It might be 100 years since the first British women won the right to vote – even if only women aged over 30 who owned property could vote in 1918 – but the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements serve as a reminder of how much further there is to go in the fight for equality.
Perhaps that’s why this year’s theme for International Women’s Day is Press For Progress – all about remembering which hurdles women still have to overcome to achieve parity.
Here is a list of strong women who did their part, both big and small, to make the world a better place.
1. Amelia Earhart Was The First Female Aviator To Fly Solo Across The Atlantic Ocean (1928)
2. Margaret Heafield Was A Director Of Software Engineering For Nasa’s Apollo Space Program (1969)
3. Russia-born Valentina Tereshkova Became The First Woman In Space Aboard The Vostok 6 (1963)
4. One Of The Onna-Bugeisha, Female Samurai Warrior Of The Upper Bushi (Samurai), Class In Feudal Japan (Late 1800’s)
5. This Woman Hitting A Neo-Nazi With Her Handbag In Växjö, Sweden (13 April, 1985)
6. Jeanne Manford With Her Son Morty, Foreground, Marching In The New York City Gay Pride Parade (1972)
7. Marie Curie Was A Polish Physicist And Chemist Famous For Her Work On Radioactivity And Twice A Winner Of The Nobel Prize
8. Kathrine Switzer Was The First Woman To Run The Boston Marathon (1967). When Organizer Jock Semple Realised A Woman Was Running He Tried To Tackle Her
9. Komako Kimura, A Prominent Japanese Suffragist Marched On Fifth Avenue In New York City Demanding The Right To Vote (27 October, 1917)
10. Rosa Louise Mccauley Parks – Civil Rights Activist
11. Anne Frank Was A Jewish Diarist And Writer
12. Women’s Liberation Coalition Marching For Equal Pay (1970)
13. Marina Ginestà Was A French Veteran Of The Spanish Civil War. This Is Her Most Famous Picture At The Top Of Hotel Colón In Barcelona (21 July, 1936)
14. Mary Winsor Holding Suffrage Prisoners Banner In Washington D.C. (1917)
15. Jane Goodall, Leading Primatologist And Conservationalist
Jane with Uruhara pant-hooting, 1996.
16. Nadia Comaneci – The First Women To Score A Perfect 10 In Gymnastics At The Olympic Games
17. Maud Stevens Wagner Was The First Known Female Tattoo Artist In The United States (1907)
18. Annette Kellerman Promoted Women’s Right To Wear A Fitted One-Piece Bathing Suit (1907). She Was Arrested For Indecency
19. Bertha Von Suttner – First Woman Peace Activist And First Woman To Be Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
20. Suu Kyi (burma) Was Under House Arrest For 15 Yrs For Her Pre-democracy Campaigning.
21. Voting Activist Annie Lumpkins At The Little Rock City Jail (10 July, 1961)
22. Gertrude Caroline Ederle Became The First Woman To Swim Across The English Channel (1926)
23. NASA Astronaut Anna Lee Fisher Became The First Mother In Space (1984)
24. Maria Teresa De Filippis, First Female Formula 1 Driver (1958)
25. Ellen O’neal, One Of The Greatests Female Freestyle Skateboarders In The World (1970)
26. A Female Lockheed Employee Works On One In Burbank, California (1944)
27. Ada Lovelace – First Programmer In History
28. These Four Female Pilots Leaving Their Plane At The Four-Engine School At Lockbourne AAF (Early 1940s)
29. Leola N. King, America’s First Female Traffic Cop, Washington D.C. (1918)
30. Angela Davis (b. January 26, 1944), American Political Activist, Scholar, Author & Feminist.
31. Billie Jean King. Us Tennis Legend & Became The First Prominent Female Athlete To Come Out.
