Women Woven Into History

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - March is National Women's History Month and the 35th anniversary of the National Women's History Project. Women cited have woven stories into the fabric of our history.

Delilah L. Beasley, born in 1867, was the first African American to be regularly published in a major metropolitan newspaper, The Oregon Tribune, reporting on the history of African Americans in early California. Harriet Beecher Stowe's book, in 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin, about slavery and abolition, sold an unprecedented 300,000 copies.

Fannie Farmer's cookbook was the first of its kind to give measurements for ingredients, standardizing cooking practice. More recently Eleanor Flexner's groundbreaking book in 1959, Century of Struggle: The Women's Rights Movement in the United States, was a pioneering effort in women's studies.

Lyn Sherr, broadcast journalist and author, won the Mademoiselle guest editor competition while in college. Known for her work at Associated Press, PBS and ABC, she won the George Peabody Award in 1994 for "The Hunger Inside" about anorexia.