Amy Johnson was a pioneering British aviator who was the first female pilot to fly alone from Britain to Australia. She set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s. She flew in the Second World War as a part of the Air Transport Auxiliary and died during a ferry flight. Boudica or Boudicca Latinised as Boadicea …
Category: STEM
Maryam Mirzakhani
Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. She was the first-ever female winner of the prestigious Fields Medal prize and the first Iranian to be honoured with the award. Mirzakhani was born in Tehran, Iran. She attended Farzanegan School, which was part of the National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents. In …
Monisha Kaltenborn
Monisha Kaltenborn is the former team principal of the Sauber Formula One team, and was the first woman to become a team principal in Formula One. Kaltenborn was born in Dehradun, India. At the age of 8, her family emigrated to Austria and she continued her education in Vienna, during which time she gained Austrian Citizenship. While at the …
Valentina Tereshkova
This weeks Illustrated Woman in History was illustrated by @rozihathaway. Valentina Tereshkova is a Russian cosmonaut and the first woman to have flown in space. Tereshkova was born in Maslennikovo, a small town in the Yaroslavl Region. She began school late, when she was eight years old and had to leave at 17 to help …
Second Lieutenant Elsie S. Ott
Today’s Illustrated Woman in History was drawn by Lily Grace Stewart and submitted for inclusion in the next Illustrated Women in History zine. Second Lieutenant Elsie S. Ott was a pioneer in air evacuation of military casualties and the first woman to receive the United States Air Medal. Ott was born in 1913 in Smithtown, …
Grace Hopper
Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy Rear Admiral. She was a pioneer in computer technology, and invented the first compiler for a computer programming language, which led to the widely used COBOL language. Hopper was born in 1906 in New York City. As a child, she became interested in how …
Caroline Herschel
Today’s Illustrated Women in History is a written submission by James Purvis. Caroline Herschel 1750 – 1848 Caroline Herschel was an astronomer and singer, and was the first woman to be paid for her contribution to science. At the age of 22 Herschel, who had received training in music against the wishes of her mother, …
Farrokhroo Parsa
Farrokhroo Parsa was an Iranian physician, educator and parliamentarian. She served as Minister of Education of Iran during the Pahlavi Dynasty and was the first female cabinet minister of an Iranian government. Parsa was born in 1922 in Qom, Iran. Her mother, Fakhr’e Afagh Parsa was the editor of the women’s magazine, Jahan’e Zan (The …
Hertha Ayrton
Today’s Illustrated Women in History is a written submission by James Purvis. Hertha Ayrton was a British engineer, mathematician, physicist, and inventor. She is best known for her work on electric arcs and ripples in sand and water. I wasn’t aware of Hertha Ayrton until last month google commemorated her 162nd birthday with a google doodle. …
Aletta H. Jacobs
Aletta H. Jacobs was the first woman to officially attend a Dutch University and the first female physician in the Netherlands. She was also a women’s suffrage activist and inventor. Jacobs was born in 1854 in Sappemeer, Netherlands to Abraham Jacobs, a physician and Anna de Jongh. From an early age, Jacobs would accompany her …