18 Unforgettable Florida Women

Have you heard of Dr. Irene Duhart Long? She passed away last year, not yet 70, after achieving the career she dreamed of — combining her love of medicine with her fascination with space. Along the way, Dr. Long earned a string of notable “firsts,” including, in her last role, the first woman and first minority to serve as chief medical officer at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

The physician is among a long list of Florida women, who, while far from unsung, have stories that deserve to be more widely told.

On the following pages, we briefly introduce you to several such women, some you may already know.

Not included here are those whose work is not yet done or whose accomplishments are already well known, such as Mary Bethune, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Zora Neale Hurston, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. FORUM’s extensive archives offer story after story about notable Florida women, which we link to at FloridaHumanities. org/blog. Another good source of information is the Florida Commission on the Status of Women, flwomenshalloffame.org.

For more “frequently featured in FORUM Magazine” notable women, click here.

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2021 Issue of FORUM Magazine. Visit our collection at the USFSP Digital Archive by clicking here.