WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

Women's History Month is an annual declared month worldwide that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. It is celebrated during March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, corresponding with International Women's Day on March 8. State departments of education also began to encourage celebrations of Women's History Month as a way to promote equality among the sexes in the classroom.

WOMENS HISTORY MONTH

Women's History Month provides us with a great opportunity to celebrate women's progress here and abroad, but it is also a time to rededicate ourselves to the goals of women's equality and human rights still under siege in "the land of the free and the brave". There will be more than 1000 events around the world celebrating women -- 154 and counting in the U.S. Thanks to the Internet, women throughout the country can participate in events ranging from film festivals, to 5K races, to a discussion of girls' education in India, to crowd-funding to support women entrepreneurs in Kenya, Uganda and Mexico. Google International Women's Day.

IN HONOR OF WOMENS HISTORY MONTH, WHO IS HEDY LAMARR?

She was a co-inventor (with composer George Antheil) of the earliest known form of the telecommunications method known as "frequency hopping. Which used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or to jam.

HEDY LAMARR
The method received U.S. patent number 2,292,387 on Aug. 11, 1942, under the name "Secret Communications System". This invention developed a "Secret Communications System" to help combat the Nazis in World War II. This was done by manipulating radio frequencies at irregular intervals between transmission and reception, the invention formed an unbreakable code to prevent classified messages from being intercepted by enemy personnel.

Lamarr earned a place among the 20th century's most important women inventors. She truly was a visionary whose technological intelligence was far ahead of its time.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT IN TODAYS WORLD?

Because frequency hopping is now widely used in cellular phones and other modern technology. However Lamarr did not profit from this fact, because their patents were allowed to expire decades before the modern wireless boom.

RUZWANA BASHIR
Born 28 July 1983 and is a British businesswoman. Is the founder and CEO of Peek.com, travel company based in San Francisco, California. While at Oxford she was the first Britishborn woman of Asian descent to become President of the Oxford Union and was later a Fulbright Scholar at the Harvard Business School.

RUZWANA BASHIR
In 2004, Bashir was nominated for the Woman of the Year Award by publishing house Minerva. In 2010, Bashir obtained an MBA at the Harvard Business School, where she was a Fulbright Scholar.Ruzwana was also profiled as "Queen of the Valley". Fast Company named Bashir one of the 100 most creative people in the business this year, and in 2012, Forbes named her in their list of "30 Under 30:Technology" entrepreneurs, which also includes Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg.

WHAT IS PEEK.COM?
Peek.com is a online concierge website that applies to every state in America. Bashir then raised $1.4 million in seed money, launching the site last October. The website offers travel excursions in 12 U.S. markets and launches in London and Paris this summer. Bashir is the kind of social technology entrepreneur who is shifting the way we think about doing things in the 21st century.

REFLECT!
On a separate sheet of paper: Complete these questions in COMPLETE SENTENCES! (6-8 sent.) Who is the most influential woman you know? How does she inspire you? Do you think women have equal rights to men today? Why or why not? Who is your favorite historical female figure? What do you admire about her?