The recorded history of Puerto Rican women can trace its roots back to the era of the Taíno, the indigenous people of the Caribbean, who inhabited the island that they called Borinquen before the arrival of Spaniards.

[24] In the early 1800s, the Spanish Crown decided that one of the ways to curb pro-independence tendencies surfacing at the time in Puerto Rico was to allow Europeans of non-Spanish origin to settle the island.

Those who immigrated to Puerto Rico were given free land and a "Letter of Domicile" with the condition that they swore loyalty to the Spanish Crown and allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church.

[40] Among the notable women who directly or indirectly participated in the revolt and who became part of Puerto Rican legend and lore were Lola Rodríguez de Tio and Mariana Bracetti.

Lola Rodríguez de Tio believed in equal rights for women, the abolition of slavery and actively participated in the Puerto Rican Independence Movement.

Women who belonged to the wealthier families were able to attend private schools either in Spain or the United States, but those who were less fortunate worked as housewives, in domestic jobs, or in the so-called needle industry.

[57] María Elisa Rivera Díaz, Ana Janer and Palmira Gatell were followed by Dolores Mercedes Piñero, who earned her medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Boston in 1913.

Her business continued to grow and this placed her in a position where she could act as a liaison between the major record companies and the Latino community and as such serve as a booking agent for many Puerto Rican musicians.

He did not know that in the past Rosa Gonzalez had publicly battled with prominent physicians and named her and Carmen Rivera de Alvarez, another nurse who was a Puerto Rican independence advocate, to take charge of the insular birth control program.

[72][74] Another was Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) María Rodríguez Denton, the first woman from Puerto Rico who became an officer in the United States Navy as a member of the WAVES.

Humbert Roque Versace and author of The Fifteenth Pelican, which was the basis for the popular 1960s television sitcom "The Flying Nun", drove Army trucks and buses.

Rios Versace wrote and edited for various newspapers around the world, including places such as Guam, Germany, Wisconsin, and South Dakota, and publications such the Armed Forces Star & Stripes and Gannett.

Among them Isabel Rosado, a social worker and Olga Viscal Garriga, a student leader and spokesperson of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party's branch in Río Piedras.

[82] The 1950s saw a phenomenon that became known as "The Great Migration", where thousands of Puerto Ricans, including entire families of men, women and their children, left the Island and moved to the states, the bulk of them to New York City.

In 1946, Mendez and her husband took it upon themselves the task of leading a community battle that changed the educational system in California and set an important legal precedent for ending de jure segregation in the United States.

In 1976, she was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the National Council of the Arts in Washington, D.C. She founded the Martina Arroyo Foundation,[109] which is dedicated to the development of emerging young opera singers by immersing them in complete role preparation courses.

In 1954, Puerto Rican television pioneer and producer Tommy Muñiz, offered Carmen Belén Richardson a role in his new program El Colegio de la Alegria.

[139] In the cinema industry Marquita Rivera was the first Puerto Rican actress to appear in a major Hollywood motion picture when she was cast in the 1947, film Road to Rio.

Colón debuted as an actress in Peloteros (Baseball Players), a film produced in Puerto Rico starring Ramón (Diplo) Rivero, in which she played the character Lolita.

Oliver, along with four other women, pushed their way to leadership positions and forced their male members to take classes on sexism and to learn about the damage that their actions caused the community.

On November 8, 2016, former Speaker of the House Jenniffer Gonzalez became the first woman and youngest person to be elected Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in the U.S. Congress in the 115 years since the seat had been created.

Arroyo's 84th Assembly District covers the Mott Haven, Port Morris, Melrose, The Hub, Longwood, Concourse, and Hunts Point sections of the South Bronx.

During her tenure on the Supreme Court, Sotomayor has been identified with concern for the rights of defendants, calls for reform of the criminal justice system, and making impassioned dissents on issues of race, gender and ethnic identity.

[196][197][198] Yajaira Sierra Sastre was chosen in 2013, to participate in a new NASA project called "HI-SEAS" an acronym for "Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation", that will help to determine why astronauts don't eat enough, having noted that they get bored with spaceship food and end up with problems like weight loss and lethargy that put their health at risk.

She held various positions at NIH, rising to the medical director/flag rank in the PHSCC and to the job of deputy director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 1986.

[219] Olga D. González-Sanabria, a member of the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame, contributed to the development of the "Long Cycle-Life Nickel-Hydrogen Batteries", which helps enable the International Space Station power system.

The Puerto Rican tennis player Cindy Colbert won two silver medals, as she came in second in the doubles for ladies with Grace Valdés and she also participated in a mixedtennis partnership with Carlos Pasarell.

Cindy Colbert, Grace Valdéz and Martita Torros were inducted into the "Pabellón de La Fama Del Deporte Puertorriqueño" (The Puerto Rican Sports Pavilion of Fame).

This Monument honors the Women, who for their virtue, effort and high qualities has contributed brilliantly to forge History and Culture, thus achieving a place of equality in the World, being always an image of Beauty and the transmitter of Life.

The medal recognizes those individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors".