Princess Sophia Duleep Singh was a political activist and prominent member of the British suffragette movement. She also had a leading role in the Women’s Tax Resistance League. Singh was the daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last king of the Sikh Empire. He had become the Maharaja of Punjab in 1843 at the age …
Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian-born French graphic novelist, illustrator, film director, and children’s book author. She is best known for her graphic novel Persepolis, which provide an insight into life in Iran during the Iranian Revolution of the early 80’s. Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran and grew up in Tehran. Her parents …
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer. She is best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which is widely thought of as the first science fiction novel. Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in 1797 in Somers Town, London to Mary …
Harriet Taylor (also known as Harriet Taylor Mill) was a philosopher and women’s rights advocate. Taylor was born in 1807 in Walworth, south London to Thomas Hardy, a London surgeon, and his wife Harriet Hurst. She was educated at home, and showed a keen interest in poetry. At the age of 18, Taylor married the …
Katherine Murray “Kate” Millett is an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She is an acknowledged leader of the modern women’s movement. Millett was born in 1934 in Saint Paul, Minnesota to James Albert and Helen Feely Millett. The family’s background was Irish Catholic, and Kate attended several parochial schools. Her father was an …
Katherine G. Johnson is an American physicist, space scientist, and mathematician who contributed to America’s aeronautics and space programs with the early application of digital electronic computers at NASA. Johnson was born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. She showed an interest in mathematics from a young age, and was eager to go …
Dame Vivienne Westwood is an English fashion designer and businesswoman whose early designs helped shape the look of the punk rock movement. Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in 1941 in Tintwistle, England. Her parents, Gordon and Dora Swire had married two years previously, two weeks after the outbreak of World War II. Westwood attended …
Kelly Sue DeConnick is an American comic book writer and editor and English-language adapter of manga. She is best known for Captain Marvel, Avengers Assemble, PRETTY DEADLY, co-created with Emma Ríos, and BITCH PLANET, co-created with Valentine De Landro. DeConnick was born in Ohio in 1970. Her father served in the United States Air Force, …
Missy “misdemeanor” Elliott is a Grammy Award-winning singer, rapper, songwriter and producer who has achieved great success while breaking boundaries in the male-dominated world of hip-hop. Missy Elliott was born Melissa Arnette Elliott in 1971 in Portsmouth, Virginia. She was the only child of Patricia, a power-company dispatcher, and father Ronnie, a U.S. Marine. She …
Maya Angelou was an American award-winning author, poet, and civil rights activist. She is best known for her acclaimed memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and her numerous poetry and essay collections. Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was briefly raised in St. Louis until her parents …