March is Women’s History Month

Having come of age during the early 1960s as well as having benefitted from the formative advantages of single-gender secondary education, I tend to be keenly attentive to and impressed by the accomplishments of members of my gender. This was a lesson learned from my mother who was also educated in an all-girls environment in the 1920s. Today, as a grandmother of four granddaughters, for whom that tradition is not as well appreciated, I frequently make an effort to point out the significance of such notable accomplishments by women. Especially in light of the tremendous barriers we are still facing in this perpetually male-dominated society. Among the personal connections I am proudly able to share are award-winning poet, writer, and educator Lucille Clifton, who was Poet Laureate of Maryland from 1979 to 1985 and also a finalist twice for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Her daughter, and my friend of many years, Sidney Clifton, is an accomplished, Emmy-Winning Hollywood producer. In addition to that demanding role, she established and continues to spearhead Clifton House Baltimore, a legacy creation in Baltimore Maryland, dedicated to her parents, Fred and Lucille Clifton. Over many generations, countless determined and talented women have emerged and become reputable figures on the landscape of our history. Scientists, inventors, writers, women’s rights and civil rights activists, lawyers and political leaders. Facing formidable obstacles, they persevered. Shattering glass ceilings, forging paths for the rest of us, and clearing the way for many more generations to make history.