Our View: Celebrating strong women

March is Women's History Month, and last week on March 8 we also celebrated International Women's Day. 

There are so many incredible and inspiring women to admire, throughout history and in the present day - many of them in Wyoming's history pages, and some of them in our own newspaper office.

The Sweetwater County Historical Museum has been sharing a series of profiles from "Sweetwater Women," a book by Christine Alethea and Brigida R. Blasi, in honor of Women's History Month. So far they've highlighted Aviation Pioneer Dorothy Krasovec, Sweetwater County's First Woman Commissioner Catherine Chaussart and Murder Trial Juror Louise Spinner Graf.

Wyoming's elected officials have also been taking time to recognize women's role in Wyoming's history, and Wyoming's role in women's history.

"As members of Wyoming's federal delegation, we're proud that our state has led the way in championing women's rights from the very beginning," Senator John Barrasso, Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Harriet Hageman wrote in an op-ed piece. "In Wyoming, we're not just the Cowboy State. We are the Equality State, and our state motto is 'Equal rights.' The idea of equal rights and opportunity for men and women has always been at Wyoming's core."

Women have also played an important part in the Green River Star's past and present, and as a newspaper we are excited to honor trailblazing women who made this possible.

From a historical perspective, the newspaper industry is one that women have played a key role in for centuries.

"Women have been present in the newspaper business since its colonial beginnings," the Library of Congress Research Guides website explains. "In the early eighteenth century, women often worked alongside their husbands and brothers to publish a newspaper as a family business. In some cases, a wife became a publisher upon her husband's death, usually until a son could take over the paper. The Library of Congress' newspaper collections also represent the gradual emergence of women as reporters and columnists. By the nineteenth century, women begin to establish reporting careers in their own right."

Elizabeth Timothy became the first woman publisher in the 1700s.

Mary Katherine Goddard was the printer and publisher of the Maryland Journal of Baltimore during the Revolutionary War, which she wrote "extraordinaries" about. She also printed and distributed the first official copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Cornelia Walter was the first woman to edit a daily newspaper in America in the 1800s.

Women also wrote significant articles for newspapers during the 1800s and 1900s. Margaret Fuller was the first woman literary critic of the New York Tribune, for which she also wrote investigative articles, and she was one of America's first foreign correspondents.

These are just a few of the many incredible women who have shaped the history of the news industry throughout the nation's history.

When it comes to Green River, women have been a crucial part of the Star's history, from the female editors to reporters and every other staff position in between.

Currently, the newspaper is run by an almost exclusively female team.

The two full-time members of the team are our General Manager Jackie and our Editor Hannah Romero.

Jackie keeps everything running, wearing multiple hats and balancing multiple roles within the paper, all while personally knowing and caring about essentially everyone in the city of Green River, preserving the heart of a truly local newspaper.

Hannah is continuing the legacy of female Green River Star staff members in her family, following in the footsteps of her mother Lisa Romero and especially her grandmother Bessie Middlemas, who worked at the Star for nearly 30 years.

Jackie and Hannah are helped by their invaluable team members Lois Lewis, Raena Finch and Stephanie Peterson. Lois builds the Archive page every week and helps with graphic design and special sections like the Preview of Homes. Raena helps Jackie keep the office running and pitches in to help cover sports. Stephanie has stepped in as a photographer, taking beautiful photos for the paper and making sure community events are covered and shared.

We're so grateful for the women in history who have made it so we can be where we are today, and so privileged to keep representing strong women in the newspaper industry and in Wyoming.