In honor of the Women’s March this past week, I wanted to write an article about women in history who have inspired me and who have proven to be strong, brilliant women.
Audrey Hepburn
I feel like every girl loves Audrey. She’s beautiful and glamourous. She is still a fashion icon and stands as a representation of the 1960s.
- She is an EGOT winner. EGOT stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards. She is one of only 12 people in the world who have won these 4 major awards, being: an Emmy ( host of Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn), a Grammy (spoken word album Audrey Hepburn’s Enchanted Tales), an Oscar (best actress for Roman Holiday) and a Tony (best actress in Ondine).
- She survived Nazi invasion and occupation of her hometown
- She was an agent of the Dutch Resistance, which was against Nazi Germany. She would carry secret messages in her ballet slippers. As an agent, she performed in a series of secret ballets to help raise money for the rebels. These performances would be called “black performances” to raise money for the rebels and their underground war against Hitler.
- She was a volunteer WWII nurse
- She was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF in 1988
Rosa Parks
Parks became a figurehead overnight for the Civil Rights movement by simply saying “No, I’m not.”
- She was very active in the NAACP community and the Montgomery Improvement Association
- Four days after she was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white man, the boycott of the Montogmery bus system began as a direct response. This boycott lasted 381 days and is known as the official beginning to the civil rights movement.
- Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development, which is an organization that offers career training, education and motivation to 12 to 18-year-olds in Detroit, Michigan
Malala Yousafzai
Every weekday I dread waking up and going to class, wishing I could just get ‘a few extra minutes in bed.’ Meanwhile, Malala faced the Taliban, standing up to a gunman who wanted to prevent her from going to school – because she was a woman.
- Malala was only 15 years old that day she was shot in the head
- in 2014, she was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her bravery
- Malala wrote a blog for the BBC when she was 11 and 12 years old under a false name, explaining what life was like under Taliban control.
- Malala’s attack forced Pakistan to create its first ever Right to Education Bill
Coco Chanel
Chanel took what was traditionally men’s clothing and blurred the gender lines. She made it fashionable – desirable – for women to wear trousers, crewnecks, flats, and suits.
- In the 1920s she introduced the Little Black Dress to fashion. Intended to be affordable and easy-to-wear, Vogue rightly predicted that it would be worn around the world
- She learned to embroider, iron, and sew at a convent/orphanage that she was sent to after her mother died.
- Coco Chanel’s revolutionary designs were elegant but also practical, freeing women from corsets
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah was born to a single teenaged mother in Mississippi. Her family was so poor when she was growing up that she was bullied for wearing dresses made of potato sacks to school as clothing. Today, she is worth $2.7 billion.
- Oprah Winfrey has interviewed countless celebrities, including Michael Jackson, whose interview became the 4th most watched event in American television history, as well as the most watched interview of all-time, with 36 million viewers.
- She is the first black woman billionaire and the richest African-American woman
- In 2013, Winfrey was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation’s highest civilian honor) by President Barack Obama
- She was nominated for an Oscar in The Color Purple
- She considers starting a girls’ school in Africa to be one of her greatest accomplishments
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Ginsburg became a Supreme Court Justice in 1993, becoming known for her soft-spoken, sweet demeanor.
- In order to help put her brother through college, RGB went to work at age 15
- After transferring from Harvard to Columbia, RGB graduated top of her class. She faced gender equality, since so few law firms would open their doors to women.
- She was Clinton’s first Supreme Court justice appointment, becoming the second female jurist on the Supreme Court.