Washington’s Women Trailblazers

March is Women’s History Month in the U.S., Germany and Australia. The commemoration is meaningful in Washington state, home to many remarkable women. Lists include not just dozens, but scores of women worth celebrating.

Any accounting should begin with trailblazers like Catherine Broshears Maynard, who helped her husband Doc Maynard establish Seattle’s first hospital. In her 80s, Catherine traveled the state on horseback and alone, along the way treating patients and established clinics. Her tombstone at Lake View Cemetery simply reads “She did what she could.”

The list would have to extend to remarkable contemporary women like Assunta Ng, who founded the Chinese Post and Northwest Asian Weekly as well as to outstanding politicians like Senator Patty Murray, a powerful advocate and voice for sanity in chaotic times, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who speaks for the state’s Seventh District in Washington D.C.

The honor roll also includes some notable women who might have slipped beneath the spotlight but whose contributions have made this a better world. Here is a sampling: just a few of those whom you’ll want to pinpoint:

Nellie Cornish, an early day pianist, teacher and writer. In 1914 she founded the Cornish School for the Arts which expanded to include teaching in music, painting, dance and theater. A visionary, Nellie often struggled to keep the school financially stable but finally prevailed at providing superior arts education.

Janet McCloud aka “Yet-Si-Blue.” A descendent of Chief Seattle, she fought for indigenous rights and helped organize fish-ins on the Nisqually and Puyallup rivers in the 1960s. She’s has been called “the Rosa Parks of the American Indian movement.”

Corrine Carter, first Black woman police officer on the West Coast. She tended African American children brought into the Seattle Police Department and labored to secure needed overnight accommodations for women and youth.

Thelma DeWitty, first African American and first married woman to teach in Seattle Public Schools. In off hours out of the classroom, DeWitty served as a board member for the NAACP.

Doris Totten Chase, Northwest artist was known for her paintings before she ventured into sculpture and video. Her significant body of work includes “Moon Gates,” a 17-foot bronze on the Seattle Center grounds and the 15-foot sculpture “Changing Form” at Kerry Park atop Queen Anne Hill. There are those who say that if Morris Graves was known as “the bad boy of Northwest art,” Chase should be called “the good girl.”

Mary “Mimi” Gardiner Gates who came to Seattle in 1994 to head the Seattle Art Museum. During her tenure she added 2500 works to the museum collections and worked successfully to establish the Olympic Sculpture Garden. She married Bill Gates Sr. and joined him in philanthropic work.

Bobbe Bridge, founding president and CEO (now retired) of the Center for Children and Youth Justice. A King County Superior Court Judge for 10 years, Justice Bridge served on the state Supreme Court from 2000 to 2008 and co-chaired the cannon on Children in Foster Care. She continues as a leading advocate for domestic violence victims, juvenile justice and foster care reform.

Ijeoma Oluo, best-selling author of “So You Want to Talk About Race.” She received due recognition at the Seattle City Council following the March 3 reading of a proclamation in support of women’s rights. Oluo spoke sounding alarm over the plight of Black women who, she said, are being systematically erased from the job market, from the media and from all places of influence and power.

Despite some earlier progress, today we again are facing major challenges to women’s rights: economic disparities (equal pay), restricted reproductive rights and gender-based violence. On this Women’s History Month let us resolve to restore and protect women’s rights and the rights of minorities.