10 Women that Rocked the World
- Prisha
- Jun 13, 2023
- 7 min read
History is full of women that pioneered in their fields, and here are a few you may not have heard of! 1. Gisèle Halimi (1927-2020)
Gisèle Halimi (left) was a pioneering French lawyer. She founded the group Choisir (translation: to choose) in 1971, which guaranteed legal protection for all women who signed the Manifeste des 343 (a petition written by another prominent French feminist named Simone de Beauvoir) which declared that the women had received abortions. Halimi is most well-known for defending Marie-Claire Chevalier at the trial of Bobigny in 1972. Marie-Claire was 16 years old at the time and had been raped by an 18-year-old classmate. She was charged with receiving an abortion following the assault. Halimi's defense at the trial, as well as the book she subsequently authored in partnership with de Beauvoir, titled Le procès de Bobigny, was instrumental in legalizing abortion in France through the passing of the "Loi Veil" in 1975.
2. Sojourner Truth (1797-1893)
Born into slavery as Isabella Bomfree, Truth was an African-American abolitionist and advocate of civil and women's rights. In 1827, Truth bought her freedom with the help of an abolitionist family and moved to New York City in 1828. She worked with a minister there, and soon became a prominent religious speaker, renaming herself as Sojourner Truth. Truth met and collaborated with several abolitionists and women's rights activists, such as Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Antony. Despite never learning how to read or write, she published an autobiography called The Narrative of Sojourner Truth in 1850 by dictating it to Olive Gilbert. She received national recognition for this. In 1851, as part of a lecture tour about women's rights, Truth gave her famous speech, titled "Ain't I a Woman?" which challenged traditional gender norms by juxtaposing them with her reality (Link to the speech: https://thehermitage.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sojourner-Truth_Aint-I-a-Woman_1851.pdf ). During the Civil War, Truth rallied support for the Union and provided provisions for Black troops. After the war, she involved herself in the Freedmen's Bureau, which helped newly freed slaves build their new lives. She also lobbied against segregation and was honored for her efforts with an invitation to the White House to meet President Lincoln.
3. Althea Gibson (1927-2003)
Althea Gibson was the first African-American tennis player to play and win at the U.S. Nationals (the equivalent of the U.S. Open today) and Wimbledon. She was born in South Carolina and started playing tennis around the age of 18 at a private Black tennis club. Gibson earned a sports scholarship at Florida A&M through her skill and received her BA at the age of 27. She first appeared at the U.S. Nationals in 1950 and won in both 1957 and 1958. She also won tournaments at Wimbledon in 1958. In 1960, Gibson took to golf and became the first African-American woman to be part of the Ladies Professional Gold Association.
4. Junko Tabei (1939-2016)
Junko Tabei was a Japanese mountaineer who became the first woman to climb Mount Everest, as well as to climb the Seven Peaks (the highest peaks on all seven continents). She found her passion for mountain climbing on a class trip when she was ten years old. She joined several men's mountaineering clubs and was met with suspicion and hostility. Nevertheless, Tabei had climbed most of Japan's major mountains by the time she was 27. In 1969, she also established the Joshi-Tohan, which was a woman-only mountaineering club, and the first of its kind in Japan. To fund the club, she worked as an editor for the Journal of the Physical Society of Japan. In May of 1975, an expedition made up of 15 women from the club, including Tabei became the first set of women to climb Mount Everest. On their expedition, they faced an avalanche at the height of 6,300 meters which buried four members, including Tabei. Though there were no casualities, Tabei could barely walk. After two days of recovery, Tabei continued to climb, and on her way up, encountered a knife-like ice ridge that no previous accounts had mentioned. Despite this, she perservered, and reached the summit on May 16th, 1975, twelve days after the avalanche.
5. Sheryl Swoopes (1971-Present)
Sheryl Swoopes is an American basketball player. She was the first woman to be signed to the WNBA when the organization was founded in 1996. She was named the MVP for the WNBA three times, championed four times, won three Olympic gold medals, and one FIBA World Championship medal. She is also the only female athlete to have a signature shoe -- the Nike Air Swoopes. She became part of the Naismith Hall of Fame for Basketball in 2016.
6. Laverne Cox (1972-Present)
Laverne Cox is the first openly transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy award and to appear on the cover of TIME. She was born in Mobile, Alabama, and lived with her mother and twin brother. Though she was assigned male at birth, she was inclined towards hobbies considered traditionally feminine, and this made her afraid to disappoint her grandmother, who had passed away. Resulting from this fear, she attempted to commit suicide at the age of 11. After high school, Cox moved to New York for higher education. Her time studying for a B. A in Fine Arts at Marymount Manhattan College was instrumental in her embracing femininity as well as medically transitioning. Cox is most well known for playing Sophia Burset in the TV series "Orange is the New Black." She has also appeared in "Promising Young Woman" and "Inventing Anna."
7. Anna May Wong (1905-1961)
Anna May Wong, born Wong Liu Tsuong, was the first Asian-American Hollywood superstar and will become the first Asian-American to be featured on American currency (she will be featured on the quarter). She was born in Los Angeles, California to a laundryman, and found her love for theater because many movies were shot on her street. She got her first movie role at the age of seventeen. Despite being known as one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, she was never able to play a leading role in America due to the racist attitudes of the time (an example of which was a law that prohibited an Asian woman from kissing a Caucasian man on-screen). Still, she starred in all the supporting roles she could, though she was usually stereotyped as an exotic temptress. Wong later moved to Europe, where there were more opportunities for performers of color, and she found acclaim there.
8. Kalpana Chawla (1962-2003)
Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-American astronaut who was the first woman of Indian descent to go into space. After completing her engineering degree in India, Chawla immigrated to the United States in the 1980s to continue her education. She completed a master's degree at the University of Texas and a doctorate at the University of Colorado for aerospace engineering. In 1988, she started working at NASA's Ames Research Center. Throughout her career, she helped provide science education opportunities to girls in India, such as having two girls from her secondary school in India attend a NASA summer program every year. She had her first flight in November of 1997, aboard a spacecraft called Columbia on flight STS-87. The flight lasted two weeks, and Chawla was the main robotic arm operator on it. In 2007, Chawla took her second space flight on the STS-107. However, the spacecraft disintegrated upon entering the earth's atmosphere when it was on its way back to the Kennedy Space Center, and all seven astronauts aboard, including Chawla, died. The University of Texas dedicated a memorial to Chawla, and in 2020, a spacecraft named after her was launched into space.
9. Roberta Bobbi Gibb (1942-Present)
Roberta Bobbi Gibb is a former American runner who was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. She is a three-time winner of the Women's Division of the marathon. Gibb learned about the marathon at the age of 21, and she was amazed. She trained tirelessly for two years, including running up the Rocky Mountains. However, after signing up for the competition in 1966, she received a notice that said that "Women are not physiologically able to run marathons" and that the organization would not be able to take the medical liability. The notice also stated that the longest women's race was only a mile and a half. Still, Gibbs decided to race. She hid in a bush near the race until it began, and then, after waiting for half of the participants to pass, started running, wearing her brother's clothing. She completed the marathon in 3 hours and 21 minutes, with wild public support for her actions. The Governor of Massachusetts even shook her hand after she finished the race. Her actions led to the Boston Marathon establishing an official women's section in 1972. She later went to law school and also conducted neuroscientific research (she applied to medical school as well, but was rejected for being "too pretty").
10. Clara Barton (1821-1912)
Clara Barton was an American nurse during the civil war era who founded the Red Cross in America. She was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts, but moved to Washington D.C. as an adult to work at the U.S. Patent Office. She was one of the first women to work for the U.S. Federal Government. During the Civil War, Barton provided extensive care and supplies to soldiers, earning the nickname "Angel of the Battlefield." After the war, she opened the Office of Missing Soldiers to reconnect soldiers with their families. Barton learned about the Red Cross movement on a trip to Switzerland in 1869, and she founded the organization in America on May 21st, 1881. In 1882, the U.S. ratified the Geneva Conventions, which in turn led to a congressional charter that officially recognized the Red Cross's services. Barton served at the American Red Cross for 23 years before she retired.
Remember, use your voice and get educated!
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