Y’all knew it wouldn’t be long until the disco ball showed up again. 😉  Today’s tune is a fun twist on Aretha Franklin’s classic, “Respect.”  Singing this version of the iconic song is Melanie Amaro, a Virgin Islander-American, born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1992.  Amaro grew up singing gospel music in her church and went on to win the first season of The X Factor USA in 2011.  If you’re interested, you can find more examples of her beautiful and powerful voice on various YouTube videos.

Here are some interesting facts about women.

–Queen Victoria ruled one of the largest empires in the history of the world, at one point controlling land on nearly every continent.

–In 1777, sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington raced through the night to warn New York Patriots that the British were attacking nearby Danbury, CT, where munitions and supplies for the entire region were stored during the heat of the Revolutionary War.  While Paul Revere gets all the glory for nighttime rides, her journey took her twice the distance and helped the troops prepare and repel a British attack.

–At the first Winter Olympic Games in 1924, the only event open to women was figure skating.

–Roberta Gibb was the first woman to run and finish the Boston Marathon in 1966.  She didn’t get official credit for it as women were not allowed to enter the race until 1972.

–Over 60 percent of college degrees awarded in the U.S. every year are earned by women.

–More American women work in the education, health services, and social assistance industries than any other.  These three industries employ nearly one-third of all female workers.

–Miami is the only major U.S. city that was founded by a woman.

–Approximately 14% of active members in the U.S. armed forces today are women.  In 1950, women comprised less than 2% of the U.S. military.

–On November 26, 1916, birth control activist Margaret Sanger was arrested for distributing birth control information.

–My Grandma Dooley delivered all seven of her children at home. In November 1943, completely alone, she gave birth to her fifth child.  He weighed 14 pounds, and Grandma even cut the umbilical cord herself.  She nearly bled to death.  Fourteen months later, my mother was born.

–Today 71% of moms with kids under 18 work outside of the home. In 1975, fewer than 47% did.

–The first person to make the daring attempt to go over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel was a woman.  On October 24, 1901, Annie Edson Taylor, a forty-three-year-old school teacher from Michigan plunged over the falls.  She survived with only a small gash on her head.

–The earliest recorded female physician was Merit Ptah, a doctor in ancient Egypt who lived around 2700 B.C.  Many historians believe she may be the first woman recorded by name in the history of all of the sciences, making her achievement all the more impressive.

–30% of businesses in the U.S. are owned by women.

–Jamaica, Columbia, and St. Lucia are the only countries where a woman is more likely to be a boss than a man.

–Margaret Thatcher was the first and only female British Prime Minister.  She was called the Iron Lady.

–Wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote.

–In the 1930s, my great-grandmother, Delia Crumpaker Rieley wanted to professionally wallpaper the house (the one I live in today) due to the 14 foot barrel vault ceilings.  Great-grandmother Delia was a hard-working and resourceful woman.  Since my great-grandfather was a bit tight frugal, Great-grandmother kept hens and sold eggs to earn extra money for the professional wallpaper service.  When Great-grandfather Rieley wanted breakfast, he paid Great-grandmother for her eggs.  Her tombstone reads:  Delia F. Crumpaker–Wife of Eugene Rieley.

–20% of women in the U.S. earn at least $5,000 more than their spouses.

–Women speak about 20,000 words a day.  That’s 13,000 more than the average man.

–In developing countries, women are half as likely as men to speak out online.

–Martha Wright Griffiths, an American lawyer and judge, pushed throughout the Sex Discrimination Act in 1964 as part of the Civil Rights Act.

–1 in every 6 women has been the victim of sexual abuse in the U.S.

–Women’s hearts beat faster than men’s.

–In China, women who remain unmarried in their late 20s and beyond are called “sheng nu” which means “leftover women.”

–Marie Curie is the only woman to ever win two Nobel Prizes.

–Hatsheput was one of the most powerful women in the ancient world and the one and only female pharaoh in recorded history.  While accounts seem to paint her reign as a favorable one, her images have been defaced on temples and inscriptions as though they meant to wipe her existence from history.

–Women often wrote under pen names in times when it was not seen as appropriate for them to contribute to literature.  Even some female authors who are highly acclaimed today had to resort to fake names:  Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, and Louisa May Alcott–to name a few.

–In the 1920s and early 1930s, women dominated the screenwriting profession in Hollywood’s movies.

–The two highest IQs ever recorded, through standardized testing, both belong to women.

–Only 2% of women describe themselves as beautiful.

–1940s movie actress, Hedy Lamarr wasn’t just a pretty face, she was also an inventor.  Hoping to contribute to the war effort during World War II, Lamarr developed a radio-controlled torpedo device which used “frequency hopping” to prevent the signals from the torpedoes from being jammed.  While the technology wasn’t adopted for WWII, it was used in subsequent conflicts.

–Jane Addams was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Because of her work with the Hull House, the public philosopher, writer, leader, and suffragist went down as one of the most influential and prolific women in American history.