These 3 brave female astronauts made history despite the odds, and paved the way for women in space and science after them.
3 Great Female Speakers In History
Who are the most famous female speakers in history? Learn about the top 3 best women speakers in history and what makes them the best.
Julia Chase-Brand, Breaking Down Barriers for Women Athletes
When Julia Chase-Brand was growing up, women didn’t run. Born in 1945 in Groton, Connecticut, Chase recalls being surrounded by four active brothers, in a time where girls couldn’t run, play soccer, and if they were to play basketball, it was at the half court line. Inspired by local distance runner John J. Kelley, Chase […]
Mary Treat, Victorian Entomologist and Visionary Biologist
Mary Treat (1830-1923) was a prolific scientific writer who earned a reputation as “the world’s most famous and industrious woman naturalist” at a time when few women were professionally engaged in biology. The daughter of a minister, Treat attended a private girls’ academy early in life. Such academies, or “seminaries,” were an answer to the […]
Ann Hopkins, Pioneering Law Firm Partner
Ann Hopkins was an attorney who bravely pursued a landmark American employment discrimination case after being denied partnership at a law firm for her gender. Told she was “overly aggressive, unduly harsh, difficult to work with,” and “needed a course in charm school,” Ann fought back by suing the firm for sex discrimination. The landmark […]
Mary Bunting, Champion of Women’s Education
Mary I. Bunting was the Rutgers dean who led the fight for coeducation at the United States’ most prestigious universities. The program she created in 1958 to support a community of mature women lives on at Douglass Residential College in her name. When Mary Bunting began her academic career in 1937, women like her had limited […]
Bessie Coleman, Fearless Aviator Breaking Barriers
Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) was the first African-American woman to become a licensed airplane pilot. She persevered through discrimination and danger in order to fly in the early days of aviation. Like many aviators of the early 20th century, she made her living as a barnstormer, similar to today’s stunt pilots. People lined up to see […]
Nancy Harkness Love, WWII Pilot & Commander
Nancy Harkness Love was a trailblazing WWII pilot and commander who was instrumental in the founding of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) of WWII, the first women in history trained to fly American military aircraft. We were in the air flying from Boston to Vassar College to visit friends when I noticed ugly clouds […]
Melanie Klein, the Founding Mother of Children’s Psychology
As with many fields of study, the canonical works of the social sciences are overrun with the findings of white males. But in the field of psychoanalysis, Melanie Klein, a Viennese Jewish woman, made an impact on the field with her unlikely-sounding theories published in her book The Psychoanalysis of Children, where she documents infants’ […]
Margaret Hamilton, the Woman Behind the Moon Landing
Nearly fifty years ago, history was made when Neil Armstrong took his famous first small step on the surface of the moon. But, as they say, behind every great man is a woman, and for Armstrong that woman was Margaret Hamilton, the programmer who invented the software that made the moon landing possible, not to […]
