1. Margaret
Margaret Hamilton was a computer scientist and system engineer on the Apollo 11 project. She is pictured here with the code listings she wrote that made it possible for humans to land on the moon. Margaret was a pioneering working-mother in the 1960s; she supported her husband as he studied at law-school, raised her kids, and was the Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Intrsumentation Laboratory.
2. Marie
Marie Curie was a physicist and chemist who researched radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win twice, and the first person to win in multiple science categories. She won in 1903 in physics with her husband and by herself in 1911 for chemistry.
3. Sojourner
Sojourner Truth was born into slavery, but escaped with her daughter and went on to be a civil right’s activist and a women’s rights activist. She was the first black woman to win a property case against a white man when she went to court to free her son. She gave her iconic “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech at a Women’s Rights Convention in 1843. Here is a performance of it by Kerry Washington.
4. Ruth
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the second female Supreme Court Justice and the first ever Jewish woman. The majority of her legal career was spent fervently defending women’s rights as a constitutional right; she consistently voted with her belief that the government had “no business” making decisions for women. She was confirmed to the Supreme Court with a 96-3 vote.
5. Katherine
Katherine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon and she did it before woman were allowed to compete. She entered under the gender neutral name of K.V. Switzer. When it was discovered she was a woman, a race official physically attempted to remove her while she running.
6. Michelle
Michelle Obama is, of course, the First Lady, but she is also a lawyer who studied at Princeton University and Harvard Law School. During her career, she worked at a social outreach non-profit where she set fundraising records that stood for 12 years after she left the position. As First Lady, she is most known for leading the “Let’s Move!” initiative to end childhood obesity.
7. Frida
Frida Kahlo was a renowned Mexican painter who is celebrated for how she depicted Mexican heritage and feminist culture. Most of her paintings are self-portraits where she emphasized her unibrow and light mustache because she was not ashamed of them; she knew they made her look beautiful.
8. Sonia
Sonia Sotomayor is the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice and is just the third female Justice to ever sit. After being nominated by President Obama, she won with a strong 68-31 vote. Sonia has been an avid defender of abortion rights, reducing non-violent drug sentencing, and equal education, to name a few of her passionate causes.
