in film history by being the first female director. Beginning in 1896, she proved to be a headstrong industry trailblazer by directing her first film, “La Fée aux Choux,” which was the first ever fiction film created.

Since Guy-Blaché, female directors have continued to tell moving stories through film and make momentous strides. In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director for her film, “Hurt Locker.” Patty Jenkins reached overwhelming box office success with her film “Wonder Woman,” which also made her the first woman to direct a Hollywood superhero film.

The business side of Hollywood is often viewed as a man’s domain, but women like Sherry Lansing, who was the first female president of 20th Century Fox, and Lucille Ball, who headed Desilu Studios while creating her show “I Love Lucy” have worked to reshape this landscape.

On screen, actresses like Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn, and more recently, iconic women such as Meryl Streep, Julia Louis Dreyfus and Halle Berry have made history through both their talent and representation.

The contributions of these women, as well as many others, are vital to the continued success of the film industry.

Throughout history, there have been many women who have made lasting marks on the music industry.

The first woman to ever win a Grammy was Ella Fitzgerald in 1959. While she was the first female artist that the awards show recognized, she was most certainly not the last. Notably, women like Aretha Franklin, Adele and Beyoncé followed and are now credited with winning several Grammy awards each.

However, the history of women in music goes back much further than the creation of the Grammys. As early as the 1800s, many women took to writing songs and small hymns, but felt pressured to publish them under a different name so as not to reveal their gender.

Many female artists, unfortunately, have had to face a lot of sexism and discrimination within their careers. The inequality in the music industry is something that women have had to overcome for hundreds of years. In more recent years, artists have come out about the struggles they have faced with sexism within their work and the impact it has had on their mental health. Over time, women have been able to find more support, and artists, such as Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, have worked especially hard to use their platforms to bring awareness to the toxicity that women face when working in the music industry.

During March, it is important to appreciate the women in the music industry and the legacies they have created.

Women were once shunned as authors, but many sought pen names to get their messages into print. Now, with the perseverance of early female authors, women have become a part of literature and have done so by fighting battles that male authors have never had to experience.

The Brontë sisters held much influence over literature in the 1800s and are the names behind a handful of classic literature. Charlotte, Emily and Anne all were forced to credit their writings to a pen name in order for their novels to even be considered

to print. They are most known for “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte, “Wuthering Heights” by Emily and “Agnes Gray” by Anne. The three sisters defied the standards of literature that had been previously constructed by men and foreshadowed the feminist movements set to come.

Virginia Woolf is another trailblazer of female authors. She initially wrote under a pen name, but soon resorted to her real name. She played a huge role in the first wave of feminism, which is most famously portrayed in her essay, “A Room of One’s Own.” She is  still a celebrated author of the 1900s, despite gender inequality.

Maya Angelou was both a poet and a civil rights activist. She made her name known with political poems that motivated activism. She made revolutionary style choices in her poems, opting to have her voice be heard explicitly in them.

Women have used literature to voice their activism and have paved the way for female authors in today’s society.