Qiu Jin (1875–1907) was a Chinese writer & poet, a strong-willed feminist who is considered a national hero in China. Also called “Jianhu Nüxia” (Woman Knight of Mirror Lake”), she was executed after participating in a failed uprising against the Qing Dynasty. Qiu Jin was born in 1875 to a family of the gentry, and […]
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 […]
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 […]
Rose Schneiderman, labour union pioneer
“The life of men and women is so cheap and property is so sacred. There are so many of us for one job it matters little if 140-odd are burned to death.” Rose Schneiderman Rose Schneiderman was a prominent labour union leader, who dedicated her life to the effort of improving the working conditions of […]
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 […]
Corazon Aquino, revolutionary president of the Philippines
Corazon Aquino was the first female president of the Phillipines, and is known for leading the People Power Revolution in 1986 which restored democracy to the country.
Eugenia Charles, Dominica’s first female prime minister
Eugenia Charles (1919-2005) was the Prime Minister of Dominica from 1980 to 1995. She was Dominica’s first and only female prime minister, and Dominica’s longest-serving prime minister. She became interested in law while working at the colonial magistrate’s court. After studying law at the University College of the University of Toronto and the London School […]
Fannie Sperry Steele, award-winning rodeo performer
Fannie Sperry Steele (1887-1983), born Fannie Sperry, was an award-winning bronc rider and rodeo performer from Montana, one of the first women inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame, and the first Montana native in the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Born Fannie Sperry to Rachel and Datus Sperry, Fannie was a first-generation Montanan. She […]
Alice Austen, photographer
Alice Austen (March 17, 1866 – June 9, 1952) was a self-taught photographer born on Staten Island. She used her mother’s surname, Austen, because her father had left her mother before Alice was born. Alice started her interest in photography when her uncle gave her a camera when she was 10 years old. After she […]