Women’s History Month

International Women’s Day is a day to recognize the extraordinary work of women across the globe. During these trying times, women all over are leading by example and rising to the challenges faced in the world today. San Francisco SafeHouse honors these exemplary sheroes in making this world a better place.

As a women's organization that provides  housing and a wide array of supportive services to women experiencing housing instability and sexual exploitation, we want to thank all our supporters for their commitment and contributions which has helped make a difference for all the women at SafeHouse.

The campaign theme for International Women's Day this year is led with the hashtag BreakTheBias to raise awareness of all the biases, discrimination, and stereotypes against women. People are posting photos with their arms crossed to show solidarity with this theme and promote more gender equality. #BreakTheBias is to encourage more people to help forging an inclusive and diverse world to keep supporting women to move ahead. 

As we moved through Women’s History Month, we recognized some incredible trailblazers throughout history who have paved the roads for everyone to follow. ​

Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to Congress and the first African American woman to run for President of the United States. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1968, Congresswoman Chisholm represented New York's 12th District in Brooklyn. Keeping true to her motto of being “unbought and unbossed”, in her first congressional floor speech, Chisholm used the opportunity to speak out against the Vietnam War. In 1972, she became the first African American Woman to run for President, and despite discriminatory acts of being blocked from televised debates, was allowed only one speech, and severe underfunding, she garnered 10% of the total votes. She served seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and was one of the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus (1971) and the Congressional Women’s Caucus (1977). After leaving Congress in 1983, she co-founded the National Political Congress of Black Women. She passed away on January 1, 2005.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is one of the most important Mexican poets, writers, and philosophers in Latin America. Born Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez, she lived from 1651 and died in 1691. Sor Juana was the first published feminist in Latin America. She wrote influential plays and poetry on the social status of women, often challenging societal values, and defending women’s rights to gain an education. In 1664, she asked her mother to cut her hair and disguise herself as a man to go to university, since women were not allowed, but was denied. She instead became a nun and joined a catholic convent to independently educate herself.
Sor Juana is one of the most renowned Hispanic literary figures to this day. Some of her works include "You Foolish Men", "My Divine Lysis", and "Since I'm Condemned". Even Octavio Paz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, recognized the importance of Sor Juana’s work. Her fight for the equal rights of women has made Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz a national icon in Mexico, and her image has been part of the Mexican currency since 1978. 

Learn more about Sor Juana here.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York. One of the most accomplished justices in the history of the United Sates, Ginsburg successfully fought for gender equality, advocated for women’s rights, supported same-sex marriage, and unified the liberal block of the court under the law. She battled sexism in her own life and career and until this day RBG is a role model for justice, perseverance, and female empowerment.

Her mother encouraged to pursue education and Ginsburg graduated in 1954 from Cornell University at the top of her class. That year she met her future husband, Martin Ginsberg, whom she later married and had their first child. In 1957, she went on to law school at Harvard, one of nine women in a class of 500, and transferred to Columbia where she graduated first in her class in 1959. While she faced gender-based discrimination from colleges, professors, and high authorities, Ginsburg became the first person to become a member of Harvard and the Columbia Law Reviews. 

Even with all her credentials, Ginsburg faced more discrimination while looking for work. Eventually, in 1963 she became the second female law professor at Rutgers Law School, and in 1972 became the first female professor at Columbia to earn tenure. That same year, Ginsburg co-founded the influential Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. In this position, she successfully litigated six gender inequality cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, took a broad look gender discrimination and fought for women and men who were discriminated in basis of sex.

President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in 1981. 12 years later, President Bill Clinton nominated Ginsburg to the Supreme Court where she became the second female justice, and the first Jewish female justice. From 2010 until the end of her career, RBG had been the most senior justice on the bench. On September 18, 2020, Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away at the age of 87.

​Learn more about RBG here.