Legendary Women In Colorado History
Colorado has hundreds of legendary women who have shaped its history – from suffragettes and pioneers in the rugged mining days, lawmakers and policy shapers, and trailblazers in industries such as medicine and technology.
To commemorate Women’s History Month, we are highlighting some of the strong women who have left their mark on the Centennial State.
Madeleine Albright grew up in Denver, attending the Kent School, where she founded the school’s international relations club. She studied at Wellesley College and received her Masters and PhDs from Columbia University and was a professor of diplomacy at Georgetown University.
She served as a representative to the United Nations from 1993-1997, and she was the 64th Secretary of State beginning in 1997, becoming the first female Secretary of State in U.S. history. She was a defender of human rights and a vocal proponent of democracy and the environment. She wrote four New York Times best sellers.
Kristi Anseth has made significant strides in the field of biomedical engineering. She’s a researcher and inventor, with 17 patents resulting from her discoveries in cell biology.
Anseth is best known for her advances in combining molecular and cellular biology with engineering to develop substitutes for tissue, to help various parts of the body heal faster. She received a PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado, where she was named a Distinguished Professor in 2008.
Amache Ochinee Prowers, also known as Walking Woman, was born in 1846. She was a member of the Southern Cheyenne tribe and lived on Colorado’s southeastern plains.
After her father, Cheyenne Peace Chief Ochonee, was killed at the Sand Creek Massacre, Amache worked to bridge the cultural gaps between Native Americans and European settlers. She testified before Congress about the massacre, and she was given 640 acres of land as reparations. On that land along the Arkansas River, Amache and her husband John Wesley Prowers worked together to manage their cattle operation as well as a 14-room lodge and mercantile on the Santa Fe Trail while raising ten children.
Helen Ring Robinson was the first woman to be elected to the Colorado Senate in 1912 and she was a champion for workers’ rights and women’s rights. She had success in getting a bill passed for a minimum wage for female workers.
Robinson was a vocal supporter of the suffrage movement, the ability of women to serve on juries, and worker’s safety, particularly in the mining industry. An esteemed writer and speaker, she taught at Colorado College before turning her focus to advocacy.
Josephine Aspinwall Roche attended Vassar College and earned a Master’s degree in sociology from Columbia University. Her father was an executive with Rocky Mountain Fuel, a coal mining company. When she inherited his stock and took over the company, she championed higher pay and better working conditions for miners, paying her workers the highest wages ever seen for mining laborers.
She was the first female police officer in Denver, and also served as Deputy Sheriff. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed her to lead the National Public Health Service, the second American woman to ever serve in a Presidential Cabinet.
Through advocacy, innovation, and determination, these women have helped pave the way for generations of Colorado females by changing the course of women’s rights, worker’s safety, policy, and medicine.
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