101 Awesome Women Who Changed Our World Read online

  CONTENTS

  Introduction

  Chapter 1 • Leaders and Activists

  Chapter 2 • Scientists and Inventors

  Chapter 3 • Artists and Writers

  Chapter 4 • Athletes and Adventurers

  Glossary

  Introduction

  The course of history is packed with stories of women overcoming odds, defying expectations, and shattering stereotypes. Yet, all too often, their contribution has been overlooked, underplayed, or just forgotten.

  Many cultures have believed (or still believe) that women do not need an education, cannot be trusted with leadership, are physically inferior, and are intellectually weak. Men have been privileged, and this means that they have been the world’s default decision-makers and history writers.

  Women, however, have been achieving greatness even when everything seemed against them. The adventurers, scientists, leaders, athletes, and artists in this book are by no means the definitive list of female history-makers, nor are they perfect and without fault, but they are pioneers who stood out, made a difference, and proved without a doubt that they were just as capable as men. Their contributions, both to their field and as an inspiration to others, are worthy of celebration. And that is what this book aims to do.

  Chapter 1

  Leaders and Activists

  In early cultures, women often had equal status to men—they could be warriors, priestesses, and leaders. But some ancient civilizations, such as Greece and Rome, were founded on different principles. They believed, quite wrongly, that men were natural leaders and that women should stay at home. This harmful point of view persisted for centuries.

  Of course, women are just as capable as men and always have been. This chapter introduces strong and clear-sighted queens, politicians, businesswomen, and activists. They have led countries, companies, communities, and campaigns.

  As well as doing their job, many of these women have faced and tackled prejudice. Some worked their way up from poor, disadvantaged backgrounds. They all succeeded against the odds.

  These activists and politicians were determined to improve the world they lived in. And they were committed to do whatever it took to make changes.

  All these women believed in themselves, worked hard to achieve their goals, and never gave up. Through their efforts and example, they inspired more women to follow their lead. Many of them left the world a safer, fairer place than they found it.

  Boudicca

  (c.30–c.60 ce)

  Boudicca was the queen of a Celtic tribe called the Iceni. In 60 ce she led more than 100,000 fellow Celts against the Romans, who had come to capture Britain. The warrior queen had many successes before the Romans defeated her.

  Cleopatra

  (c.69–30 bce)

  Cleopatra was Egypt’s queen when the Roman Empire was at its height. Her deals with Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Mark Antony protected Egypt from invasion. She is one of history’s most powerful women.

  Jingu

  (c.170–c.269 ce)

  There are countless legends about Empress Jingu of Japan. She is said to have fought alongside the samurai and conquered Korea. She was also believed to be a shaman, who could listen in to the spirit world. In the 1800s, she became the first woman to appear on a Japanese banknote.

  Benazir Bhutto

  Politician

  (1953–2007)

  Benazir Bhutto was born in Karachi, Pakistan. Her country was just six years old—it had been formed in 1947 from the Muslim regions of what had been British India.

  Benazir’s father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was a wealthy politician and landowner. In 1967 he founded the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and in 1971 he was elected prime minister.

  In 1968 Benazir had gone to Harvard University in Massachusetts, USA. After she graduated she moved to the United Kingdom to study philosophy, political science, and economics (PPE) at Oxford University.

  In 1977 Benazir returned home to work for her father, who had just been re-elected. However that July the head of the army, General Zia, overthrew the Pakistani government and made himself president. He had Zulfikar executed in 1979, while Benazir and her mother were being held in prison nearby.

  After her father’s death, Benazir led the PPP and worked with other parties to end military rule. She was imprisoned several times. In 1984 she moved to London, UK. From there she campaigned worldwide for Pakistan’s return to democracy.

  In 1985 Benazir visited Pakistan to bury her younger brother. She was held under house arrest until she flew back to Europe. The following year she returned for good. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to welcome Benazir home—the crowds were so thick that her motorcade took more than nine hours to drive 12 km (eight miles).

  In 1988 General Zia called an election. Benazir won and became the first female prime minister of a Muslim country. After just two years in power she was forced to step down because of accusations of illegal activity. In 1993 Benazir was voted back in. Three years later she was removed again. Benazir never served a full, five-year term as prime minister, so she struggled to deliver all she had promised. She built new schools, connected thousands of villages to electricity, and gave the press its freedom. But she had hoped to do much more.

  “A people inspired by democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity will turn their back decisively against extremism.”

  In 1999 there was another military takeover in Pakistan. Benazir lived in exile in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, until democratic elections were reintroduced in 2007. Two bombs went off in the crowd that greeted her return, killing 149 people and injuring 402. Benazir was unharmed, but she was killed two months later by a suicide bomber. Mourners scattered rose petals over her coffin as a sign of their love.

  Harriet Tubman

  Abolitionist, Army Scout, and Suffragist

  (c.1820–1913)

  Born into slavery in Maryland, USA, Harriet Tubman worked from childhood. Over the years she was a nanny, cook, farmhand, and woodcutter. In 1849 she made the dangerous 145-km (90-mile) journey to Pennsylvania, a free state where slavery was banned. Even here Harriet was not safe. As a runaway slave she could—by law—be captured and returned to her owner.

  In 1850 Harriet went back to Maryland to rescue members of her family. She repeated the journey more than 13 times to lead other African-American slaves to freedom. Using a secret route to Canada known as the “Underground Railroad,” Harriet rescued more than 70 slaves, putting her own life in great danger.

  “I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for 8 years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say —I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger.”

  In the American Civil War (1860–5) Harriet worked as a scout and spy for the Unionists, who wanted slavery abolished. In June 1863 she led Union Army raids on plantations in South Carolina, freeing more than 750 slaves.

  Harriet helped others her whole life. She believed that women should be allowed to vote and spoke at suffragist meetings. She gave so much that she died poor—in a care home for elderly African Americans which she had set up.

  Helen Keller

  Activist and Author

  (1880–1968)

  Helen Keller was born in Alabama, USA. She was a healthy baby, but an illness at the age of 19 months left her deaf and blind. Because she could not hear, Helen did not learn to speak. She became difficult and angry, frustrated by not being understood.

  Helen was six years old when her mother found the tutor who would change her life. Partially blind herself, Anne Sullivan recognized that Helen needed discipline, kindness, and—above all—a way to communic
ate. Anne began by pointing to objects with short, simple names. She used her finger to spell the words into Helen’s hand.

  “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”

  Helen was a fast learner. Within months she could connect objects with words, read sentences in raised print, and even write with a pen. When she was ten years old, she learned to speak by placing her fingers on her teacher’s lips, tongue, and throat and feeling the vibrations.

  Helen was the first deaf-blind person to get a college degree. She became an inspirational and world-famous author. Her autobiography The Story of My Life, published in 1903, was eventually translated into 50 languages. Helen lectured and campaigned for women’s rights, as well as improving conditions for people with disabilities.

  Hillary Rodham Clinton

  Politician

  (b.1947)

  Born in Chicago, USA, Hillary Rodham grew up in a household that valued education and hard work. Her parents wanted her to have the same opportunities as her two brothers.

  Hillary’s interest in politics began while she was still at school. She joined the student council and worked on the school newspaper. When she was taking her degree in political science, Hillary became a supporter of the civil rights movement. She decided to become a lawyer so that she could help to make the system of government fairer.

  Hillary studied law at Yale University, Connecticut, and met her future husband Bill Clinton there. She concentrated on children’s rights and family law. After graduating, she eventually moved to Arkansas, where Bill was building a career in the Democratic Party. The couple married in 1975. Three years later Bill became governor of the state of Arkansas. Hillary continued her law career and was twice named one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.”

  In 1992 Bill was elected president. The Clintons moved into the White House in Washington DC with their daughter, who was nearly 12. Hillary didn’t want to be the kind of First Lady who stayed in the background and didn’t have a voice. She set up her own office in the West Wing—the part of the White House where the presidential work is done. Hillary hired her own staff and wrote a new health policy, though unfortunately it was never passed.

  “To all the little girls [...] never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world.”

  In 2000 while still First Lady, Hillary was elected as a senator for New York State. She was re-elected at the end of her term of office. Hillary hoped to be the Democrats’ presidential candidate in the 2008 election, but when she saw that Barack Obama had more support, she pulled out and backed him instead. Hillary was Secretary of State for President Obama from 2009 until 2013. During that time she visited 112 countries and was a powerful voice for women’s and children’s rights.

  In 2015 Hillary ran for president again and became the first female candidate put forward by a major US party. But in November 2016, in a result that came as a shock to many, Hillary lost the election to Donald Trump.

  Not to be defeated, Hillary founded Onward Together in 2017. It funds political groups that share Hillary’s vision of a fairer, more inclusive United States.

  Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza

  Human Rights Activist

  (b.1979)

  Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza was born in a small Zapotec town in the Mexican province of Oaxaca. The Zapotecs are indigenous people with their own language. Women marry young and raise children, but Eufrosina wanted more. She moved away when she was 12 to work and study accounting. She returned when she was 28.

  Eufrosina ran for mayor and won, but Oaxaca’s laws did not allow women to hold public office or even vote. Eufrosina fought for these basic rights, and as a result the law changed in 2008. She has since founded an organization to support indigenous women and educate them out of poverty. Its symbol is the beautiful, but undervalued, wild arum lily.

  Fadumo Dayib

  Human Rights Activist

  (b.1972)

  Born in Kenya, East Africa, Fadumo Dayib was deported to her parents’ native Somalia in 1989. It was a time of civil war. Fadumo’s mother sold all she had to fly her three children to Europe. Fadumo arrived in Finland as an asylum seeker in 1990 with no money and little education. Today she is a health care expert who has worked for the United Nations and studied for a PhD.

  In 2016 Fadumo returned to Somalia to run for president—the first woman ever to do so. She lost but has vowed to put pressure on the new government. She wants to bring peace to her country, end corruption, crack down on terrorists, and improve the welfare of women and girls.

  Diane von Fürstenberg

  Fashion Designer and Businesswoman

  (b.1946)

  Diane Halfin was born in Brussels, Belgium. Her mother was a Holocaust survivor who had been imprisoned at Auschwitz. Diane studied in Spain and Switzerland before moving to Paris and starting her career in the fashion industry. She was married to the German aristocrat Egon von Fürstenberg from 1969 to 1972.

  Diane launched her stylish wrap dress in 1974, securing success for her fashion label Diane von Fürstenberg (DVF). Today DVF clothes sell in more than 70 countries, bring in hundreds of thousands of US dollars, and are worn by the rich and famous. In 2010 Diane started the DVF Awards to recognize strong women who transform other women’s lives.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Politician

  (1932–2005)

  Long before Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, Shirley Chisholm was breaking down barriers based on sex and race. Born Shirley St. Hill, she was educated in Barbados and New York City, USA. She grew interested in politics while working as a teacher. In 1969 Shirley became the first black woman voted into the US Congress. During her 14 years in the House of Representatives she worked to improve life for women and children, especially in poor areas. In 1972 she was the first black presidential candidate.

  Shirley faced prejudice throughout her life. She survived assassination attempts and lived to be 80. Ten years after her death, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

  Malala Yousafzai

  Education Activist

  (b.1997)

  Malala Yousafzai was born in Mingora, a city in the Swat Valley in northwestern Pakistan. She was educated in Khushal Public School, which was run by her father Ziauddin.

  When Malala was ten years old, a group of religious fundamentalists called the Taliban started taking over parts of Pakistan. They outlawed television and music and did not let women leave their homes.

  In 2008 the Taliban banned schools in the Swat Valley from teaching girls. Malala’s father and many other school leaders bravely refused, even though the Taliban was executing its opponents and blowing up girls’ schools.

  When Malala was 11, a BBC journalist contacted her father to ask if he knew a schoolgirl who would write about life under the Taliban. Ziauddin suggested Malala. She started her online diary for the BBC in January 2009. To avoid being targeted by the Taliban, Malala used a pseudonym instead of her real name for the blog.

  “We realize the importance of our voices only when they are silenced.”

  Malala’s family was proud, but also worried. Ziauddin was a known campaigner for human rights and female education. Sure enough, he received a death threat in May 2009.

  Later that year, after the Pakistani army had driven the Taliban out Mingora, Malala was interviewed on television. She spoke openly about the dangers that girls still faced when they went to school because of Taliban groups outside the city. Malala continued to appear on television and speak out even after her identity as the BBC blogger was made public in December 2009.

  In 2011 Malala was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize and won Pakistan’s Youth Peace Prize. But she was receiving death threats. On 9 October 2012 a Taliban gunman shot her in the head. Two other girls were wounded in the attack. Malala survived but was in a coma for nearly a fortnight. During this time she had hours of surgery to remove the b
ullet and reduce swelling in her brain. She was flown to the UK for specialist treatment. People around the world followed her story. When Malala eventually recovered, she stayed in the UK to finish her schooling.

  In 2013, on her 16th birthday, Malala addressed the United Nations headquarters in New York City, USA. She demanded that all children have the right to an education. She founded the Malala Fund to raise money to help girls who miss out on education. In 2014, she became the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

  Indira Gandhi

  Politician

  (1917–84)

  Only child Indira Nehru was born into a political family in Allahabad, northern India. Her father Jawaharlal would become the first prime minister of independent India.

  In 1942 Indira married Feroze Gandhi, a journalist and politician. She joined her father’s Indian National Congress Party and worked as his assistant. After his death in 1964 she was a government minister. She was elected as India’s first female prime minister in 1966 and stayed in power until 1977.