Mary Ruthsdotter (October 14, 1944 – January 8, 2010) was a feminist activist who co-founded the National Women's History Project, for which she produced curriculum guides, teacher training programs and videos on women’s history. She played an influential role in obtaining Congressional resolutions and Presidential proclamations designating Women's History Week and, later, Women's History Month.
Mary Lucille Hamilton (October 13, 1935 – November 11, 2002) was an African-American civil rights activist whose case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Hamilton v. Alabama, decided that an African-American woman was entitled to the same courteous forms of address customarily reserved solely to whites in the Southern United States, and that calling a black person by his or her first name in a legal proceeding was "a form of racial discrimination".