Take a look at the images below. Are you familiar with any of the women shown? Click on each image to learn more.

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Mary McLeod Bethune, a civil rights leader and educator, helped found the Negro Council of Women in 1935. This organization promoted equal rights for African-American women, tackling issues such as job discrimination and sexism. Bethune later founded a training school for African-American girls, which later became Bethune-Cookman College.

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Dr. Gerty Cori was the first American woman to receive a Nobel Prize in science. After earning a medical degree from the University of Prague in 1920, she and her husband, Carl Cori, immigrated to America and became U.S. citizens. Working as university professors in St. Louis, Gerty and Carl Cori won a Nobel Prize in 1947 for discovering the enzymes that convert glycogen to sugar and back again into glycogen.

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Dolores Huerta, a former schoolteacher, became involved in the farm workers movement after noticing that many of her students, who were the children of farm workers, were often without basic necessities. She cofounded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez.

Throughout the history of the United States, women have made contributions to American society economically, politically, and socially. Without these contributions, the American identity would not be the same.

Read more in the slide show about women who have contributed to the American identity in U.S. history.

Read the statements below and determine if the contributions described are economic, social, or political. Check the appropriate category(ies).

The women that you have just read about are just a few who have contributed to the American identity. The next section will illustrate ways in which other people contributed to the American identity.