RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The achievements of women are a big part of new historical markers approved for roads and highways across Virginia.

Four of 10 new markers honor the contributions of individual women and organizations founded by women who helped shape U.S. and Virginia history. The new markers recognize women involved in early voting rights efforts, as well as the nation's first women pilots and a leader in the civil rights movement.

The Virginia highway marker program began in 1927 with the installation of the first historical markers along U.S. Route 1 and is believed to be the oldest such program in the nation. More than 2,100 official markers dot the state.

The four markers honoring women and the organizations they founded are: 

• The Equal Suffrage League in Virginia, to be installed in Richmond, memorializes the organization founded in 1909 that eventually became the League of Women Voters. Early members held rallies and supported reform movements to urge the General Assembly to give women the vote. 
• Women Air Force Service Pilots, or WASPS, will be erected in Gloucester County. It honors the women pilots of World War II and a former WASP, Gloucester County's Ann Hamilton Turner, who died last year. 
• Dorothy Irene Height, known as the "Godmother of the Civil Rights Movement," to be located in Richmond, her hometown. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1944 for her civil rights achievements, including the integration of YWCA facilities. Height died this year. 
• Helen Timmons Henderson, who helped establish with her husband the Buchanan Mission School in 1911 to improve the far western Virginia county's woeful education system. She also served in the House of Delegates.

The other six markers honor: 

• Chesterville Plantation, in Hampton, the birthplace of George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. 
• Maj. Edward Dale, who with his wife, Diana Skipwith Dale, were among the earliest settlers in Lancaster County. He also was a member of the General Assembly. 
• Navy Hill, to be installed in Richmond, a neighborhood named as a tribute to naval victories during the War of 1812. It later emerged as a vibrant African-American community, but was destroyed by the construction of Interstate 95. 
• National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, in Hampton, which was established in 1915 and later was the home of Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory. It has since been renamed Langley Research Center. 
• Action at Mill Creek, to rise in Shenandoah County, this marker harks to a skirmish during the Civil War between Union cavalry and the command of Brig. Gen. George A. Custer and Confederate Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Rosser. 
• Ivy Hill Cemetery, to be installed in Smithfield, this was a burial ground established in 1887 for Civil War veterans and local residents, including the founder of Gwaltney Hams.

The new highway markers were approved by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.