Women are badasses. We are daughters, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, friends, teachers, doctors, lawyers, journalists, engineers, scientists, and so much more. We are more than a body part or a pretty face. These are just a few of the fierce, inspiring, ground-breaking women who have changed history.
1. Susan B. Anthony
This legendary woman was a leading role in the women’s suffrage movement during the early 20th century. Anthony was a strong social and feminist activist who fought to abolish slavery and women's rights and also lead the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
2. Alice Paul
Alice was a leading suffragette during the push for the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. She dedicated her life to being an activist for women's rights.
3. Ida B. Wells
The daughter of slaves who became a prominent civil-rights activist during the late 19th century. Wells was a journalist, editor, feminist, who led the anti-lynching crusade in the U.S.
4. Clara Barton
Barton was a nurse during the Civil War who then became the founder and first president of the American Red Cross.
5. Ella Fitzgerald
Also known as the “First Lady of Song”, was one of the top female American jazz vocalists who went on to be the first African-American woman to win a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
6. Grace Hopper
7. Rosa Parks
Parks was civil rights activist best known for her refusal to surrender her seat on a city bus to a white passenger during the Civil Rights Movement which led to the desegregation of public buses in Montgomery, Alabama.
8. Margaret Sanger
Sanger worked as a nurse and also was an activist for women’s rights and sex educator. She worked to make birth control for women legal and later became the founder of Planned Parenthood.
9. Harriet Tubman
Tubman escaped slavery in 1949 and helped over 300 other slaves escape as the “conductor” of the underground railroad. After she found freedom, Tubman dedicated her life to become a civil right activist and help imprison slaves.
10. Phillis Wheatley
Wheatley was a slave who became educated and began to write highly praised poetry. In 1773 she was the first African-American and one of the first women to get her book of poetry published in the American colonies making a large contribution to early American literature. Phillis Wheatley helped the appearance of African Americans by being a model of advanced intellect.
11. Coretta Scott King
Wife of Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta was a leading activist in the civil rights and women’s right who continued to work her husband started.
12. Mary McLeod Bethune
Bethune was the daughter of slaves who became and educator and was an activist for civil rights. She started a private school for African-American students and also founded the National Council of Negro Women.
13. Condoleezza Rice
Rice is a political scientist who was the first African-American woman to become Secretary of State and security advisor of the United States.
14. Sally Ride
Ride was an astrophysicist and astronaut who became the first American woman to launch into space in 1983.
15. Hattie McDaniel
McDaniel was an actress, best known for her role as Mammy in ‘Gone With the Wind’, who became the first African-American woman to win an Oscar in 1940 for the role.
16. Shirley Chisholm
Chisholm was an American politician who fought for social justice and was the first African-American woman to be elected to Congress as a Representative of New York.
17. Billie Jean King
King is a famous tennis player known for the famous match, the “Battle of the Sexes”, which defeated Bobby Riggs. She also pushed for equal prize money for female athletes.
18. Ruby Bridges
Bridges is known for her bravery at only 6 years old for being the first African American child to ingrate in an all-white elementary school in Louisiana, which led to the desegregation of schools across the country.
19. Jeannette Rankin
Rankin was an activist for women’s rights and was the first woman to be elected to Congress in 1916 as a U.S. Representative. During her time in Congress, she helped pass the 19thAmendment.
20. Sandra Day O’Connor
O’Connor was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court under President Reagan and proceeded to become the first female Supreme Court justice.
21. Margaret Dorothy Foster
Foster was an American chemist who was hired to work on the Manhattan Project, which was the research that developed the first nuclear weapons during World War II. She was also the first woman to work for the United States Geological Survey.
22. Marie Maynard Daly
Daly was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University in the United States.
23. Susan La Flesche Picotte
Picotte was a member of the Omaha Reservation and was the first Native American woman to become a physician in the United States.
24. Edith Wharton
Wharton was an American author and the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her novel ‘The Age of Innocence’.
25. Katherine Graham
Graham was the publisher of the The Washington Post who became the first female Fortune 500 CEO.
26. Gloria Steinem
Steinem was a leading feminist and activist for women’s rights during the late 20thcentury and still to this day.
27. Kathryn Bigelow
Bigelow is a filmmaker and screenwriter and the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director for The Hurt Locker.
28. Hillary Clinton
Clinton is the only First Lady to ever run for office and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2001. In 2009 she became the 3rd female Secretary of State. In 2016, Clinton became the first female to become a presidential nominee of a major political party. Following the election, Hillary Clinton has become the most voted for candidate to ever run for President other than Barrack Obama.
