Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona, a native Hawaiian Kahuna and gifted healer, developed a new system of healing based on the ancient spiritual tradition, Ho’oponopono. An indefatigable educator, Simeona was honored as a Living Treasure of Hawaii. Editor’s Note: There is some controversy over the claims in this guest article – see this comment for details. To […]
Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., America’s first female doctor
Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D. (1821-1910), was the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States and is often thought of as America’s first woman doctor. A dedicated public health advocate, social reformer, and prolific writer, Blackwell changed the course of modern medicine, founding hospitals and medical colleges for women in the United States […]
Indra Devi, Mother of Western Yoga
Indra Devi was not only a female pioneer in the field of yoga; she helped spread the ancient discipline to Western civilization. Yoga was the domain of men from its inception. The earliest visual evidence of yoga comes from about 2500 BC. Men were the teachers and practitioners of yoga from that point until the […]
Gay Allis Rose Clifford, poet & scholar
Gay Allis Rose Clifford (1943-1998) was a poet and a literary theorist whose most influential piece, Transformations of Allegory, has been cited by over a hundred subsequent works and is still a major work today in the field of allegory in literature. Gay Clifford left her mark not only in the world of literature, but […]
Miss Florence Smith, factory manageress at Tate & Lyle
Researching my book The Sugar Girls, about female workers at Tate & Lyle’s East End sugar and syrup factories in the years during and after the Second World War, I met many remarkable women, and heard about many more. But one character stood out – a legendary figure to all the women I interviewed, remembered […]
Katharine McCormick, biologist & millionaire philanthropist
Katharine Dexter McCormick is a name that every woman today should know, because your life would probably be very different today if it wasn’t for her. Katharine funded what The New York Times called the “most sweeping sociomedical revolution in history. . . [whose] impact on the United States and other nations [is] almost too […]
Esther Howland, the Mother of the American Valentine
Artist Esther Howland (1828–1904) was the first to publish and sell Valentine cards in the United States. Before Esther, many Valentine cards were hand made with paper, lace, and ribbons and handwritten poetry. By the end of the 19th century, most Valentines were mass-produced by machine, many based off Esther’s designs. Esther was inspired by […]
Madam C. J. Walker, self-made millionaire
“I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations….I have built my own factory on my own ground.” Madam […]
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, self-taught scholar and poet of New Spain
Born in New Spain (now Mexico) in 1651, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a nun who wrote what is considered the first feminist manifesto. She was revered as a prodigy during her lifetime, and was one of the most widely published writers of the period. The illegitimate child of a creole woman and […]