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Women’s History Month

In Focus

Celebrating Women’s History Month

As staff members, then as students and faculty, the women of Harvard paved the way for the next generation, and continue to carve new paths today.

A complicated history

While women weren’t taught at Harvard until 1879, they have always been a part of the University.

Read more about the history

Yesterday’s pioneers


I am not the first woman who ought to have been called to Harvard.”

Alice Hamilton

First woman on the faculty at Harvard

Alice Hamilton
A late 1800s black and white photo of women in a classroom with blackboards

Star analysts of Harvard

In the late 19th through the mid-20th century, these women classified the stars, determined their brightness, and discovered new stars, nebulae, and novae.

Star analysts of Harvard
  • Patricia Albjerg Graham

Leading a faculty

Patricia Albjerg Graham
Leading a faculty
  • Elisabeth Lyell Anthony

Early museum expert

Elisabeth Lyell Anthony
Early museum expert
  • Emily Thornton Gage

First woman at Harvard Divinity

A black and white photo of a woman holding a graduation cap on her head outside a building with a cross on it
First woman at Harvard Divinity
  • Linda Frances James

Public health pioneer

Black and white photo of two men and a woman
Public health pioneer
  • Dolores Mercedes Franklin

Leader in oral health policy

A man and a woman stand together
Leader in oral health policy

Today’s leaders


The first step to being seen as a leader is to be seen at all.”

Pamela Chen

Creator of “Women Before Me,”
portraits of Harvard Medical School alumnae

A woman wearing a mask
A woman wearing a white lab coat stands in a laboratory holding a fluorescent tube. The room is lit in a pink/purple color.

Women making history

These extraordinary women at the Wyss Institute are changing the world.

Women making history
  • Claudia Goldin

Nobel laureate traces major parts of the U.S. workforce

Claudia Goldin standing outside
Nobel laureate traces major parts of the U.S. workforce
  • Melanie Wood

First woman to win the Waterman Award in math

A woman stands outside by trees
First woman to win the Waterman Award in math
  • Melissa Shang

Raising awareness about disability during the pandemic

Melissa Shang in Harvard Yard
Raising awareness about disability during the pandemic
  • Amanda Gorman

Inaugural U.S. youth poet laureate

Amanda Gorman speaks at President Biden's inauguration
Inaugural U.S. youth poet laureate

Making strides

More hills to climb