Throughout the decades, women have existed in a world where the fight for individual rights, acceptance and equality is a constant reality. Women’s History Month started off as a weeklong celebration in Santa Rosa, Calif. in 1978, according to the National Women’s History Museum. Today, women are celebrated throughout March, and in El Paso, women from all backgrounds have spoken up to share their stories.

Diana Natalicio, former president of The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and former professor and activist Dr. Eleanor Duke are just two of the thousands of women that have lived in the El Paso region who have impacted women across the border.

Marathon runner and school counselor at Hornedo Middle School, Amanda Patrick, says she has faced many hardships throughout her life.

Patrick was born and raised in Las Cruces by her mother and grandmother and moved to El Paso when she was in the fifth grade.

“My mom did whatever it took for me to have the best life possible, she is my biggest cheerleader,” Patrick said. “She empowered me to be the woman that I am today.”

Patrick’s mother worked as a budget analyst at White Sands Missile Range.

“She’d have to leave at five in the morning and I remember seeing her packing our bags, getting my baby brother in the car to take him to my grandmas in Las Cruces, then drive to White Sands,” Patrick said. “She didn’t complain, she did what she needed to provide for us and seeing her as a single mom made a huge impact in my life.”

When Patrick was in school, she faced many hardships, especially when entering her freshman year at UTEP. After being in college for a year Patrick was pregnant with her first daughter and was forced to drop out. However, she continued and decided to complete her studies in education at El Paso Community College (EPCC), then later returned to UTEP and graduated with her Bachelor of Education in 2011 and started her career as a teacher.  After seeing that her students at the time needed extra help outside of the classroom she was inspired to pursue her Master of Education in School Counseling.  After receiving her masters she had a difficult time landing a job as a school counselor. So, at the time, after hearing that a position opened at her daughter’s school, she then became a pre-k teacher. After her career developed, Patrick set a goal to start running and has since met many milestones such as completing full marathons and other running goals.

“I wanted my daughters to see [that] if you have a goal, put a plan in place and stay dedicated, you can accomplish anything,” Patrick said.

As a school counselor at Hornedo Middle School, Patrick has started a running club for the students.

Library archivist and head of UTEP special collections, Claudia Rivers, is another female educator like Patrick, who has been an archivist in El Paso for 30 years.  “I came for a temporary job, from Austin. I had worked at the Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin and then a job here became open, and I thought, gee, it’s right on the border close to Latin America, I get to use my Spanish every day,” Rivers said.

Rivers was unsure of what was to become of her career after selling the restaurant she owned in Austin for eight years, so she decided to attend graduate school.

“I thought [of] what kinds of careers would I like to do, and what could I have a professional degree with, just a master’s degree, without having to write a dissertation,” Rivers said. “I knew people who were librarians, and I decided to go to library school and get a master’s in what’s called library and information sciences.”

The decision to get her master’s degree in this field inspired Rivers to become an archivist. Now, Rivers represents the female population in one of the many important roles as a female archivist.

 “Women are over half of the population and have really important roles,” Rivers said. “The way it’s been recorded in the past has focused more on men and so I think that sometimes the role of women has been ignored or underrated.”

Another strong influential woman that inspires Rivers throughout her work would be a someone she had the opportunity to meet through her time at UTEP.

“A retired biology professor, Eleanor Duke, who taught here for many years and [had] been part of an equal opportunity lawsuit against the university and actually ended up winning,” Rivers said.

Rivers admires Eleanor Duke because of how she educated many students at UTEP.

“She helped educate a lot of people here at the university who went on to become doctors and scientists and she was an inspiration and also a really great woman that I met,” Rivers said.

As many at UTEP share a similar story, mother and student, Karen Hernandez, majors in business administration with a focus on supply chain and operations.

Hernandez originally enrolled into college 21 years ago studying nursing but got into the nursing program when she was about to have her second child. This led Hernandez to put her education aside so she could focus on raising her child.

“I decided to hold off and I thought, ‘Once my son goes into first grade or kindergarten, I’ll go back to school then’,” Hernandez said.

Though Hernandez did not end up completing her nursing degree, last year, she decided that it was time to go back to school and re-enroll at UTEP.

“It’s been really challenging because I have a stressful job and it’s been hard to manage full time school [and] full-time work, but there’s no other way than to just do it,” Hernandez said.

 For Hernandez, she says equality is one of the many hardships she has faced.

“The biggest hardship as a woman; we aren’t seen as equals, even though we’re in 2025,” Hernandez said. “We’re not always seen as equals in the workplace because it is such a male-driven environment.”

The women who are mothers, students, mentors, bosses and more, are just many representations of the significance of Women’s History Month.

Patrick continues to be empowered by her running, her mother and grandmother to help the future generations of women.

“We have to do it for future generations and be confident and make sure we lead the path for our daughters or our kids and just create a beautiful community where we cheer each other on,” Patrick said.

Hernandez reminds women to always encourage themselves.

As Women’s History Month begins, think about the powerful women that make El Paso, those who continue to strive to be eternally remarkable.

Avery Escamilla-Wendell is the editor-in-chief at The Prospector and may be reached at [email protected] or on Instagram @by_avery_escamilla.