Honoring Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day: Who Inspires You?

March is Women’s History month, formed by The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.? Together they join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.? The month is about celebrating the contributions and achievements women have made to the United States over the years in various fields.

It is also International Women's Day (IWD) on March 8th, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality with the first IWD gathering started in 1911 supported by over a million people.?

Women throughout history and in our everyday lives are consistently influencing us.? So we asked some of our ReadSpeaker team members what women in history or living today inspires them.

ReadSpeaker’s Senior Speech Scientist Esther Judd-Klabbers said, “It is so hard to mention just one woman. But in my field there is one woman who has been a big influence on me. Her name was Ann Syrdal who unfortunately passed way too soon to cancer in 2020.?

Ann was part of a small group of scientists who began to develop commercial text-to-speech systems in the mid-1980s. She was instrumental in developing female text-to-speech voices. I met her several times at Interspeech, the largest annual speech technology conference. When I first met her, during my PhD studies, she was one of the first women to listen to me and to treat me as an equal.?

We had many great lunches together, and she introduced me to many other great female researchers in our field like Julia Hirschberg, Isabel Trancoso, and Abeer Alwan. She was an inspiration to many young women who were interested in science and was always willing to mentor and encourage them.”

Paul Kim in Technical Sales at ReadSpeaker added, “When I think about women in history, one that comes to mind that I’ve always found to be inspiring is Helen Keller.? She was a disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer born without hearing and sight. Yet, even though she was faced with the insurmountable challenges, together with Anne Sullivan, her instructor, she broke barriers in communication, education, women's rights, and her disability.”

ReadSpeaker’s Educational Development Manager Ginger Dewey shared some of her inspirations both personally and professionally adding, “Maria Agnesi is one of the many women that inspire me on a professional level. She was an 18th-century woman who worked with a curve used in calculus.? The Italian name for a turning curve was mistranslated from the name of "turning curve" to "witch." Today, the curve is called the witch of Agnesi.? It is essentially the normal distribution centered on the y-axis instead of the x-axis.? During this timeframe, it was highly unusual that a woman would be ALLOWED to study mathematics, much less do talks and eventually publish works.? She inspires me because she worked outside the box that women were ALLOWED to work in and accomplished a great deal before she left it behind to follow her religious callings.

On a personal level, there are women that will never be in textbooks or on Wikipedia, but have influenced me and inspired me over the years.? The teacher who taught me that I could do math and do it well - Tina Neely.? She took me from about a grade level below in math and took me to a grade level above in math in one year.? Her patience and applications to the real world were wonderful.??

I’d also like to add my colleague at ReadSpeaker, Kathy Wood.? She inspires me on a personal level to improve my health.? She is a runner and a positive thinker and even continued running after knee surgery. She inspires me to always keep trying, to work out and stay healthy.”??

Ryan Lynch, ReadSpeaker’s Software Support Engineer added, “Fierce and daring women inspire me, mainly because I live with two, my daughter and wife. Seeing them and hearing about inspiring women in history like Harriet Tubman, who led the underground railroad, reminds me to always strive and change for the better. My wife and daughter being fierce and daring give me these same reminders everyday, I'm sure given the chance they would make history as well.”

Keri Roberts, Brand Evangelist for North America at ReadSpeaker added, “Maya Angelou has always been one of the many women who inspire me.? I believe words matter and the way they’re written or said can completely change the mindset or feeling of a person and that is what Maya Angelou mastered as a professional and well known writer and speaker.? She also was always someone who spoke her truth, understood the bigger picture and the human condition in a way most needed to hear.? One of my favorite quotes of hers is, ‘Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without courage, you cannot practice any of the other virtues consistently.’? She most certainly lived her life courageously.”

For ReadSpeaker’s EMEA Marketer, Maurice van der Koelen, he chose two women that have inspired him, Malala Yousafzai and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.? “Both went against their former local oppressive cultures and overcame their battles. Both literally lived to tell the tale and continue to inspire others to fight for their personal freedom. I find them unbelievably strong in both their origin stories and themselves as women. Given they're fighting for equality where it's most needed,” he shared.?

What women have inspired you throughout history or in your everyday life?? Take a moment and share with us your thoughts below.