Hiuaz Kairovna Dospanova was the only female pilot and navigator from Kazakhstan to serve during the Second World War. Dospanova was born in 1922 in the village of Ganyushkino, Kazakhstan. She was an excellent student and graduated with honours from high school No. 1 in Uralsk in 1940. Dospanova was a member of her local …
Nawal El Saadawi is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist. El Saadawi was born in 1931 in the small village of Kafr Tahla. Her family were a mix of traditional and progressive. At the age of six El Saadawi was pinned down by four women in her home in Egypt and was subjected …
Kim Gordon is an American musician, songwriter, and visual artist. She is best known for being one of the founding members of Sonic Youth. Gordon was born in 1953, in Rochester, New York but grew up in Los Angeles, California. She attended a progressive elementary school that was attached to UCLA which focused on learning …
Hedy Lamarr was an inventor, pin-up and film actress. She co-developed an early technique for spread spectrum communications which are key in many wireless communications used today, including Wi-Fi. Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in 1914 in Vienna, Austria. In the late 1920’s, her acting talents were discovered by producer Max Reinhardt. He …
Faith Bandler was an Australian civil rights activist who campaigned for the rights of Indigenous Australians and South Sea Islanders. She is known for her leadership in the 1967 referendum on the rights of Aboriginal Australians. Bandler was born Ida Lessing Faith Mussing in Tumbulgum, New South Wales. Her father, Wacvie Peter Mussing was a …
Adele is a British Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter. Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born in 1988 in North London, England. Adele became interested in music at a young age and started singing at 4 years old. She spent most of her time singing and was influenced by the Spice Girls who she impersonated at …
Mary Carpenter was an English educational and social reformer. She brought education to poor children and young offenders in Bristol who had been previously denied it. Carpenter was born in 1807 in Exeter. In 1817 her family moved to Bristol and her father took charge of the Lewin’s Mead Unitarian meeting house. He also established …
Hannah More was an English educator, writer and social reformer. She was known for her writings on abolition and for encouraging women to join the anti-slavery movement. More was born in 1745 in Fishponds, Bristol. She was the fourth of five daughters of Jacob More, a schoolmaster from Harleston, Norfolk and Mary Grace More. More’s …
Laura Jane Grace is an American musician best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me!. Grace was born in Fort Benning, Georgia in 1980. Her family moved frequently between military bases and lived briefly in Fort Hood, Texas; Pennsylvania; Ohio; Germany; and at a NATO post …
Poly Styrene was a British musician, singer-songwriter, and front-woman of the punk rock band X-Ray Spex. Styrene was born Marianne Joan Elliott-Said in 1957 in Bromley, Kent, England. She was raised in Brixton, London by her mother. Styrene left home at 15 with only £3. She hitchhiked between musical festivals and stayed at hippie crash …