Remember when women weren’t allowed to vote? Of course you don’t, neither does your mother. But a hundred years ago, Susan B. Anthony was one woman who was fighting for that right ... and won.

Throughout the 20th century, Anthony and so many other women opened doors for us, both in and out of the workplace. During Women’s History Month, it’s good to look backward and forward: backward on the accomplishments of those who came before us and forward to understand how their model can help us in our workplace and our lives.

It was less than fifty years ago, in 1964, when Milton Bradley sold a game called “Pillow Fight.” It was designed to provide young girls with an acceptable, ladylike way for them to vent their spirited energy. Why? Because, you know, it wasn’t acceptable for respectable women to be aggressive or dominant in polite society.

All over the world, women were bombarded with messages that their value in life could only result from beauty, charm, and their ability to cook a good meal. Volumes were written showing women how to advance themselves in those areas. Wealthier parents sent their daughters to finishing schools and colleges just so they could get their MRS. If a girl was smart, she learned to use her feminine wiles and cooking skills to snare an upwardly mobile man who would provide for them.

Yet at the same time and with ironic contrast, truly savvy women were breaking through that arcane societal system. Like Margaret Chase Smith, who became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress and the first woman to have her name placed in nomination for the presidency in 1964. Twenty years later, Geraldine Ferraro was the first woman Vice-Presidential nominee. Though Ferraro’s party lost the election, her candidacy paved the way for Hillary Clinton, the first women whose bid for the presidency was taken seriously.

Until 1972, gender discrimination in education was the norm. That’s when Congress passed the Title IX Education Amendment and, though it didn’t mention sports specifically, it became the vehicle through which schools funded athletics for young women, and they got involved. One of those women was Robin Roberts, basketball star, ESPN sportscaster and now co-anchor of Good Morning America.