State-by-state: USA TODAY Network’s Women of the Century marks 100 years since the 19th Amendment
How do you narrow down all the innovative, courageous, creative, trailblazing American women from a state or Washington, D.C. to a list of 10?
That was the task we gave journalists last fall in many of the USA TODAY Network's 260-plus newsrooms as part of the Women of the Century project. And, at first, it felt impossible. We considered profiling more women, but with the demands of covering news, we had to be realistic about what we could handle – and that was before a pandemic swooped in and changed everything – even the date we planned to start publishing many of these stories.
We invited the public to nominate women. We met, we brainstormed, we researched, and we brought in historians, politicians, community leaders and others in the know to help us.
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We set the parameters. Since we are commemorating the 100th anniversary of women being granted the right to vote in the United States, we would limit the women to those who lived between 1920 and today. The women needed to be U.S. citizens. We focused on women with documented and outstanding achievements in areas such as arts and literature, business, civil rights, education, entertainment, law, media, nonprofits and philanthropy, politics, science and medicine, and sports. To spotlight as many women as possible, we aimed to have every list be unique. For instance, if a woman hailed from one state but made her mark in another, we would have to decide which state could claim her.
At first, we didn't include the inhabited territories of the United States. We do have a publication in Guam but not in Puerto Rico; the U.S. Virgin Islands – composed of St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas; American Samoa; or the Northern Mariana Islands. We simply weren't sure how we could get the work done. But when an early-career journalist joined USA TODAY and began working on this project raised her hand we had a solution. Given the geographical diversity of the territories, we expanded that list to 19.
Ultimately, we developed 52 lists with more than 500 women.
Explore our Women of the Century from every state
We marveled at some of the things we learned or were reminded of along the way. We came across Myrah Keating-Smith, a nurse and midwife who was the only health provider in St. John for over two decades. She appears on our list of women from the territories. Some of us didn't realize that the Tony Awards, which recognizes excellence on Broadway, were named for a woman named Antoinette Perry-Frueauff who appears on our Colorado list. We think of Venus Williams, on our California list, as a dynamic tennis player, but we were reminded that she fought for equal prize money for women tennis players at Wimbledon and the French Open.
And we agonized. How could we not include so many women who did so many remarkable things? There were debates and respectful arguments. But ultimately, we had to decide, and we present to you the USA TODAY Network Women of the Century list project.
Don't consider this the end. We encourage you to tell us about women you would like to see highlighted. Please fill out this form – you may even submit a video or photo that we may use in future stories, videos or social posts.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: State-by-state: USA TODAY Women of the Century project
