American Women Quarters: 2022 In Review

By Office of Corporate Communications
January 25, 2023

The American Women Quarters™ (AWQ) Program is the first circulating coin program dedicated solely to celebrating American women. Representing diverse fields, accomplishments, ethnicities, and races, these pioneering women are brought together by one commonality: their contributions were groundbreaking and left a lasting impact on our society. Collectively, the honorees have shaped our nation’s history throughout the centuries.

In 2022, the first year of the program, each honoree highlights the breadth and depth of accomplishments being honored in this coin program. Maya Angelou was a celebrated author and activist. Dr. Sally Ride was a physicist, astronaut, educator, and the first American woman in space. Wilma Mankiller was the first woman elected chief of the Cherokee Nation. Nina Otero-Warren was a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement. Anna May Wong was the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood.

Take a look back at our 2022 AWQ honorees.

• Angelou’s remarkable career encompasses dance, theater, journalism, and social activism. She appeared in Broadway and off-Broadway plays, including “Cabaret for Freedom,” which she wrote with Godfrey Cambridge. She also lived and worked in Cairo and Ghana, first as the associate editor of “The Arab Observer” and then as features editor and writer for “The Ghanaian Times.”
• Angelou’s published works of verse, non-fiction, and fiction include more than 30 bestselling titles.
• Angelou received more than 30 honorary degrees and was inducted into the Wake Forest University Hall of Fame for Writers.
• Angelou read “On the Pulse of Morning” at the 1992 inauguration of President Clinton. Angelou’s reading marked the first time an African American woman wrote and presented a poem at a presidential inauguration. She was also only the second poet in history to do so.
• In 2010, President Obama awarded Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2013, she was the recipient of the Literarian Award, an honorary National Book Award for contributions to the literary community.

• When she blasted off aboard space shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983, Ride became the first American woman – and, at 32, the youngest American – in space. During the six days of mission STS-7, she deployed and retrieved a satellite with the shuttle’s robotic arm.
• Ride and Tam O’Shaughnessy began working together to write science books for young people. Their six books included “The Third Planet: Exploring the Earth from Space,” which won the American Institute of Physics’ Children’s Science Writing Award in 1995.
• Ride and O’Shaughnessy shared a concern about the lack of women in science and engineering careers. In 2001, they joined like-minded friends to found Sally Ride Science to inspire young people, especially girls, in science, technology, engineering, and math.
• Ride received many honors during her life, including induction into the Astronaut Hall of Fame, National Women’s Hall of Fame, and Aviation Hall of Fame. After her death, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2016, the Navy commissioned a state-of-the-art research vessel named for Ride. The R/V Sally Ride is operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. In 2018, the U.S. Postal Service honored Ride with a Forever Stamp.

• In 1977, Mankiller founded the Community Development Department for the Cherokee Nation. She led the creation of community water systems and rehabilitation of houses during the administration of Principal Chief Ross Swimmer.
• In 1983, Swimmer named Mankiller his running mate in his bid for re-election. When they won, she became the first woman elected deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation. After Swimmer left office to lead the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, she became principal chief.
• Mankiller was elected chief in 1987, and four years later, re-elected in a landslide. She tripled her tribe’s enrollment, doubled employment, and built new housing, health centers, and children’s programs in northeast Oklahoma. Under her leadership, infant mortality declined and educational levels rose.
• Her leadership on social and financial issues made her tribe a national role model.
• Mankiller received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993.

• As a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement, Otero-Warren emphasized the necessity of using the Spanish language to reach Hispanic women. She spearheaded the lobbying effort to ratify the 19th Amendment in New Mexico.
• Otero-Warren advocated for intercultural education as the first woman to be superintendent of instruction in New Mexico. She insisted that the curriculum was taught in Spanish and English and required teachers to learn Spanish culture and language.
• She was the first Hispanic woman to run for Congress. In 1921, Otero-Warren campaigned to be the U.S. House of Representatives Republican Party nominee for New Mexico. She won the Republican primary by a landslide but was defeated in the general election.

• Growing up in Los Angeles, Wong Liu Tsong decided she wanted to become an actress at age nine. By age 11, she created her stage name, Anna May Wong. She was cast in her first role as an extra in the film “The Red Lantern” (1919) at 14 and continued to land small roles as extras until her first leading role in “The Toll of the Sea” (1922).
• In March 1924, she created her own production company, Anna May Wong Productions, so she could make her own films about her culture.
• After facing constant discrimination in Hollywood, Wong traveled to Europe and worked in English, German and French films. Notable film credits include the British film “Picadilly” (1929) and the German and British film “Pavement Butterfly,” which was filmed on location in Nice, France.
• Wong starred alongside Marlene Dietrich in “Shanghai Express” (1932). This film is considered to be Wong’s best-known work.
• She became the first Asian American lead actor in a U.S. television show when she starred in “The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong” (1951).
• Wong was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

The Mint’s AIP designers and medallic artists worked tirelessly to capture the unique characters and enduring legacies of these five extraordinary women. “It was a great honor to create this sculpture to memorialize an amazing woman, her incredible life, and her work moving humankind towards equality,” said Medallic Artist Craig Campbell of his work on the Nina Otero-Warren Quarter.

All of the 2022 honorees created positive change for new generations of women. The program continues in 2023 with five more inspirational women. Watch for these quarters in your change or buy AWQ products in our online catalog.

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