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Original poster

Tell me about an amazing woman in history that I may not have heard about?

293 replies

AwfulMaureen · 11/01/2014 18:16

There are LOADS of women in history who've done incredible things or had amazing careers but have been forgotten...like an amazing singer from the twenties/thirties who also worked as a prostitute and who wrote and sang some of the most shockingly filthy songs in addition to having a stunning voice.

She began singing professionally as a child having been singing on the street for money...she was offered work in bars. ...I love Lucille Bogan...WARNING...don't play the song in the link if the kids are around!

Tell me your favourite unknown women?

OP posts:
babyphat · 11/01/2014 20:22

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman

Harriet Tubman - escaped from slavery and rescued more than 300 slaves.

Elizabeth Fry - Quaker (I think) prison reformer

LottieJenkins · 11/01/2014 20:20

Campaign to get Edith Cavell on the £2 coin

Shosha1 · 11/01/2014 20:19

Nancy Wake

SOE agent. Brilliant brave woman

JanePurdy · 11/01/2014 20:18

Sorry forgot to convert links!

Also everyone in Jill Liddington's 'Rebel Girls'

JanePurdy · 11/01/2014 20:17

Elizabeth Garret Anderson - first female doctor & part of a fascinating family
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Garrett_Anderson

Charlotte Carmichael Stopes - academic, campaigner, feminist
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Carmichael_Stopes

beatricequimby · 11/01/2014 20:14

Cornelia Sorabji - Indian woman who became first woman to study law in England. Did lots of fantastic pioneering legal work in India (although she became very anti- Indian independence at the end of her life-not so keen on her later views).

Vera Brittain - author ofTestament of Youth - about her experiences in WW1. Feminist, journalist, pacifist and mother of Shirley Williams

Winifred Holtby - great friend of Vera Brittain and interesting for the same reasons.

Noor Inayat Khan - as mentioned upthread. Also all the other women agents in WW2 such as Odette Churchill and Violette Szabo.

HectorVector · 11/01/2014 20:09

Also although relatively normal and having lived a relatively normal life Henrietta Lacks' cells helped revolutionise medicine and cancer research.

daisyswirl · 11/01/2014 20:08

Nicholaa De La Haye..
Inherited the castellen of Lincoln castle and at times was in charge of its defence.Also served as the high sheriff of Lincolnshire for 5 months in 1216. A very brave and feisty lady at a time when women were chattels

BrokenBananaTantrum · 11/01/2014 20:07

AdaLovelace

redmayneslips · 11/01/2014 20:07

I came on to say Artemesia Gentileschi but see I was beaten to it, incredible life story.

HectorVector · 11/01/2014 20:06

Hedy Lamarr as well as being an actress, she was also a Physicist, she jointly patented some very useful wartime technology.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 11/01/2014 20:05

Emilié du Chatelet. Translated the Principia Mathematica into French, foremost mathematical physicist of the 18th century, had a long affair with Voltaire with her husband's approval, got him to popularise Newton's ideas in France, and died in childbirth at 39 having personally selected the father from among her male admirers.

StillPukin · 11/01/2014 20:01

CATHERINE BOOTH (

TheSydenhamSet · 11/01/2014 19:58

Corrie Ten Boom - a Christian lady in Nazi occupied Holland who saved 100s of Jews by hiding them in her house. She co-wrote The Hiding Place telling her story, from which a film was made. Incredible woman

znaika · 11/01/2014 19:53

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Greythorne · 11/01/2014 19:50

Hypatia

DroothyNeebor · 11/01/2014 19:49

Sophia Jex-Blake and the rest of the Edinburgh Seven who fought to become doctors
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Seven

Elsie Inglis, doctor and sufferagette
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Inglis

ariadneoliver · 11/01/2014 19:48

Ada Lovelace

Slatecross · 11/01/2014 19:47

Is like to see this thread in Classics!

crescentmoon · 11/01/2014 19:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

QueenofLouisiana · 11/01/2014 19:45

Catherine De Medici

Powerful, focused, I'm sure not always pleasant though.

Dilidali · 11/01/2014 19:43

Book of the Dead

Dilidali · 11/01/2014 19:42

I must apologise, the food was about to be served, hence my mad haste to post. James Barry was born at the end of the 1700 as a girl. Girls could not become doctors, so she went to medical school aged 15 pretending to be a boy. Which she pretended for the rest of her life. Postmortem it was discovered that she also had a child at some point.

I found about her reading http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0571244912 The Book of the Dead which is a fantastic book I throughly recommend.

Meerka · 11/01/2014 19:38

Gertrude Bell, explorer in the middle east.

Katherine Swynford mistress and later wife to John of Gaunt. Her descendants became royal.

Artemisia Naval Commander in ancient Persia

TwoAndTwoEqualsChaos · 11/01/2014 19:33

I was going to say Edith Cavell, Thisis.

Cecily, Duchess of York, a very strong, independent woman, mother and grandmother of Kings.