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?

(Can you tell I am jealous I didn't ge to say Christine de Pizan or Margaret Beaufort first?! ).

Hild of Whitby also important. She headed a monastery of men and women and is one of the most important early(ish) Christian examples of the fact that women were given responsibility in the historic church so precedent is no reason for sexism now.

Also Waris Dirie and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, though you've probably heard of them. The first is a model who wrote about her experience of being circumcised at a young age and who is brilliant; the second is a politician who campaigns against FGM, also from a position of knowledge.

An Irish one [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_O'Malley]

Ooooh. Brilliant thread.

Local woman Victoria Drummond fascinates me. Relatively unknown - she was the first female marine engineer - took the Chief Engineer exam 37 times but they wouldn't allow her to pass.

One attempt ended with the other examinees walking out of the exam as they wouldn't take the exam with a woman.

seasalt that is sooo weird I was just trying to remember Grace O'Malley's name and then you posted that!

Mary Shelley

Her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft

All the women in The Wilder Shores of Love

Pope Joan

Amy Jacques Garvey

Nigella maybe if you had remembered you would have got the link to work properly unlike me Still haven't figured out iPad!

Has anyone mentioned Helen Sharman, who answered an advert 'Wanted. Astronaut. No experience necessary' and became first Brit in space.

Am going to spend hours checking out the links on this thread.

I love Pope Joan, lesser.

We've not had Flora Sandes yet, have we? She is the only British woman who was officially enlisted in the army in WWI. She actually joined the Serbian army (after doing first aid) because she was so keen to serve - all her family were soldiers.

Agnes Baden-Powell.
Robert B-P created Scouts, but the girls wanted to join in, so his sister Agnes created Guides.

She was later shoved out sidelined by B-Ps much younger wife, Olave. It was Olave's name that appeared in Guiding histories until relatively recently, when Agnes's contribution began to be recognised.

That's really shit, you'll. I know I learned about Olave.

Martha Ballard, 18thc midwife in New England who wrote an account of her professional experiences, A Midwife's Tale;

Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross;

Mary Hobart, one of America's first professional woman doctors

• all three related!

Clara Barton in particular was an amazing person - an abolitionist, and tended the wounded on Civil War battlefields.

George Eliot

Marianne Moore

Frances Partridge

G. E. Anscombe

Sylvia Townsend Warner

Marking place, great thread

Two from chez Pratchett. Catherine Bar the Door. DH, quite the history feminist, says Tomoe Gozen.

Thanks for the others, must print this thread.

Fatima Al Fihri who founded the world's first academic degree granting institution of higher education, which is still running today.

The first couple remind me of a lady I met while working in hospitals.

I commented on her unusual name (can't remember it now and it would be a breach of confidentiality to say it if I could).

She was German and moved to the UK after WWII, which obviously is quite unusual.

She and her husband were undertakers, they had hidden numerous Jewish children in coffins and 'exported' them to various places out of Germany.

She said how scary it must have been for these children.

I wonder how many people like her there are?

And not just people who took part in organised underground activities.

And listening to the radio the other day there was a drama on - not sure if real or fictional - but a Jewish man was about to be arrested by the SS when people, just ordinary random people, got between him and the SS and bundled him on to a tram, which saved his life.

I also reread/read the latest edition or Anne Frank's diary, things have be reedited in to it that were left out of the original publication but were written by AF if that makes sense, things like the names being edited to who they actually are.

Anyway at one point there is a break in at the warehouse, the family hear voices and then silence.

A few days later one of the employees is told by a neighbour that they were walking past at night, saw someone break in and shouted at them to leave. They had not called the police because of 'your situation'.

I wonder how many lives were saved by people keeping quiet, or ignoring things, or not calling the police?

sorry I have totally diverted this thread.

Sylvia Pankhurst

She was the daughter of Emmaline Pankhurst and sister to Christabel Pankhurst, but is much less well-known. The women's suffrage movement was connected to the eugenics movement and many believed that only women who owned property or were wealthy should be able to vote, but Sylvia wanted all women including poor women and prostitutes to get the vote. She also played a big role in liberating Ethiopia.

Jessica Mitford

She was one of the famous Mitford sisters (well worth looking up in general, a fascinating bunch) and while most of her sisters became fascists, she became an outspoken communist and left her wealthy family to become an investigative journalist and civil rights campaigner in the US. She had an enormous influence on J K Rowling and Rowling's eldest daughter Jessica is named after her.

I recommend the webcomic Hark, A Vagrant, the author Kate Beaton does comics about many things (and is very funny) but a lot of her work is on great women from history, well-known or not well-known.

Jane Haining. Died in Auschwitz with the children she tried to protect.

Rosalind Franklin, scientist involved in the discovery of dna.

James Miranda Barry, doctor. Born: Margaret Bulkley.

Anne askew

Protestant martyr, only woman to ever have been tortured in The Tower. Refused to implicate others inc Catherine Parr, thereby saving her life. Refused to adopt her married name. Kicked ass all round.

Olympe de Gouges
Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze who redeemed something from one of the most idiotic murders during the Terror.

Hedy Lamarr Hollywood movie star and inventor