Watch Unladylike2020: Unsung Women Who Changed America

2021
1 Season

Unladylike2020 is a groundbreaking docuseries from PBS that explores the incredible stories of women throughout history who defied societal norms and expectations to make lasting contributions to their communities and society as a whole. Through engaging and thought-provoking interviews with historians, experts, and activists, as well as beautiful artwork and archival materials, viewers are introduced to 26 remarkable women who changed America, despite facing overwhelming obstacles and systemic barriers.

Nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, Unladylike2020 boasts an impressive cast of performers, with each episode being narrated by a different celebrity. Some of the notable narrators include Julianna Margulies, Lorraine Toussaint, and Samira Wiley, among others. Through their powerful and emotive readings of the women's stories, these talented performers breathe new life into these unsung heroines' tales, reminding us of the incredible sacrifices and struggles they endured to pave the way for future generations.

The show's creators made a conscious effort to showcase the diversity of the women featured in the series, ensuring that they represented a diverse array of ethnicities, religions, and orientations. Whether exploring the life and legacy of an early feminist leader who fought for women's suffrage, or shining a light on the little-known story of a transgender activist who fought for LGBTQ+ rights in the 20th century, the show offers a comprehensive and inclusive view of women's history in America.

Each episode of the series offers a tantalizing glimpse into the life and legacy of these remarkable women, with each story being told through a series of interviews with experts, archival footage, photographs, and original artwork. Some episodes focus on a single woman, while others incorporate several stories into a single episode, offering viewers a well-rounded view of the many different ways in which women have contributed to American society.

One of the standout episodes focuses on the life and work of Mary Church Terrell, a leading black suffragist and civil rights activist who played a key role in the struggle for women's rights and racial equality in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Through moving interviews with historians and family members, viewers learn about Terrell's remarkable life, including her role in the founding of the National Association of Colored Women, her tireless work on behalf of voting rights for women and people of color, and her advocacy for public education and housing reform.

Other episodes of the series focus on lesser-known women who made significant contributions to American history, such as Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa, who challenged stereotypes and discrimination through her pioneering wire sculptures, or political activist and social reformer Mary Edwards Walker, who fought for women's rights during the Civil War and beyond.

With its engaging and informative approach, Unladylike2020 is a must-watch for anyone interested in women's history and the many ways in which women have contributed to American society throughout history. From its expertly crafted visuals to its wonderfully performed narration, the series offers a rich and nuanced portrait of the unsung women who have changed America over the years, reminding us of the incredible power of perseverance, determination, and resilience.

Unladylike2020: Unsung Women Who Changed America is a series that ran for 1 seasons (26 episodes) between February 26, 2021 and on PBS Documentaries

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Seasons

26. Charlotta Spears Bass: Newspaper Editor, Civil Rights Crusader & The First Black Woman to Run for Vice President of the U.S.

February 26, 2021

Charlotta Spears Bass (1874-1969) was one of the first African American women to own and operate a newspaper, and the first Black woman to run for Vice President of the United States, on the Progressive Party ticket in 1952. She crusaded for over 40 years against racial violence and discrimination in schools, housing, and the job market, in the pages of the California Eagle.

25. Zitkála-Šá: Composer, Author & Indigenous Rights Activist

February 26, 2021

Zitkála-Šá, aka Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, (1876-1938) co-composed and wrote the libretto for the first American Indian opera, The Sun Dance Opera, authored autobiographical essays for Harper's and The Atlantic Monthly exposing the pressures American Indians faced to assimilate into European American culture, and co-founded the National Council of American Indians to lobby for indigenous rights.

24. Jeannette Rankin: Suffragist, Peace Activist & The First Woman Member of the U.S. Congress

February 26, 2021

Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) made history as the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 1916. A lifelong pacifist, she was the only Congress member to vote against U.S. participation in both World War I and II. She championed legislation to protect children's rights and women's rights, and helped women secure the vote in her home state of Montana, and nationally through the 19th Amendment.

23. Jovita Idar: Mexican American Educator, Journalist, Suffragist & Civil Rights Activist

February 26, 2021

At a time when signs announcing No Negroes, Mexicans, or Dogs Allowed were common throughout Texas, journalist Jovita Idar (1885-1946) helped organize the first Mexican American civil rights conference in 1911 to address racism, lynching and educational disparities. She also created and served as president of the League of Mexican Women, one of the first known Latina rights organizations.

22. Martha Hughes Cannon: The First Woman State Senator & Public Health Pioneer

February 26, 2021

After her family emigrated from Wales to Utah as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Martha Hughes Cannon (1857-1932) completed medical school, and became a doctor, the fourth of six wives in a polygamous Mormon marriage, and a suffragist. In 1896, she was elected the country's first female state senator, defeating her own husband who was also on the ballot.

21. Mary Church Terrell: Educator, Suffragist, Civil Rights Activist & Co-Founder of the NAACP

February 26, 2021

Educator and suffragist Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) became a national leader as founder of the National Association of Colored Women, coining its motto Lifting As We Climb. As a founding member of the NAACP, she actively wrote and spoke out about lynching and segregation throughout her life. In 1895, she became the first Black woman to serve on a board of education in the United States.

20. Sonora Webster Carver: Daredevil Equestrian & Advocate for the Blind

February 26, 2021

After answering an ad seeking a young woman who can swim and dive; likes horses; desires to travel, Sonora Webster Carver (1904-2003) became one of the most famous equestrians in the world, diving 40 feet on horseback into a tank of water. After being injured in a performance that led her to becoming blind in 1931, she continued diving for a decade and engaged in advocacy for the blind.

19. Gertrude Ederle: The First Woman to Swim Across the English Channel

February 26, 2021

Olympic medalist Gertrude Ederle (1905-2003) made history in 1926 when, at age 19, she became the first woman to swim the English Channel, then considered one of the toughest endurance tests in the world. She beat the fastest man's existing record by nearly two hours, challenging notions about women being "the weaker sex. After Ederle lost her hearing, she taught swimming to deaf children.

18. Queen Lili'uokalani: The First Sovereign Queen and Last Monarch of Hawai'i

February 26, 2021

Queen Lili'uokalani (1838-1917) was the first sovereign queen, and the last monarch of Hawai'i, assuming the throne during a government takeover by American plantation and business owners supported by the U.S. military. After being deposed and put under house arrest, she fought to preserve native Hawaiian rights and traditions. A talented musician and songwriter, she also composed over 150 songs.

17. Sissieretta Jones: Opera Star & First African American Woman to Headline Concert at Carnegie Hall

February 26, 2021

Sissieretta Jones (1868-1933) became the first African American woman to headline a concert on the main stage at Carnegie Hall in 1892. Heralded as the greatest singer of her generation, she performed opera internationally and at the White House for four presidents, and traveled the country as the star of a successful vaudeville show for almost two decades.

16. Susan La Flesche Picotte: The First American Indian Doctor

February 26, 2021

Susan La Flesche Picotte (1865-1915) became the first American Indian to graduate from medical school, founded a privately funded hospital on the Omaha reservation in Nebraska, and also fought the spread of infectious diseases and alcoholism at a time when the U.S. government was forcing American Indian tribes onto reservations, and mandating their assimilation into white society.

15. Annie Smith Peck: Record-Breaking Mountaineer, Suffragist & Educator

February 26, 2021

Annie Smith Peck (1850-1935), one of the first women to become a college professor in the U.S., took up mountain climbing in her forties and continued to climb into her eighties. She gained international fame in 1895 when she first summited the Matterhorn in pants, was the first mountaineer to summit Mount Huascarán in Peru, and hung a Votes for Women banner on top of Mount Coropuna in 1911.

14. Gladys Bentley: Gender-Bending Performer and Musician

February 26, 2021

Gladys Bentley (1907-1960) joined New York's Harlem Renaissance jazz scene at age 16, performing piano at the most popular gay bars, wearing men's clothing, singing lesbian-themed lyrics to popular songs, and openly flirting with women in the audience. But the 1950s Lavender Scare crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community pressured her into announcing of her gender identity, I am a woman again!

13. Margaret Chung: The First American-Born Chinese Woman Doctor

February 26, 2021

Margaret Chung (1889-1959), the first American-born Chinese female doctor, dressed in masculine clothing and called herself 'Mike.' In the early 1920s, she co-founded the first Western hospital in San Francisco's Chinatown, and led its OB/GYN and pediatrics unit. She also helped establish WAVES, the women's naval reserves, paving the way for women in the armed forces.

12. Rose Schneiderman: Influential Leader of the American Labor Movement & Suffragist

February 26, 2021

Rose Schneiderman (1882-1972) began working in a factory at age 16, and helped organize a female-led union to fight for safe work conditions and equal pay. She popularized the phrase Bread and Roses to champion workers' rights, and became president of the National Women's Trade Union League, and an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, informing many of his New Deal labor policies.

11. Tye Leung Schulze: Advocate for Trafficked Women & First Chinese American Woman Federal Government Employee

February 26, 2021

Tye Leung Schulze (1887-1972) resisted domestic servitude and an arranged child marriage to become a advocate for the rights of Asian immigrant victims of human trafficking in San Francisco. She became the first Chinese American woman to work for the federal government, as a translator at the Angel Island Immigration Station, and the first Chinese American woman to vote in a U.S. election.

10. Williamina Fleming: Trailblazing Astronomer and Discoverer of Over 300 Stars

February 26, 2021

Williamina Fleming (1857-1911) went from doing domestic work to being appointed the Curator of Astronomical Photographs at the Harvard College Observatory, making her the first woman to hold a title at Harvard University. She is credited with discovering 10 novae, over 300 variable stars, and 59 gaseous nebulae, and classified over 10,000 stars over the course of her career.

9. Lois Weber: Actor, Screenwriter & First Woman to Direct a Feature-Length Film

February 26, 2021

An early film pioneer, Lois Weber (1879-1939) was the first American woman to direct a feature-length film in 1913. She owned her own production studio, and was the first female member of the Directors Guild. Infused with the conviction that film could change culture, she directed over 135 films about controversial subjects such as capital punishment, police violence, birth control, and poverty.

8. Louise Arner Boyd: The First Woman to Lead Arctic Expeditions

February 26, 2021

A self-taught polar scientist and photographer, Louise Arner Boyd (1887-1972) was the first American woman to lead an Arctic expedition, where she mapped uncharted regions of Greenland, creating photographs that provide critical information to glacial ice and climate change researchers today. In 1955, she chartered an airplane and became the first woman to fly over the North Pole.

7. Meta Warrick Fuller: Trailblazing Sculptor and Poet & First African American Woman Recipient of Federal Art Commission

February 26, 2021

Artist Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller (1877-1968) moved to Paris from Philadelphia in 1899 to study sculpture, and was subsequently hailed for resisting stereotypical representations in her depictions of the Black body. She elevated African American history in the first federal art commission awarded to an African American woman, and in other exhibitions, including at several world fairs.

6. Anna May Wong: The First Asian American Movie Star

February 26, 2021

Anna May Wong (1905-1961), the first Asian American female movie star, had a long and varied career spanning silent and sound film, stage, radio, and television. Overcoming severe racism in an era when Asian protagonists in Hollywood movies were typically performed by white actors in yellow face, Wong starred in classics such as The Toll of the Sea, The Thief of Bagdad, and Shanghai Express.

5. Ynes Mexia: Accomplished Mexican-American Botanist and Adventurer

February 26, 2021

An early participant in the environmental movement, U.S.-born Mexican American Ynes Mexia (1870-1938) began her scientific career as a botanist at age 51, leading botanical expeditions across Mexico, Central America, and South America. She became one of the most accomplished plant collectors of her time, discovering over 500 new plant species of which 50 are named in her honor.

4. Lillian Gilbreth: Pioneering Inventor & Industrial Engineer

February 26, 2021

Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972) was the first woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the first female engineering professor at Purdue University. She invented time and motion studies with her husband Frank, and created the design of the L-shaped kitchen and numerous home appliances. Controversially, she was also involved in the early eugenics movement.

3. Maggie Lena Walker: Civil Rights Activist, Entrepreneur & First African American Woman Bank President

February 26, 2021

Over 50 years before the Montgomery bus boycott, civil rights activist and entrepreneur Maggie Lena Walker (1864-1934) led a city-wide boycott against segregated streetcars in Richmond, VA. She also founded a newspaper, a department store, and the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank, making her the first African American female bank president in the United States.

2. Grace Abbot: Social Work Pioneer & Champion of Children, Immigrant, and Women's Rights

February 26, 2021

Grace Abbott (1878-1939), an architect of social work and an activist in the immigrant rights movement, was the highest ranking woman in the U.S. government from 1921 to 1934 as chief of the Department of Labor's Children's Bureau. She led the fight to end child labor and maternal and infant childbirth death, and also helped draft America's Social Security Act.

1. Bessie Coleman: First African American Woman Aviator

February 26, 2021

Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) spent her childhood picking cotton in rural Texas, and after being rejected from flight schools in the U.S. for being Black and a woman, traveled to France to learn to fly. In 1921, she became the first African American to obtain an international pilot's license, and a media sensation because of her daredevil aerial stunts.

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Where to Watch Unladylike2020: Unsung Women Who Changed America

Unladylike2020: Unsung Women Who Changed America is available for streaming on the PBS Documentaries website, both individual episodes and full seasons. You can also watch Unladylike2020: Unsung Women Who Changed America on demand at Amazon Prime, Amazon and Apple TV.