Discovering the scope of women's subjugation in every aspect of life—at home, in the workplace, in public spaces, in the media—was a gamechanger. Despite the region's progressive reputation, Alexandra notices that almost everything in San Francisco is named after men. She begins researching the lives of influential women who were relatively unknown or overlooked by history and KQED's Rebel Girls series is born in 2018.
According to witness testimonies that eventually landed them at a courthouse in Jamaica in 1720, they were more ruthless and deadly than their male counterparts; they shot their rifles whenever they felt like it; and, in some cases, they fought topless.
In a region that prides itself on progress, women who built institutions, changed laws, fought segregation, defended bodily autonomy and reshaped culture have largely vanished from the public record. Their names are missing from monuments, street signs, statues and textbooks. Their work survives, but their stories do not.
Elizabeth Thorn Scott Flood opened Oakland's first private school for African American children in 1857, paving the way for desegregated education in California. In 1913, Piedmont nurse Bertha Wright founded Children's Hospital Oakland and established the state's first public child daycare center. Frances Albrier became the first Black woman to run for Berkeley City Council in 1939 and the first Black female welder in the Richmond shipyards during World War II.
When biographer Amanda Vaill read Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton (2004), her first thought, she said in a recent interview, was "Oh! Somebody should write about Hamilton's wife and her sister! He's married to Eliza but seems to be attracted to Angelica!" But, Vaill added, "I was in the middle of a book of my own, so it wasn't going to be me."
The five-bedroom, 5.5-bathroom abode has had many lives since it was built in 1856, starting with its original design by architect Louis E. Reynolds.
"These women and the entire Six Triple Eight are great American patriots; loyal to a nation that for far too long failed to return that favor."