In March we celebrate International Women’s Day. And all around the world, cherished women will be honored. I know with certainty that the women I’ve idolized surround me in a vibrant cosmos of creative energy.

We are – and have been – artists and authors, athletes and warriors, scholars and scientists and so much more.

We’ve been everywhere since the beginning of humankind’s time on Planet Earth. Not one of us alive today would be here, without the person having birthed us the day we took our very first breath of precious air.

Honoring the Universal Feminine on Women’s Days

As a little girl, I hadn’t yet thought of girls and women as being excluded, or as needing to be included, because in my mind we were already the center of it all. I lived in a remote rural area, a place and a time not yet saturated by media. In my world, the goddess was in everyone female and in everything around me: Mother Nature, my own mother, my sister, my grandmothers, my most-loved school teachers and my ever generous neighbors.

The concept of women being the “other” did not even occur to me.

Now, March is designated Women’s History Month in the US. Quite honestly the idea of women’s history being something different from general history overall came as a bit of a surprise to me – at first. After all, women do hold up half the sky. But still, today more than ever before the strengths and brilliance of our mothers, sisters and daughters need to be loudly celebrated, lovingly nurtured and fearlessly protected. Let’s #AccelerateAction!

Who Are Your Most Celebrated Women in History?

Growing up, I relished stories of the Celtic Queen Boudicca in Britain, of Cleopatra in Egypt, and even France’s Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc) who each inspired me as images of strength and power. During childhood I also admired the contemporary Prime Minister of India at that time, Indira Gandhi whenever she appeared, shaping the news.

In the arts, I was mesmerized by the skill and beauty of Osage Nation’s dancer Maria Tallchief, watching her perform as prima ballerina in George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet – which came to Saratoga, Upstate near to where I lived, in the summers.

In the sciences, my mentor and teacher in graduate school was geneticist Barbara McClintock – who received a Nobel Prize for her discovery of transposons, or “jumping genes”. So I learned from my personal experience with her that women are celebrated revolutionary scientists.

I write more about how McClintock influenced me in the memoir book, When the Baby Is Not OK: Hopes & Genes, published independently in February 2025.

Who Are Your Personal Modern Goddesses?

Iconic athlete Venus Williams shines brightest to me, achieving new tennis records while openly supporting girls and women’s body confidence.

Sara Mardini is an amazing swimmer I admire, who worked in human rights activism after leaving Syria for political asylum in Germany, and helped refugees cross over to safety. Her heroism was profiled in docudrama The Swimmers.

In the performing arts, I was stunned by the talent and strength of actress Viola Davis in the 2022 movie The Woman King.

More news of people like these, for International Women’s Day please! As they say, #AccelerateAction.

We are quite simply human, not in the minority. And not defined by which pronouns we choose, or those someone else had chosen for us at birth.