The first race — called “a hike” to get around a ban on female participation in footraces — was held on April 21, 1918, when 148 women “in the flower of their youth” ran a total of 7 miles along the course of the famed Dipsea Trail. Women were not officially allowed to run in the Dipsea, or any race, approved by the Amateur Athletic Union, until 1971, 53 years after Edith Hickman of San Francisco crossed the finish line at Stinson Beach on that spring Sunday in 1918. At the time, it was socially unacceptable for women to participate in sporting events. “We all had our places, and it was not out there running,” said Barbara Robben, a veteran runner and triathlete. “Girls were not allowed.”

"There is so much that we want to do," said Dianna Burgess, a former "Nightline" producer who is one of the group's organizers. "We really want to work together with people within the industry and outside the industry to create safer environments for women. ... We sort of feel like the system failed in so many ways."

Only six women took home Academy Awards on Sunday night’s 90th annual show, including the two actress winners, compared with 33 male winners. That’s little more than 15 percent. It’s the lowest number of female winners since 2012’s show (the 85th annual Academy Awards), when only four women brought home statuettes. Also Read: Oscars: 'Shape of Water' Wins Big, but Time's Up Dominates The meager figure comes as a stark reminder in the year of #MeToo and TimesUp that the gender gap in Hollywood remains vast. In the last five years there have been between nine and 11 female winners. The most in recent years was 11 female winners in 2014.

Ironically, the pantsuit’s ascendance comes at a time when men’s suits — as a work uniform at least — are on the decline. As Washington Post fashion journalist Robin Givhan recently wrote, in the world of men’s tailoring, “the power suit is dead,” and wearing a suit is no longer about power, but rather about style.

“When it’s dark, there’s an opportunity,” said Pierre Kayitana, 31, director of operations for RwandaOnline, a company that works to digitize government services in the country. “Rwanda knew (technology) would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and opportunities. It was a way forward.”

In the U.S., many women see workplace discrimination as a major issue blocking them from promotions. Silicon Valley has been roiled by revelations of mistreatment of women at companies such as Uber and smaller startups, and of predatory behavior by tech investors. All of that might make a figure from America’s tech industry seem problematic as a hero for Chinese working women. Yet women in China say they face more prosaic hurdles, such as fulfilling family obligations. That can be challenging: 46 percent of women surveyed in China equate success with getting married or having a family, according to Lean In China. The survey also found that while the majority of women in China believe that child care should be shared equally by both parents — a position Sandberg took in her book — 63 percent of married women say they do more than their husbands, which they say takes away time they could be spending on their careers.

The food and dining industry is where the most vulnerable workers are women and folks of color. It houses a value system of normalized exploitation, euphemistically defanged with a “this-is-just-the-way-things-are” mea culpa. The industry needs to embrace a new agenda of black feminism, which shifts power away from corrosive whiteness and masculinity, and toward a fresh generation of leaders.

“It’s about time mature, healthy sexy women are recognized. It’s a shift, it’s anti-fake, it’s real, it’s about authenticity.” That shift has come at a time when calls for diversity and greater representation on runways and in fashion campaigns are at an all-time high among critics of the industry. Over the past two seasons, designers have begun to respond. Expanding the range of representation has included hiring more models of color, plus-size models, trans and nonbinary models and models over the age of 50. Fashion website the FashionSpot’s fall 2017 diversity report noted 27 models over age 50 on the runways in New York, London, Milan and Paris for the spring 2018 collections in September and October, which the website called a “slight improvement.”

On Saturday, those first female trailblazers will be celebrated for an important milestone. The 50th anniversary? The 60th? Nope, just No. 30. Incredibly, the first women didn’t join the department’s academy classes until the fall of 1987.