Remembering women-led moments in San Antonio history

Strong mujeres are being celebrated at Pearl with an art installation by Martha Martinez Flores and the Young Women's Leadership Academy.

What they're saying: Martinez Flores tells Axios "strong women" in San Antonio were her muse for this project.

• YWLA students designed the geometric design of the panels representing "breaking glass ceilings."

Flashback: In honor of International Women's Day, we're reflecting on important women-led moments in local history.

City Hall firsts

• Lila Cockrell became San Antonio's first woman mayor in 1975.
• María Antonietta Berriozábal became the first Latina elected to the City Council in 1981.
• In 2015, San Antonio became the first major city to elect a Black woman mayor when Ivy Taylor won.
• In 2019, women became the majority on City Council for the first time by election.

Spurs firsts

• In December 2020, Becky Hammon became the first woman to act as head coach in an NBA game in league history after Gregg Popovich was ejected.
• Last year, the Spurs organized the team's first-ever all-women broadcast.

More accomplishments

• In 1897, Ella Austin started the Ella Austin Orphans Home. The East Side's first community center was later named after Austin.

• Aviation record-breaker Katherine Stinson helped her family found the Stinson School of Flying in San Antonio in 1915.
• Emma Tenayuca led the 1938 pecan shellers' strike, which is remembered as one of the earliest and largest actions for Mexican American civil rights in U.S. history.
• In January, chef Nicola Blaque became the first Black woman in San Antonio to be nominated for a James Beard award.