Monumental Women

08/26/2026

Today is Women's Equality Day. Monumental Women urges you to click on the link in our bio to watch The Most Perfect Album Dolly Parton 19th Amendment (Music Video)

08/26/2026

Happy Women's Equality Day! Today, August 26, on the anniversary of the 19th Amendment enshrining US women's right to vote and in honor of the passing of Dolly Parton take a listen to her great song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPDY8MlT_T4 about women's suffrage. Thank you ! Please share.

VIDEO ANIMATION By Maya Edelman: https://www.mayaedelman.com/WHA...

08/26/2026

Monumental Women This is the 9th in a series honoring women of Ground Zero. As countless military women immediately mobilized to respond to the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC on September 11, 2001, then-US Air Force (USAF) Lt. Heather Penney, a rookie F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot with the 113th Wing of the DC Air National Guard, went on alert. By the time Penney and her flight lead got into their F-16 cockpits at Andrews Air Force Base (AFB), they already knew that hijacked aircraft had hit the Pentagon and the towers in New York. Their mission was to prevent further damage — in particular from that posed by United Airlines Flight 93. With no time to arm their aircraft, took off what was essentially a su***de mission to ram UA93 with their aircraft to bring it down before it could harm a DC target. Instead resistance from passengers aboard Flight 93 thwarted the hijackers’ plans; and ultimately, the plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, PA. Penney said the passengers did “something they never should have had to do.”

Penney did not have the chance to reflect on what might have been. She “immediately moved to 24/7 combat air patrols,” flying from midnight to 4 a.m. for nearly a year, she said. Then, she went to train for combat operations in Iraq, where she served two tours.

Read more and listen to a panel discussion of that event here https://911memorial.org/events/above-beyond-air-force-response-911

Image from the National Museum of the United States Air Force

08/25/2026

Tributes to Dolly Parton are pouring in. Monumental Women extends our deepest sympathy to her family and friends. Her talents and generosity should be a continuing inspiration. A beautiful spirit, she was a Monumental Woman.

Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80. The country music legend was known for songs including “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You” and “9 to 5.” She also starred in movies like ‘Steel Magnolias’ and ‘The Best Little Wh******se in Texas’.

08/25/2026

Monumental Women This is the 8th in a series honoring women of Ground Zero. On September 11, 2001, Lieutenant Terri Tobin, assigned to the NYPD’s Office of Public Information, responded to the World Trade Center after the first plane hit. As she made her way to the mobilization area, a superior officer told her to put a helmet on. That initial action later saved her life when she was hit with a chunk of cement that split her Kevlar helmet and embedded in her head in the collapse of the South Tower. Read Lieutenant Tobin’s account of her harrowing day — evacuating people, digging herself and others out of the debris, getting caught in the second tower’s collapse that left a pane of glass embedded in her back in the Smithsonian Magazine special 9/11 20-year anniversary issue and in the book The Women At Ground Zero. Despite her serious injuries from that day, Tobin stayed in the NYPD, retiring as Chief of Interagency Operations in 2024.

Here is the link to the Smithsonian Magazine article mentioned above
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/personal-remembrances-loss-struggle-resilience-september11-180978361/

Photo courtesy of the NYPD.

08/24/2026

This is the 7th in a series honoring women of Ground Zero. Monumental Women Detective Sergeant Susan Keane served the Port Authority Police Department from November 1, 1993 through July 31, 2015, and was a veteran of the United States Army, serving in multiple combat areas. She responded to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, rescuing many before being injured and hospitalized. Sue tells a harrowing story of her 9/11 day starting with hearing what sounds like a low-flying plane, then seeing the plane sticking out of the North Tower, running the few blocks to the World Trade Center, evacuating people from the buildings, surviving multiple collapses, explosions and massive dust and debris. September 11 left Sue with multiple medical conditions, PTSD and a profound sense of loss. Read her personal account in Women at Ground Zero (Hagen and Carouba)

Retired PAPD Detective Sergeant Keane, passed from 9/11 related illness shortly after the 20th anniversary on 10/30/2021 after living a life of selfless service. She is survived by her son and daughter.

Photo credit Joyce Benna

08/23/2026

This is the sixth in a series honoring women of Ground Zero. Monumental Women Twenty-five years ago, Port Authority police officer Norma Hardy was preparing to go in to work her assigned afternoon shift in lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001 when her mother called to tell her of a plane crash at the World Trade Center (WTC). Unable to reach a colleague to carpool, Hardy drove alone to the site alone through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel filling with debris to find what she describes as a scene out of the “Twilight Zone.” She had experience with danger and terrorism at the WTC, having been awarded a medal of valor for her actions as a rookie officer during the 1993 terrorist bombing of the North Tower. But when she arrived on 9/11, the towers had fallen, surrounding buildings were on fire, and Hardy and other rescuers began digging with their hands searching the rubble for any survivors. She was struck by the eerie silence broken by the firefighter personal alarms going off. After 9/11, Hardy was promoted to sergeant in 2002 and lieutenant in 2006. She kept working at ground zero as a new World Trace Center One rose, and had the address under her jurisdiction when she retired as assistant chief in 2018. Read more about Chief Hardy’s 1993 and 9/11 WTC experiences and hear her brief interview.

https://vtdigger.org/2021/09/10/from-ground-zero-to-the-green-mountains-a-9-11-story/ #:~:text=Norma%20Hardy%2C%20Vermont's%20first%20Black,terrorist%20attacks%2020%20years%20ago

https://www.wmur.com/article/brattleboro-police-chief-remembering-her-time-at-ground-zero-21-years-ago-1662867042/41152881

08/22/2026

This is the fifth in a series honoring the women of Ground Zero. Emergency dispatchers (911, FDNY, NYPD) were among the women who worked in emergency response on September 11. There has been little recognition of their service or the long-lasting trauma they experienced that day. A NY Times article in 2006 outlines some of what these women experienced: Emergency operators who took calls from World Trade Center on Sept 11, 2001, were thrust into situations for which no training could have prepared them; they had no time to do anything but give advice and improvise answers even when they were in dark about evacuation orders that had been issued by fire and police commanders; helplessness increasingly defined their predicament and it showed in some of their conversations; calls from inside tower totaled about 130; over 3,000 calls flooded antiquated system in first 18 minutes, and over 57,000 in first 24 hours after first plane hit north tower. “When you listen to the tapes, it sounds like we are telling them the wrong thing and in reality we are telling them the right thing," said Judith Salgado, 36, a borough supervisor who worked in the Fire Department's Manhattan command center on Sept. 11. "No one thought those buildings were going to come down." Monumental Women recognizes and thanks these brave women for their service.
For more see https://www.firerescue1.com/911-and-dispatch/the-unseen-lifeline-honoring-fdny-dispatchers
Library of Congress unattributed photograph of the September 11th terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, New York City

08/22/2026

Special tour at the New York State Museum. Join them on August 26, 2026.

08/20/2026

August 26 take the trip to the New York State Museum for a special Revolutionary War tour! Details below.

NEXT WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26 at 11 AM & 1 PM!
Celebrate Women's Equality Day with a special gallery tour of Revolutionary New York, exploring how generations of women helped expand the promises of liberty, equality, and democracy from the nation's founding through the Women's Suffrage Movement and beyond. Led by Senior Historian and Curator of Social History Ashley Hopkins-Benton and presented in partnership with Monumental Women, this tour highlights New York's enduring role at the forefront of the continuing Revolution.

🌞Family-friendly
💲Free
📍NYSM South Lobby
🔎 https://nysm.nysed.gov/programs/gallery-tour-revolutionary-women

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