Throughout the month of March, we're recognizing the profound impacts women have had across cultures, continents, and centuries. We invite you to dive into the lives and legacies of these extraordinary individuals who have helped pave the way for progress and equality.

• Marin Alsop - The first woman to serve as head of a major orchestra in the United States, South America, Austria and Britain. Recently appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra with numerous other conducting engagements worldwide.
• Jane Austen - One of the most famous figures in British history, her novels have gone on to become literary sensations, often intertwining plotlines exploring marriage, status and social sensibility with a distinctive irony. Her works have been adapted many times in plays, films and TV series.
• Amy Beach - The first American woman to gain recognition as a classical composer and pianist. Known for orchestral, chamber music, choral and piano works, her Gaelic Symphony was the first symphony by an American woman to be performed by a major orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in 1896.  Young Amy was a true prodigy who memorized forty songs at the age of one and taught herself to read at age three.
• Joan Benoit Samuelson - In 1984, she became the first female American marathon runner to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. The record she set at the Chicago Marathon in 1985 remained unbroken among American women for 32 years.
• Fanny Brice - An American comedian, singer and actress who made many stage, radio and film appearances. She is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, “The Baby Snooks Show.”
• Tarana Burke - Known as the founder of the Me Too movement, Burke’s hashtag has been used more than 19 million times on Twitter alone. Burke has been widely recognized for her commitment to the interruption of sexual violence and other systemic issues disproportionately impacting marginalized people, particularly Black women and girls.
• Rachel Carson - An American marine biologist, writer and conservationist whose book, Silent Spring, and her other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement.
• Julia Childs - A famous chef, author and television personality who made French food accessible to most Americans. She was one of the first women to host her own television show.
• Marie Curie - A physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
• Christine Darden, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan - The mathematicians integral in helping NASA launch rockets and win the “Space Race” of the 1960s at a time when the American space industry was majority white and male.
• Emily Dickinson - An American poet known for her unconventional style and profound exploration of themes like death, nature and the human experience. She lived a reclusive life and produced nearly 1,800 poems, many of which were published posthumously and had a profound impact on American literature.
• Queen Elizabeth II - The longest serving British monarch in history, she supported hundreds of charities, modernized the royal family and became the first monarch to visit Ireland in 100 years.
• Betty Friedan - An author and activist whose 1963 book, The Feminine Mystique, set in motion a wave of the Women’s Movement. She co-founded the National Organization of Women (NOW).
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg - A cultural and feminist icon—and a legend in the legal profession—she was the second woman to ever be appointed a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Among her many accomplishments was her work to upend legislation that discriminated based on gender.
• Jane Goodall - An English primatologist and anthropologist, Jane is considered the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees. She has spent decades studying the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania and ran the longest continuous study of chimpanzees in the world. In addition to being a scientist, she is also a naturalist, conservationist, activist, humanitarian and became a UN Messenger of Peace.
• Katharine Graham - An American newspaper publisher who presided over the Washington Post as it reported on the Watergate scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. She was the first 20th century female publisher of a major American newspaper and the first woman elected to the board of the Associated Press.
• Kamala Harris - The first woman elected as Vice President of the United States and the highest ranking female elected official in government.
• Frida Kahlo - Known for her self-portraits and artworks that emphasize themes of fantastical surrealness, Kahlo is a pop culture icon, her life and work having inspired movies, art installations and books.
• Dolly Parton - The most successful female country singer of all time. She is a singer-songwriter, actress, successful businesswoman and philanthropist. Her songs have been on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for seven decades and she’s had more number one hits than any other female artist in history.
• Dr. Sally Ride - On June 18, 1983, she became the first American woman, and first openly gay astronaut, to fly into space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Throughout her life, Dr. Ride broke barriers and worked to ensure girls and women were encouraged to do the same.
• Muriel Siebert - Considered the “first woman of finance” to some, Muriel Siebert became the first woman to have a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1967, joining as the only woman among 1,365 male members of the floor. Siebert was a loud voice for equality, having changed jobs numerous times throughout her career due to pay disparity. She opened her own brokerage firm and served as the superintendent of banking in New York in 1977.
• Gloria Steinem - An American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
• Taylor Swift - One of the world's best-selling musicians, earning 11 number one hits throughout her career. She is the highest grossing touring act, the most-streamed woman and is a 12-time Grammy Award winner.
• Saint Teresa of Calcutta (known as Mother Teresa) - A Roman Catholic missionary and nun who devoted her life to helping those most in need. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in India in 1950 and, for over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned and dying.
• Sojourner Truth - An American abolitionist and activist for African American civil rights and women’s rights.
• Maggie Lena Walker - In 1903, she chartered St. Luke’s Penny Savings Bank, becoming the first woman in the U.S. to ever charter a bank. She served as the bank’s president until her death in 1934. Walker was a leading advocate for women and African Americans in the segregated south and founded St. Luke’s as a way to encourage them to harness their economic power through saving. St. Luke’s was one of the few banks to survive the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
• Janet Yellen - The only woman in American history to lead the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the president's Council of Economic Advisers.
• Malala Yousafzai - An advocate for the education of girls around the world. She began advocating for girls’ education when she was still a child and became a target of violence after speaking up against the Taliban’s prohibition on girls’ education. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement. She is also the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate.

MKP communications inc. is a New-York based marketing communications agency specializing in merger/change communications for the financial services industry.