USPS has included inspiring women before on their postage stamps. Some examples are Selena, Sacagawea and Eleanor Roosevelt. However, to honor awe-inspiring women alive today, there are five phenomenal living ladies that would make great new postage stamps, in my opinion. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

That’s right, the notorious R.B.G. This woman is the second female justice to be confirmed to the Supreme Court. She refuses to ever step down in her beliefs and dissents anything she doesn’t agree with, including the court decision of Ledbetter v. Goodyear, where a woman filed a lawsuit against her lawsuit due to pay discrimination based on gender. The decision was that it passed the statute of limitations and someone must only file a lawsuit right after being paid, even if they didn’t realize they were being paid less till later. This lead to her inspiring the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay act with Barack Obama in 2008, making it easier for people to win pay discrimination claims. She demands her voice to be heard. 

Ellen Ochoa

Selected by Nasa in 1990, Ellen Ochoa became the world’s first Hispanic female astronaut. Not only is she a ground-breaker for Hispanic women, she is also simply an incredible astronaut. She has spent a total of about 1,000 hours in space among four different missions. Talk about Hispanic excellence!

Tarana Burke

Coined by Time magazine as part of “the silence breakers” in 2017, Tarana Burke is the civil rights activist from The Bronx, New York, who started the Twitter revolution of the Me Too hashtag that she also sprung into an entire movement. Before this movement, sexual assault was a much more secretive ordeal. Because of the voice of Burke and her efforts to get the stories of women and men speaking publicly about the deep rooted and pervasive issue of sexual assault, there is now less slack given to these manipulative human beings.

Gloria Steinem

In the late 1960’s and early 70’s, Gloria Steinem was a lead spokesperson for the American feminists movement at its 20th century prime. She is a journalist and writer who supported many other causes, as expressed in her many essays, including “After Black Power, Women’s Liberation,” in which she explains how women and black Americans are forced into jobs lower than those of white men. She also helped launch the New York and Ms. magazines.

Emma Gonzalez

At Just 18 years old, after a traumatic event at her own high school that changed her life forever, Emma Gonzalez was able to push through the devastating tragedy and become an activist. The young gun control activist and Parkland shooting survivor spoke at an anti-gun rally in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, just two days after the shooting. This was the beginning of the March For Our Lives movement, a movement for students by students demanding for gun control. If you’ve not heard of this movement, it has amazingly led dozens of high schools in Florida to organize protests, including my own high school. Gonzalez insists that with their protests, Parkland victims will be the last ones to ever go through a mass shooting.

These women are not only fascinating, but have also began to wreck the glass ceiling that had prevented women for centuries from being leaders. These postage stamps would be representative of their efforts for giving women opportunities in male-dominated careers, and speaking up for issues in ways that women weren’t traditionally able to. Cheers to these women, and cheers to all the women before them who created the initial cracks in the glass ceiling.