Harriet Tubman was a conductor for the Underground Railroad. What makes her story all the more amazing is the fact that she was a black woman who wouldn’t read or write. Imagine the intellect! Harriet's work didn't end with the Civil War. A
Harriet spent her first paycheck building a facility where freed black women could earn their living cleaning the soldier’s laundry. She wasn’t paid regularly from the military, however, and only earned $200 in three years. She sold baked goods and root beer, that she made herself in any spare time she could find, to support herself and her work.
After the Civil War Harriet established schools for freed slaves in South Carolina. She understood how crucial education was for blacks needing to support themselves. Once she felt her work was complete there, she returned to her Auburn, New York home.
In Auburn, Harriet channeled her drive to obtain freedom for others into the suffrage movement. She took in several young children, whom she raised as her own, and operated a home for poor and aging free blacks until her death. During her lifetime, Harriet brought the sweetness of freedom to so many, touching countless lives. She died at age 93, and was buried with full military honors.
Golda Meir faced a political world in an earlier time when women were much fewer and far between than they are today. One of the things I most admire about her is her willingness to follow what she believed to be her constituents’ wishes. She led her people well, but when time came for her to let someone else step up, she had the courage to step down.
Her party won the elections in December 1973, but she resigned on April 11, 1974, bowing to what she felt was the "will of the people." and what she felt was a sufficient premiership as well as the pending pressures of forming a coalition; "Five years are sufficient…It is beyond my strength to continue carrying this burden."[29][30] Yitzhak Rabin succeeded her on June 3, 1974.
Florence Nightingale came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night.
Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment, in 1860, of her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London, the first secular nursing school in the world, now part of King's College London. The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honour.
Madam Curie, born Marie SkÅ‚odowska-Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a French-Polish physicist and chemist famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. In the late nineteenth century, the world of science was no less a man's world than was politics. Women like Madam Curie have taught me that there have always been women who step outside the current stereo-typical roles created for them by society.
She was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entomed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.
Josephine Baker born Freda McDonald, was decorated for her undercover work for the French Resistance during World War II. As if working as an undercover agent wasn't enough, Josephine went on to become a civil rights activist.
She refused to perform for segregated audiences and integrated the Las Vegas nightclubs. She adopted twelve children from around the world whom she called her "Rainbow Tribe."
Amelia Erhart, who doesn't know the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic?
On May 20, 1932, five years to the day after Lindbergh, she took off from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Paris. Strong north winds, icy conditions and mechanical problems plagued the flight and forced her to land in a pasture near Londonderry, Ireland. "After scaring most of the cows in the neighborhood," she said, "I pulled up in a farmer's back yard." As word of her flight spread, the media surrounded her, both overseas and in the United States. President Herbert Hoover presented Earhart with a gold medal from the National Geographic Society. Congress awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross-the first ever given to a woman. At the ceremony, Vice President Charles Curtis praised her courage, saying she displayed "heroic courage and skill as a navigator at the risk of her life." Earhart felt the flight proved that men and women were equal in "jobs requiring intelligence, coordination, speed, coolness and willpower."
Mae West. Don't laugh! Mae West was the first women to make a million dollars in the entertainment business. Not only that, she wasn't afraid to tackle the more "taboo" subjects.
In 1926, Mae wrote, produced and directed the Broadway show, "Sex," which led her to be arrested for obscenity. The following year, her next play, "Drag," was banned on Broadway because its subject matter was homosexuality.
West skirted the delicate sensibilities of Hollywood censors with sexual innuendo and double entendre and her witty observations were as widely quoted as Ben Franklin bromides: "It's better to be looked over than overlooked"; "I used to be Snow White but it drifted," etc. Although she cultivated the image of the "tough broad," West always conveyed a curious Victorian innocence coupled with a winking, self-effacing amusement at her own preposterous creation. Her popularity reached such peaks that sailors were inspired to name their inflatable life jackets after her overemphasized 43-inch "assets," ensuring West a place, like no other actress to date, in Webster's Dictionary.
Annie Oakley–yeah, baby! Come on, a nineteenth century markswoman? And she was a Quaker. Yeah! Now that I would have liked to have seen.
Whether it be a pistol, rifle, or shotgun, the legendary markswoman Annie Oakley was masterful with them all. Dubbed "Little Sure Shot" by Chief Sitting Bull (she was 5 feet tall), her sharp shooting in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show won her many awards and captivated audiences far and wide. Her name remains synonymous with firearms and entertainment.
Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh of Egypt and lover to both Julius Caesar and Mark. Ok, so she was a bit of a shady character. But can you imagine what it was like to rule Egypt? Cleopatra was said not to be an overly beautifu woman, yet she had a way of charming people into doing what she wanted. How often have you heard that joke "I was Cleopatra in another life?" Well, who do you think Cleopatra claimed to be?
She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Greek origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great's death during the Hellenistic period. The Ptolemies, throughout their dynasty, spoke Greek and refused to speak Egyptian, By contrast, Cleopatra did learn to speak Egyptian and represented herself as the reincarnation of an Egyptian goddess, Isis.
Catherine the Great did so much for Russia during her reign that she was called Catherine the Great more often than Catherine II.
A German princess, who ruled Russia. But politics wasn't this amazing woman's only concern.
Catherine's main interest was also in culture and education. She established boarding schools like the Smolny Institute for Girls and the Russian Academy of Letters. Public publishing houses were licensed and because works could now be published, journalism flourished. Hospitals and medical colleges were founded, surgical and medical equipment was being made in Russia, and they were leading the war in disease control.
Rosa Parks, born Rosa Louise McCauley was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Sometimes, the most simplest of actions can change even a nation.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa's whole life changed when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. For violating Montgomery's ordinance, she was arrested and fined. However, this act began the modern civil rights movement. In combination with Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa boycotted the ciry's bus company for a duration of 382 days. This caused the Supreme Court to rule that the ordinance under which Rosa was fined was wrong. They also put out a law against racial segregation on public transportation. She also later received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize.
Helen Keller–I can't imagine anyone who hasn't heard Helen's story. Thereofre, I'm including one simple quote that I think emobies her life.
"For many generations, more than we can count, we bowed our heads and submitted to blindness and begging. This blind and deaf woman lifts her head high and teaches us to win our way back by work and laughter. She brings light and hope to the heart."
-Quote from a Japanese woman about Helen Keller
Ruth Wakefield, yes, believe it or not, the inventor of chocolate chip cookies. I'm ending my tribute on this note because few things have brought me more pleasure than a good chocolate chip cookie.
In 1930, Wakefield was mixing a batch of cookies for her roadside inn guests when she discovered that she was out of baker's chocolate. She substituted broken pieces of Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate, expecting it to melt and absorb into the dough to create chocolate cookies. That didn't happen, but the surprising result helped to make Ruth Wakefield one of the 20th century's most famous women inventors. When she removed the pan from the oven, Wakefield realized that she had accidentally invented "chocolate chip cookies."
At the time, she called her creations "Toll House Crunch Cookies."
Of course, there are far too many heroic women to name here. The list is endless. Who is one of your female heroes?
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