Inspirational women

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Off the back of another thread, didn't want to derail. Can we have a thread celebrating truly inspirational women from history to modern day. They can be well known or people only personally known to you.

I'll start with Rosa Parks, she lived from 1913-2005 and was an American civil rights activist who refused to give up her bus seat to a white person.
The First Lady of civil rights and the mother of the freedom movement.

Carolyn Springs who has worked tirelessly to set up a charity for mental health condition that is poorly understood.

For Jessica Clark (multiplicityandme) for raising positive awareness about DID.

Temple Grandin. And her mother Anna Purves.

When Temple was 2, she was diagnosed as brain damaged. Drs recommended she be institutionalised. Her mother refused and gave her speech and educational therapy at home. Much later she was diagnosed as autistic.

Temple is now a world reknowned professor of animal science and works to improve animal welfare in the livestock industry and is also a leading autism spokesperson.

I love this thread.

Emmeline Pankhurst and friends ( we have votes, enough said)

JK Rowling ( from broke single parent to billionaire - as well as inspiring millions of children)

Elizabeth Keckley ( started life as a slave - ended up a free woman with her own seamstress/dress design business - with the First Lady as a customer )

Henrietta Lack ( although she didn't do anything...she deserves credit. Her cells have contributed to some of the biggest medical breakthoughs)

The Desert Mothers - very influential on Roman society and early Christianity.

Stella Rimington - former MI5 director.

Alison Hargreaves - mountainner who died on K2.

Ellen McArthur - round-the-world yachtswoman.

Barbara Morgan - the runner-up for the teacher in space programme. Christa McAuliffe won and was on board Challenger when it blew up in 1986. Barbara went on the become an astronaut herself.

My mother and grandmother.

Edith Cowan, an Australian woman born on a sheep station in the far-flung Western Australian town of Geraldton. She was prominent in Australia's movement toward achieving suffrage, and advocated for the rights of children to receive a public education, especially those children of single mothers. She was the first woman to serve as an MP in Australia.

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson - first female British physician/surgeon and active suffragist.

Nellie Bly - in particular for her expose of asylum conditions.

Ada Lovelace largely unsung until fairly recently and crucial to the development of computers/programming.

Diana Lamplugh, Doreen Lawrence, Sara Payne, Margaret aspinall - the ability to keep going after such a tragedy is one thing, to spend decades helping others as a result is truly inspirational.

On a personal level - both my grans who served in ww2 and raised families after that in incredibly poor & difficult circumstances, one gran also essentially nursing her husband from the start of their marriage as he had a chronic illness as a result of his ww2 service. Who both did all this with gumption, humour & compassion.

My aunt who as a forensic accountant has investigated and been instrumental in gaining convictions of some seriously dodgy people, who even when it became possible to have her identity protected in court refused because "the good guys don't have anything to hide". Awesome woman!

Marian Keyes - an amazing writer who writes humour particularly well (not easy) who's done so despite suffering crippling depression & alcoholism and who is lovely to fans. She's always very open about her mh struggles and discusses them with honesty & humour which I think is really helpful in breaking through prejudices & stereotypes.

Charlotte Delbo - French Resistance member - tortured and imprisoned in Auschwitz - wrote moving and powerful memoirs. She was warned the arrest was imminent and given the opportunity to escape but turned it down because "I can't stand being safe while others are guillotined". Worked fro the Un post-war.

Mary ("Mother") Seacole - a British-Jamaican nurse who set up the "English Hotel" behind the lines during the Crimean war. She was totally self-funded - the government wouldn't support a black woman doing this. Her "hotel" provided care for convalescents, and she also visited the battlefield, often under fire, to nurse the wounded.

I've been reading this from the last page forward (don't ask).

What an amazing breed we women are! I'm struck as well by the number of posters who have mentioned Mary Seacole - she was one of my choices, and you rarely hear her name mentioned, yet she has obviously be inspirational to a lot of us on here.

Archery - your auntie - what a dynamo! Such courage and strength.

We can all take inspiration form these women - they were just ordinary people who found that they could move mountains if they put their minds to it - I wonder what we could do, if we found our courage, and our project?

I'm struck as well by the number of posters who have mentioned Mary Seacole - she was one of my choices, and you rarely hear her name mentioned, yet she has obviously be inspirational to a lot of us on here

Schools teach about her in History at secondary school alongside Florence Nightingale. They mention she is lesser known but just as important so she won't be forgotten.

So many amazing, inspirational women. I love this thread.

Eleanor Roosevelt - overcame an amazingly sad childhood to rewrite the role of First Lady and give the world human rights.

Mother Theresa - dedicated her life to help others.

Helen Keller - born deaf and blind and got a degree and campaigned for women's rights. To overcome such a huge physical hurdle and then go on to fight for other people - how inspirational is that?

Delicto - glad your Brownies hear this stuff. Kudos to you.

We did the GG Phenomenal Women and Girls badge at the beginning of term. Some of the phrases in the pack pissed me off, but we were amazed so many local amazing women, including Pam Relph, paraolympian who went to the same senior school as my Young Leader & Guide Helper (same school many of my Brownies will go to in time).

They were also asked to think of someone they knew (female) who was inspirational. We had midwives, teachers, aunts who ran clubs, a police call handler. It was very clear that everyday women are just as awesome to a small yellow person. All of us, when we touch a young person's life, need to leave a positive mark, and we often do it without realising.

Barbara Castle- who incidentally introduced the breathalyser which has led to much fewer deaths on our roads.

Hedy Lamarr-not only a gorgeous film star, but also a renowned scientist who developed technology that ended up as wifi.
Women-we fucking rock!

Jane Tomlinson, the marathon runner who suffered from cancer.
Rosalind Franklin.
My friend, whose 4-month old child died of a rare genetic condition. I have never seen anyone so much changed as she has been since this event. She's used her dreadful circumstances to try to help others, breaking the taboo of child loss and setting up the only - and much needed - support group for similar parents in her community.

Jean Corston.

Grew up working class, left school with almost no qualifications, was a housewife for ages, then went to university at 28 and became a barrister in her 40s. She then wrote the Corston report, detailing how awful women's prisons are in the UK.

A quote from her: “Treating men and women the same is not equal treatment. How many men would like to be treated as if they were women? It’s a system that sets fragile women up to fail, and everybody knows it.”

What I often find with lists of inspirational women is that they are very middle class, often coming from very supportive families (not all of course.) There's a real lack of working class voices and that is something that bothers me, as I feel I can't always relate so much to women who haven't faced poverty/class issues growing up.

It really inspires me that she totally changed the direction of her life.

Sophia Jex Blake - first woman to study medicine at Edinburgh University, against huge opposition - there were riots to stop her and fellow women sitting their exams! She finally qualified as a doctor in Switzerland and the went on to found Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women and the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-46180368

A hero of mine (especially as I love the island of Spetses) is

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laskarina_Bouboulina

I would love to write a novel based on her life. Twice widowed sea captain, admiral of the Russian fleet, saved the women in the harem in Tripoli ,mustered the islanders to see off the Turks and killed in a family feud in her early 50s. Sea battle night around the middle of September still celebrates her part in the victory over the Ottoman Empire.

Erin Pizzey

Erin Brockovich

Etty Hillesum

Dorothy Day

Patti Smith..Rock goddess, poet, mother..I love her. That's all..🤟🏻😍

Margaret Beaufort, widowed at 13 whilst pregnant. Navigated 30 years of the Wars of the Roses to see her son crowned as Henry VII

Mo Mowlam
Madonna
Emmeline Pankhurst
Maya Angelou
Doreen Lawrence
Eleanor Roosevelt
Tessa Jowell
Jo Brand

So many more.......

Another vote for Mo Mowlem

So many already mentioned. Also:

Yvonne Vera – Zimbabwean novelist and director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.

Emmy Noether, the German mathematician.

Ruth Young – qualified as a doctor in 1909 then spent many years in India teaching in women's medical colleges. Later involved in the Ethiopian Women’s Work Association.