Honoring women whose contributions made the Valley a better place

From the beginning of time, women have been powerful forces, leading armies, heading nations, forging paths into the unknown.
In celebration of Women's History Month, The Vindicator will profile significant women in local history every Sunday throughout March, beginning next week.
We will delve into the lives of the wives and relatives of turn-of-the-20th-century industrialists who devoted their time and resources to improve the quality of life in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, as well as trailblazers who became the first women to make it in a man's world, often paving the way for the women who followed -- women such as Julia Buhl, Phebe Sutliff, Caroline Cunningham Wallace and Alaska Packard, whose generosity is still visible through the gifts (parks, libraries, historical landmarks, museums and organizations) that they gave their communities.
We'll explore the feats of adventurists such as Mary Ann Campana, the region's first female aviator; Dr. Elizabeth McLaughry, one of the first doctors in Lawrence County; and Lillian Jamison, a founding member and president of the Mercer Chamber of Commerce.
We will recall how suffragists Harriet Taylor Upton and Elizabeth Hauser fought for the right to vote and how Salem was the site of a Women's Rights Convention that played an important role in procuring those rights.
All these women, although obscure in world history, were vibrant catalysts for change in the five-county region.