Across cities, homes, and battlegrounds, women played essential roles in the fight for independence and helped shape what it meant to build a new nation.

In celebration of this milestone in our history, we are reflecting on 250 years of America through the women who helped shape our country.

Since 1776, women have been at the center of every chapter of the American story, leading movements, breaking barriers, and building the nation we know today. Yet for too long, their contributions have been reduced to whispers and footnotes, written out of the textbooks, left out of the monuments, and overlooked in the history we pass on to the next generation.
 

At the National Women’s History Museum, we believe that a more accurate history is a more powerful one. As America marks its 250th anniversary, we are committed to ensuring that women are not an asterisk in this celebration, they are the headline.

That’s why we launched She Is Not a Footnote, our bold initiative to address the underrepresentation of women in history and inspire the next generation of leaders. Because when women see themselves in history, it changes how they view themselves, and how the world views them.

This semiquincentennial, we invite you to discover, preserve, and share the inspiring stories of the women who made America. Explore their contributions. Learn their names. And help us ensure that the next 250 years tell a more complete story.