Great Women In History

Malala Yousafzai was born on July 12, 1997, in Mingora, the largest city in the Swat Valley in what is now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan. She is the daughter of Ziauddin and Tor Pekai Yousafzai and has two younger brothers.

At a very young age, Malala developed a thirst for knowledge. For years her father, a passionate education advocate himself, ran a learning institution in the city, and school was a big part of Malala’s family. She later wrote that her father told her stories about how she would toddle into classes even before she could talk and acted as if she were the teacher.

In 2007, when Malala was ten years old, the situation in the Swat Valley rapidly changed for her family and community. The Taliban began to control the Swat Valley and quickly became the dominant socio-political force throughout much of northwestern Pakistan. Girls were banned from attending school, and cultural activities like dancing and watching television were prohibited. Suicide attacks were widespread, and the group made its opposition to a proper education for girls a cornerstone of its terror campaign. By the end of 2008, the Taliban had destroyed some 400 schools.

Determined to go to school and with a firm belief in her right to an education, Malala stood up to the Taliban. Alongside her father, Malala quickly became a critic of their tactics. “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” she once said on Pakistani TV.

In early 2009, Malala started to blog anonymously on the Urdu language site of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). She wrote about life in the Swat Valley under Taliban rule, and about her desire to go to school. Using the name “Gul Makai,” she described being forced to stay at home, and she questioned the motives of the Taliban.

Malala was 11 years old when she wrote her first BBC diary entry. Under the blog heading “I am afraid,” she described her fear of a full-blown war in her beautiful Swat Valley, and her nightmares about being afraid to go to school because of the Taliban.

Pakistan’s war with the Taliban was fast approaching, and on May 5, 2009, Malala became an internally displaced person (IDP), after having been forced to leave her home and seek safety hundreds of miles away.

On her return, after weeks of being away from Swat, Malala once again used the media and continued her public campaign for her right to go to school. Her voice grew louder, and over the course of the next three years, she and her father became known throughout Pakistan for their determination to give Pakistani girls access to a free quality education. Her activism resulted in a nomination for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011. That same year, she was awarded Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize. But, not everyone supported and welcomed her campaign to bring about change in Swat. On the morning of October 9, 2012, 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban.

Seated on a bus heading home from school, Malala was talking with her friends about schoolwork. Two members of the Taliban stopped the bus. A young bearded Talib asked for Malala by name, and fired three shots at her. One of the bullets entered and exited her head and lodged in her shoulder. Malala was seriously wounded. That same day, she was airlifted to a Pakistani military hospital in Peshawar and four days later to an intensive care unit in Birmingham, England.

Once she was in the United Kingdom, Malala was taken out of a medically induced coma. Though she would require multiple surgeries, including repair of a facial nerve to fix the paralyzed left side of her face, she had suffered no major brain damage. In March 2013, after weeks of treatment and therapy, Malala was able to begin attending school in Birmingham.

After the shooting, her incredible recovery and return to school resulted in a global outpouring of support for Malala. On July 12, 2013, her 16th birthday, Malala visited New York and spoke at the United Nations. Later that year, she published her first book, an autobiography entitled “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban.” On October 10, 2013, in acknowledgement of her work, the European Parliament awarded Malala the prestigious Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

In 2014, through the Malala Fund, the organization she co-founded with her father, Malala traveled to Jordan to meet Syrian refugees, to Kenya to meet young female students, and finally to northern Nigeria for her 17th birthday. In Nigeria, she spoke out in support of the abducted girls who were kidnapped earlier that year by Boko Haram, a terrorist group which, like the Taliban, tries to stop girls from going to school.

In October 2014, Malala, along with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi, was named a Nobel Peace Prize winner. At age 17, she became the youngest person to receive this prize. Accepting the award, Malala reaffirmed that “This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change.”

Today, the Malala Fund has become an organization that, through education, empowers girls to achieve their potential and become confident and strong leaders in their own countries. Funding education projects in six countries and working with international leaders, the Malala Fund joins with local partners to invest in innovative solutions on the ground and advocates globally for quality secondary education for all girls.

Currently residing in Birmingham, Malala is an active proponent of education as a fundamental social and economic right. Through the Malala Fund and with her own voice, Malala Yousafzai remains a staunch advocate for the power of education and for girls to become agents of change in their communities.
 
Kathrine Switzer competed in the 1967 Boston Marathon even though she wasn’t allowed to. Why was she not allowed? Because she was a woman.

In 1967, Switzer registered for the Boston Marathon as ‘K. V. Switzer’. Because she was dressed in oversized sweat clothes, she was able to go undetected long enough to get started. But after the race began, the race director realized Switzer was a woman and attempted to forcibly remove her, along with another man, but she was able to out maneuver them, and she continued on and completed the course. Photos of this “Boston Incident” ignited the women’s running revolution at a time when popular theory held that women were not strong enough to run the 26.2 mile distance.

Thanks to the efforts of Switzer and others, women were officially allowed into road races in 1971. The next year, she earned her M.A. in public communications from Syracuse University.

In 1977, Switzer founded the Avon International Running Circuit, an initiative that created running programs in 27 countries for over 1 million women. These efforts eventually led to the inclusion of the women’s marathon as an official event in the Olympic Games. In 1984, 49 athletes from 28 countries ran the inaugural Women’s Olympic Marathon.

Switzer went on to simultaneous careers as a fitness expert, television broadcaster, author, and public speaker. She formed her own company, AtAlanta Sports Promotions and is an Emmy Award-winning television commentator who has done broadcast work for ABC, CBS, NBC, and ESPN. Switzer’s books include Marathon Woman and Running and Walking for Women Over 40.

Switzer has revolutionized the sport of running for women, while at the same time increasing awareness of healthy lifestyles and the importance of fitness. She once noted that, “Triumph over adversity, that’s what the marathon is all about. Nothing in life can’t triumph after that.”

A member of the inaugural class of the National Distance Running Hall of Fame (1998), Switzer was named one of four “Visionaries of the Century” by Runner’s World Magazine (2002), and has received the Abebe Bikila Award from the New York Road Runners Club for her global contribution to running (2003).

Still recognized as a leader in the running world, Switzer has completed over thirty-seven marathons and dedicated her career to creating opportunities and equal sport status for women.

Nancy Astor. An American-born British politician, she was the first woman to be seated as a Member of Parliament.

Astor served from 1919 to 1945, campaigning for women’s rights and other causes. She also ran a hospital for soldiers during World War I and World War II.

There’s a blue plaque dedicated to her at 4 St James’s Square in London.
 
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She Got Her Own Movie Out Now .. Enough Said ....
 
Andrée de Jongh, aka Dédée, was the woman who formed the Comet line that helped Allied airmen get safely through occupied Belgium and France, over the Pyrenees, and into Spain and Gibraltar.

At just 24 years old, Dédée saved 118 of the nearly 700 men throughout her 24 missions. When she was eventually captured, she came clean to the Nazis about her work with the resistance, but because of her young age, they didn't believe her and sent her to a concentration camp.

"I'm as strong as a man. Girls attract less attention in the frontier zone than men," de Jongh, who was later named a Belgian countess and awarded the George Medal, said when the British vice consul asked how she did it all.

Lisa Lyon, a pioneer in professional women’s bodybuilding has died. She was 70. The cause of death was stomach cancer, the source claimed.

A friend of Lyon reportedly stated that Lyon died Friday at her home in the San Fernando Valley where she was in hospice care.

Fellow bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger honored Lyon in a statement, raving, “She is the best. I love her.”

Lyon put women’s bodybuilding on the map in 1980 when she won the first International Federation of Bodybuilders Woman’s World Pro Bodybuilding Championship.

Comic book writer Frank Miller also modeled the Marvel Comics character Elektra off of Lyon.

Her book “Lisa Lyon’s Body Magic,” which served as a guide to at-home bodybuilding, was published in 1981.

She also had a short acting career in “Three Crowns of the Sailor” in 1983, the bodybuilding movie “Getting Physical” in 1984, and in “Vamp” alongside Grace Jones in 1986.

She was inducted into the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federal Hall of Fame in 2000 for elevating bodybuilding to an art form.
 
Catherine II, called Catherine the Great, reigned over Russia for 34 years—longer than any other female in Russian history. As empress, Catherine westernized Russia. She led her country into full participation in the political and cultural life of Europe. She championed the arts and reorganized the Russian law code.
 
Frances Jane van Alstyne (March 24, 1820 – February 12, 1915), more commonly known as Fanny J. Crosby, was an American mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer. She was a prolific hymnist, writing more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs, with more than 100 million copies printed. She is also known for her teaching and her rescue mission work. By the end of the 19th century, she was a household name.

Crosby was known as the "Queen of Gospel Song Writers" and as the "Mother of modern congregational singing in America", with most American hymnals containing her work. Her gospel songs were "paradigmatic of all revival music", and Ira Sankey attributed the success of the Moody and Sankey evangelical campaigns largely to Crosby's hymns. Some of Crosby's best-known songs include "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior", "Blessed Assurance", "Jesus Is Tenderly Calling You Home", "Praise Him, Praise Him", "Rescue the Perishing", and "To God Be the Glory". Some publishers were hesitant to have so many hymns by one person in their hymnals, so Crosby used nearly 200 different pseudonyms during her career.

Crosby also wrote more than 1,000 secular poems and had four books of poetry published, as well as two best-selling autobiographies. Additionally, she co-wrote popular secular songs, as well as political and patriotic songs and at least five cantatas on biblical and patriotic themes, including The Flower Queen, the first secular cantata by an American composer. She was committed to Christian rescue missions and was known for her public speaking.

At six weeks old, Crosby caught a cold and developed inflammation of the eyes. A treatment at the time was blamed for her eventual blindness, but modern physicians think that her blindness was more likely congenital and, given her age, may simply not have been noticed by her parents.

At age eight, Crosby wrote her first poem which described her condition. She later stated: "It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me." She also once said, "when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior."
 
Bailey Fairbanks (May 24, 1986 – September 21, 2023), more commonly known as Mom, was an American teacher, musician, mother, mentor and bad-ass bitch when she needed to be. She had a great taste in music and could school you on Mozart and Chopin, but also turn around and talk about the idiosynchrisies of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Billy Joel, or Journey. She is also known for her piano skills, as a middle school music and choir teacher, and yet, by the end of her life only a few lucky souls knew her name.

She was my mom. More than that, she was my hero. And she will be missed by the handful that knew her. But her impact in their lives will impact others as the ripples continue to go out from here.
 
Maya Angelou was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees
 
Elizabeth Marie Tallchief (Osage family name: Ki He Kah Stah Tsa), January 24, 1925 – April 11, 2013) was an American ballerina. She was considered America's first major prima ballerina. She was the first Native American (Osage Nation) to hold the rank, and is said to have revolutionized ballet.

Almost from birth, Tallchief was involved in dance, starting formal lessons at age three. When she was eight, her family relocated from her birth home of Fairfax, Oklahoma, to Los Angeles, California. The purpose of the move was to advance the careers of Maria and her younger sister, Marjorie. Both sisters became dance professionals and leading figures.

At age 17, she moved to New York City in search of a spot with a major ballet company, and, at the urging of others, took the name Maria Tallchief. She spent the next five years with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, where she met choreographer George Balanchine. When Balanchine co-founded what would become the New York City Ballet in 1946, Tallchief became the company's first star.

The combination of Balanchine's difficult choreography and Tallchief's passionate dancing revolutionized the ballet. Her 1949 role in The Firebird catapulted Tallchief to the top of the ballet world, establishing her as a prima ballerina. Her role as the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker transformed the ballet from obscure to America's most popular.

She traveled the world, becoming the first American to perform in Moscow's Bolshoi Theater. She made regular appearances on American TV before she retired in 1966. After retiring from dance, Tallchief was active in promoting ballet in Chicago. She served as director of ballet for the Lyric Opera of Chicago for most of the 1970s and debuted the Chicago City Ballet in 1981.

Tallchief was honored by the people of Oklahoma with multiple statues and an honorific day. She was inducted in the National Women's Hall of Fame and received a National Medal of Arts. In 1996, Tallchief received a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievements and is presently being depicted on the 2023 American Women quarters series. Her life has been the subject of multiple documentaries and biographies.

After retiring from dancing, Tallchief moved to Chicago, where husband Buzz Paschen resided. She served as director of ballet for the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1973 to 1979. In 1974, she founded Lyric Opera's ballet school, where she taught the Balanchine technique. Explaining her teaching philosophy she wrote "New ideas are essential, but we must retain respect for the art of ballet–and that means the artist too–or else it is no longer an art form."

With her sister Marjorie, Tallchief founded the Chicago City Ballet in 1981. She served as co-artistic director until its demise in 1987. Despite the company failing, the Chicago Tribune called her "a force in the history of Chicago dance," and said she arguably increased the popularity of dance in the city.

Tallchief was featured in the documentary film Dancing for Mr. B in 1989. From 1990 until her death, she was artistic adviser to Von Heidecke's Chicago Festival Ballet.
 
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the 3rd Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984
 
Born in Clayton, Alabama, into a family of African American dressmakers, Ann Lowe (ca. 1898–1981) learned the skill of dressmaking from her mother and grandmother. She developed not only expert technical skills by the time she was a teenager but also her distinctive style—feminine, elegant, and often incorporating her signature hand-made floral elements. Her extraordinary career took her through the Jim Crow South, from Montgomery, Alabama, to Tampa, Florida, and in 1928 to New York City. Lowe’s work made her an asset to wealthy society women around the country, yet she also experienced the tumultuous hardships of the fashion business and segregated America in a period of dramatic change.

Ann Lowe’s work places her among America’s significant fashion designers, and her life illustrates a legacy of Black women’s knowledge and skills that began as enslaved labor. Lowe modernized this legacy and expanded it to international visibility, positioning herself as a creative designer, a fashion insider, and a vital contributor to American culture.
 
Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to replace retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was viewed as a moderate consensus-builder.
 
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