In honor of International Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day, a time to recognize and celebrate the immense contributions and struggles of women worldwide and the ongoing fight for equality. The 2023 theme is “Embrace Equity.”

“International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women,” states the IWD organization. “The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. IWD is not country, group or organization specific.”

Generations of Furman women have broken barriers, overcome systemic and social obstacles, and made a profound impact on the world. In honor of this day, these are just a few of the remarkable women leaders in the Furman community and university history, starting with Furman’s first female president, Elizabeth Davis. Others include:

• Mary Camilla Judson, “Lady principal” of the Greenville Baptist Female College in 1878, a position she held until 1912
• Sarah Reese ’71 H’14 and Lillian Brock Flemming ’71 M’75 H’14, among the first Black students to attend Furman
• Kim Jackson ’06, Georgia’s first openly gay state senator and one of only three nationwide
• Fran Ligler ’72, groundbreaking scientist and National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee
• Krista Just ’22, Furman ROTC’s first female U.S. Army infantry officer
• Angela Walker Franklin ’81, the first African American female president of Des Moines University
• Col. Sarah M. Whitten, the first woman to chair Furman’s Department of Military Science and serve as the head of the university’s ROTC
• Anne Jolly ’92, the first female bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio