The month of March is dedicated to honoring women and the accomplishments of women throughout history. It is flooring to think about how far Women’s Rights have come when you think about the fact that it was over 100 years ago that women in the U.S. attained the right to vote in 1919. In 2021, the United States of America has hit another milestone, the election of its first female Vice President. With all the campaigning, it is easy to forget what lengths it took for Vice President Harris to make it to the Oval Office.
Not many people are familiar with the strong exemplar of a mother figure that VP Harris had. Kamala Harris was born to Shyamala Gopalan Harris who was from Madras, British India. In 1958, Shyamala applied to the University of California, Berkeley, and was accepted. Her parents helped her with tuition and books in her first year using the money that they had saved in their retirement fund. In 1964, Shyamala Gopalan earned a Ph.D. in Nutrition and Endocrinology.
She continued life in academia, working in research labs with institutions like UC Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Wisconsin with a focus on breast cancer research. After working for 16 years with the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University Faculty of Medicine, Shyamala served as a peer reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and served on the President’s Special Commission on Breast Cancer.
Before she lost her battle with colon cancer in 2009, Shyamala’s research led to advancements in the knowledge of the hormones linked to breast cancer. Her work was key in isolating and characterizing the progesterone receptor gene in mice that altered research on the hormone-responsiveness of breast tissue. Upon her passing, she requested that donations be made to the organization, Breast Cancer Action. Later in 2009, VP Harris carried her ashes to Chennai, her home, and scattered her ashes in the Indian Ocean.
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