help - fantasy dinner party

[Flingingmelon]

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?

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

Oh who was that Norse explorer woman?

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

Constance Markievicz

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Markievicz

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

And yes also to Eleanor Roosevelt.

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.

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.

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

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
Germaine Greer
Jenny Beavan

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)

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

Dr Catherine Hamlin.