Inspirational women in history - who's yours?

[HecateTrivia]

My son has to research and do a biography of an inspirational woman in history. I wondered who you feel inspired by?

Florence Nightingale, Edith Cavell, Violet Szabo, Odette Churchill. I am sure i will think of others!!

and I have..........Joan of Arc!!

I've just come across Gertrude Bell and for her achievements I'd call her inspirational - until I saw that she was honorary secretary of the anti-suffrage league. :(

Veronica Geurin.

And all the countless other journailsts who have been assassinated because they uncovered corruption and crime within government and public institutions. So, so many in Chechnya and Russia generally, Mexico etc etc....

Has anyone mentioned the late Marie Colvin? One of the most inspirational female journalists for a generation. (No disrespect to Kate Adie, Christina Lamb, Lindsey Hilsum et al. Awesome also.)

right now, florence nightingale, who, i am informed, conducted most of her amazing work to change sanitisation in hospitals from her bed. all the doctors and politicians came to her bedside where she made big changes.

i am currently mostly bed bound atm due to bad back. i shall be starting my world changing role once someone has fetched me another coffee. and some cake...

Early women travellers in the Middle East are good subjects.

Freya Stark and Gertrude Bell sping to mind. Bell was the only woman at the Cairo Conference with Churchill and Lawrence ('of Arabia') in 1921, carving up the post-war territory, creating Iraq.... She's best known for her photographs of ancient sites. Stark was earlier and more interesting to me, but Bell has more available on her online.

Has Fanny Blankers-Koen been mentioned? Amazing woman who, as a 30 year old mother of 2, won 4 Olympic golds in 1948 (4 years after the Hongerwinter). She showed that women were every bit as strong, dedicated and determined as men. Women in sport owe her a big debt of gratitude.

Florence Nightingale was an absolute bitch about Mary Seacole, couldn't bear the competition and repeatedly called her a whore.

That bit isn't hugely inspiring.

That's a good one, Mamma. Mary Peters was also amazing, for all sorts of reasons.

Alison Hargreaves - fantastic climber/mountaineer, who died on K2 in 1995. She got much stick for being a mother and a woman doing this sport, something her male peers didn't/don't have to defend themselves for.

Florence Nightingale was a very flawed character. She actually did a lot of campaigning from her bed when she realised that the medical post where she led the nursing to serve soldiers in the Crimea, had a higher death rate than other medical posts. And this was largely due to the environmental conditions of poor drainage and hygiene.

From what I read and from memory, she took to her bed in great depression as she realised that her actual nursing in Crimea overall had not been good for the soldiers. Soldiers actually asked to be taken to her medical set up as they believed there chances of surviving were higher - they were actually lower.

So she ended up throwing herself into campaigning around the conditions of hospitals - hygiene, drainage, etc as a result of this.

She also came from a well off background. The prejudice against Mary Seacole was based on her lower class and race. Although I don't remember anything where Florence actually said this, it wouldn't be surprising if as a productof her class she looked down on a black lower class woman.

TBH lots of women and men who really have a big impact are flawed characters and thus I think we should judge them on their overall impact rather than every action.

Octavia Hill - co-founder of the National Trust, who also campaigned to improve housing conditions for the poor and set up and managed some of the first social housing schemes in London. She believed that the urban poor should have access to green open spaces- "the life-enhancing virtues of pure earth, clean air and blue sky" - and helped to prevent the development of Hampstead Heath and Parliament Hill Fields.

What EatsBrainsAndLeaves says - Octavia (who never married) was also opposed to female suffrage and believed that "provision of social services and old-age pensions by the government did more harm than good, sapping people's self-reliance" ! But she was a good egg really .

During the WW2 a group of 7 or 8 nurses were captured by the Japanese and were sentenced to death. Before shooting them their captors made them march into the sea. As they walked they linked arms and one girl smiled and said "Chin up, girls". Only one of them survived.
I read that in a Sunday paper years ago and the girl that said "Chin up" has inspired me ever since. I'd love to have one ounce of her bravery and spirit.

I always thought Mary Seacole was a better, more compassionate nurse but old Flo had access to the heart of government and had more influence.

I disagree EatsBrains, so much in life depends on the 'whole person'. I think it's entirely fair to judge a historical figure on all of their attributes. Clearly her depression was a curse, but Florence Nightingale showed a lack of humanity in relation to Mary Seacole and I don't see why time and class should excuse that, because other of her contemporaries managed to rise above it. I think it diminishes her and for that reason I wouldn't list her in my top ten.

That said, I'm glad I shall never be judged.

Poor Anne Boleyn: while it was good and her witholding of favours had Henry (spoilt brat) eating out of her hand, those men in her family were right behind her. But where was her father (the creep) when it all went horribly wrong?

Another vote here for Rosa Parks. I've actually just mentioned her in a seminar I'm preparing.

I tried to think of someone before I read this thread and the only person I could think of was Katherine Hepburn. Once I'd read the thread, I had a few 'doh' moments recognising some of the names already mentioned .

I read Hepburn's biography years ago, and she had such a fascinating life. Her parents were very progressive, liberal people - her mother was a feminst campaigner - she campaigned in support of birth control and abortion in the latter part of her life, and she was just a strong, independent, out-spoken, kick-ass type of woman Didn't take any shit from anyone, and that is my type of role model.

Ignore the bit about campaigning 'in the latter part of her life' my memory of her biography is v hazy. She campaigned for decades apparently.

Yes sorry it was decades I think - but it was after she had nursed at the crimea

3rd Place (& only because there is so much rubbish about her on this thread) Florence Nightingale - Forget the nursing crap & the Mary Seacole shit; Flo's real contribution was in making statistics recognised as a proper analytical science ( to the extent that the pie chart , which she invented, was originally called the Nightingale Rose ).

2nd Place Eleanor of Aquitaine : history has many examples of power behind the throne women, but E of A is a pretty good role model. In fact, given the trials & tribs of her life, I can't think of a better one!

1st Place Margaret Thatcher . I know that liberal, intellectual North London can't stand her; and that illiberal, unintellectual North Britain can't stand her either; and one or other of those categories includes moi-meme (incl circumflex for purists). But she was the first woman to dominate the world stage.

My local hospital has a medical library named after Mary Seacole.

Illiberal unintellectual North Britain? So it's only thick people who don't appreciate Maggie then?

Unintellectual North Britain? Charming. Try looking a little deeper into the effects of Mrs Thatcher's policies in the non-intellectual North before you type any more.

Mary Wollstonecraft - wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Women, and was one of the first feminist writers. She had the most extraaordinary life for the period in which she lived (having a child out of wedlock, financially supporting family and friends etc) and died giving birth to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who went on to write Frankenstein.