In celebration of Women’s History Month, here is a poem featuring a few moms who made history. See if you can guess who they are!
Education for the children,
underprivileged and dismissed.
Pink tower, red rods, golden beads,
her son championed the cause.
(Maria Montessori made history, first as a female physician in a male-dominated field, then as the developer of the world-renown Montessori approach to education. She had one child, Mario, with a fellow physician, but never married. Mario carried on Maria’s legacy.)
Once she lost her voice to trauma,
found it hiding in a poem.
Performed her way to freedom and
inspired minds of millions.
(Maya Angelou suffered abuse as a child, went on to have a career as a singer, dancer, actress, and Hollywood’s first black female director before becoming a legendary poet and writer, and civil rights activist. She became a mother to her only child at 17.)
A new kind of first lady, she
traveled, lectured, wrote her wisdom.
Believed the beauty of her dreams,
civil, women’s and refugees’ rights realized.
(Eleanor Roosevelt, mother of six, advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the civil rights of African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of World War II refugees. She remained active in politics even after her husband’s death.)
He got his moxie from his mama,
Alexander the Great-est led
the military victorious,
no doubt fierce, maybe ruthless, she ruled.
(Alexander the Great’s mother, Olympias, was accused of having a hand in her husband’s assassination and murdering his new wife and her baby to secure Alexander’s succession to the throne. Talk about “snowplow parenting!”)
Now time’s come for you, mama,
difference maker, vision holder,
heart sculptor, future protector.
Making history like a mother.
How will YOU make history?
