It’s March! (How did that happen?) Spring is around the corner, Daylight Saving Time is creeping up on us, but perhaps most importantly, it is time to celebrate Women’s History Month. Each March is dedicated to highlighting and honoring the indomitable spirit, achievements, and contributions of women throughout history. Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas stand as a testament to the female legacy, boasting a remarkable history shaped by the resilience, leadership, and ingenuity of its women. We celebrate Women’s History Month by spotlighting just a few of the groundbreaking women who are connected to our great region. Here are nine notable women of Pittsburgh.
Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly (born Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman) was an American journalist who was born in Cochran’s Mill, Pennsylvania. She eventually moved to Pittsburgh, where she wrote a letter to the Pittsburg[h] Dispatch editor calling for more opportunities for women in the workforce. She was invited to work for the Dispatch as a reporter. She adopted the pen name Nellie Blyand, and eventually, she moved to New York City, where she worked as a journalist. She ushered in the age of investigative journalism by going undercover as a patient at a New York City mental health asylum in 1887 and exposing its terrible conditions.
Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson was a writer, scientist, conservationist, and ecologist who grew up just outside of Pittsburgh in the town of Springdale, Pennsylvania. Her sea trilogy and book Silent Spring are credited with advancing marine conservation and the global environmental movement. At the time of its publication, Silent Spring became an instant best-seller and was the most talked about book in decades.
Mary Cassatt
Edgar Degas asked Mary Cassatt, a suffragist from Pittsburgh, to join the “Impressionists” in 1877. At that time, this group of artists included a few other well-known names: Claude Monet, Camille Pisarro, Auguste Renoir, and Berthe Morisot. Cassatt was the first woman and first and only American artist to be acknowledged as an equal by what soon became the foremost group of artists in the world. Cassatt’s most famous work was ‘Little Girl in a Blue Armchair,’ which represented her triumphant arrival into the Impressionist movement.
Mary Cardwell Dawson
Mary Cardwell Dawson was a musician and teacher, and the founding director of the National Negro Opera Company. In 1927, Dawson opened the Cardwell Dawson School of Music in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The school remained open until 1941. Dawson devoted her life to bringing opera to African-American audiences. She trained hundreds of African American youth to sing and founded the longest-running, all-Black opera company. Dawson eventually organized opera guilds in Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Washington, D.C., Newark, and New York. In 1961, she was appointed to the National Music Committee by President John F. Kennedy.
Mary Dee Dudley
A native of Homestead, PA, Mary Dee Dudley broke ground as the nation’s first Black female disc jockey. She covered community affairs, mixed with music and news, in a pioneering format. Mary Dee used her platform to amplify the voices of Black artists, interviewing national acts like Cab Calloway, Jackie Robinson, and Sarah Vaughan. She left Pittsburgh in 1956 to work in Baltimore, but her work in Pittsburgh broke both racial and gender barriers and set the future for female DJs throughout the country. Rock on!
Martha Graham
Dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, recognized as a primal artistic force of the 20th century, was born on the North Side. She was known as a prolific and complex choreographer. Her approach to dance and theater revolutionized the art form, and her innovative physical vocabulary has irrevocably influenced dance worldwide. Time magazine named Martha Graham “Dancer of the Century,” and People magazine named her among the female “Icons of the Century.”
Sophie Masloff
Pittsburgh’s first and only female Mayor, Sophie Masloff, began her career as a clerk in the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas. She was elected Mayor in 1988 and served until 1994. Her administration was responsible for a vast improvement of the city’s navigation system. Prior to her term, very few Pittsburgh roads even had street signs. Masloff became the first Pittsburgh official to suggest the Pittsburgh Pirates be given their own baseball stadium outside of Three Rivers Stadium. At the time, she was criticized for her “Clemente Field,” but, as we all know, it has gone on to become the inspiration for PNC Park and Heinz Field, err Acrisure Stadium.
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was born in Pittsburgh in 1874, but lived here only briefly (you can visit the plaque outside 850 Beech Avenue where she was born). She was an author and poet best known for her modernist writings, extensive art collecting, and literary salon in 1920s Paris. Among Stein’s most influential works are the bestselling The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas about her life partner, How to Write, and The Making of Americans. Inspirational in her life and her literature alike, she was groundbreaking in her insistence that same-sex relationships and LGBTQ experiences and communities be represented honestly and thoughtfully in art.
Deborah Todd
In January 2023, Deborah Todd, from Ellwood City, was installed as the first female Chief Justice in the 300-year history of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. (Not a typo. The first female Chief Justice was installed just a little more than a year ago — a reminder of how far women have come and, perhaps, how far they still have to go to achieve gender equality.) As the highest Court in the commonwealth and the oldest appellate court in the nation, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is the definitive authority in enforcing Pennsylvania’s Constitution and laws. At her swearing-in, Todd said she was full of joy and gratitude for the women who paved the way before her: “It’s those women’s shoulders on whom we walked, and we really owe them a debt of gratitude.”
Paving the Way
Shift Collaborative, located in Pittsburgh, is certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). We love to celebrate and lift women up, and we love to celebrate Pittsburgh. Be sure to celebrate them and the groundbreaking women from our region that you know.
