On Tuesday evening, the Woodland City Council officially declared March 2023 “Women’s History Month.” The City of Woodland is proud to celebrate the many women who have shaped our community including the following notable Woodlanders and women-led institutions: 

• Emily Hoppin, a local and statewide leader during the temperance and women's suffrage movements. With her activism, 400 women in Woodland registered to vote on the very first day that they were able. 
• Gloria Jacobs Norton, aka the “miss who never misses”, a highly skilled pistol shooting phenomenon who won hundreds of awards including a world championship.
• Brenda Jones, the first African-American woman to win an election in Woodland for the school board in 1977. 
• Otilia Contreas, the first Mexican woman in Woodland to open and run a business – La Cafe Villa on First Street.  
• Kathleen McConnell, a nurse who founded the City’s first private hospital in 1905 that provided Woodland with sterile surgery conditions for the first time. 
• Helena Ochoa and Marina Ramirez, founders of Folklorico Latino de Woodland (est. 1986), a group that teaches children traditional Mexican dances that celebrate Latino culture.
• The Woodland Women’s Improvement Club, a women-led club with a purpose “to do anything within its power for the general benefit of the city.” In 1909, the club bought a block of land at Elm & Oak that became the City’s first public park.
• The Woodland Shakespeare Club, a book club founded in 1886 by five women in Woodland that is considered the second oldest book club in California.
• Mayor Victoria Fernandez, Mayor Pro Tempore Tania Garcia-Cardena, and Councilmember Mayra Vega, three women who serve the Woodland community on our current City Council.