Inspiring women through history

To celebrate International Women's Day, we look at a a selection of inspiring women through the ages who have made a uniquely feminine impact on the world…

  Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker
American critic, satirical poet and short-story writer, Dorothy Parker was famous for her flashingly malicious wit and acidic one-liners, as well as her membership in the Algonquin Hotel's celebrated Round Table (a kind of American Bloomsbury Group in the Twenties and Thirties). Some classic Parkerisms: "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy." "The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue." "It serves me right for putting all my eggs in one bastard."

Virginia Woolf
Author, essayist and feminist, Virginia Woolf was at the centre of literary and artistic circle, The Bloomsbury Group, in the 1920s. She also explored women's experience in order to find an alternative to a male-dominated society. A Room Of One's Own (1929) deals with the obstacles that hinder women writers, while Three Guineas (1938) spoke of the need for women to make a claim for their own history and literature. Troubled with mental illness, Woolf finally committed suicide in 1941, but left behind a rich legacy of work.

Glenda Jackson
Proof positive that it's never too late to change direction, Oscar-winning velvet-toned actress Glenda Jackson gave up her acting career at 56 and turned to politics. Elected MP for Hampstead and Highgate in 1992 and 1997 , she became Parliamentry Secretary of State for Transportation. In 1999 she was an unsuccessful candidate for the Mayor of London. Always outspoken, she has been a strong opposer of the Iraq war.

Boudicca
Forget Xena, this was the original kick-ass Warrior Princess! Celtic tribal leader Boudicca fought the Romans in Britain in 61AD, after they attacked her people, seized her lands, and raped her daughters. During Queen Victoria's reign, Boudicca was seen as the embodiment of 'Britannia', and her bronze statue, near the Houses of Parliament, is a fitting monument to a truly amazing figure in British history.

Joan of Arc
In the early 15th century, England, in alliance with Burgundy, controlled most of what is modern France. In 1428 Joan of Arc's visions told her to find the true king of France and help him reclaim his throne. She led her fearsome troops from one battle to another and her victories brought Charles VII to the throne in 1430. Captured by the Burgundians, she was sold to the English for 10 thousand francs, put on for witchcraft, then burnt at the stake as a heretic. In 1456 her case was re-tried, and Joan was acquitted (23 years too late). A fearless woman of true faith and unshakeable integrity, Joan of Arc is now canonised as a Catholic saint.

  Rosa ParksRosa Parks
Dubbed the 'Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement,' Rosa Parks is famous for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in 1950s' America. Her arrest for breaking segregation laws started a boycott of the city bus line that lasted 381 days. This eventually led to the 1956 Supreme Court ruling declaring segregation illegal on public buses. She died in October 2005, aged 92.

Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa's selfless, groundbreaking work has been recognised throughout the world. The suffering and poverty she witnessed as a nun in 1930s' Calcutta made such a deep impression on her that she devoted herself to working among the poorest of the poor. In 1950, she started her own order, The Missionaries Of Charity, whose task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. She died in 1997, but her legacy lives on today, as the order provides help in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, as well as relief work in the wake of floods, epidemics, famine and for refugees.

Elizabeth I
Politically astute, witty and eloquent, the 'Virgin Queen' reigned for some 45 years and famously refused to marry ('I am already bound unto a husband which is the Kingdom of England'). She also presided over The Golden Age of England, defeating the Spanish Armarda which set England on its way to becoming a supreme naval power.

  Oprah WinfreyOprah Winfrey
Raised in abject poverty, Oprah is the first African-American woman to become a billionaire in American history, as well as the first woman to own and produce her own talk show. She's an accomplished actress, winning an Academy Award nomination for her role in The Color Purple. Any book she chooses for her on-air book club becomes an instant best-seller. She was instrumental in the passage of the Oprah Bill, in the early Nineties, aimed at stopping child abuse. Let's face it, whatever you think of her schmaltzy chat-show, this is one dynamo of a lady...

Eleanor Roosevelt
America's most influential First Lady blazed paths for women and led the battle for social justice everywhere. Eleanor shattered the mould of the First Lady and reshaped it around her own skills and commitment to social reform. She gave a voice to people who did not have access to power. She was the first American woman to speak in front of a national convention, to write a newspaper column, to earn money as a lecturer, to be a radio commentator and to hold regular press conferences.

Emmeline Pankhurst
Militant English suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903 with her daughter Christabel, eventually gaining votes for women in 1928, a few months before she died. The Suffragettes were famous for their processions and public-speaking rallies, as well as hunger strikes, spells in prison, arson and window-smashing. Emmeline wrote, 'We want to gain for women all the rights and protection that laws can give them. And, above all, we want the good influence of women to tell to its greatest extent in the social and moral questions of the time.'

  Amelia EarhartAmelia Earhart
The world's most famous female aviator disappeared in 1937, as she attempted to become the first woman to fly around the world. No trace was ever found. She achieved a number of aviation records, including the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, in 1928. Earhart refused to don typical flying gear - she wore a suit or dress, a close-fitting hat instead of a helmet. Pure class!

Florence Nightingale
Bright, tough, driven and brilliant, Florence Nightingale is best known as a pioneer of nursing and a reformer of hospital sanitation, but did you know she also invented the Pie chart?! For most of her life, Nightingale pushed for reform of the British military health-care system and helped the profession of nursing to gain the respect it deserved. But during the Crimean War, where she nursed soldiers in Turkey, her statistical illustrations of the needless amounts of deaths due to poor sanitation were groundbreaking. Talk about multi-tasking!

Anne Frank
One of the Jewish victims of Nazi persecution during the second world war, Anne and her family went into hiding in 1942 in a house in Amsterdam. After more than two years the group was betrayed and deported. Anne died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, only a few weeks before it was liberated. Anne's diary, kept while she was in hiding, graphically describes her isolation and fear of discovery. It has been produced now in 55 languages and remains a fascinating and brave portrayal of a unique young woman's experience.

The Bronte sisters
These three women produced some of the most influential, romantic and poetic literature of the Victorian era. Living in a rectory in Yorkshire with their distant father and alcoholic brother, they were isolated, lonely and suffered frequent bouts of ill health, yet produced a prolific amount of writing. Their works were published initially under the names Ellis (Emily), Currer (Charlotte) and Acton (Anne) Bell, due to the fact that it was considered unseemly at the time for women to write and publish books. Emily's Wuthering Heights and Charlotte's Jane Eyre remain as timeless classics.

Frida Kahlo
Struck by polio as a child, this remarkable Mexican artist suffered a serious bus accident at 18 which left her with a broken spinal column, a broken collarbone, ribs, pelvis, and 11 fractures in her right leg. Her enormous strength and will to live allowed her to survive and make a remarkable recovery. Bored in bed, she began painting shortly after the accident, which became her lifelong profession. Her eventful marriage to fellow artist Diego Rivera provided great inspiration for some of Frida's graphically beautiful and grotesque images, informed by her pain but also great wit and humour.

International Women's Day
International Women's Day (8 March) is a day to celebrate women's success and their contribution to the workplace and society. Events are taking place around the globe and online, starting Friday 6 March 2009. Raise awareness about violence against women on Facebook and Twitter by visiting oneten.org.uk or help support Refuge UK through buying Avon's Empowerment Necklace. You also can see events on the International Women's Day website. You go, girl! 

 

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