80 Historical Women of Power
Meld Museum of Art 2023
This year's Meld Museum unveiled 80 remarkable women of power who shaped the world!
Discover the Power of Women Throughout History
Prepare to embark on a captivating journey through time as we celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments and influence of women who have changed the course of history... from queens and scientists to activists and artists. Witness their incredible journeys and the legacy they left behind.
This exhibit invites you to experience the power, resilience, and brilliance of 80 historical women who've left an indelible mark on our world; a celebration of the indomitable spirit of women who have shattered glass ceilings and changed the way we live! Join us in honoring their legacies and finding inspiration for your own journey.
Exhibit Overview
Patronesses of the Arts & Cultural Influencers
Patronesses of the Arts & Cultural Influencers
Catherine de' Medici (1519 - 1589)
17th-century unknown painters.
The Medici, an art-loving family of wealthy bankers (and three popes), helped fund the Renaissance. They regularly hosted artists and commissioned art for their palace and their family tomb — the Medici Chapel — a masterpiece by Michelangelo. Catherine de' Medici became a deeply engaged art collector and patron after her husband Henri's death, when she occupied the positions of queen mother or queen regent (depending on which of her sons was king).
Catherine de' Medici earned her nickname of “the Black Queen” because of her fascination with mysticism and astrology. Nostradamus was employed as a seer at her court. The Château of Chaumont was witness to a legendary event in which the fall of the Valois dynasty was predicted.
Catherine was a passionate patron of the arts, especially theatre, literature, painting and sculpture. Her art collection became the basis of The Hermitage Museum in the Winter Palace, St Petersburg, which is arguably one of the most impressive collections in the world.
Patronesses of the Arts & Cultural Influencers
Isabella d'Este (1474 - 1539)
Leonardo da Vinci, Portrait of Isabella d’Este,
c. 1499-1500, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The most famous female patron of the Italian renaissance was Isabella d’Este Gonzaga, marchioness of a territory in northern Italy called Mantua. Despite the restrictions women faced, her art collections demonstrate important renaissance themes: possessing the ancient world through the collection of antiquities, demonstrating erudition through the acquisition of classical narratives, and fashioning an identity through portraiture and symbols.
She was a patron of the arts as well as a leader of fashion, whose innovative style of dressing was copied by numerous women, supporting painters such as Mantegna, Titian, and da Vinci, all of whom she commissioned to paint her portrait. She transformed Mantua into a cultural center by converting the ducal apartments into a museum.
Patronesses of the Arts & Cultural Influencers
Empress Josephine (1763 - 1814)
Joséphine, oil on canvas by
François Gérard, c. 1807–08.
Born Marie-Josèph-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie in Trois-Islets, Martinique, she married Alexandre de Beauharnais. As his widow, she married Napoleon Bonaparte in 1796.
A patron of art, Joséphine worked closely with sculptors, painters and interior decorators to establish a unique Consular and Empire style at the Château de Malmaison. She became one of the leading collectors of different forms of art of her time, such as sculpture and painting. The Château de Malmaison was noted for its rose garden, which she supervised closely.
As Empress, her extravagance, rumored infidelity, and failure to bear Napoleon a male heir, caused Napoleon to annul their marriage in 1810. Retaining the title of Empress, Josephine retired to Malmaison, where she continued to entertain in high style. Czar Alexander I, ruler of Russia during the Napoleonic Wars, was her benefactor until her death.
Patronesses of the Arts & Cultural Influencers
Peggy Guggenheim (1898 - 1979)
Man Ray - Peggy Guggenheim, 1924,
photo via jewishcurrents.org.
Solomon R. Guggenheim's niece, Peggy Guggenheim (1898–1979), was a self-described “art addict” who sought to distinguish herself from her business-oriented relatives and make her mark on the world through collecting and traveling in avant-garde circles.
Through her trusty advisor Howard Putzel, Guggenheim began discovering American artists. She became an early patron of Jackson Pollock, providing him with a monthly stipend, his first commission, and his first exhibition. She had amassed works by the pioneers of the twentieth century, including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Léger, Max Ernst, and Jackson Pollock. In 1974, she gave her collection and the Palazzo to the Solomon Guggenheim Foundation, established in 1937 by her uncle, who was also an art collector.
Bohemian and ”socialite”, wife to Max Ernst and lover to Samuel Beckett, someone who was compared to Casanova and who discovered Jackson Pollock - Peggy Guggenheim's story is almost as fascinating as those told in works of Braque, Picabia, Dalí, Magritte and others in her great collection of modern art.
Patronesses of the Arts & Cultural Influencers
Queen Christina of Sweden (1626 - 1689)
Hulton Fine Art Collection / Fine Art Images Heritage Images / Getty Images
The Swedish queen is remembered as one of the most learned women of the 17th century. She was fond of books, manuscripts, paintings, and sculptures. With her interest in religion, philosophy, mathematics, and alchemy, she attracted many scientists to Stockholm, educated as befitted a royal male.
The flamboyant life of Europe’s most mercurial monarch, has long overshadowed her contribution to philosophy. Her philosophical work often explores the issue which bedeviled her political career: the nature and proper exercise of authority.
Later, Christina’s cross dressing, her self-declared disinterest in marriage, her relationship with Ebba Sparre and her traditionally-gendered-masculine interests, such as fencing and hunting, all fed into a seventeenth-century image that we would today term as queer.
Patronesses of the Arts & Cultural Influencers
Gertrude Stein (1874 - 1946)
Stein in her Paris studio, with a portrait of her by Pablo Picasso hanging on the wall, before 1910.
A fierce woman and modernist literary pioneer and a leading figure of the pre-World War I art circles in Paris, Stein established a salon (later credited as the “first modern art museum”), where some of the leading proponents of modernism in both literature and visual art such as Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, and Henri Matisse gathered. She writes extensively about her life, and her growth into her life, as a major American writer of the twentieth century commenting on culture, art, politics, and sexuality.
From a young age, the precociously intelligent and ambitious Stein was unsatisfied with late 19th century images of gender identities and roles and sought to create a more gender-neutral self separate from those limitations. She described this perspective most fully in her posthumously published autobiographical work The Things As They Are (1950), detailing both the depression caused by her dissatisfaction with cultural views of femininity and her consistent attraction to qualities and experiences typically deemed “masculine.” In our own moment, Stein might have come to define herself as transgender and transition to a male identity; in her own era, with such choices out of the question, she sought out educational and social settings where she could develop and explore this unconventional sense of self.
Patronesses of the Arts & Cultural Influencers
Queen Nefertari (13th century BCE)
Papyrus painting, Nefertari's tomb.
Queen Nefertari was the main wife of pharaoh Ramesses II and her tomb with its vivid wall paintings is one of the most beautiful tombs in Egypt. Nefertari was a highly educated woman and she had the ability to read and write hieroglyphs, which was quite a rare skill at the time. She put her intellect and talent to use in diplomacy, corresponding with other important royal figures of the time.
On top of her tripartite wig, she wears her characteristic headdress featuring a gold Nekhbet vulture holding the shen symbol in its claws representing eternity. Above this is a red mortar surmounted by two tall gold feathers with a solar disc at the centre. She is offering papyrus and lotus flowers to the Goddess Isis.
Hieroglyphs on her tomb translate to "Great Wife of the King, Lady of the Two Lands, Nefertari Meritenmut, true of voice, in the presence of Osiris, the great god."
Patronesses of the Arts & Cultural Influencers
Mary Cassatt (1844 - 1926)
Mary Cassatt, Portrait of the Artist, circa 1878 © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Cassatt's importance in art history has been notable and influential especially in the later 20th and 21st centuries. She evolved in an environment dominated by men and suffered from stereotypes. Society believed that women should not be professional painters.
As an outspoken advocate for women artists and women's rights, she became a 'new woman' or a feminist in our modern day language. Woman with a Sunflower was among the 20 or so paintings by Cassatt included in a 1915 exhibition to raise money for the suffrage campaign.
While many other Impressionists focused on landscapes and street scenes, Mary Cassatt was interested in figure compositions; more specifically, women and portraits. She was especially motivated to paint women in everyday life at home, especially mothers with their children. She believed it was important that Americans be able to study such fine art at home. Thanks to her efforts, many Impressionist paintings became part of American art collections.
Political Activism & Revolutionary Women
Political Activism & Revolutionary Women
Angela Davis (born 1944)
Angela Davis, c. 2019
Angela Davis, in full Angela Yvonne Davis, (born Jan. 26, 1944, Birmingham, Ala., U.S.), militant American black activist who gained an international reputation during her imprisonment and trial on conspiracy charges in 1970–72 facing charges of kidnapping, murder, and conspiracy; she was acquitted of all charges by an all-white jury.
Davis is a major figure in the prison abolition movement. She has called the United States prison system the "prison–industrial complex" and was one of the founders of Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization dedicated to building a movement to abolish the prison system.
Political Activism & Revolutionary Women
Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 - 1928)
Pankhurst, c. 1913
Emmeline Pankhurst was brought up in a politically active family. She became involved in women's suffrage in 1880 and formed the Women's Social & Political Union (WSPU) when her local branch of the Independent Labour Party refused to admit women members.
Emmeline Pankhurst's work with the Women's Social and Political Union ultimately facilitated the success of the Representation of the People Act in 1928, which granted British women the same voting rights as men. (She died just before its passage.)
Political Activism & Revolutionary Women
Simone de Beauvoir (1908 - 1986)
Simone de Beauvoir/Wikimedia
Most philosophers agree that Beauvoir's greatest contribution to philosophy is her revolutionary magnum opus, The Second Sex. Published in two volumes in 1949 (condensed into one text divided into two “books” in English), this work immediately found both an eager audience and harsh critics and is still regarded as the blueprint for the second wave of feminism. She directly contributed to the passing of safe contraception and abortion laws in France.
Beauvoir challenged traditional notions of gender roles and oppression, inviting readers to critically examine the structures that limit human freedom. She argued freedom is not given but created. Beauvoir thought freedom is what makes life significant.
Political Activism & Revolutionary Women
Rosa Luxemburg (1871 - 1919)
Luxemburg, c. 1895–1905
Rosa Luxemburg is described by one of her colleagues as the “most brilliant intellect of all the scientific heirs of Marx and Engels” (Fröhlich 1940) and one of the most original and influential thinkers in the history of Marxism. Her work remains an important source of critique and one of the most sophisticated attempts to think about democracy and revolution.
She was a fierce champion of women’s rights coupled with a harsh critique of the capitalist system. Within existing capitalist institutions, she insisted, there could be no true gender and racial emancipation. The only secure foundation for the rights of women, she argued, was for them to join the social democratic movement where they could affirm their equality through mass organization and protest alongside men, and where they could shake the pillars of the existing legal order before it grants them “the illusion of … rights.”
Political Activism & Revolutionary Women
Malala Yousafzai (born 1997)
Photographed by @markseliger
A Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate at the age of 17. She is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, the second Pakistani and the first Pashtun to receive a Nobel Prize.
She is a human rights advocate for the education of women and children in her native homeland, Swat, where the Pakistani Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school.
Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen."
She gained global attention when she survived an assassination attempt at age 15.
Political Activism & Revolutionary Women
Rigoberta Menchu Tum (born 1959)
Rigoberta Menchu Tum c. 2003
Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a Guatemalan political and human rights activist. Menchú is known for her life of publicizing the rights of Guatemala's indigenous feminists during and after the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996), and for promoting indigenous rights in the country.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded her the Nobel Peace Prize for 1992 in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples.
Menchú has also been a vocal opponent of the effects of globalization, or the increasing dominance of multinational corporations in the world's economy. In 2006, she and five other Nobel laureates - Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, Wangari Maathai, Betty Williams, and Mairead Corrigan Maguire - created the Nobel Women's Initiative to promote peace, justice and equality for women.
Political Activism & Revolutionary Women
Sojourner Truth (1797 - 1883)
Sojourner Truth, c 1864
A former slave, Sojourner Truth became an outspoken advocate for abolition, temperance, and civil and women's rights in the nineteenth century.
Her Civil War work earned her an invitation to meet President Abraham Lincoln in 1864.
At the 1851 Women's Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio, Sojourner Truth delivered what is now recognized as one of the most famous abolitionist and women's rights speeches in American history, “Ain't I a Woman?” The speech is said to have helped launch the women's suffrage movement in the United States.
She continued to speak out for the rights of African Americans and women during and after the Civil War.
Political Activism & Revolutionary Women
Dolores Huerta (born 1930)
Delano grape workers strike in Delano, Calif., 1966.
The Civil Rights icon who showed farmworkers
'Sí Se Puede' (Yes, it can be done!)
She helped organize the five-year Delano grape strike and spearheaded the consumer table grapes boycott to pressure more than 20 growers to agree to pay higher wages and improve working conditions.
The strike set in motion the modern farmworkers movement that established workers' right to organize and secured better pay and working conditions on many farms.
Dolores fought for the rights of farm workers, women, and other underrepresented groups through collective actions such as boycotts and strikes, as well as through social justice initiatives and community organizing. Huerta believes in nonviolent civil disobedience.
At 87, Dolores Huerta is a living civil rights icon.
Queens & Empresses
Queens & Empresses
Cleopatra VII (69 BCE - 30 BCE)
Cleopatra VII, painting by
John William Waterhouse, 1888.
“She had a knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to everyone.”
Cleopatra was an astute ruler who used every tool at her disposal to maintain and protect Egypt. Perhaps the first woman sovereign in history to rule alone for a period of over a decade, her greatest gift was her brilliant political mind, which she used to ally herself with Julius Caesar, producing a male heir that would ensure a stable political connection with Rome.
Her leadership showed skilled use of public communication and diplomacy with which she forestalled the fall of Egypt to the Roman Empire. She most likely did not die from an asp bite, rather a deadly poison stored in one of her hair combs to unalive herself to avoid enemy-capture.
A 1963 film about her was one of the most expensive movies of all time.
Queens & Empresses
Empress Wu Zetian (624 - 705)
A painting depicting Wu Zetian,
the empress of China.
Wu Zhao (624–705), also known as Empress Wu Zetian, was the first and only woman emperor of China. With her exceptional intelligence, extraordinary competence in politics, and inordinate ambition, she ruled as the “Holy and Divine Emperor” of the Second Zhou Dynasty (690–705) for fifteen years.
Empress Wu expanded the borders of China by conquering new lands in Korea and Central Asia. She also helped to improve the lives of the peasants by lowering taxes, building new public works, and improving farming techniques. Under her 40-year reign, China grew larger, becoming one of the great powers of the world, its culture and economy were revitalized, and corruption in the court was reduced. She was removed from power in a coup and died a few months later. In early life, Wu was the concubine of Emperor Taizong.
Empress Wu Zetian is remembered today as one of the greatest rulers in China's history.
Queens & Empresses
Queen Elizabeth I (1533 - 1603)
British School; Government Art
Collection London.
"She is only a woman, only mistress of half an island," marvelled Pope Sixtus V, "and yet she makes herself feared by Spain, by France, by the Empire, by all".
Her reign is often called the Elizabethan or "Golden Age" because it was a time period of great advancement and achievement in England.
She has been called an outstanding politician, orator, tactician, and musician. Elizabeth's reign was marked by her effective use of Parliament and the Privy Council, a small advisory body of the important state officials, and by the development of legal institutions in English counties.
During her reign, Elizabeth unified a Protestant England against the Catholic Spanish and defeated the Spanish armada in 1588. She was responsible for English exploration of the New World and the flourishing of the economy, making England a world power. Her reign was also noted for the English Renaissance, an outpouring of poetry and drama. Elizabeth's court also became a center for poets, musicians, writers, and scholars.
Queens & Empresses
Empress Catherine the Great (1729 - 1796)
Russia's Empress Catherine II
painted in 1763 by Fyodor Rokotov.
The longest-reigning empress of Russia, 1762 to 1796. Catherine championed Enlightenment ideals, extended Russia's borders in the largest territorial gain since Ivan the Terrible, spearheaded judicial and administrative reforms, dabbled in vaccination, curated a vast art collection that formed the foundation of one of the world’s greatest museums, exchanged correspondence with such philosophers as Voltaire and Dennis Diderot, penned operas and children’s fairy tales, founded the country’s first state-funded school for women, drafted her own legal code, and promoted a national system of education.
Perhaps most impressively, the empress—born a virtually penniless Prussian princess—wielded power for three decades despite the fact that she had no claim to the crown whatsoever.
Queens & Empresses
Queen Victoria (1819 - 1901)
Queen of Great Britain & Ireland (1819-1901) Painted in 1843 by Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Queen Victoria presided over a time of industrial expansion, educational advances, the abolition of slavery and workers' welfare and, especially, empire. It was said, Britain had a worldwide empire on which the sun never set.
Victoria served as figurehead for the nation. The period saw the British Empire grow to become the first global industrial power, producing much of the world's coal, iron, steel and textiles. The Victorian era saw revolutionary breakthroughs in the arts and sciences, which shaped the world as we know it today.
The Industrial Revolution rapidly gained pace during Victoria's reign because of the power of steam. Victorian engineers developed bigger, faster and more powerful machines that could run whole factories. This led to a massive increase in the number of factories (particularly in textile factories or mills).
At the time of her death, an estimated one in four people on Earth were subjects of the British Empire by the end of her rule.
Victoria Memorial, Kolkata is the largest monument to a monarch anywhere in the world, it stands in 64 acres of gardens and is now a museum under the control of the Ministry of Culture.
Queens & Empresses
Empress Dowager Cixi (1835 - 1908)
Hubert Vos's painting of the Dowager Empress Cixi (Tzu Hsi) 1906.
Empress Dowager Cixi dominated the court and policies of China's last imperial dynasty for nearly 50 years reforming some patriarchal Chinese traditions. She put down rebellion and ushered in reform banning foot-binding, reforming the legal code and the education system, and outlawing certain barbaric punishments.
After the death of her husband, Emperor Xianfeng, Empress Cixi was the primary actor to run China. She entered the Forbidden City as the lowest-ranking concubine but had the good fortune of giving birth to the only heir to the throne. Through her son, Emperor Tongzhi, she became Empress Cixi and ruled behind the curtain.
She has been portrayed as the 'Dragon Lady': a cunning, manipulative and often spiteful ruler, and an arch-conservative who resisted and sabotaged reform, even though it hastened the end of the Qing dynasty.
Queens & Empresses
Queen Nzinga (1583 - 1663)
Posthumous lithograph of Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba by Achille Devéria, 1830s National Portrait Gallery, London.
Njinga was such a fierce warrior that she didn't refer to herself as the queen but rather "king". She led her army to battle even in her sixties. Njinga also incorporated women into the military and even made some of them generals. She led an army against the Portuguese, initiating a thirty year war. Her diplomatic efforts ultimately secured a temporary peace with the Portuguese.
Other accounts of Queen Nzinga state that she maintained a harem of 50-60 men, dressing them as women. The men in her harem would fight each other to the death for the right to share her bed for the night. Those fortunate enough to win the contest, and her sexual attention, were put to death the following morning. Queen Nzinga was a warrior woman that ruled as a king, liberating her people, and establishing dominance in era of men.
Queens & Empresses
Queen Ranavalona I (1782 - 1861)
Queen Ranavalona Manjaka III of
Madagascar, c 1880s by Unbekannt.
Ranavalona I, Queen of Madagascar married into the royal family and as a widow ousted her husband’s successor. She ruled for 33 years with bloody, brutal efficiency and dictatorial ruthlessness and was known for her effort to strengthen Madagascar's political and cultural sovereignty.
Early on in her reign, she distanced Madagascar from the influence of the French and British who aimed to colonize the island and successfully kept her country independent during a time of rampant European imperialism.
Ranavalona I reversed her husband’s policy of Europeanization expelling Christian missionaries and persecuting Malagasy converts. A few Europeans maintained external trade and local manufacture, but eventually they also were expelled. The British and French launched an expedition against Ranavalona but were repulsed at Tamatave in 1845. By the time of her death (1861), Madagascar was isolated from European influence.
Women Warriors & Military Leaders
Women Warriors & Military Leaders
Artemisia I of Caria (5th Century BCE)
Artemisia I of Caria. © History Skills
Artemisia I of Caria, the audacious naval commander and respected ally of King Xerxes I of Persia, remains one of the most intriguing figures of the ancient world. Her reign and contributions to the infamous Battle of Salamis position her as an extraordinary exception, a woman who not only ruled but also led troops into the maelstrom of battle. She played a significant role demonstrating her abilities as a formidable fighter and astute thinker.
Artemisia’s place in history is forever marked by her strategic and courageous role in the Greco-Persian Wars, specifically the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC. As an ally of King Xerxes I of Persia, she led her own fleet of five ships, making her the only woman among Xerxes' military commanders. Artemisia advised Xerxes to use smaller ships to attack at night instead of engaging in a direct battle with the Greek fleet. This strategy demonstrated her strategic thinking and her ability to understand the strengths and weaknesses of her enemy.
Women Warriors & Military Leaders
Empress Matilda (1102 - 1167)
The greatest king England never had.
Museum of Oxford.
When Henry I died in 1135, he left the English crown to his eldest legitimate child: an intelligent, well-educated, multilingual adult who had years of international political and governmental experience. It should have been the easiest succession imaginable, but it wasn’t – because Henry’s heir was not a son but his daughter, Empress Matilda.
After her husband's passing, she was the first woman to be named as heir to the English throne and she fought fiercely for her succession. By the mid-1140s she was able – cleverly – to switch her focus from her own rights to those of her son Henry.
By rights, Matilda should have been the first female monarch of England and she very nearly was. While 12th century patriarchal forces hampered her ambition, she fought for her succession and although she was never crowned, it was through her tenacity that her son did become king of England.
Matilda’s legacy as domina Anglorum:
‘Lady of the English’ lives on, some 800 years later.
Women Warriors & Military Leaders
Trieu Thi Trinh (3rd Century)
A figure of Resistance Against Patriarchy and the Enemies of Vietnam.
Lady Trieu led her army north from the Cu-Phong District to engage the Chinese, and over the next two years, defeated the Wu forces in more than thirty battles. Chinese sources from this time record the fact that a serious rebellion had broken out in Vietnam, but they do not mention that it was led by a woman.
According to legend she was over 9 feet tall, with a voice which sounded like a temple bell, and rode into battle on an elephant, wearing golden armor and carrying a sword in each hand. The Chinese were said to be afraid of her fierce gaze, and said it would be easier to fight a tiger than to face Lady Trieu in battle.
She is quoted as saying, "I will not resign myself to the lot of women who bow their heads and become concubines. I wish to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks. I have no desire to take abuse."
Women Warriors & Military Leaders
Rani Padmini (13th - 14th Century)
Indian queen, Padmavati Commits Sati.
Rani Padmini, also referred as Rani Padmavati, was an extremely beautiful 13th–14th century Indian queen.
Padmavati was a princess of the Singhal kingdom (presently in Sri Lanka). Learning about her beauty, Rajput ruler Ratansen of Chittor Fort (present-day Chittorgarh in Rajasthan, India) married her following a quest. Sultan of Delhi Alauddin Khalji, also drawn by her beauty, invaded Chittor to acquire her. Meanwhile, Ratansen and king Devpal of Kumbhalner, who also wanted to obtain Padmavati, killed each other in a battle. Khalji attacked and captured Chittor, but to save her honor Padmavati committed Sati (widow’s self-immolation) on her husband’s pyre and other women performed Jauhar (self-immolation) to safeguard their honor.
Rani Padmini was epitome of bravery who chose death over life time of rape & slavery. She didn’t chose to die because the Rajput fighters were not capable but because they were hugely outnumbered. Rajputs, even after knowing that death is certain in this war, chose to die. That was the sacrifice Rajputs made for Rani Padmini.
She is revered as an iconic figure epitomizing both beauty and bravery.
Women Warriors & Military Leaders
Lakshmi Bai (1828 - 1858)
Lakshmibai, The Warrior Queen Who
Fought British Rule in India
She was one of the leading figures in the Indian Rebellion of 1857, who became a national hero and symbol of resistance to British rule in India for Indian nationalists.
Growing up with the boys in the peshwa’s court, she was trained in martial arts and became proficient in sword fighting and riding. She was also imparted education, something that was rare for the women of the time.
She married young and became a widow soon after. The British empire stole her and her son’s right to the throne. She rebelled against the British and prepared her own forces, training a regiment of women. She gave the British a tough fight, slaying anyone coming her way with the two swords, one in each hand and her young child strapped on her back.
Be it taking up arms when needed or leading an army of men, she had the grit to take down the British and overcame every challenge that came her way.
Women Warriors & Military Leaders
Joan of Arc (1412 - 1431)
Joan of Arc and Archangel Michael by Eugène Romain Thirion, 1876.
Joan of Arc, a Catholic saint and a French national hero, led the resistance to the English invasion of France. Her commitment to religion and fighting for women's rights have changed the future for many all over the world.
While commander of the French army, Joan of Arc didn't participate in active combat. Though remembered as a fearless warrior and considered a heroine of the Hundred Years' War between France and England, Joan never actually fought in battle or killed an opponent. She was seen as an instrument of divine intervention.
She became arguably even more powerful after her death, becoming an icon that inspired the French to final victory over the English in the Hundred Years' War. She was stubborn, devout, courageous, and driven to defend her home.
"She managed to inspire the whole army. They believed she was holy, sent to them by God." - Claire Dodin, 15th century weapons expert.
Women Warriors & Military Leaders
Tomoe Gozen (12th Century)
Japan’s Most Fearsome Female Samurai
Chikanobu (Japanese, 1838-1912).
Tomoe Gozen was a Japanese female samurai that lived during the late twelfth century, or late Heian period, in Japan. Tomoe Gozen was known for her skill in archery and swordcraft. The Tale of Heike, a chronicle of the Genpei War, describes her “especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features.
At the 1184 Battle of Uchide no Hama, Tomoe was said to have fought an army of over 6,000 with only 300 samurai. She was one of only five people to survive.
Tomoe is known for beheading Honda no Morishige of Musashi. She is also known for having killed Uchida Ieyoshi and for escaping capture by Hatakeyama Shigetada. After Tomoe Gozen beheaded the leader of the Musashi clan, she presented his head to her master Yoshinaka.
Women Warriors & Military Leaders
Boudicca (1st Century CE)
The woman who caused the Romans
“the greatest shame.”
Boudicca is known for being a warrior queen of the Iceni people, who lived in what is now East Anglia, England. When her husband died, he left half his property to Rome and half to his wife Boudicca and daughters. The Romans disagreed with this division and took the whole of her husband’s property, including his rights and titles.
Boudicca challenged this decision and publicly spoke out against the Romans’ corruption. The Roman response was to imprison, torture, and sexually assault Boudicca and her two teenage daughters. The women were publicly flogged, their hair cut, and their dignity affronted before the entire Iceni tribe. Their entire household was put in chains and enslaved.
To avenge this outrage, Boudicca raised a rebellion, setting Roman settlements ablaze, burning them to the ground. There were no known survivors.
She is reported to have been skilled with a javelin and was known for being an excellent chariot driver. With a golden torque at her neck and a face painted in the style of the Iceni warriors, she would have been terrifying to behold; both fearsome and dignified. She possessed a great love for her people and their Celtic way of life.
Women in Political Leadership
Women in Political Leadership
Indira Gandhi (1917 - 1984)
Empress of India, India’s great authoritarian
Somerville College, Oxford (b.1958).
An Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the third prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was India's first and, to date, only female prime minister, and a central figure in Indian politics as the leader of the Indian National Congress.
Gandhi's biggest achievement following the 1971 election came in December 1971 with India's decisive victory over Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani War. That victory occurred in the last two weeks of the Bangladesh Liberation War, which led to the formation of independent Bangladesh.
Women in Political Leadership
Benazir Bhutto (1953 - 2007)
An autographed portrait from
Dr. Ghulam Nabi KaziFollow, c. 2017
She was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Ideologically a liberal and a secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from the early 1980s until her assassination in 2007.
In a country where most females are not allowed to leave the house, Benazir propagated the need for women to be employed. When the social ill of dowry was a norm, she negated the practice and brought forward the rights of women in Islam.
Since 2002, women politicians have notable representation in the federal as well as provincial assemblies. Women as equal citizen of Pakistan are free to contest general elections and to be elected to any public office at the national, provincial and local levels without any discrimination.
Women in Political Leadership
Margaret Thatcher (1925 - 2013)
© Copyright 2023 Richard Stone.
British stateswoman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime minister and the longest-serving of the 20th century. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.
A revolutionary figure who transformed Britain's stagnant economy, tamed the unions and re-established the country as a world power. Together with US presidents Reagan and Bush, she helped bring about the end of the Cold War.
Thatcher was able to achieve power and influence that no woman before her was able to do, and that she used her femininity for political purposes to help advance her push back against anarchism, communism, socialism and liberalism.
Women in Political Leadership
Golda Meir (1898 - 1978)
Shocken Publishing House.
An Israeli politician who served as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government, the first female head of government in the Middle East, and the fourth elected female head of government or state in the world.
Most historians blame Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir for the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, having allegedly rejected all peace proposals made by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. In fact, Sadat was adamantly opposed to Meir’s demand for direct negotiations, envisaging political settlement as an American dictate on Israel. The Yom Kippur War shook both sides of their intransigence and brought them closer to each other’s position.
Meir's resolute leadership during the 19-day Yom Kippur War won her the title of “Iron Lady.”
Women in Political Leadership
Jacinda Ardern (born 1980)
February 2023. Shutterstock.
Ardern became New Zealand’s 40th prime minister and the youngest leader in more than 150 years when she was elected to office in 2017 at the age of 37. In 2018, she became the second world leader in modern times to have a baby in office. (Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto was the first.) Ardern later took her 3-month-old daughter to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
After a rare landslide election victory in 2020, Ardern formed the most diverse government in New Zealand’s history, with more members of Parliament than ever who are women, people of color, LGBTQ and Indigenous. Last year, New Zealand became the first advanced industrialized democracy to have a majority-female legislature.
Jacinda Ardern had a singular inclusive and empathetic leadership style–the style of the modern successful leader–one that had at its heart basic humanity.
Women in Political Leadership
Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1916 - 2000)
© National Portrait Gallery, London.
She was the first female prime minister in the world, and the first woman to be elected head of government. Bandaranaike was a socialist.
She continued her husband's policies of nationalizing major sectors of the economy. She chaired the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) from 1960 to 1994 and served three terms as prime minister, two times as the chief executive, 1960 to 1965 and 1970 to 1977, and once again in a presidential system from 1994 to 2000, governing under the presidency of her daughter Chandrika Kumaratunga.
The Bandaranaike marriage helped break down social barriers in Sri Lanka over the years, through the Socialist policies they enacted. During her three terms in office, Bandaranaike led the country away from its colonial past and into its political independence as a republic.
Women in Political Leadership
Michelle Bachelet (born 1951)
Official portrait, 2014.
A Chilean politician who served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018 to 2022. She previously served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and from 2014 to 2018 for the Socialist Party of Chile. She is the first woman to hold the Chilean presidency. After leaving the presidency in 2010 and before becoming eligible for re-election, she was appointed as the first executive director of the newly established United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In December 2013, Bachelet was re-elected with over 62% of the vote, surpassing the 54% she received in 2006. She was the first President of Chile to be re-elected since 1932.
Among her many achievements, education and tax reforms, as well as the creation of the National Institute for Human Rights and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights stand out, as do the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, the adoption of quotas to increase women’s political participation, and the approval of Civil Union Act legislation, granting rights to same sex couples and thus, advancing LGBT rights.
Women in Political Leadership
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938)
PRESIDENTIAL inauguration ceremony
Monrovia, Liberia, January 16, 2006. (AP Images).
She is the first female democratically elected head of state in Africa. Johnson Sirleaf came to power in 2005, creating peace and economic progress in Liberia. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent efforts to promote peace and her struggle for women's rights.
During her tenure, President Sirleaf was instrumental in erasing Liberia's entire debt, she also established a right to free, universal primary education and retired in 2017 ensuring the country's first peaceful, democratic transition of power in 73 years in January 2018.
By executive order, Johnson Sirleaf established a right to free, universal elementary education, enforcing equal rights for women, rights that were routinely ignored and abused during the chaotic years of civil war. Her administration built over 800 miles of roads, attracting substantial foreign investment in mining, agriculture, and forestry, as well as offshore oil exploration.
In 2010, Newsweek magazine called her one of the
“Ten Best Leaders in the World.”
Women Whose Credit Was Stolen
BONUS EXHIBIT - Women Whose Credit Was Stolen
Ada Lovelace (1815–1852)
World History Archive/AGE fotostock
The first computer programmer.
Ada Lovelace's work, particularly her contributions to the early development of computing through her collaboration with Charles Babbage on the Analytical Engine, has generally been acknowledged and credited to her. However, it's worth noting that in some historical accounts, there has been a tendency to downplay her contributions or to emphasize Babbage's role over hers. This is more related to gender biases and the historical context in which she lived rather than a direct case of another person claiming credit for her work.
While Ada Lovelace's notes on the Analytical Engine were extensive and visionary, they were written at a time when the machine itself was still in the conceptual stage and not built. Babbage and Lovelace worked closely together on the project, and Babbage himself acknowledged the importance of Ada's contributions. However, due to societal norms and biases against women in science during the 19th century, Lovelace's role was not always fully appreciated in her time.
In recent years, there has been a more concerted effort to recognize Ada Lovelace's significant contributions to computer science, and she is widely celebrated as a pioneer in the field. While there may have been instances of underestimating her role in the past, contemporary perspectives more accurately recognize her as a key figure in the early history of computing.
BONUS EXHIBIT - Women Whose Credit Was Stolen
Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868–1921)
Popular Astronomy, v. 30, no. 4, April 1922.
The Woman Who Measured the Universe.
Henrietta Swan Leavitt, an American astronomer, made significant contributions to the field of astronomy, particularly in the early 20th century. While her work was not directly claimed by men, she faced a situation where the significance of her discoveries was not fully acknowledged during her lifetime.
Henrietta Swan Leavitt worked at the Harvard College Observatory, where she made a groundbreaking discovery known as the "period-luminosity relation" of Cepheid variable stars. She observed that there was a consistent relationship between the period of variability of a Cepheid star and its intrinsic luminosity. This discovery provided a crucial tool for measuring astronomical distances, as it allowed astronomers to determine the absolute brightness of these stars and, consequently, calculate their distances.
Despite the importance of her work, Henrietta Swan Leavitt did not receive widespread recognition during her lifetime. Edwin Hubble later used her discovery to measure the distances to galaxies, leading to the realization that the universe was expanding. Hubble's work received significant attention, but Leavitt's foundational contribution was not initially highlighted.
Today, Henrietta Swan Leavitt is acknowledged as a trailblazer in astronomy, and her work has been instrumental in our understanding of the size and structure of the universe. The oversight of her contributions in the past reflects the historical challenges faced by women in science and the tendency to attribute discoveries to more visible male figures.
BONUS EXHIBIT - Women Whose Credit Was Stolen
Lise Meitner (1878–1968)
© Anne Meitner, Malcom Farrer-Brown, Tony Brown (lottemeitnergraf.com)
Robbed of the Nobel Prize.
Lise Meitner, an Austrian-Swedish physicist, faced a situation where her significant contributions to the discovery of nuclear fission were not fully acknowledged. In the early 20th century, Meitner worked closely with chemist Otto Hahn in Berlin, where they conducted pioneering research on the radioactivity of uranium.
In 1938, Meitner, along with her nephew Otto Frisch, provided the theoretical explanation for the process of nuclear fission, which is the splitting of a heavy atomic nucleus into lighter nuclei, releasing a large amount of energy. Meitner and Frisch coined the term "fission" to describe this process.
However, when Otto Hahn received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944 for the discovery of nuclear fission, Lise Meitner was not included as a co-recipient. Meitner's exclusion from the Nobel Prize has been a point of historical controversy, and it is widely recognized that her theoretical insights played a crucial role in the understanding of nuclear fission.
While Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize, many scientists and historians have emphasized the collaborative nature of the work and acknowledged Lise Meitner's pivotal role. Meitner's contributions to nuclear physics have been subsequently celebrated, and she is considered one of the pioneering figures in the field. In recognition of her work, element 109 was named meitnerium in her honor.
BONUS EXHIBIT - Women Whose Credit Was Stolen
Emmy Noether (1882–1935)
c.1910
Mathematical genius and originator of Noether’s theorem.
Emmy Noether, a German mathematician, faced challenges in her career related to gender biases, but it's important to note that her contributions to mathematics have been widely recognized. While she struggled to secure a permanent academic position due to being a woman, her work was not explicitly "claimed" by men in the sense of being wrongly attributed to them.
Emmy Noether made groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. Her work laid the foundation for significant developments in the understanding of mathematical structures and symmetries. Noether's theorem, named after her, is a fundamental result linking symmetries and conservation laws in physics. Despite the importance of her contributions, she did not receive the recognition she deserved during her lifetime.
It's worth acknowledging that Emmy Noether's situation was more about the challenges she faced as a woman in a male-dominated field rather than her work being directly claimed by others. In recent years, there has been increased awareness and recognition of her contributions to mathematics and physics, and she is now celebrated as one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century.
BONUS EXHIBIT - Women Whose Credit Was Stolen
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900–1979)
At her desk at Harvard College Observatory,
Smithsonian Institution Archives/Wikimedia Commons.
A British-American astronomer and astrophysicist best known for her groundbreaking work on the composition of stars. In 1925, while still a graduate student at Radcliffe College (Harvard University), she wrote her doctoral thesis, "Stellar Atmospheres," in which she concluded that hydrogen and helium were the two most abundant elements in stars.
At the time, the scientific consensus held that the Earth and the Sun had similar compositions, and many scientists believed that the high abundance of hydrogen suggested in stellar spectra was an error. Payne's findings were initially met with skepticism, but her work was later recognized as fundamentally correct. Her discovery laid the foundation for our understanding of the abundances of chemical elements in the universe.
Despite the significance of her contributions, Payne faced challenges as a woman in a male-dominated field. Later in her career, she became the first woman to be promoted to full professor at Harvard University. Payne-Gaposchkin received numerous honors for her work, and her contributions to astrophysics have had a lasting impact on our understanding of the cosmos.
BONUS EXHIBIT - Women Whose Credit Was Stolen
Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958)
Elliott & Fry/© National Portrait Gallery, London, CC BY-NC-ND.
Chemist who helped to discover the DNA double helix.
A British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made significant contributions to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Her work was crucial to the discovery of the DNA double helix structure.
In the early 1950s, Franklin conducted X-ray diffraction studies of DNA fibers, producing high-quality images that suggested a helical structure. Her famous "Photograph 51" provided critical insights into the helical nature of DNA. Unfortunately, without her knowledge or permission, one of her colleagues, Maurice Wilkins, showed this photograph to James Watson and Francis Crick, who were also working on elucidating the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick used this information, along with other data, to formulate their famous model of the DNA double helix.
Rosalind Franklin's contribution to the discovery of the DNA structure was not widely recognized during her lifetime, and she passed away in 1958 at the age of 37 due to ovarian cancer. In the years following her death, the importance of her work became more widely acknowledged, and she is now credited for her significant role in the understanding of DNA structure.
BONUS EXHIBIT - Women Whose Credit Was Stolen
Chien-Shiung Wu (1912–1997)
Wu,ChienShiungInLab; courtesy of University Archives, Columbia University in the City of New York.
Chien-Shiung Wu, a Chinese-American experimental physicist, faced a situation where her significant contributions to a groundbreaking experiment were not initially recognized with a Nobel Prize. Wu is best known for her work on the Manhattan Project during World War II and her later involvement in the famous "Wu Experiment."
The "Wu Experiment" took place in 1956 and involved the beta decay of cobalt-60 nuclei. Wu's experiment, conducted in collaboration with physicists Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang, was designed to test the law of conservation of parity in weak nuclear interactions. The results of the experiment demonstrated that the weak force responsible for the decay of subatomic particles does not obey parity conservation.
While Lee and Yang were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 for this groundbreaking discovery, Chien-Shiung Wu, who had played a crucial role in designing and conducting the experiment, was not included in the Nobel Prize. This omission has been widely regarded as a significant oversight. Wu's experimental expertise and contributions were essential to the success of the experiment.
Chien-Shiung Wu had a distinguished career beyond this experiment, and she is remembered as a pioneering experimental physicist. While the Nobel Prize decision was a point of controversy and disappointment, Wu's contributions to science and her impact on the field are acknowledged in the broader scientific community.
BONUS EXHIBIT - Women Whose Credit Was Stolen
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell (July 15, 1943)
Discovered pulsars, Visiting Professor of Astrophysics, University of Oxford
Jocelyn Bell Burnell is a notable astrophysicist who, during her doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge in the 1960s, played a crucial role in the discovery of pulsars. However, the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery was awarded to her male advisors, Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle, in 1974.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell had been involved in building and operating a large radio telescope that was used to observe quasars. In 1967, she noticed unusual radio signals that had a regular, pulsating pattern. These signals were later identified as coming from pulsars, rapidly rotating neutron stars that emit beams of electromagnetic radiation. The discovery of pulsars was a groundbreaking achievement in astrophysics.
While Bell Burnell's role in the discovery was significant, she was not included in the Nobel Prize awarded to Hewish and Ryle. This omission sparked discussions and debates about the recognition of women in science. Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been gracious about the situation, and she has had a distinguished career in astrophysics and has received many honors and awards for her contributions.
Despite the oversight in the Nobel Prize, Bell Burnell is widely acknowledged for her pivotal role in the discovery of pulsars, and her story has prompted important discussions about gender bias in science and the need for recognizing the contributions of all researchers, regardless of gender. In 2018, she was awarded the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, and she has become an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the scientific community.
