This International Women’s Day let’s take some time to explore some of the biggest female, transgender, and female-presenting trailblazers.
March 8th marks International Women’s Day. It’s a day to celebrate the trailblazing women, transwomen, and female-presenting persons who have helped pave the way. This year I had some time on my hands, and so decided to combine two of my favourite things; women’s history and education.
8 Trailblazing Women to remember this International Women’s Day.
Amelia Bloomer.
Bloomer has become well known for her impact on women’s fashion. She began working for her husband’s newspaper but became unhappy with its limited coverage of women’s issues. So, Bloomer started ‘The Lily’ in 1849, which became the first paper created by and for women. Here Bloomer was able to discuss various issues affecting women of that time period. The Lily addressed the ongoing suffrage movement, alongside Bloomer’s opinion on women’s fashion. During the 19th century, women wore petticoats and corsets, which were often uncomfortable and impractical for everyday wear. She elected that women should be able to wear more freeing and ‘flowy’ tops, alongside skirts with ‘pant’s beneath. This has since helped pave the way for women everywhere, giving us a wider range of fashion choices.
Frida Kahlo.
Possibly the most well-known on this list, Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist. Her work brought attention to key issues such as gender, classism, identity, race, and LGBTQ issues within Mexican society. Kahlo became known for her ‘out-of-the-box thinking, and advocacy. She wasn’t afraid to stand up for social and political inequalities and fought for many minority groups. Kahlo also became the first Mexican artist displayed at the Louvre in Paris. What a feat of excellence!?
Rosalind Franklin.
Franklin is often the forgotten mind behind the crucial discovery of the DNA double helix. In 1962, three of Franklin’s colleagues received the Nobel Prize for their discovery of DNA. But Franklin was hardly named. This is in part due to her passing four years prior, and her extremely private nature. Franklin was notorious for keeping herself to herself, and rarely gloated about her discoveries. That being said, the work Franklin put into the discovery of the double helix deserves to be recognized, especially as a female in that field of expertise at the time.
Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rae Rivera.
These two amazing LGBTQ+ activists deserve a joint spot on my list. They were prominent drag queens in NYC during the 1960s and play a vital part in the gay rights movement at the time.
They co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) in the early 1970s. Through this they worked with homeless transgender persons, and drag queens of colour. They also played a key part in the Stonewall Riots in 1969, with Johnson responsible for throwing the first brick at the police force. This sparked a national LGBTQ+ movement at the time which has paved the way for future generations.
Johnson’s body was found in the Hudson River in 1992 shortly after that year’s pride march. While her death was ruled a suicide at the time, this has been challenged by many who claim she was being harassed earlier that day. However, the case has not been reopened.
Rivera passed away in 2002, but her legacy lives on in The Sylvia Rivera Law Project. The SRLP aims to protect the rights of all LGBTQ+ and works to ensure that all of those within the community are protected against discrimination and harassment.
Empress of Byzantium, Theodora.
Theodora began life as a humble actress, and quickly became the Empress of the Eastern Roman Empire when she married Emperor Justinian I. While her husband was the Emperor, Theodora was very influential over him. She was known for handling the majority of his political affairs and building relationships with other foreign leaders.
The Empress was one of the first rulers to advocate for women’s rights and ensured that divorce and property laws were altered to benefit women over their spouses. Harsher penalties were introduced for rape, and the trafficking of women and young girls was outlawed.
Theodora reigned between c497-548, which we now know to be the 6th century. You can read more about Theodora here.
Rosa Parks.
It’s hard to create a list for International Women’s Day without mentioning Rosa Parks. During Parks’ life, secretion was still in effect. People of colour (POC) and white people had separate schools, churches, libraries, shops, toilets, etc. This was due to the Jim Crow Laws passed in the late 19th century that claimed to give African Americans ‘separate but equal‘ status. We all know that equality is the last thing to be associated with such laws.
On December 1st, 1955, Parks fought back against oppression in a simple but vastly effective way. She boarded her usual bus home from work, but instead of taking the seats allocated for black passengers, she sat up front. The driver told her, along with several other black passengers, to vacate the seats. While others obeyed, Parks held her ground. Police arrested her and attempted to implement a fine for breaking segregation rules. Parks argued that it was the law that was wrong, not her, and refused to pay.
The news sparked a public outcry among the POCs of Montgomery. They all banded together in a boycott of the city buses. The boycott was encouraged by the Montgomery Improvement Association, for which Dr Martin Luther King Jr was the leader. This boycott resulted in the city buses suffering major revenue loss as the majority of passengers were made up of African Americans.
On 13 November 1956, after 381 days of boycotting the buses, the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama’s racial segregation laws were ‘unconstitutional’.
Parks became known as the mother of the civil rights movement and continued to advocate for the rights of African Americans and POCs everywhere. She would go on to receive several awards for her outstanding bravery, strength, and her work in the civil rights movement.
Truly an inspirational woman!
Amelia Earhart.
Widely known for her disappearance somewhere over the pacific ocean in 1937, Earhart is much more than that. Born in 1897, when women were expected to conform to traditional gender roles, Earhart was redefining these from a young age. She played basketball, studied auto repairs, and went on to set a number of aviation records throughout her life.
In 1922 Earhart became the first woman to fly solo above 14000 feet, and in 1932 she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Earhart landed in a cow field in Derry (Londonderry), Northern Ireland, on May 21st after just a day of travel from Newfoundland, Canada. This trip is just one of many fascinating feats of aviation that Earhart is known for.
In 1929 Earhart helped to form the Ninty Nines, an international organisation for the advancement of female pilots.
Her final flight began in 1932. Earhart and Fred Noonan left Oakland, California, and traveled as far as Lae, New Guinea. Here they stopped to refuel and took once again for their next refuel stop in Howland Island. However, she and Noonan lost contact with the U.S. Coast Guard cutter and disappeared en route to Howland. A two-week search was authorized but the pair were never found. They were declared lost at sea on July 19th, 1937.
There are various theories as to what happened to Earhart and her navigator. Some believe they were castaways, surviving weeks on a deserted island before succumbing. Others simply believe they sank into the ocean. No matter what happened, the truth stands that we lost amazing and historical women who paved the way for female pilots everywhere.
Greta Thunberg.
Thunberg is the youngest on this list and is therefore still making waves to this day. At just eight years old, Thunberg learned about climate change and how it was a threat to the earth. Just seven years later, she would stage a one-person protest outside Sweden’s parliament. Her weapon of choice? Going on strike from school. The sign read ‘School Strike for Climate’ to pressure the government to start meeting carbon emissions targets. In December 2018 it was reported that more than 20,00 students across the globe had joined her in protest.
At the age of 16, just a year later, Thunberg was awarded the first of three Nobel Peace Prize nominations for her action against climate change. She would go on to attend the UN Climate Conference in New York in 2019, where she would deliver her more famous speech.
“You all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”
Have you any other suggestions or honourable mentions for our International Women’s Day list?
Together with a dear friend of mine, we put together this list of eight historic figures who have helped pave the way for women and LGBTQ+ persons everywhere. It was hard to narrow it down to eight, so please feel free to talk about your own recommendations in the comments. This will help me add an ‘honourable mentions‘ section to this post so that we can continue their legacies!
I did a reserach project on Frida Kahlo in college. SHe was so incredible.
This is an important day that we also celebrate at work to honor how women have become an integral part of workplace in today’s society, thanks a lot for sharing this and let’s not forget we have an international men’s day in November, too!
So many inspirational women listed here! Friday Kahlo has always been a huge inspiration for me growing up. Also very happy to see Greta on this list – that quote from her that you’ve included is particularly powerful and really shows the passion that she has.
Such incrediible women. There were a couple that I had actually not heard of. I enjoyed reading about the greatness of these women.
I love this post about 8 historical women who helped change history! I think it is very inspiring for girls to read about women like these inspiring ladies. I was very pleased to learn about several that I never heard of. Thanks for the inspiration and sharing your knowledge!
Greta is definitely an inspiration for me at the moment, as someone trying to make a difference to their climate impact. This was a wonderful post and full of inspirational women!
It is good to know that there are a lot of women before that are doing good things and making their own history and all women today make them an inspiration.
All of these women are incredible! I’ve heard of most of them, but not all. Thank you for sharing 🙂
This is an amazing list. I love reading about women who changed the world and made history. There are so many awesome women leaders that I can imagine it was difficult to decide. Greta was my favorite she was so young when she became an activist for climate change.
I love all the information in this post about women who have made a difference. This is inspiring for women!
This is such an inspiring post. Of course, there are so many more women who have inspired generations to fight for their rights. The birth of a girl is filled with constant struggle for equality at every area of life. But our strength lies in perseverance and we know how to create a good and healthy life for ourselves and our family.
Women are truly powerful and amazing! These are all really inspiring and wonderful women!
This is a wonderful post. You came up with a good list of women who made an impact. There are so many women who had courage and decided to be bold enough to challenge the status quo. I enjoy learning about everyone included the unsung women.
Celebrating international women’s day with these people is great! We are grateful for what they have done and for what they are fighting for.
Such inspiring women! We need more women like them to change the world and make it a better place.
I love this 🙂 Thank you for sharing and celebrating them
I LOVE this post. Very interesting info! Perfect just what I was looking. Thank You !!!
Some brilliantly clever and amazing ladies you have here, Nyxie. I have always wanted to read more of Frida’s work and I think your post gave me the input I needed to do so!
It’s so important to share these amazing women with the next generation as they really have made history. These are such amazing, inspiring women you’ve shared. Thank you so much for sharing with us lovely Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
Supporting women and uplifting eachother is important especially in 2022🧿 sending good vibes to everyone in the comments.
Love these women! They are my heroes and I read their biography whenever I feel like giving up! Thank you so much for sharing this, I loved this post. Yes for female empowerment! xx Penny / http://www.whatdidshetype.com
So important to teach ourselves and our daughters about these women!!
Such a great post with so many wonderful trailblazing women! Thanks so much for sharing!
The world will never be a better place without women. We should all be grateful and keep on ascending for a better future.
I need to do more research. As of reading this, I’m only familiar with half the women in your list.
Greta Thurnberg is the one I celebrate these days. She’s doing the real work.
I always will love reading about other women and supporting them. I have heard of most of these, and a few years a go I put my own list together of women in history for this day too. I think it is important to share and showcase women that have done a lot in the past so we can be where we are today. I mean there is still a long way to go but we are much better now than we were. Thank you for sharing xx
Bing a woman is something we should be proud of and shout about. These historical women are truly an inspiration to us. And great to folllow their courage.
What an amazing post to celebrate women and their accomplishments! I had heard already of most of them, but glad to have discovered more. I didn’t know about Theodora, such an interesting woman as well as Amelia Bloomer! Thank you for sharing x
It’s good to admire what women do. I didn’t know about some these until now reading your post. Thank you for sharing!
This was wonderful to read; it was great to become more familiar with these incredible women. Thank you so much for highlighting them!
Great list, but every woman change the life. Happy march all of us.
What a great post about women who were trailblazers!! A great way to inspire us as women.
These are inspirational women from our history and women who have shaped society too x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Women have done so much in the world, and there’s still so much to do. We need to follow their examples.
Such a great post to share on IWD! It is important to acknowledge historical women who have helped pave the way for women now. Thank you for sharing this post.
Lauren – http://www.bournemouthgirl.com
I love the broad range of powerful women you’ve included! It’s amazing what they achieved and we need many more of these beautifully strong women (and people) in the world!
What an amazing list! I am and will always be in awe of the women who had the courage to be pioneers in a time when they were supposed to be silent. It’s moving and fills me with pride. I am so thankful for what they did and it’s great that articles like this one highlight their amazing achievements. To be so young, like Greta and Malala Yousafzai and stand up against powerful people is inspiring. I want so much for the future to be on where equality and acknowledgement of women’s contribution exists. I want that for me and I want that for my daughter. Great post!
So many incredible women in history! Thank you for sharing these! I’m going to share them with my daughters.
Love this post, thank you for sharing. I look up to so many of these amazing women. Happy International Women’s Day!
These women are such a big inspiration to everyone, whether young or old. Happy International Women’s Day!
This is a truly inspiring collection of women. There were lots of information I was not aware of in this post. I am glad I learned more about each one of them.
What a fabulous post! It’s so inspiring to read about these awesome women 🙂
mia //
Great post and great list! Here’s too all the influential women out there for IWD! I wish we learned more about people like this in school; although I went to an all girls school and our houses were named after historical influential women (I was in Marie Curie house) we never actually LEARNED about them in history or science, which just seems ridiculous?
This is an amazing post filled with so many inspiring women. Thank you for sharing.