Violet Jessop: Early Life When you think of Violet Jessop, “lucky” is a term that comes to mind. She was born in Argentina in 1887 to Irish immigrants. She became ill with what her doctors said was fatal tuberculosis. Somehow, she survived. After her father passed away, her mother decided to move the family to … Read more
Miram Makeba: Birth & Early Life Miriam Makeba was first sent to prison when she was just 18 months old. It was 1932, the height of the Great Depression. Her mother, Regina Makeba, was a Swazi sangoma (traditional healer). She typically worked as a domestic worker, but she also set up an illegal brewery at … Read more
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: Who Was She? Born in 1651, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz was a Mexican nun, scholar, author and feminist. She was a polymath whose mastery of multiple fields such as literature, philosophy, science, and music made her a remarkable figure in history. At the ripe age of 17, … Read more
African-American women have always been major contributors to literature in the United States, yet often their stories are overlooked or undervalued. However, there is an ever-growing lineup of talented black female authors who are reclaiming their space and making waves. From the earliest days of African-American literature to now, these writers have created powerful works … Read more
Lyudmila Pavlichenko: Early Life When she was a teenager, Lyudmila Pavlichenko heard her neighbor’s son say that women can’t shoot – and she got angry. She decided that she would prove him wrong – and become the world’s best sniper along the way. And so she did. Pavlichenko, who was born in the Ukraine in … Read more
Born as a slave, Harriet Tubman became the woman who led the most slaves to their freedom. She aunderwent brain surgery without anesthesia and was also the first woman to lead an attack in the U.S. military. These are just ways to describe Harriet Tubman, a woman who was born a slave, managed to escape, and instead of enjoying the life of freedom in the north – devoted her life to helping others.
June Almeida was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1930, and died in 2007 – long before COVID-19, took our lives by storm. She dropped out of school at the age of 16 and never formally attended university. Yet she was still a groundbreaking virologist. In fact, she was the first person who succeeded in photographing the … Read more
Mary Anning: Who Was She? Everyone who has ever watched Friends knows what Ross’s job is (Paleontology), but have you ever wondered where this fascinating subject emerged? One of the researchers who paved the way for fossil research was Mary Anning. Even as a child, she would walk along the river and find fossils from … Read more
The first woman to get accepted into the Florence Academy of Art during the Renaissance was almost completely forgotten in art history. When she is mentioned, it’s usually due to a traumatic event in her past: her rape and court trial. But Artemisia Gentileschi was a trailblazing painter very much ahead of her time, and … Read more
Sarah and Angelina Grimke were white sisters who were some of the earliest leaders of the abolishment movement.
In the 1930s, the Germany had complete domination of one of the most popular sports at the time: race car driving. German drivers, in state-of-the art Mercedes cars, armed with money from the Nazi regime, starred in Grand Prix competitions. Until one woman had had enough, and decided to compete against the German hegemony. Lucy … Read more
Nawal El Saadawi: One Of Egypt’s Leading Feminists Nawal El Saadawi never held back on speaking her mind – even when doing so put her into prison and made her the target of hate and death threats in Egypt and the Arab world. And she didn’t have to. As a doctor and psychiatrist who served … Read more
