Women’s History Month
Elizabeth I
Female Leaders: Government
 Queen of England and Ireland (1558-1603)
 Sometimes known as the “Virgin Queen” as
she remained unmarried and childless
throughout her life, and dedicated her
entire focus to her country and people
 Championed the arts and supported poets
and playwrights like William Shakespeare
 Successfully defended England from military
attacks from Spain, France, and Ireland
 Supported explorers like Sir Francis Drake
Indira Gandhi
Female Leaders: Government
 Third Prime Minister of India and central
leader of the Indian National Congress
Party.
 Served in 1966-1977, lost an election and
won again in 1980 until her assassination
 Improved agricultural grain production
which led to a more self-sufficient India
 Won the Pakistan War, which led to the
creation of Bangladesh
Margaret Thatcher
Female Leaders: Government
 Nickname: Iron Lady
 First female Prime Minister of Britain
(1979)
 Controversial Figurehead
 Known for her conservative policies
when it came to social welfare
 Caused the destruction of Britain’s
traditional industries through her attack
on Britain’s labor unions
 Fought against communism
 Known as a pioneer in women’s politics
 Wrote about her experiences
Nefertiti
Female Leaders: Government
 Queen of Egypt
 Ruled Egypt along with husband.
 Nefertiti was displayed as an equal ruler with
her husband. She is perhaps one of the most
powerful women to have ever ruled.
 Helped to establish a culture where the sun
god was considered the most important god
and only one worthy of worship.
 She disappears from history. No one knows
what happened to her and her mummy has
never been found.
Joan of Arc
Female Leaders: Military
 1412-1431
 National heroine of France
 Peasant girl who believed that she
was charged by God to join the
military to lead their fight against
England
 Burnt at the stake as a heretic by the
English, because she claimed that
God spoke to her
 Sainted by the Catholic Church
Dorothea Dix
Female Humanitarians
 Educator and Social Reformer
 Devoted to the welfare of the
mentally ill
 Developed international reform
of the treatment of the mentally
ill
 Established humane asylums
 Helped the mentally ill, blind,
deaf
Eleanor Roosevelt
Female Humanitarians
 Wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
 Transformed the role of the “First Lady”
through her active role in American Politics
 Writer and Humanitarian
 Worked at the United Nations and
established the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights
 Fought for both Women & Children’s rights
 Stood against racial discrimination,
poverty, hunger, and gender
discrimination
Mother Teresa
Female Humanitarians
 Roman Catholic Nun
 Taught in India for 17 years before
she experienced her 1946 "call
within a call" to devote herself to
caring for the sick and poor.
 Her order established a hospice;
centers for the blind, aged, and
disabled; and a leper colony.
 She was summoned to Rome in 1968
 In 1979 received the Nobel Peace
Prize for her humanitarian work.
Marie Curie
Female Scientists
 Polish Physicist
 Studied Radioactivity
 Awarded with the Nobel Peace
Prize twice in two different fields
(Physics and Chemistry)
 Discovered Polonium and Radium
with her husband, which led to the
development of X-Rays
 Created portable X-Ray machines
called “little Curies”
Jane Goodall
Female Scientists
 English primatologist, ethologist,
anthropologist, and UN
messenger of Peace
 Expert on Chimpanzees
 Studied social and family
interactions of wild chimpanzees
in Tanzania for 55 years
 Supports conservation and
animal welfare programs
Sally Ride
Female Scientists
 Dr. Sally Ride studied at Stanford
University
 Beat out 1,000 other applicants for a
spot in NASA's astronaut program.
 After rigorous training, Ride joined
the Challenger shuttle mission on
June 18, 1983, and became the first
American woman in space.
Alice Paul
Women who changed the world
 American suffragist, feminist, and
women’s rights activist
 Main leader and strategist of the
1910s campaign for the 19th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
 Organized the Silent Sentinels, which
led to a successful campaign and
won women the right to vote in
1920.
 Leader of the National Woman’s
Party which fought for equal rights
for women
Sandra Day O’Connor
Women who changed the world
 First woman appointed to the US
Supreme Court
 Republican; Moderate
Conservative
 Served the Supreme Court for 24
years
 Lawyer, Judge, and Assistant
Attorney General
 Known for her close focus on the
law as written
 Breast Cancer Survivor
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Women who changed the world
 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States.
 Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill
Clinton and took the oath of office on
August 10, 1993.
 She is the second female justice (after
Sandra Day O'Connor) and the first Jewish
female justice.
 She is generally viewed as belonging to the
liberal wing of the Court.
 Before becoming a judge, Ginsburg spent a
considerable portion of her legal career as
an advocate for the advancement of
women's rights as a constitutional principle.
 She advocated as a volunteer lawyer for
the American Civil Liberties Union and was
a member of its board of directors and one
of its general counsel in the 1970s.
 Billie Jean King became the topranked women's tennis player by
1967.
 In 1973, she formed the Women's
Tennis Association and famously
defeated Bobby Riggs in the "Battle
of the Sexes."
 The first prominent female athlete to
admit her homosexuality, King
continued her work as an influential
social activist after retiring from
tennis.
Billie Jean King
Female Athletes
Althea Gibson
Female Athletes
 Born in South Carolina on August 25,
1927.
 At an early age, she developed a love
of sport. Her great talent was in tennis,
but in the 1940s and '50s, most
tournaments were closed to African
Americans.
 Gibson kept playing (and winning)
until her skills could no longer be
denied, and in 1951, she became the
first African American to play at
Wimbledon.
 Gibson won the women's singles and
doubles at Wimbledon in 1957, and
won the U.S. Open in 1958.
Harper Lee
Female Artists: Literature
 Nelle Harper Lee (born April 28, 1926 is an
American novelist widely known for her 1960
Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird which
deals with the racism she observed as a child in
her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama.
 Though Lee only published this single book for
half a century, she was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom for her
contribution to literature.
 In February 2015 at age 88, nearly blind and
deaf after a 2007 stroke, and after a lifetime of
maintaining that she would never publish
another novel, a statement was issued through
her attorney, Tonja Carter, that Lee would
publish a second novel, Go Set a Watchman
(set to be published on July 14, 2015), written
before To Kill a Mockingbird.
Maya Angelou
Female Artists: Literature
 Writer and civil rights activist Maya
Angelou is known for her 1969
memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings, which made literary history as
the first nonfiction best-seller by an
African-American woman.
 In 1971, Angelou published the Pulitzer
Prize-nominated poetry collection Just
Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I
Die.
 Angelou received several honors
throughout her career, including two
NAACP Image Awards in the
outstanding literary work (nonfiction)
category, in 2005 and 2009.
Coco Chanel
Female Artists: Fashion
 Fashion designer Coco Chanel, born
August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France,
 Famous for her timeless designs,
trademark suits, and little black
dresses.
 Chanel was raised in an orphanage
and taught to sew.
 She had a brief career as a singer
before opening her first clothes shop in
1910.
 In the 1920s, she launched her first
perfume and introduced the Chanel
suit and the little black dress.
Vera Wang
Female Artists: Fashion
 Vera Wang was born on June 27, 1949,
in New York City.
 A former figure skater, Wang was
senior fashion editor at Vogue for 15
years and then a design director for
Ralph Lauren.
 She designed her own wedding dress,
then opened a bridal boutique and
soon launched her own signature
collection.
 Now hugely popular, she has a large
Hollywood following and also designs
other women’s fashions, jewelry and
home products.
Frida Kahlo
Female Artists: Painting
 Artist Frida Kahlo was born on July 6,
1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City,
Mexico.
 Considered one of Mexico's greatest
artists, Frida Kahlo began painting
after she was severely injured in a
bus accident.
 Kahlo later became politically
active and married fellow
communist artist Diego Rivera in
1929.
Billie Holiday
Female Artists: Singing
 Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday was
born April 7, 1915, in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
 Considered one of the best jazz
vocalists of all time, Holiday had
a thriving career.
 In 2000, Billie Holiday was
inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.