There is a long list of people who have been pioneers, those whose brilliant minds and problem solving capabilities that made them achieve many 'firsts' in their respective fields. Many of these investors and pioneers have been women who changed the world for the better with their cutting edge ideas and fearless actions, whether in aviation, politics, or science. It's shocking to learn that some of these women did not even go to school, college or university to earn a degree, but they certainly were not afraid to step outside the norms of society or break away from traditions. Let's take a look at some of these ladies, whose stories provide inspiration to many who aspire to be pilots, home care product inventors, lawyers, business degree holders, and others who want to 'reach for the stars'...
Susan B. Anthony - Pioneer of the American Suffrage Movement
Susan B. Anthony is a pioneer of a few things, but her role in the women's suffrage movement is the most important of them all. Women in the United States can vote, all thanks for this amazing woman and many more women who joined her in her efforts. Apart from being the driving force behind the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, Anthony played a vital role in the establishment of a press bureau to provide articles to national press outlets, founded the Working Women’s Associations for the publishing and garment trades, plus she pushed married women’s property rights by circulating petitions, so their work wouldn't just be just confined to home care.
Malala Yousafzai - Won the Nobel Peace Prize for Defying the Taliban
If there is one word to describe Malala Yousafzai, it would be 'fearless'. She was an ordinary 11-year-old Pakistani girl when she decided to fight the Taliban diktat against girl's rights to gain education after the all-girls school she was attending was attacked by the group. Aside from her speeches, Yousafzai also blogged for BBC. Although she tried hard to keep her identity anonymous, she was eventually discovered and that led to an assassination attempt in 2012. Despite being shot in the head, she recovered and co-authored the best-selling book I Am Malala, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.
Betty Friedan - Started the Second Wave of American Feminism in the 20th Century
Grants for women today can be received from plenty of sources, thanks to the efforts of many feminist movements. One famous advocate of women's rights was journalist Betty Friedan. The book she published in 1963, The Feminine Mystique, is said to be instrumental in igniting the second wave of the 20th century American feminism. Also, besides being the co-founder of NOW or the National Organization for Women, she was also the first one elected as their president. She is prominently known for setting up the nationwide Women's Strike for Equality in 1970. And were she alive today, we are pretty sure she would have started the #MeToo movement.
Sirimavo Bandaranaike - World's First Female Prime Minister
Before there was ever a Margaret Thatcher, there was a woman named Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who was the first woman to hold the Prime Minister's position in any country. Coming from one of the richest families in Sri Lanka, who probably had the biggest bank accounts in the country at that time, Bandaranaike was least likely to join politics. When her husband, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, the Prime Minister of the country at the time was assassinated, Bandaranaike decided to enter her late husband's profession. Incidentally, Bandaranaike is the mother of Sri Lanka's first female president, Chandrika Kumaratunga.
Clarissa 'Clara' Barton - Founded the American Chapter of the Red Cross
Today, there is a healthcare system in place in every country to ensure the good health and well-being for all it's citizens. But hundreds of years ago, this was not the case, especially during the Civil War. Clarissa 'Clara' Barton may not have founded the Red Cross, but she did establish it's American chapter in 1881. From there, the Switzerland-based organization turned into one of the biggest humanitarian aid groups in the world. Before Red Cross US Chapter, Barton was a US Patent Office worker in Washington. She tried to assist during the Civil War by collecting bandages and medical supplies for the wounded, but she felt that it wasn't enough, so she proceeded to operate field hospitals near the frontline in Virginia. Barton may not have been a doctor or nurse, but her dedication in assisting the war-wounded earned her the nickname 'Angel of the Battlefield.'
Connie Chung - First Asian-American News Anchor on a Major Network
Connie Chung has achieved a few 'firsts' in the field of journalism — she was the first woman to co-anchor the CBS Evening News and the first Asian to anchor on one of the major networks in America and the second woman ever, only after Barbara Walters. After getting her journalism degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, Chung was hired almost instantly by a local TV station. However her big break came during the Watergate Scandal, when she scored an exclusive sit-down interview with former US President Richard Nixon for CBS.
Katherine Johnson - Worked with NASA to Send the first American into Space
Those who have watched the film Hidden Figures know who the great Katherine Johnson is. She happens to be responsible for the success of the first US manned space flights, as well as the many succeeding ones. It was her calculations of orbital mechanics as an employee of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NASA, that have allowed men and women to travel to space and return back safely. Johnson would have made a great math tutor being a wiz in the subject at a very young age. She graduated from high school at 14 and finished college at West Virginia State when she was only 19 years old!
Juliette Gordon Low - Started the Girl Scouts
Juliette Gordon Low did not let a disability stop her from achieving greatness. The reason why the Girl Scouts is inclusive, especially with people who are differently abled and disabled, is because its founder, Low, became deaf when she was a young adult. It was a meeting with Boy Scouts founder Lord Baden-Powell that inspired Low to establish the Girl Scouts movement that went on to involve activities related to nature, athletics, animals, and the arts — all of which fascinated her. Ever since she was a young girl, Low did not focus on school work, rather she set her sights on learning different skills, like painting, sewing, horseback riding and woodworking, among other things.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - Youngest Woman to serve the United States Congress
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is probably the one most recognizable on this list, since she's very relevant in the current times. She holds the record for being the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress after she beat Republican opponent Anthony Pappas in the 2019 general election when she was only 29 years old. Prior to that, Ocasio-Cortez was talk of the town when she beat Joe Crowley to win the 2018 midterm election primaries. It was considered one of the biggest upsets in election history since Crowley was a ten-term incumbent Congressman. Ocasio-Cortez attended the Boston University, graduating suma cum laude at its College of Arts and Sciences, with major in international relations and economics, so she's certainly well qualified for her job!
Ruth Bader Ginsburg - Advocate for Gender Equality
Before anyone would think it, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is not on this list because of her achievement as a Supreme Court Justice, since we are aware that she's only the second woman to occupy the seat, the first ever female Supreme Court Justice of the United States being Sandra Day O’Connor. Ginsburg is known as an advocate for gender equality, as evident in the many documentaries and movies based on her. She became the first Supreme Court Justice to officiate a same-gender wedding. She's also a known cancer survivor, and the famous lawyer and jurist can still do a plank at 86 years old and finish circuit training workouts that are guided by a personal trainer.
Kathryn Bigelow - First Woman to Win in Best Director Category at Academy Awards
Becoming the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director was not a hop-skip-and-jump journey for Kathryn Bigelow, since she has been directing movies for three decades before getting her due recognition. One surprising fact about Bigelow is that she did not go or graduate from film school at first; instead, she studied painting and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. Although, later on, she got accepted for the graduate film program at Columbia University, where she learnt all the ropes. It was the 2009 drama film The Hurt Locker that got Bigelow an Academy Award.
Edith Wharton - First Woman Pulitzer Prize Awardee
Perhaps when Edith Wharton wrote her book The Age of Innocence, she never expected to become the first woman to be given the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1921. This is an amazing feat especially when Wharton is said to have never attended school, nor had a college education under her belt. Aside from the lack of formal and institutionalized education, the now famous author was forbidden to author a book since it was regarded as kind of 'manual labor' by the East Coast high society which Wharton was a part of. She defied this and published her first ever novel in 1899.
Anna Bissell - America's First Female CEO
CEOs in the past were mostly men, and it's only in the recent years that women broke through this glass barrier to occupy positions of power. Nonetheless, it was more than a hundred years ago that the first female CEO in America was assigned her position in a company that was synonymous to the carpet cleaning business. It was in 1876 when Anna Bissell's husband, Melville Reuben Bissell, invented the modern carpet sweeper. However, it was Anna who has been designated as the CEO of the Bissell Corporation that specialized in the production of vacuum cleaners and floor care products.
Gertrude Ederle - First Woman to Swim the English Channel
Gertrude Ederle is known today as the first woman to swim across the English Channel, a feat she almost didn't achieve if she hadn't changed her personal trainer. The Olympic champion swimmer first trained with swimmer Jabez Wolffe, and it was said that he didn't want Ederle to succeed. Because Wolffe attempted to swim the English Channel but never succeeded, the swimmer switched career to become a trainer to another swimmer who successfully crossed the Channel, Bill Burgess. It was under Bill's guidance that Ederle was able to set the record she’s now known for and she did it with the time of 14 hours and 34 minutes!
Grace Hopper - Developed the First Functioning Computers
Although Grace Hopper got her university degree from Vassar, and her PhD in mathematics from Yale, the Mark I project she led was a program initiated by the United States Naval Reserve and Harvard University. It's for this reason that the set of first functioning computers that Hopper came up with, was called Harvard Mark I. Besides this, it was also Hopper who came up with the word 'debug' and she was the leader of the group that devised the Common Business-Oriented Language or COBOL, for short.
Valentina Tereshkova - First Female Cosmonaut on a Solo Mission
Russian-born Valentina Tereshkova was the fifth cosmonaut to travel to the Earth's orbit, and she also happens to be the first woman to go to space on a solo mission in 1963. It would surprise you that prior to becoming a cosmonaut, Tereshkova worked as a textile worker at a factory. She did not go to college; instead she took up correspondence courses at a tech school called Light Industry Technical School. She, however, is a professional skydiver who trained at a local Aeroclub at Bolshoye Maslennikovo.
Harriet Tubman - Escaped Slavery and became First Woman to lead an Armed Expedition
Harriet Tubman was born a slave in Maryland, but she didn't let that stop her from dreaming of freedom. She made that dream a reality when she escaped her enslavers and fled to Philadelphia. She left many family members behind, although she returned several times to guide their escape along with dozens of others. Tubman worked for the Union as a nurse, as a scout, and as a spy. While doing so, she earned a living by selling root beer, gingerbread, and pies, even though she wasn't trained in any cooking school. Known also as 'Moses', Tubman saved hundreds of slave through the famous Underground Railroad and assisted abolitionist John Brown in recruiting supporters for his plan to raid Harpers Ferry. Her role in the raid at Combahee Ferry made her the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the war.
Charlotte Cooper - First Woman Tennis Champion
Today, many women's names come to mind when we talk of professional tennis - there's Billy Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, and many others. But before all of them (who all also had skilled personal trainers, for sure), there was Charlotte Copper (later Sterry by marriage) who was the first woman tennis champion having participated in the Olympics and she won, too! Before Navratilova won her ninth consecutive singles final in 1990 at Wimbledon, Cooper held the record for most number of wins with eight consecutive singles finals wins to her name.