Great women in history

[Scarlet Knight]

I have heard that March is Women's History Month. So I began to think about the many great ones we've learned about.

So, to get people thinking: give me three women born in your country whom you admire greatly.

Here are mine (though I confess, I kept changing them):

1) Clara Barton
2) Harriet Tubman
3) Frances Kelsey

[ShadowySilence]

1) Helen Keller- She always was very inspirational to me, she overcame so much and after doing so all she did was give of herself
2) Amelia Earhart- for obvious reasons
3) Annie Edson Taylor- The first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, how is that not awesome!? :smallbiggrin:

[Domino Quartz]

Kate Sheppard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Sheppard). She's even on the New Zealand ten dollar note. She was the most prominent member of New Zealand's women's suffrage (the movement to allow women to vote in New Zealand), and partially as a result of her efforts, New Zealand was one of the first countries to allow women to vote.

[factotum]

1) Margaret Thatcher--I couldn't disagree more with her politics or what she did while in office, don't get me wrong there, but to achieve all she did in the traditionally male-dominated world of politics was an amazing feat.

2) Ada Lovelace--often described as the first computer programmer for her ideas for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.

3) Emily Brontë--Wuthering Heights is an amazing novel, and I only mourn for the early loss of someone who could have rivalled Jane Austen in terms of readership had she written more.

[Eldan]

Weeellll, I think I have something to read up on. Never heard of anyone in the first three posts.

But let's see. Ada Lovelace, Marie Curie, Jane Goodall, Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine the Great, Florence Nightingale.

[Serpentine]

Oh... In our country? Hm. I am drawing an embarrassingly and worryingly large blank. I'll get back to you. In the meanwhilst, shout-out to our first female PM, good ol' Julia, and then I Shan't breathe a word further on her except to point you to the interwebs for more info.

[Eldan]

Wait. Born in Switzerland...

****. Blank. Full blank. To google!

St. Wiborada. First canonized woman in 1047. She lived in the tenth century, joined a Benedictine abbey with her brother (at a technically male abbey, even), successfully suffered ordeal by fire, cured diseases, became known as a prophet, successfully predicted a Magyar invasion and was killed by said Magyars when they burned the abbey down.

Annemarie Schwarzenbach (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annemarie_Schwarzenbach). Should have remembered her. 1908-1945, writer and travel journalist. Also an openly Lesbian Bohemian. Worked in an anti-fascist literary circle in the thirties in Berlin, moved out when the Nazis came to power, travelled to Moscow, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, the US and wrote a few books.

Regula Engel-Egli. 1761-1853. Fought under Napoleon as colonel of a Swiss mercenary regiment. Had twenty-one children. Went into Exile on Elba with Napoleon, he was also the godfather of two of her daughters. Also wrote an autobiography with the inspirational title


"Lebensbeschreibung der Wittwe des Obrist Florian Engel von Langwies, in Bündten, geborener Egli von Fluntern, bey Zürich, Enthaltend die Geschichte ihres Herkommens, Jugendschicksale, Verheurathung und weitläufige Reisen im Gefolge der französischen Armeen durch ganz Frankreich, die Niederlande, Italien, Spanien, Portugall, die Oesterreichischen und Preussischen Staaten, Deutschland und besonders auch der Expedition in Egypten und einer späteren Reise nach Amerika"

(Description of the live of the widow of colonel Florian Engel of Langwies who was born in Grison, who was born to the Egli family in Fluntern near Zurich, which contains the history of her origin, her fate as a youth, her marriage and her extensive travels in the retinue of the French Armies throughout France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Porgual, the Austrian and Prussian States, Germany and especially too the Expedition to Egypt and her later trvels to America").

I love book titles like that. We should do that more often.

[Spiryt]

Stanisława Leszczyńska (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislawa_Leszczynska)

http://jloughnan.tripod.com/midwifeausc.htm

gained little glory, fame, or recognition, in fact it's hard to find much in the Internet, but she apparently did manage to midwife about in 3000 children in Auschwitz, and make hundreds and hundreds of them survive. In constant terror and against German 'supervisors'.

Instead of sinking them in barrels which was deemed more appropriate in the place.

[Yora]

"Admiration" may be a strong word. But you can't deny the significant achivements of Angela Merkel. Forbes lists her as the 5th most powerful person in the world. (Though that puts her between the pope and Bill Gates, so I'm not sure how much that really means.)

Clara Schumann is mostly known as the wife of Robert Schuhmann, but she was actually much better as a pianist and composer than he was and made most of the families money with her international concert tours. In the mid 19th century, that was rather unusual for a woman. She also didn't play with sheets, but memorized her entire reportoir and played by ear. Even her husband, a famous composer in his own right, sad it was unfortunate that she didn't have as much time to spend on composing with her concert tours, raising eight children, and dealing with the mental ilness of her son and husband.

And number 3? I don't know... Marlene Dietrich? She was hugely famous and pushing what people considered proper. Germany isn't exactly a country that produces progressive revolutionaries, either male or female.

Weeellll, I think I have something to read up on. Never heard of anyone in the first three posts.

But let's see. Ada Lovelace, Marie Curie, Jane Goodall, Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine the Great, Florence Nightingale.
And that's the problem. All the great ethnic German women were not born in the country Germany. :smallamused:

[Killer Angel]

A couple of women comes to mind immediately:

Maria Montessori (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori) (sse also this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education))

Rita Levi Montalcini (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Levi-Montalcini) (a Nobel for science and medicine? yes, thanks)

I'll think for the third name...

[factotum]

And that's the problem. All the great ethnic German women were not born in the country Germany. :smallamused:

I'm sure the rules would allow you to select someone who was born in an antecedent nation to Germany, wouldn't they? Maybe there's a Hunnish female warrior from the 3rd century AD who tickles your fancy... :smallwink:

[Hyena]

Ayn Rand. Okay, you can agree or disagree with her views (I don't), but she is rather famous and did influence a lot of people. I wish I could say more, but forum rules.
She also gets a prize for being the only real human being, whose looks produce uncanny valley effect on me. Must be this creepy smile... And those eyes...

[Kalmageddon]

A couple of women comes to mind immediately:

Maria Montessori (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori) (sse also this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education))

Rita Levi Montalcini (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Levi-Montalcini) (a Nobel for science and medicine? yes, thanks)

I'll think for the third name...

Well, ninja'd.
Good luck with the third name, I'm coming up empty.

[Asta Kask]

Hypatia (http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia)

I like intelligence in a woman. Too bad she was mad as a hatter with Neoplatonism.

[Eldan]

I'm sure the rules would allow you to select someone who was born in an antecedent nation to Germany, wouldn't they? Maybe there's a Hunnish female warrior from the 3rd century AD who tickles your fancy... :smallwink:

Huns don't really have anything to do with Germany...? :smallconfused:

[Asta Kask]

Huns don't really have anything to do with Germany...? :smallconfused:

Well, Germans were called Huns during World War One for propagandistic reasons. Otherwise, the title is mostly claimed by Hungarians.

[Serpentine]

Okay, let's see what I've got...
Cathy Freeman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_Freeman) is pretty incredible. I was in Sydney during the Olympics there, and they had all these big screens set up around the place with benches for watching the games. My dad and I went to see one of her big races at one of them, and there was this huge crowd there all watching the screen intently. It was a really close race, neck-and-neck right up to the finish line, and they were just about to hit the line when... the screen went blank. A hushed gasp went across the watching crowd. A moment later the screen came back to show the aftermath of the end of the race: Cathy bent over, exhausted, and apparently heartbroken, presumably at losing the race. Again, the entire crowd breathed in unison, this time with a disappointed "awww". Then the result came up, and she'd won! And this time the crowd went ballistic with cheering! :smallbiggrin: Good times...

This lady seems pretty cool, and someone I ought to know about:
"DAME ENID LYONS Behind every great man is possibly a greater woman. Enid Lyons married future prime minister Joseph Lyons when she was 17 and he was 35. They had 11 children. When he died in office in 1939 she didn't fade into the background, but took on public office herself as a widow trying to juggle her kids and her calling. In 1943 she became the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and said in her maiden speech: "This is the first occasion on which a woman has addressed this House. For that reason, it's an occasion which for every woman in the commonwealth marks in some degree a turning point in history.""

It makes me sad how few really fantastic Australian women I can find... I know there's tonnes and tonnes, but I can find no names :smallfrown: So let's go with a personal one: My great-great-great-great-great grandmother, Elizabeth Thomas. She was a convict, sent over for handling stolen goods. Gave birth on the ship, then was pregnant again when she got off it. I'm descended from one of those two. She worked as a housekeeper for a man, another ex-convict, who never married her but adopted her children and had more by her who took his name. She didn't go anything big or grand, and I don't know any details about what she was actually like, but I feel like she would have been a remarkable woman with some incredible stories to tell.

[Morbis Meh]

Well Canada is fairly young but I shall see what I can do:

We have The Famous Five (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Famous_Five_(Canada)) who fought for a woman's right to vote in Canada which is pretty dang important.

Technically Laura Secord (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Secord) was a British loyalist but she lived on what would become Canada so works for me. She warned the Loyalist of the American invasion in the War of 1812 so she prevented Canada from being absorbed by the United States (I am also a direct descendant of hers).

That's good enough... I could name others but I wouldn't be exactly be truthful to say i admired them (Kim Cambell was the first PM but she got thrown under the bus and wasn't elected)

[Asta Kask]

Margareta the Great. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_I_of_Denmark)

Came as close as anyone to uniting all of Scandinavia.

[Telonius]

Rita Levi Montalcini (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita_Levi-Montalcini) (a Nobel for science and medicine? yes, thanks)



Also, a very nice lady, who made it easy for poor overworked editorial assistants when she submitted a paper for publication. :smallsmile:

For my country: Harriet Tubman, Clara Barton, and a tie between Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

[Killer Angel]

Well, ninja'd.
Good luck with the third name, I'm coming up empty.

There's always Sophia Loren... :smallwink:

[Moriwen]

My personal hero isn't from my country, but I'm putting her forward anyway.

Sophie Germain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain). A brilliant mathematician, too often forgotten, who made great contributions towards the solution of Fermat's Last Theorem. And had an adorable friendship with Gauss. She went by a male pseudonym so as to be respected in her work, but sacrificed her anonymity to help Gauss out when he was in danger. His response to finding out her gender was super-sweet. Quoting from the Wikipedia article, which in turn quotes from his letter,

"when a woman, because of her sex, our customs and prejudices, encounters infinitely more obstacles than men in familiarising herself with [number theory's] knotty problems, yet overcomes these fetters and penetrates that which is most hidden, she doubtless has the most noble courage, extraordinary talent, and superior genius."

Aww. (She got several mathematical concepts named after her, which is how I want to be honored if I ever do anything as awesome as the stuff she did.)

[Mono Vertigo]

Hah, Belgium. On my own, I'd sadly be unable to give the name of a Belgian woman I judged to be great. Quick research though...
Yvonne Nèvejean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yvonne_N%C3%A8vejean) and Andree Geulen-Herscovici (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andree_Geulen-Herscovici) both helped save thousands of Jewish children during WWII.
Gabrielle Petit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabrielle_Petit), apparently a national heroine (who I've however never heard of), was a spy working for the British Secret Service during WWI.
And then, that's pretty much all the great women I could find. In my defense, Belgium is a pretty young country. Yep. That's gonna be my excuse.

EDIT: of course, I do not admire them particularly, having never heard of them up until 10 minutes ago. I could cheat and think of French women instead, France being my current country of residence...

[Scarlet Knight]

Rule clarification (otherwise known as the "Fun Fiat"): For newer countries you may choose someone from your country's geographical history. Thus an American can choose Pocahontas or an Italian may choose Catherine of Siena even though Italy and the United States did not exist per se at the time of their births.

[Telonius]

On a more local level: Gertrude Barber (http://eriehalloffame.com/nominees/Barber2.asp), from my hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. Starting in the early 1950s, she founded an institute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber_National_Institute) that's been helping the mentally and physically disabled ever since. She was really ahead of her time.

[Serpentine]

Rule clarification (otherwise known as the "Fun Fiat"): For newer countries you may choose someone from your country's geographical history. Thus an American can choose Pocahontas or an Italian may choose Catherine of Siena even though Italy and the United States did not exist per se at the time of their births.If you even know the names of any early- or pre-colonisation Australian aboriginal women, I'd really love to hear about them. We weren't really all that big on, y'know, caring about those people in any way :/

[Ifni]

If you even know the names of any early- or pre-colonisation Australian aboriginal women, I'd really love to hear about them. We weren't really all that big on, y'know, caring about those people in any way :/

Yeah, the only name that jumped to mind for me was Truganini, and her story is pretty awful (and post-colonization) :smallfrown:

[Calen]

How about Mary Hays, Margaret Corbin, and Deborah Sampson.

These are all women that fought in the (US) Revolutionary War.

Mary and Margaret both had the nickname Molly Pitcher and were known after the battles they fought in as Sergeant Molly and Captain Molly.

[BWR]

Helga Eng - did some important work in the field of child psychology, first person in Norway to work in this field

Kristine Bonnevie - Norway's first female professor, worked in genetics, cytology and embryology

Harriet Holter - important figure in women's studies in Norway

And I chose them entirely based on the fact that they have buildings named after them at the University of Oslo, and I've had classes there.

[Fates]

Maria Montessori. She was arguably one of the most brilliant educational minds of her time, and displays the greatest understanding of the mind of a child of anyone I've read. She revolutionized primary education worldwide, and established an alternative education system that is in my mind vastly superior, both in the experience it provides and the quality of the education itself, to most "traditional" schools.

[Ahmanae]

She's not from my country, but Nancy Wake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Wake) is my role model, and just about everything I strive to be as a woman.

[IthilanorStPete]

My personal hero isn't from my country, but I'm putting her forward anyway.

Sophie Germain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain). A brilliant mathematician, too often forgotten, who made great contributions towards the solution of Fermat's Last Theorem. And had an adorable friendship with Gauss. She went by a male pseudonym so as to be respected in her work, but sacrificed her anonymity to help Gauss out when he was in danger. His response to finding out her gender was super-sweet. Quoting from the Wikipedia article, which in turn quotes from his letter,

"when a woman, because of her sex, our customs and prejudices, encounters infinitely more obstacles than men in familiarising herself with [number theory's] knotty problems, yet overcomes these fetters and penetrates that which is most hidden, she doubtless has the most noble courage, extraordinary talent, and superior genius."

Aww. (She got several mathematical concepts named after her, which is how I want to be honored if I ever do anything as awesome as the stuff she did.)

Sophie Germain's pretty awesome. Emmy Noether's another superb mathematician, who had a nice friendship with David Hilbert. When the faculty of the University of Göttingen protested against her being admitted, Hilber shut them down with "I do not see that the sex of the candidate is an argument against her admission as privatdozent. After all, we are a university, not a bath house."

[Eldariel]

My country? That makes this hard, Finland is so young. I suppose we only count Finland proper, not pre-independence. Well, if I were to name 3:

1) Tekla Hultin: She was one of the more important pioneers behind the universal suffrage in Finland and the first chairperson of the Finnish Women's Association. She was also the first woman to finish her doctorate in Finland and while most of her important activity takes places at an earlier time, she did operate after 1917 and was very active in politics and all so I feel her inclusion is vindicated. I'll freely admit there are other extremely important women in this era but I'm not deeply enough informed on the topic to really include them in any reasonable order so I'll just leave it at the person with clear "first"-credentials that are easy to go by.

2) Venny Soldan-Brofeldt: While an artist, her credentials are not all that different from Tekla's. She was a key part of the artist community by Lake Tuusula that created the concept of "Finland" and "Finnish" as it would come to be, and by far the most involved woman of the group. She actually also had an important part in the creation of the mentioned Finnish Women's Association, among other things.

3) Tarja Halonen: I'm going with historically influential people here so I suppose it only makes sense to include the first female president of Finland. Much more recent than the others, that should be a massive milestone in history and hopefully set a trend where we'll have presidents going all ways. She also did good for her part though of course, the president doesn't actually do too much around here anymore.

[Gwynfrid]

For France, others have already named the awesome Sophie Germain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain). In science, Marie Curie is certainly more important, but we can't claim her under the terms of the OP's question, as she was born Polish.

Here are two others:

- Joan of Arc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_arc): Her role may be a bit hard to understand in today's secular culture, but she's pretty much the first woman in any country's history who became a major figure without first being some man's wife, mistress, or daughter. That's huge on its own, but on top of that, she's arguably the French woman whose impact on her country's trajectory and mindset reaches the farthest.

- Olympe de Gouges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympe_de_gouges) was one of the very first to fight for incredibly radical ideas for her time, such as the right to divorce, for secular marriage, the rights of children born out of wedlock, opposition to slavery, and women's equal rights. She died on the guillotine for defending democratic principles in the time of the revolutionary Terror. Her phrase, «La femme a le droit de monter sur l’échafaud ; elle doit avoir également celui de monter à la Tribune» (a woman has the right to be executed; she must also have the right to speak on public matters) pretty much sums her up.

[Frozen_Feet]

Eldariel, I'm rather surprised you didn't mention Minna Canth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minna_Canth), but I respect your decision to focus on post-declaration-of-independence people.

It does make your lack of mention of Tove Janson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tove_Jansson) unforgivable, though. :smalltongue:

I will also mention Miina Sillanpää (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miina_Sillanp%C3%A4%C3%A4), who was among the first 19 female parliament members in Finland chosen in 1907. (Yes, we had female voting and female parliament members before we had independence.) She also became Finland's first female minister (minister of social affairs) in 1926.

[Eldariel]

Eldariel, I'm rather surprised you didn't mention Minna Canth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minna_Canth), but I respect your decision to focus on post-declaration-of-independence people.

It does make your lack of mention of Tove Janson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tove_Jansson) unforgivable, though. :smalltongue:

I will also mention Miina Sillanpää (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miina_Sillanp%C3%A4%C3%A4), who was among the first 19 female parliament members in Finland chosen in 1907. (Yes, we had female voting and female parliament members before we had independence.) She also became Finland's first female minister (minister of social affairs) in 1926.

I debated on the inclusion of Janson but since I was clearly going more along the lines of politics, I just figured I'd stick to the theme. 3 is a small number after all; hard to get comprehensive :smalltongue: And yeah, definitely Minna Canth if I were to go back to before independence but my interpretation of the thread limitations cut her off. And yeah, Sillanpää is actually a good alternative to Hultin; they were both among the first 19 females to be elected. I went with Hultin due to her other credentials, of course, but I wouldn't blame anyone for picking otherwise.

[erikun]

I figure I'll mention Grace Hopper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper) here. U.S. Navy rear admiral, computer scientist, developed the first compiler for a programming language, and was basically the reason for the term "debugging". (Thanks to an actual bug!) Neat person.

[No brains]

Now that we have a fair sample size, can we mathematically determine if few of these women are in fact well behaved?

Ironically, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Thatcher_Ulrich)'s quote is so often wrongly attributed because she behaved well.

[Zar Peter]

A bit late but well. Famous woman in Austria:

Maria Theresia: Often called empress but emperor was her husband. She was archduchess of Austria and had the real power over Austria-Hungary (and she invented, apart from the compulsory education, the Tree-Conservation Law in Vienna which forbids you to cut down a tree with a stem diameter of more then 40cm).

Bertha von Suttner: The first woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sister Maria Restituta: Stands here as a tribute to all woman who lost their lives because of opposing Nazi-reign in Austria.

[Eldan]

Tree-Conversation Law


Hehe. I assume that's a typo. Funny one, though. Perhaps inspired by George III?

[Zar Peter]

Hehe. I assume that's a typo. Funny one, though. Perhaps inspired by George III?

A Freudian slip :smallbiggrin: It could be that she conversated with George and then decided to do this :smallbiggrin:

[Scarlet Knight]

If you even know the names of any early- or pre-colonisation Australian aboriginal women, I'd really love to hear about them. We weren't really all that big on, y'know, caring about those people in any way :/

You know, I can name maybe a dozen famous Native American men, but only two famous women (Pocahontas & Sacagawea) off the top of my head, so I understand the difficulty.


I am curious of any forum members from South America are taught of famous pre-colonization women.

[Eldan]

You know, I can name maybe a dozen famous Native American men, but only two famous women (Pocahontas & Sacagawea) off the top of my head, so I understand the difficulty.


I am curious of any forum members from South America are taught of famous pre-colonization women.


Wiki seems to have a pretty comprehensive list of female Native Americans. There's a few chiefs and leaders on there, so I assume at least some of them must have been significant historically.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Native_American_women_of_the_United_States

[RavynsLand]

Julie D'Aubigny, hands down. She's the OG of Chaotic Neutral.

[Scarlet Knight]

Wiki seems to have a pretty comprehensive list of female Native Americans. There's a few chiefs and leaders on there, so I assume at least some of them must have been significant historically.


My apologies for not being clearer. I have no doubt that there were many great Native American women; what I meant to say is that we are not taught their stories and what made them great.

For example, I learned about Queen Lili'uokalani when I was on my honeymoon in Hawaii. But she never entered into any of our American History books.

[Lex-Kat]

Kate Warne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Warne)- First Female Pinkerton Detective, possibly first in the world. Uncovered the plot to assassinate President Elect Lincoln on his way to Washington. Also believed to have provided protection for him as the Pinkerton's smuggled Abraham through Baltimore.

Alice Paul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Paul) & Lucy Burns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Burns)- Vocal advocates for women's suffrage. Co-founders of the National Women's Party. See the movie: Iron Jawed Angels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Jawed_Angels).

Elizabeth Robinson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Robinson)- Winner of the first Gold Medal for the Women's 100m at the 1928 Olympics. She survived a plane crash and, against all odds, was able to recover and rehabilitate enough to participate in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, helping to win the Gold again in the 4x100m Relay.