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Phenomenal Woman

Throughout history until today, women have been shaping our world and connecting the community with each other in essential ways. Explore their crucial work and their inspiring stories.

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Reyna Garcia | Samanta Helou Hernandez
Many women immigrants are often forced into informal jobs that take advantage of their precarious situation, yet their contributions often go unrecognized and their labor is exploited and undervalued.
Rosalind Wyman checks home base and the general view at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in preparation to receive the Dodgers for Opening Day. | Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images
Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein and Helen Gahagan Douglas, are only some of the strong female forces who have formed the circle of influence surrounding Rosalind Wyman, the woman responsible for bringing the Dodgers to L.A. in the 1950s.
Henrietta Leavitt c. 1898 at about 30 years old | Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, Photographic Glass Plate Collection
At a time when women astronomers were few and most often relegated to working as assistants, Henrietta Swan Leavitt provided the key to solving one of the most significant celestial uncertainties of her time.
Syuxtun Collective inspecting plants at the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden.
We have forgotten how to be medicine to the land, and to ourselves. The members of Syuxtun Collective are revisiting lost indigenous wisdom of learning and listening, of harvesting and preparing plant medicine in participation with nature.
Diana Trujillo speaks during the Aspira con NASA/Aspire with NASA Hispanic Heritage Month event on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016 at NASA Headquarters in Washington | Flickr/NASA HQ PHOTO/Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
After immigrating from Colombia, Diana Trujillo took the long path to becoming an aerospace engineer at JPL, but for the Colombian aerospace engineer, it was worth it.
A handful of the female aviators who competed in the first women’s transcontinental air derby which began in Santa Monica on August 18, 1929. Amelia Earhart is fourth from the right. Louise Thaden, who won the 2700-mile race, is fifth from the right.
In 1929, Santa Monica was overflowing with spectators as the host for the first Intercontinental Woman’s Air Derby, where twenty female aviators signed up to participate in the 2,759-mile course to the finish line in Cleveland, Ohio.
Astronaut Kalpana Chawla, STS-107 mission specialist, prepares to simulate a parachute drop into water during an emergency bailout training session in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. | Flickr/NASA Johnson/Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 2.0)​
There have been numerous women on the ground who made NASA's journeys possible. The following women are just a fraction of the Asian Americans whose remarkable work continues to impact the investigation of worlds beyond our own.
Susie Keef Smith and Lula Mae Graves on the Bradshaw Trail, a historic gold road through the California desert, 1930.| Warner Graves Collection.
In the 1920s, armed with a .38 revolver and a large format camera, Susie Smith and her cousin Lula Mae Graves set out to photograph the last of the prospectors, burro packers and stage stops in the remote desert to the east.
Two participants of Bilal and Baraka preparing food. | Courtesy of United Women of East Africa Support Team
In the heart of San Diego a group of East African women is running catering services to promote entrepreneurship and implement the valuable skills refugees bring to the table.
Mina Tikal Alvarado-Goldberg, age 14  “My maternal grandmother Martha was born in the city with roots from Guanagazapa/Escuintla, San Marcos and San Jose Pinula. | Mayan Alvarado-Gold / Courtesy of Las Fotos Project
“Maya Womxn in LA” gives young Guatemalan women in the U.S. a chance to connect with their Mayan heritage through photography.
Lamees Dahbour and her family in La Cocina | Jim Sullivan
Since it opened in 2005, La Cocina has grown 35 food businesses. This incubator kitchen gives mostly women, immigrants, moms and refugees a chance to succeed as a food entrepreneur in a highly competitive and male-dominated industry.
African-American women in dance
From ballet and modern dance to Lindy hop and hip-hop, African-American women have left indelible marks on the dance community. 
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