{Jump to the Profiles of Six Founding Women Who Refused to be Footnotes}
Thirteen years ago, when I first started teaching, I noticed something that would become painfully familiar: When my male colleague and I did the same work with equal dedication, the feedback told different stories. His ideas were “innovative”; mine were “interesting.” So I overprepared, stayed late, and went above and beyond, simply to reach the baseline of respect he was granted by default.
What happened to me wasn’t new. In fact, lack of recognition for women’s achievements is something that has been happening for centuries. All you have to do is look back at the stories of the women who built the very country we are living in today.
The 0.5% Problem: Why We Forget
The history we teach is often a “Great Man” narrative. We see George Washington’s profile on the quarter and Thomas Jefferson’s name on the monuments. But what about the women who kept the engine of the American Revolution running? History hasn’t just forgotten them; in many cases, it intentionally looked the other way. A 2021 National Monument audit by Monument Lab found that a staggering 0.5% of public statues in the United States depict historical women. Women made up nearly 50% of the colonial population and were the primary drivers of the economic boycotts (like the tea protests) that actually helped spark the war. Our history of the Revolutionary era often tells only the stories of men’s contributions on the battlefield and at the Continental Congress; in reality, women were also funding, organizing, and fighting for the same cause.
When I teach the names of Revolutionary women, I’m not teaching just women’s history. I’m teaching American History. If we leave the women out of the history, we aren’t telling a complete story.
Why This Matters in My Classroom Today
The fight for recognition didn’t end in the 1780s. Every time I stand at the front of the room, I am refusing to be a footnote. I am telling my students they don’t have to be either. The women featured in this article didn’t wait for permission. They didn’t shrink to fit. That’s exactly the boldness I want my students to claim as their own.
During the American Revolution, space opened for new ideas about freedom and liberty to be discussed. Those conversations changed history, and today they continue with every woman who is bold enough to be herself, fully and unapologetically. They continue every time a woman claims her voice. They continue whenever a young woman realizes she doesn’t have to choose between being worthy and being bold — she can be both, she is both, she has always been both.
Here are a few of the women I teach to my class who were wives, mothers, and daughters. I hope my students — and yours — will also see them as the leaders, strategists, documentarians, and warriors they truly were.