Nellie Bly was the pen name of the American journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman. She was a pioneer in the field of journalism and widely known for completing a round the world trip in 72 days. Bly’s first job as a journalist was for the The Pittsburgh Dispatch. She got the job after writing an infuriated …
Dr. Marie Maynard Daly was the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Chemistry. Daly was brought up in a family that valued education, her father had emigrated from the West Indies and enrolled at Cornell University to study chemistry, unfortunately he had to drop out due to a lack of money. Daly attended …
Lyudmila Pavlichenko was a Ukrainian Soviet sniper during World War II. She is regarded as the most successful female sniper in history with 309 kills. She is still one of the top ten deadliest snipers in history. She was known as ‘Lady Death’. Pavlichenko was a student in her fourth year of college when Germany …
Norah Fry (also known by her married name Norah Cooke-Hurle) was an advocate and campaigner for disabled children and those with learning difficulties. She was a mental health pioneer. Fry was a member of the Bristol Quaker Fry family of the J. S. Fry & Sons company who made chocolate and cocoa. She became Norah …
Ching Shih was a prominent pirate in Qing China who terrorised the South China Sea in the early 19th century by controlling the infamous Red Flag Fleet. Ching Shih was working as a prostitute on a floating Canton brothel in 1801 when the Pirate Cheng I either proposed they marry, or he sent pirates to …
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani Children’s Activist and Women’s Rights Activist. She is the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. Yousafzai became an advocate for the education of girls as a child after the Taliban took control and tried to ban girls from education, going so far as to attack girls’ schools in Swat. She began speaking …
Virginia E. Johnson was an American sexologist, she pioneered research into the human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction as part of a sexuality research team with William H. Masters. Johnson was risking a lot to be part of the research into sex, ladies of her generation were brought up with …
Neferneferuaten Nefertiti was an Egyptian queen. Nefertiti ruled alongside her husband, Pharaoh Akhenaten from 1353 to 1336 B.C. She may have ruled the New Kingdom on her own after her husband’s death. Nefertiti and her husband were responsible for replacing Egypt’s chief god Amon with Aten, the sun god and the only god worthy of …
Helen Keller was an American author, political activist and campaigner for deaf and blind charities. Keller became deaf and blind at 19 months old after an illness, thought to be scarlet fever or meningitis. Keller’s inability to communicate lead to the belief that she was badly behaved. When she was 7 she was sent to …
Marie Skłodowska-Curie was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research into radioactivity. Marie Skłodowska was a top student in her her secondary school, but was unable to attend Warsaw University as it was men-only. She attended the “floating university,” a set of underground, informal classes held in secret. She could not …