Breaking Barriers: Women Shaping California

Women have long faced challenges in the place we now call California. From before statehood, when Indigenous women experienced the horrors of enslavement in Spanish missions and the oppression, violence, and genocide of being colonized by European Americans on their own land, to after statehood, with the pervasive gender, racial, and socioeconomic barriers that women often faced in their everyday lives and in pursuit of their livelihoods in sports, the arts, science, education, and politics.

In honor of Women’s History Month, in this exhibit we share stories of remarkable women from diverse backgrounds who lived in California and broke gender barriers through their resilience, innovation, and bravery.