Today marks the conclusion of a series of features that has appeared on the Suffolk News-Herald’s Business page since the end of October. The Women in Business focus was originally intended as a single special section in which we would honor some of the city’s top businesswomen.

We published that section Oct. 31 and included stories on seven women whom our readers had identified as worthy of recognition for their solid service, their ability to overcome adversity, their pleasant way of doing business or their commitment to employees and the community. It was obvious from the start, however, that we’d be doing our readers and the city’s business community a disservice by limiting ourselves to the space we could dedicate to the topic in one small special section.

Thus was born the idea of a weekly Women in Business feature, which would allow us to tell the stories of almost twice as many of Suffolk’s finest businesswomen. Their stories ran in no particular order during the past few weeks, and their exclusion from the original special section shouldn’t be taken to have any significance.

The true significance is the impact these women have made in their businesses and in their community. They are worthy of the recognition they have received not just because they are women who have excelled in industries that were once (and, in some cases, still are) dominated by men, but also because, at a more basic level, they are people who are influencing their communities through their business and philanthropic commitments.

We’d like to congratulate them all and thank their friends, co-workers, employees, clients and (in one case) husbands for submitting their names. We’re glad to have been able to tell their important stories during the past several weeks.