Community Corner

Highlighting 31 Prime Poway Women

In honor of Women's History Month, Patch will feature 31 Powegian women making a difference in our lives.

It's hard to believe the history of women and their accomplishments wasn't fully celebrated in a public manner until U.S. Congress designated March as Women's History Month in 1987.

It's hard to believe because women have always played pivotal roles in our lives and, in this case, American history.

Probably one of the most significant women in American history is Abigail Adams, the wife of the nation's second president, John Adams.

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Abigail's role in governing has always interested me—a history fanatic and political news junkie—and, I'm sure, the many people who have also taken the time to study her.

Though she was the "woman behind the man"—it's touching to know the challenges she overcame in the interest of not just her husband but the 3-5 million people who lived in the U.S. during John's presidency. But Abigail did more than play the role of supportive spouse or the mother of the sixth U.S. president, she fought for women's rights in an incredible manner during the early stages of U.S. history.

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Her life's accomplishments and the contributions she has made to American women are inspiring, and since those early pioneer years, women have grown.

But Abigail is just one of many inspiring American women.

The 68 women who participated in the first Women's Rights Convention in 1848, the members of the American Women Suffrage Association and the National Women's Party, even the founders of San Diego State University's Women's Studies Department (the first women's studies department in the nation) are just a few others who deserve praise for their roles in creating women's history in the U.S.

But even today, women are making history.

In 2007, a woman earned the Forces Command Soldier of the Year award for the first time, in 2009 the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act was signed into law and in 2010, two women were the top contenders in the hottest California political races.

And this truth isn't limited to Poway.

In honor of Women's History Month, Patch will honor 31 Powegian women making a difference in our lives every day in March.


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