The women featured below have had a significant impact on Virginia's history. Learn their stories below.
One of the First
Temperance Flowerdew was one of the two first English women in Virginia, arriving in 1609. She survived the 1610-1611 "Starving Time," and in 1613 took her second marriage to Captain George Yeardley, a prominent military leader in Virginia who became Governor.
In the early years of the Virginia colony, there were very few English women. To help the fledgling colony, the Virginia Company recruited and sent nearly 140 women from 1620-1622 to answer the requests from planters for wives.
The Olympic Gymnast
At the 2012 London Summer Olympics, Gabrielle Douglas of Virginia Beach thrilled audiences and judges, earning gold medals in both the team and individual all-around competitions. Her wins made her the first woman of color in Olympic history to become the Individual All-Around Gymnastics Champion.
The Music Legend
Maybelle Addington was born to the Addington and Kilgore families, early settlers in Nickelsville, southwest Virginia. She married Ezra Carter in 1926, became an early female musician as part of the Carter Family trio and invented a new style of guitar picking still used today, the Carter Scratch. She played autoharp and banjo along with guitar in one of the earliest commercial music and radio ventures featuring rural music and songs, all while bearing three daughters, Helen, June and Anita.
She became "Mother" Maybelle as she brought her daughters into the now-family business, touring with them 1940-60 as "The Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle" and earning fame as an endeared member of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1950s.
The Ambassador of Dance and Culture
The joy and beauty of South American dance and culture has become a part of Richmond and Virginia's culture thanks to the work of Ana Ines Barragan King.
One of the Library of Virginia's Women in History honorees, King is a native of Columbia, South America who learned dance from her mother at a young age. She moved to Richmond and VCU after marriage, and in 1997 established the Latin Ballet of Virginia.
She refers to herself and her company as "ambassadors of dance and culture," and has developed educational programs to teach students Spanish and English through dance and use dance as therapy for children with special needs.
The Scholar and Advocate
A member of the Monacan tribe, Karenne Wood spent most of her life working to understand and to share what being one of Virginia's native peoples meant. She began an effort to document and revive the Monacan language, and sat on the Monacan tribal council and served as tribal historian.
Wood edited The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail (2007)'s tribal histories and interpretive site descriptions, and curated the exhibition Beyond Jamestown: Virginia Indians Past and Present, at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. Her work included coordinating the return of sacred artifacts to native communities through the Association on American Indian Affairs.
The Civic leader and Social Reformer
Ora Stokes was the daughter of a preacher in Chesterfield County who married another preacher and spent her life working to further the education of women and Black Americans.
A trained teacher by profession and a well-known community activist and suffragist, Stokes attended a segregated public school in Fredericksburg. She graduated from high school at age 13 and obtained her teaching degree from Virginia Normal and Collegiate institute (now Virginia State University).
Shortly after the ratification of the 19th Amendment in August 1920 allowing women to vote, Ora and her friend Maggie L. Walker led a voter registration drive for African American women in Richmond.
The Self-Made Philanthropist
Sheila Johnson, a repeat member of Forbes' annual lists of America's Richest Self-Made Women, often uses her wealth to fund causes that help people of color and artists. She's a co-founder of WE Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in women-led startups.
Johnson's company is now ranked #25 among the nation's largest Black-owned businesses. She's the first Black woman to be an owner or partner in professional sports teams including the Washington Capitals (NHL), the Washington Wizards (NBA) and the Washington Mystics (WNBA).
The Advocate
My Lan Tran is executive director of the Virginia Asian Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit business organization. She advocates on behalf of over 47,500 Asian American companies in Virginia, which employ over 97,000 persons and create $20B in revenue annually.
Tran, who speaks Spanish, French, Vietnamese and English, came to the U.S in 1975 after the communist takeover of her country. Her awards include Small Business Administration Champion of The Year for Small and Minority Business and SBA Champion of The Year, Small and Minority Business – Commonwealth of Virginia.
The Industrial Leader
Jennifer Boykin is head of the largest industrial employer in Virginia - Newport News Shipbuilding. Named to this position in 2017, she is the first woman to serve as president of the Newport News shipyard. She manages a workforce of over 25,000 shipbuilders who design, build and maintain the world’s most complex ships.
Boykin began her career in nuclear engineering and now actively promotes workforce development and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs. She is a founding member of two organizations dedicated to empowering girls and women.
