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Original poster

help - fantasy dinner party

37 replies

Flingingmelon · 02/03/2016 13:55

DH has been asked to do something for his company to mark Woman's month. One of the questions he was asked was;

Which women would you invite to a fantasy dinner party, alive or dead?

Obviously he wants to talk about some inspiring women, but he wants to pick women who are less well known.

I thought this would be a good place ask for recommendations, but I also want to hear about some obscure amazing women myself.

Any suggestions?

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OzzieFem · 03/03/2016 16:07

Dr Catherine Hamlin.

onahorsewithnoname · 03/03/2016 11:35

Thankyou all, even though it's not my thread Grin
Reading list backlog has just increased significantly

greyselegy · 03/03/2016 09:18

Sofia Kovalevskaya -- first woman appointed to a full professorship in Northern Europe. A giant on whose shoulders ...

Emmy Noether -- '... the most significant creative mathematical genius thus far produced since the higher education of women began.' (A. Einstein, letter to NYT, May1 1935. Note, not 'the most significant female creative mathematical genius' ... just unqualifiedly, in that period. Perhaps even more importantly (!) 'Noether's Theorem' underpins contemporary physics at a really deep level; why is this so little known?)

G.E.M. (Elizabeth) Anscombe -- '... perhaps the last great philosopher writing in English.' (R. Scruton, 2010. Again, not 'last great female philosopher, notice.) But also, 'the undoubted giant among women philosophers' (M. Warnock, 2006)

AuntGertrude · 03/03/2016 08:34

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
Germaine Greer
Jenny Beavan

NeverEverAnythingEver · 03/03/2016 07:58

Joanne Liu, International President of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)?

NotCitrus · 03/03/2016 07:26

I recently considered this and my three women were Ursula le Guin, Martina Navratilova, and Annie Lennox.

Though Dorothy Hodgkin (scientist), Margaret Beckett (first female Foreign Secretary, only minister to serve under Callaghan and Blair, fond of dinner parties and apparently entertaining), Christiane Nusslein-Volhard (recent Nobel for genetics, lovely), Anne McIntosh (Yorkshire long-serving MP), Shami Chakribati (Director of Liberty), architect Zaha Hadid, would all be contenders for further places.

sausageeggbacon111 · 03/03/2016 07:26

Julie D'Aubigny aka La Maupin you want badass then this is the go to.

If if is some one alive the Samantha Cristoforetti who recently completed her tour on ISS. DD is in total awe of her.

Elendon · 03/03/2016 01:01

And yes also to Eleanor Roosevelt.

Elendon · 03/03/2016 00:58

Constance Markievicz

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Markievicz

What a woman, a little bit controversial, but fascinating.

EElisavetaOfBelsornia · 02/03/2016 22:14

Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir. First European woman to settle in America in the 11th century.

EElisavetaOfBelsornia · 02/03/2016 22:10

Oh who was that Norse explorer woman?

NeverEverAnythingEver · 02/03/2016 21:45

Sacagawea, from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. (I only knew about her from Night at the Museum. Blush Grin)

SanityClause · 02/03/2016 21:41

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, granddaughter of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, Lion of the Punjab.

She was a god daughter of Queen Victoria, and became a social campaigner and suffragette.

EElisavetaOfBelsornia · 02/03/2016 21:36

Aphra Behn
Artemisia Gentileschi
Mira Rai

Movingonmymind · 02/03/2016 21:35

And Jenni Murray to keep us in order and make sure we get to bed on time. Though reckon she'd have some great tales to tell after a couple of glasses of wine.

Mrskeats · 02/03/2016 21:35

Mary Wollstonecraft and Elizabeth Gaskell for me

Movingonmymind · 02/03/2016 21:33

The late wonderfully erudite dynamo that was Prof Lisa Jardine, Geena Davis for some Hollywood glamour, Hildegarde of Bingen, Gloria Steinem, Helena Kennedy QC and then, to give us a laugh, the late and wonderful Linda Smith and the little bouncy Scandi woman who went off to found the WEP. Would argue with her, especially on their ridiculous trans policy all night until Jardine or Kennedy shut me up.

SenecaFalls · 02/03/2016 21:27

I second Eleanor Roosevelt. And, like your DH, she was also in sales. Smile

NeverEverAnythingEver · 02/03/2016 21:26

Wu Zetian was much more positive, I think. And Chinese history has always treated her badly because she was a woman.

NeverEverAnythingEver · 02/03/2016 21:25

There was an empress of China: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zetian

Original poster
Flingingmelon · 02/03/2016 21:24

True, but can you imagine what she'd be like with half a bottle of wine in her?!

OP posts:
NeverEverAnythingEver · 02/03/2016 21:23

Oh no! Not the Dowager Empress Cixi! Mad as a hatter, she was...

Original poster
Flingingmelon · 02/03/2016 21:22

I think we are getting the obscurity level about right here. I haven't heard of about fifty percent of the women on this list and I'd describe myself as being averagely clued up for degree level education.

I've learnt loads tonight.

OP posts:
Lweji · 02/03/2016 21:16

How to define obscure?

I'd choose Lynn Margulies for proposing that mitochondria and chloroplasts evolved from symbiotic bacteria.
Rosalind Franklin of DNA non-fame.
And
Mary Leakey of human evolution fame.

Original poster
Flingingmelon · 02/03/2016 21:13

These are all great, we have a lot of googling to do.

We also found;

Dowager Empress Cixi

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EmpressDowagerr_Cixi

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