Being the number one public university in the country, UCLA has notable alumni in every field imaginable. Not only did these impressive individuals make astounding achievements in their work, but many of them also did so while their gender, sexuality and/or ethnic identity created barriers for them to overcome. Since it is International Women’s Day soon, here are four of my female role models from UCLA who have impacted the greater good of society all while jumping through the hoops that society creates for women:
- Sheila Kuehl
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Originally a child actress, Kuehl graduated from UCLA in 1962 with a Bachelor’s in English. She pursued acting for a bit before becoming an Associate Dean of Students at UCLA. She then went to Harvard Law School and eventually became the first openly gay person elected to the California legislature in 1994, when she was elected to the California State Assembly. She had to fight a lot of injustice to achieve what she achieved, and upon retiring, she quoted her senior strategist: “She said you started your political career fighting bullies, and you’ve ended your political career fighting bullies.”
- Elinor Ostrom
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Elinor Ostrom was the first and only woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. She graduated from UCLA in just three years in 1954 with a BA in political science. Post-grad, she was met with a lot of employment uncertainty as companies assumed she would want jobs that women traditionally took up. Instead, she eventually returned to UCLA for both graduate school and to earn her Ph.D. in 1965. In 2009, after years of field research and analysis, Ostrom won the Nobel Peace Prize for her studies of how people in small communities and villages share natural resources and her analysis of how we can use that data on a broader scale to share resources in an environmentally stable way while still boosting the economy.
- Anna Lee Fisher
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Growing up, Anna Lee Fisher dreamt of being an astronaut. Unfortunately, women were mostly excluded from this profession at this time, so prospects seemed low. She graduated from UCLA in 1971 with a BS in chemistry and shortly started graduate school. She switched from graduate school to medical school, and even though this field also lacked women, she graduated with an MD in 1976 and specialized in emergency medicine. In 1978, she was chosen as an astronaut candidate and helped pioneer ways for women to make the trek into space. In 1984, she became the first mother in space when her daughter was 14 months old. Returning to Westwood again, she received her Masters in Chemistry in 1987. In one address she said, “You have to decide what is best for you not what you think you are expected to do or what others think you should do.”
- Ann Meyers Drysdale
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Ann Meyers Drysdale was the first woman at UCLA to receive a full four-year athletic scholarship. She was breaking records before even getting here, however, as she was the first high school girls’ basketball player to be selected for the U.S. National Team in 1974. She then played for the Bruins from 1974-1978, during which she also played on the Olympic team in 1976. She graduated from UCLA with 12 school records and went on to a crazily successful basketball career. After retiring from the game, she took up broadcasting. In an interview with Forbes, she said “I think of the women that sacrificed so much before me and didn’t receive the recognition. I feel like I was part of the change that happened. We all make sacrifices, and women today have to continue to make sacrifices for the next generation that will come up.”
These are just four of the amazing UCLA alumnae that didn’t let traditional gender stereotypes or haters get in the way of them achieving their wildest dreams. I encourage you to take this month to research the Bruins that have graduated in YOUR field and appreciate all they did to make sure your dreams are possible. You could go on to join these women on the massive list of amazing people that UCLA helped shape.