In 1929, British novelist Virginia Woolf had wondered why no woman in Shakespeare’s time had written: “a word of that extraordinary literature when every other man, it seemed, was capable of song or sonnet.” She penned the following words: “Indeed, I would venture to that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.” This quote was frequently modified throughout history to say, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.”
Nearly a century after Woolf made this incisive quote, the phenomenon of female anonymity persists as women all over the world continue to be restricted by society’s formal and unspoken barriers. Presently, women have been consistently denied opportunities that were often automatically assumed to men while historically, written records failed to adequately recognize notable women. The book “Anonymous is a Woman: A Global Chronicle of Gender Inequality” by Nina Ansary documents fifty forgotten women who were denied recognition in historical records even when their contributions to the arts, sciences, politics and society significantly shaped history and the future. This article presents some of the notable women in the arts, politics and STEM whose names were lost and erased from history.
- En Hedu-Anna
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CA. 2300 BCE, Akkadian
En Hedu-Anna was an Akkadian priestess who became the world’s first known female astrologer. En is a title for leadership while Hedu’anna means “ornament of heaven”—the latter name was given to her when she was installed as an en-priestess. She was the chief astronomer-priestess and managed the temple complex of her city of Ur as well as the extensive agricultural enterprise. Her responsibilities included making detailed astronomical calculations and observations, which were necessary for Akkadian agricultural activities since they are scheduled around the liturgical year. In fact, modern liturgical calendars were developed based on the works of early astronomers such as her who tracked the moon. Easter, Passover, and Ramadan are dated using the work derived from the ancient Sumerians.
En Hedu-Anna’s scientific calculations were known to historians through her distinguished poetry, which was inscribed on cuneiform tablets—the literary medium of the time. While poems have different functions today—typically used only in literature and the arts—poetry had more applicable functions including for stories, religious works, laws, regulations, and more. En Hedu-Anna has often been referred to as the “Shakespeare of ancient Sumerian literature” because of her poems detailing her astrological endeavors. A crater on Mercury was named after her by the International Astronomical Union in 2015 in her honor.
- Cleopatra Metrodora
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CA. 200-400 CE, Greek
Cleopatra Metrodora was a Greek physician and the first author of the oldest medical book known to be written by a woman. She practiced medicine and wrote down her findings long before most women had the chance to do so. She was involved with a group of early female medical practitioners who also paved the way for future female physicians. Her treatise was entitled On the Diseases and Cures of Women, and this earned her the distinction of becoming the first female medical scholar. Her work contained herbal remedies, assessed the causes of many female health problems and was widely referenced by ancient Greek and Roman physicians. It also contained innovative prescriptions for the treatment of diseases of the kidneys, uterus and stomach. Influenced by the works of Hippocrates, Metrodora’s scholarship would continue to be influential and later contribute to the medical education of physicians in medieval Europe.
Modern scholars and professors compared On the Diseases and Cures of Women to a modern textbook and noted that it describes in detail all female diseases. She also performed a series of innovative surgical operations and her “breast and face reconstruction, resuturing of the vaginal hymen, and breast and uterine cancer excisions present great similarities to modern surgery.” On top of that, she was able to determine possible sexual abuse by mastering a method on how to diagnose virginity and defined the way to diagnose and treat female sterility, among many other notable surgical accomplishments. Metrodora was incredibly ahead of her time and accomplished far more than she was ever given credit for.
- Olympe de Gouges
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1748-1793, French
The French government granted the women to vote in 1944, but one French woman named Olympe de Gouges had been advocating for women’s rights long before that. In 1791, de Gouges wrote one of the defining manifestos championing equal rights for women: The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. It was a response to The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a piece written in 1789 that would eventually become the preamble to the French Constitution in 1971. In The Declaration of the Rights of Woman, de Gouges took up each of the seventeen Articles of the Preamble and “highlighted the glaring omission of the female citizen within each article.”
De Gouges was also an outspoken playwright who portrayed serious issues through her theatrical work and novels. While many female playwrights at the time resorted to anonymity or the use of a pseudonym, de Gouges published her work under her name and pushed the boundaries of what was deemed an appropriate subject matter for women playwrights. She addressed the issues of the inhumanity of black slavery, divorce, girls being sent to convents by force, the double standard between sexes and so on. However, her candor and bold advocacy ultimately led to a violent death. She was tried for and found guilty of treason and was subsequently put to death by guillotine. Because of her open and unreserved opinions on democracy, she was the only woman executed for sedition during France’s bloody Reign of Terror. However, her fearlessness to address and fight the injustices against women and other marginalized groups in society serves as a call to action for people today to fight against inequality.
- Bibi Khanum Astarabadi
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1858-1921, Iranian
Bibi Khanum Astarabadi was the author of the first declaration of women’s rights in the history of modern Iran and an advocate of universal education for girls. In 1895, Astarabadi wrote The Vices of Men in response to The Education of Women, which wanted to educate women on how to behave properly toward their husbands and to also put them in their place because the author considered the women of the Tehran upper class to be “uppity.” The demeaning proclamations in The Education of Woman also stated how a woman is similar to a child in which she must be educated by a man. Astarabadi’s The Vices of Men called out the anonymous author of The Education of Women for his antiquated assessment of women’s character and potential. Her response to the misogynistic piece was considered to be the first declaration of women’s rights in the history of modern Iran.
Astarabadi fervently believed that the only way to combat entrenched misogynistic values and to assure that women develop their true potential is to offer girls an authentic education. In 1907, she founded the distinguished School for Girls (Madreseh-ye Dooshizegan) for girls ages seven through twelve. To respect religious sensitivities, all the teachers were women. The curriculum included reading, writing, history, geography, arithmetic, law, religion and cooking. The academic program ensured that their teachings are adapted to the learning ability of each girl and that a discount is offered to those in reduced circumstances. While the school faced some opposition and even hostility by certain clerics, who labeled the institution as “centers for prostitution,” the women’s movement—including the movement for universal education for girls—forged ahead as advocates continued to subsidize girls’ schools.
- Alimotu Pelewura
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1865-1951, Nigerian
Alimotu Pelewura was a political activist and leader of the Lagos Market Women’s Association, which advocated against unjust taxation and for women’s right to vote. She was the daughter of a fish trader and engaged in fish trading like her mother. She would go on to become the most important market woman (or female trader) in Lagos. Market women were an integral part of the African economies and dominated the open marketplaces founded in cities and villages throughout Africa. This gives women considerable weight as economic actors because these marketplace systems are the primary distributive networks in most parts of Africa.
Throughout her career, Pelewura would use her influence to further the cause of justice and economic security for her women traders. She assumed the role of president of the Lagos Market Women’s Association (LMWA) after its founding in the 1920s. She led the LMWA in protests against imposed taxation and price controls.
Despite being uneducated and illiterate, she was able to apply the same organizational skills from her work in the market to her position as president of LMWA. Lack of formal education was not an insurmountable problem; she knew how to utilize the skills she already possessed and hired a literate person who could fulfill the purposes of furthering market women’s interests.
In September 1945, the government decontrolled the food prices. It is unclear as to whether Pelewura’s bold advocacy and pressure from LMWA led to this success, but the group’s advocacy represented the Nigerian awareness of colonial oppression and the women’s power to stand up against it. Alimotu Pelewura’s ability to speak truth to power continues to inspire.
- Tan Yunxian
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1461-CA. 1556, Chinese
Tan Yunxian was one of the earliest female physicians in China as well as the author of Miscellaneous Records of a Female Doctor. She lived during the Mind Dynasty, a time when Confucianism ideology became conservative and oppressive of women. Tan was unable to apprentice with a professional doctor, unlike her male counterparts, so she mostly worked as a nurse. Confucianism prevented male doctors from touching their female patients, limiting their healing capabilities, so Tan was allowed to work hands-on with the women.
While there were likely other women doctors in ancient China, Tan was the only one who left a record of her medical practice. It was entitled Miscellaneous Records of a Female Doctor. She practiced gynecology, pediatrics, and obstetrics. Because her manuscript survived, we are able to have concrete evidence of the types and illnesses she treated and the specific treatments she provided. According to Lorraine Wilcox, a translator of Miscellaneous Records, Tan’s “diagnostic questioning was careful and thorough, and had a good rapport with the patients, so they told her details of their lives that explained their disease etiology.” She was able to speak with the patients in ways male doctors could not. Male doctors at the time did not have many opportunities to interact with their female patients because, at the time, a wealthy woman could not see a male doctor without having a male relative such as her father, husband or son present. Modesty was considered the utmost female virtue at the time, so the male doctor would only question the husband/father/son, not the woman herself. He might not be allowed to see her face and would need to ask for permission to feel her pulse.
Tan Yunxian knew her experience as a female physician was unique, and she was committed to preserving and passing along the knowledge she learned and the skills she accumulated during her breakthrough medical career. She and other ceiling-shattering female physicians throughout the world paved the way for women who are drawn to the medical profession.
- Zitkala-Ša
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1876-1938, Yankton Sioux (Indigenous American)
Zitkala-Ša (Red Bird) wrote the libretto for the first opera by a Native American and founded the National Council of American Indians. She lacked educational opportunities and cultural appreciation afforded to Native Americans when she was a young girl, but as an adult, she would work to change these conditions as an activist, writer and reformer. She spent her life writing about her experiences at Whites Manual Labor Institute—a Quaker missionary school in Wabash, Indiana—where the objective at such institutions was to subjugate and “civilize” Native Americans.
Zitkala-Ša embarked on a fruitful writing career in her early twenties. She began writing numerous autobiographical pieces and short stories in 1901, and they were originally printed in the prestigious Atlantic Monthly magazine. In her piece “Why I Am a Pagan,” she wrote of her cousin’s attempt to convince her to become a Christian and of her own enduring belief in the spiritual power and sanctity of nature. However, her literary talents were not confined to books and articles. In 1913, a collaboration with Utah music instructor William F. Hanson established her as the first Native American to write a libretto for an opera. The pair produced and staged The Sun Dance Opera, which merged traditional Plains Indian ritual with an operetta musical style and a melodramatic love triangle.
Zitkala-Ša’s creative accomplishments were informed by a profound connection to her Native American culture and its various communities, and that cultural bond inspired her to advocate for Indian rights throughout her life. She later on served as a secretary of the Society of the American Indian, was the liaison between the society and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and edited the society’s American Indian Magazine. She also co-authored Oklahoma’s Poor Rich Indians: An Orgy of Graft and Exploitation of the Five Civilized Tribes—Legalized Robbery while assuming the pseudonym Gertrude Bonnin. Finally, she founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926 and, as president, advocated for improved educational opportunities and healthcare, citizenship rights, and cultural recognition and preservation.
These female innovators and advocates made extraordinary contributions to society yet were forgotten as a result of institutionalized gender discrimination. These women, whose stories are just now being told, can serve as role models for modern-day women who too are seeking to break the figurative glass ceiling and challenge ingrained stereotypical assumptions to advance an unconventional argument for equality and inclusivity.