BEHIND EVERY MAN by Sunny Frazier

In school we've learned much about the great men of history. Somehow, women are overlooked. Before the movie Hidden Figures came out, we'd never heard of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Christine Barden. These mathematicians worked with NASA but they had two strikes against them: they worked in a field dominated by men and they were African-American. 

Another Black woman hidden in the shadows is Belle da Costa Green, the subject of the novel The Personal Librarian. She passed for white to work for J.P. Morgan, who was very racist. She became instrumental in amassing priceless books (Gutenberg Bible anyone?) and became one of the most powerful women in NYC.

 

Helen Frick was the daughter of Henry Clay Frick. He was the chairman of Carnegie Steel and partially responsible for the infamous Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania which killed over 2,000 people. Helen, who remained a spinster, inherited her father’s collection of art and artifacts and turned the family mansion into a New York City museum.

W do know Marie Curie, but how many have heard of Rosalind Franklin, the British scientist who discovered DNA? She’s off our radar because male colleagues stole her work and received the Nobel Prize after she died of radiation poisoning. Her contributions were buried with her.

The bestseller, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, spotlights librarians who rode on horseback to deliver books to people in the Ozarks. The book also focuses on the Blue People of Troublesome Creek, Kentucky. It was a genetic anomaly which isolated them from white society.

There are many groups of women who made an impact during the World Wars. The Hello Girls were young women sent to France during WWI to man communication lines. Women were recruited by Winston Churchill to act as spies. Many others worked in the Resistance, passing messages and transporting people out of the country. German librarians and museum workers saved rare books and artwork.

Today there are many more women whose historical influences are overlooked, such as the women freedom fighters in Ukraine, Not to mention all the refugee women trying to save their families. Let’s not keep them hidden anymore.