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

[AwfulMaureen]

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?

I'm very fond of Mary Howard, the daughter of the third Duke of Norfolk and cousin of Anne Boleyn.
She was married to Henry VIII's illegitimate son and the marriage not consummated because they were both too young, then when he died, Henry tried to weasel out of paying her her proper jointure by arguing they'd never been properly married. Her father wouldn't do anything about it because he was too scared of offending the king, so off her own bat at the age of 16 she wrote lots of letters including to Thomas Cromwell to get it sorted out. When her father found out he said she was wiser than a woman should be....

Irena Sendler who rescued hundreds of Jewish children in the second world war.

Meglet you beat me too it - I was also going to say Irena Sendler! I had never heard of her until about 1 month ago, when I read about her on a thread on here.

Jessie Street is my current favourite :-)

Google my username.

WoodBurner thanks for that! Those are some of my pet subjects....I'll enjoy reading about her!

Miep Gies. You've probably heard of her anyway. She was so, so brave. She supplied the Frank family during their time in hiding in Amsterdam, and when Otto came back after the war, after Anne, Margot and his wife had died in the concentration camp, she gave him Anne's diary which she had found and kept safe. I can't imagine what Mr Frank's feelings must have been then. She died in 2010 aged 100.

Christine de Pizan (also spelled Pisan), medieval author and poet. She started writing as a way to earn money when she was widowed at 25. Some consider her to be an early feminist.

Margery Kempe is considered to have dictated the first autobiography in English. She was a mystic, pilgrim, mother, wife author and pain in the arse. I've been studying her and am quite fond of her.

Hildegard of Bigen
www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.asp

Artemisia Gentileschi
www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/index.shtml

Harriet Ann Jacobs
docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/jacobs/jacobs.html

to name a few awesome women.

Sunshine I read her chronicles when I was researching the 100 years war!

Aaagh so many! Fabulous! Thanks all so much...

I found Jessie Street through a singer-songwriter called Judy Small who wrote a song about her called A Heroine of Mine. I can't find it on YouTube, but it is available on iTunes.

Ada Lovelace, she has her own day!

Emmy Noether

Corrie Ten Boom

James Barry.
Read and be amazed!

Celia Hammond.

She was a model in the swinging sixties and gave it all up to devote her life to the welfare of animals, especially cats.

www.celiahammond.org

She is an amazing, selfless woman. Blessed with a beautiful physical appearance but more importantly a beautiful person inside. She is very inspirational and her work is tremdous.

Zora Neale Hurston
zoranealehurston.com/

bell hooks

Ida B. Wella
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_B._Welles_Barnett

I love this thread!

Annie Sullivan She helped Helen Keller who was deaf and blind.

Rosalind franklin

Jacqueline Felice de Almania

I had never heard of James Barry. Thank you for posting, what an incredible story!

Nelly Bly, pioneering investigative journalist and round-the-world traveller.

Ina May Gaskin.

Mary Seacole

Amy Johnson