STEM EVENT — The New York Hall of Science held a Women and Girls in STEM event in March 2022. Interviewer Namita Luthra, right, spoke to the program’s guest speakers, Catherine Thimmesh, author of the books “Girls Think of Everything” and “Girls Solve Everything,” and Trisha Prabhu, an innovator featured in the latter book. -- Contributed

This is a question asked by Namita Luthra, a former Weirton resident who now resides in New York City.

On this Mother’s Day, Luthra shares lessons learned from advocating for the rights of women and girls. Lessons parents can pass along to their daughters and sons to help build a fair world that unlocks opportunities and enriches the community.

Luthra is the daughter of Drs. Sucheta and J.K. Luthra of Weirton. She graduated from Madonna High School in 1987, then went on to attend Bryn Mawr College. During one of her summer breaks, she received an internship to work at a battered women’s shelter, “back when they were called that,” she noted.

It was there that her women’s rights journey would begin. In 1989 Pittsburgh. A one-hour drive from Weirton. That experience was a stepping stone. The journey wove through working at another shelter and for the Massachusetts Battered Women’s Service Groups in Boston. It continued as she became a law clerk at the ACLU of Pittsburgh, and in New York City as a lawyer at the ACLU Women’s Rights Project. That internship led to serving on the boards or councils of Sakhi for South Asian Women, the New York Hall of Science, Monumental Women, LexSeeHer and the New Historia.

REFLECTIONS — In February, the Strand bookstore hosted the New Historia where Namita Luthra shared reflections on Professor Barbara D. Savage’s book “Merze Tate: The Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar.” Luthra’s colleagues, Nancy Kendrick and Gina Luria Walker, contributed their reflections, as well. Attending the New Historia were, from left, Kendrick, Luthra, Savage, and Walker. -- Contributed

There have been many colleagues, roles and places, but just one aim: Gender equality. Luthra lives and works in New York City. Of her time as senior staff attorney at the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, she stated the job was “to remove barriers that stood in women’s and girl’s ways so they could lead lives with dignity and of their choosing to try to achieve whatever they set out to achieve.”

Luthra co-authored the book “The Rights of Women,” advocated on behalf of girls who faced pregnancy discrimination and litigated employment discrimination jury trials in federal court.

Since leaving the Women’s Rights Project, Luthra has worked to expand options available to women and girls and advance their sense of self-worth and agency. She collaborates with the New York Hall of Science, leading its annual event which encourages girls to enter science, technology, engineering and math fields.

Luthra partners with The New School and its New Historia initiative, hosting book talks which illuminate the lives of historic women who have been forgotten and even erased. Women like Merze Tate, a groundbreaking American who comes to life in Barbara D. Savage’s book “Merze Tate: The Global Odyssey of a Black Woman Scholar.” Tate, born in 1905 in rural Michigan, earned graduate degrees from Oxford and Harvard universities. She went on to become a scholar, world traveler, journalist, author and adviser to world leaders. During the talk, Luthra shared with her audience meaningful lessons instructive for women today, including a question she heard Tate asking after reading Savage’s scholarship: “Why are you waiting for permission from someone or some entity to live your life?”

On why women’s past contributions matter, Luthra explained, “Knowing women’s history creates a profound sense of belonging — not just in the present — but in the vast sweep of history. You matter and have mattered. That sense of belonging fuels an ambition to expand rights today.”

“When the work of visionary women courses through you and you know that they faced odds greater than what you face, it builds a political and emotional resilience that’s hard to extinguish,” she added. Luthra commented she is inspired by social change activists including Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Alice Paul and Ida B. Wells.

“Most American students could probably name a handful of women who changed the course of history,” Luthra said. “I work to expand that knowledge because their tactics and strategies deserve studying, refining and practicing. I’ve learned lessons on how to live, how to persuade, how to win and how to pick yourself back up after defeat.

“It’s not just women from the past we can learn from,” she continued. “I’ve extracted lessons from men’s lives. It’s just that our history books are filled with men. How will we ever understand the complexity, nuance and potential of humanity if we don’t study half of it? Any time a person stands up for what’s right, it emboldens our sense that we can, too, and we’re not in it alone.”

In March, Luthra gave a talk called “Seed of Legacy,” at the City University of New York. Her purpose was to spur young women to define and fulfill their own mission. She encouraged students to “have the discernment to discard all that society dishes up that doesn’t serve them and to reside with ease inside their own power.”

“The kind of power that swells from within and requires no validation from without,” she stated.

Luthra provided three key take-aways she wants people to remember from her “Seed of Legacy” talk. The first is that legacy is not built on perfection. You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to try.

The second is to be your own hero. Learn from the others who came before you and who have achieved extraordinary things. But be your own hero on your own quest.

The third is to serve your own highest ideals, as well as serving others who may have less than you. Do not pay attention to others’ opinions and judgments of you. You are already working toward meeting your highest ideal. This isn’t about daily affirmations of, “I am so great.”

This isn’t daily affirmations. It is daily accounting, Luthra said. “True respect and confidence in yourself isn’t about false praise. You’ll know when you can do more, give more or work harder. You won’t need others’ validation because you are already asking the most of yourself. For you.”

On Wednesday in Lexington, Mass., the nonprofit organization LexSeeHer, of which Luthra serves on the board of advisers, will unveil a monument honoring 20 diverse women who contributed to their community. One of those women was Margaret Tulip.

Tulip arrived in Lexington as an enslaved child. In time, she went on to sue for her freedom, winning her case in 1770. Professor Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin is another woman who will be honored in the sculpture, following her discovery of the composition of the sun.

The nonprofit made decisions which will allow the public to not just see these women depicted in the monument, but to get to know them. For example, the names of women and girls will be etched in bronze beside their depictions. Those interested in learning more about them can Google their names, visit the Cary Memorial Library, which will install panels throughout the month, or read a newly released book on the subject that is scheduled to come out on Wednesday, Luthra stated.

“The monument is going to be beautiful,” Luthra exclaimed, noting the unveiling will take place on Lexington’s historic green outside of the Historical Society and only steps away from the Minuteman statue that has stood since 1900. The event will be live-streamed and recorded. She announced she would “love for the Weirton and Steubenville communities to know about it and watch the live-stream if they are able.”

Because any time a town chooses to not only recognize — but memorialize — the diverse women of yesterday, it is cause for a community to celebrate.

Those interested in watching the unveiling can visit the link: youtube.com/watch?v=f5zhh6xW7rs. LexSeeHer worked more than four years to clear every hurdle, raise funds and engage the community in the project.

“LexSeeHer is expecting visitors and descendants of those depicted to travel from several states to be there on this historic day,” Luthra commented. “A day when the women in the birthplace of American liberty will finally get a monument that is well past their due.”

In August 2020, Luthra participated in Central Park’s unveiling of a bronze statue depicting women’s rights pioneers Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument became the 167-year-old park’s first monument to honor historic heroines. Monumental Women donated the monument to the City of New York.

A month after the statue was unveiled, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. Overnight, the monument became a makeshift memorial for New Yorkers wanting to pay their respects. The sculpture’s designer, Meredith Bergmann, who also designed the Lexington monument, mourned the news of Ginsburg. However, when she witnessed the outpouring of people visiting the monument she had created, she stated, “I love it when a monument becomes useful.”

While Lexington will be honoring local deserving women and Central Park now has a monument to commemorate historical women, the Ohio Valley can work to discover its own female heroes and honor them, as well. Among those we can remember are the “West Virginia Rosies.” These women worked in local steel mills, contributing to victory in World War II. Luthra learned of them through Mary Zwierzchowski, assistant reference librarian at the Mary H. Weir Library in Weirton.

One can access and read Weirton Steel Bulletins which date back to 1934 on the Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center’s website. The bulletins include information about the women who worked at the mill during the war years. Stories about fascinating women who once lived in the Ohio Valley who should be remembered and acknowledged for their achievements.

“It is important that we research these women who made a difference in our area,” Luthra noted. “Their contributions to society should not be forgotten. And neither should they. Local experts in the Ohio Valley can shed light on these heroes.”

During the course of her professional life, threads of meaning and purpose have emerged. Since growing up in Weirton, the expansion and advancement of rights has been Luthra’s aim.

Luthra chose to do this work to clear paths for girls of future generations. She also does this work to honor her grandmothers and her colleagues whom she holds in high regard, including mentors like Lenora Lapidus.

Luthra stated that according to the World Economic Forum, which annually publishes the Global Gender Gap Report, we are 131 years away from global gender parity.

Luthra’s interest in the mechanisms of social change began while a student at Bryn Mawr. She was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and the methods he used to win India’s independence. Studying Gandhi, along with her own travels to her birthplace of India, sparked her dedication to law and advocacy work and she melded the two passions together.

She said she was surprised to learn that some of the tactics Gandhi used, including hunger strikes, had been employed by British and American suffragists decades earlier. Women like Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay were instrumental in Gandhi’s work.

“This reinforces that women have long been political thinkers and strategists, but their work has gone unrecognized,” Luthra said.

Luthra encourages others to dive into women’s history and explore what lessons can be translated into action. “Every time I meet one of these path-blazing figures, I can feel the electricity pulse through me,” she concluded. “Similar to what these women faced, permission to act is not forthcoming. It’s internal. And only yours to give.”

“Women’s fingerprints are all over history. We just don’t know it,” Luthra says. On this Mother’s Day, honor the women in your life and explore the women who came before to stretch open the bounds of women’s capacity and equality.