Women's History Month

March, the third month of the Gregorian calendar, was named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It seems appropriate that the United States Congress would choose this month as Women’s History Month since our country’s history includes quite a few moments where women have had to fight for rights and advance “liberty and justice for all!” 

Some examples:

• The fight for the right to vote when suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony worked to harness the collective energy of women and men alike to pass the 21^st amendment 

• Elizabeth Blackwell had to fight to receive a medical degree

• Frances Perkins worked hard to earn the honors of being the first woman to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Labor and the first woman to be appointed to a presidential cabinet. 

• Rosa Parks fought by sitting down for civil rights. 

• Betty Friedan fought by speaking up for women’s rights. 

• Athletes like Lottie Dod, Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Billie Jean King fought by playing hard at the sport they loved.

• Aretha Franklin, Bette Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, and Barbra Streisand fought by singing what was in their souls.

And today throughout our world, women leaders are stepping up in times of peace and in times of upheaval and conflict. Just yesterday in the Sunday paper, I read about women’s role in Ukraine army, USA Women’s Soccer Team who fought for and won equal pay,  Ketanje Brown Jackson, Biden’s Supreme Court nominee who would be the first black woman to serve on the Court, and the rising number of female business leaders such as Susan Wojcicki, Lisa Su, and Marillyn Hewson (to name only a few as this list keeps growing) who are among today’s highest performing CEOs.

For me, the fighting spirit of women in history harkens to Hathaway Brown’s own founders, those five young women who marched up the steps of the Brooks Military Academy in 1876, knocking on the door and asking assertively to be educated, and to be included in that learning community. Marching takes initiative. It takes courage, character, and kindness. Marching together engenders empathy, honors interdependence, and fortifies a people behind a core set of values. 

The national celebration of Women’s History Month must include Hathaway Brown School, the oldest continuously operating school for girls in Ohio, and one of the first all-girls schools in the country. Since that very beginning in 1876, we have defined our purpose of educating young women not for school but for life. Even then, we believed in the unbounded capabilities of girls; that character matters most of all, that excellence and innovation are passionately connected.

The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History describes HB as “the oldest surviving private girls’ school in the Cleveland area.” If the month of March is about empowering women’s voices, well then I go on record to challenge this portrait. Hathaway Brown is not merely surviving; we are thriving. Our students at every grade level appreciate this scaffold of women’s history, as our programming and curriculum provide extraordinary opportunities for academic achievement, artistic expression, and civic engagement. For example, this week we will celebrate the 24th annual Poster Session of our signature Science Research & Engineering Program which has paired more than 600 Upper School students with researchers at world-class institutions including Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and NASA Glenn Research Center over the course of the past two decades.

We believe women’s leadership and talents matter, and they are worth fighting for. This mattered in the past, this matters today, and this will matter tomorrow. HB continues to inspire our students to achieve their utmost potential, and to rise boldly to the challenges of our times.

Let us celebrate this spirit over the course of the next 31 days and beyond!

Fondly,

Fran Bisselle
Head of School