To celebrate Women’s History Month, we’re honoring some of our favorite historical ladies by sharing some of the life lessons that we’ve learned from them. Stay tuned for women’s rights, inspiring artists, and radium!

1. Frida Kahlo taught us that unexpected tragedy can still lead you to great things.

Frida Kahlo went to school to study medicine, and she had dreams of becoming a medical sketch artist. However, a horrific accident while she was riding a bus at 18 years old impaled her abdomen and broke her back, which led to a life of pain, dozens of surgeries, infertility and other problems. She had to drop out of school, but she ended up turning her pain into art. She used her struggles to inspire a lot of her most incredible paintings. So even when she experienced a tragedy, she didn’t still did incredible things, just in a different direction.

Life lessons we learned from Frida Kahlo:

You can use the cards you’re dealt to make the most out of adversity. Frida used her art to get herself through the pain and struggles she faced after her accident.

Dreams change! Frida started in medical school wanting to be a medical sketch artist, but she became a world-renowned painter. She evolved her dream as her life changed.

Be who you are and rock it.

Your creativity and talents can help pull you out of your darkest places.

2. Charlotte Bronte taught us that ambition and boldness is OK!

Charlotte Bronte was excessively ambitious and confident in her own work, even though she was often rejected. She paid to have poems written by herself and her sisters, which was considered a “bold move” for a woman. She also wasn’t afraid to ambitiously write to her friend that she wished to be “forever known.” And she succeeded. While she didn’t get a New York Times obituary when she died in 1855, her husband did in 1906, and it said “Charlotte Bronte’s Husband Died.” More than a century and a half later, the New York Times honored her as part of their Overlooked series, focusing on obituaries for influential people that were overlooked in their time.

Why we want to be more like Charlotte Bronte:

Ambition is NOT a dirty word. Most successful people succeeded because of their ambition. Very rarely does acclaim and success just “happen,” usually you have to strive for it.

Charlotte was a walking embodiment of the sentiment, “well-behaved women seldom make history.”

Wanting success is not a moral failing. It’s the fire you need to get there! Charlotte became a published writer because she wanted to be well-known, and she wouldn’t have gotten there without her outsized ambition.

For more on Charlotte Bronte, check out last week’s podcast HERE!

Sacagewea reminded us that women, and especially mothers, can be much stronger and more level-headed than men.

Sacagewea was a member of the Lemhi Shoshone tribe, and she worked as a translator and guide for Lewis and Clarke, along with her husband, on their historic expedition. On May 14 1805, during her time with Lewis and Clark, their boat overturned, and much of their valuable supplies were thrown in the water. When her husband froze, Sacagewea leaped into action, dove into the water, and rescued all the supplies. She also made the entire journey, while carrying an infant baby. So much for Ginger Rogers doing everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in heels, Sacagewea did everything these famous male explorers did while also caring for a baby.

Why we’re going to give a mom a hug thanks to Sacagewea:

Mothers are badasses. If you take even the tiniest moment to really understand what mothers do every day, you’ll remember what superheroes they truly are.

The idea that men are just “better” at physical activity than women is reductive and antiquated. Yes, our bodies are made differently, but strength and athleticism involve so much more than just physiology. And clearly, Sacagewea had a leg up on the menfolk in that regard!

You can handle it! Particularly for mothers again, your ability to multitask and navigate the stress of life means that you are SO ready for anything that life throws at you. So whatever surprises are in store, even if your boat upturns and you lose all your supplies, know that you can totally take it in stride!

4. Sojourner Truth who schooled the world on intersectional feminism before anyone was talking about either intersectionality or feminism.

One of the things we have to contend with when we celebrate early women’s rights activists like Susan B. Anthony is that they largely excluded women of color from the conversation. Sojourner Truth fought for women’s rights AND civil rights and her work helped to show the world that the two ideas are not mutually exclusive. She was famously concerned that Frederick Douglass placed a higher priority on equal rights for black men, leaving black women out of the conversation. And similarly, she fought hard to be a voice for black women in the women’s suffrage movement. She’s a great lesson that you can fight for it all. You don’t have to compromise one kind of equal rights or one kind of feminism for another. And while a lot of the women who led the women’s suffrage movement get recognized this month, Sojourner Truth often gets left out.

Why we need to talk about Sojourner Truth more often:

She reminds us that our issues our interconnected. You cannot solve one inequality without also addressing another. And we shouldn’t be vying for position with other oppressed and silenced peoples, we should be listening, amplifying, and lifting each other up.

She wanted to build bridges between movements, and we can always use more of that.

She made it clear that just because a problem doesn’t affect you doesn’t mean you get to ignore it. We need everyone in society standing up for the injustices to correct them.

5. Marie Curie taught us that doing what you love and busting through the glass beaker isn’t very glamorous.

Marie Curie was a renowned scientist who won the Nobel Prize in both Physics and Chemistry. And BTW, she was the first woman to win the Nobel, the first woman to win TWO Nobels, and she is STILL the only person to have won a prize in two different sciences. Marie and her husband Pierre did most of their most important work in a shed on the university campus with a roof that didn’t protect them from the rain that was hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. But they needed the space and the ability to work with dangerous chemicals. She also operated outside of current safety standards, because the dangers of radiation weren’t fully understood. She kept test tubes of radioactive isotopes in her pocket, in a desk drawer, simply around without containment. To this day, Marie’s journal and other papers are so radioactive, they have to be kept in a lead box and can only be handled if you have protective gear.

Why Marie Curie can teach us about more than just science:

Livin’ the dream usually isn’t as glamorous as it seems. Marie and her husband weren’t working out of a high-tech lab. They were working in an old shed. But they were pursuing their dreams and having fun science-ing all over the place. Especially in todays Instagram-ready world, we need to remember that life doesn’t have to look pretty to be awesome.

Doing something you love means taking it everywhere. Just the fact that so much of what Marie and her husband Pierre touched is radioactive shows how they just did everything with their work. So know that if you feel inundated by your words, by your drawings, by whatever it is that moves you – then you’re probably doing something right.

But also, please don’t carry radioactive isotopes in your pockets!

Want more life lessons from smart women?

Check out our podcast episode all about Charlotte Bronte and her brilliant way with side hustles.

Read about what we can learn from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about leadership.

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