Women Who Changed The World

Queen Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603): Queen Elizabeth I is one of the most successful monarchs in British history, and under her, England became a major European power in politics, commerce and the arts. Known for her intelligence, ‘The Virgin Queen’ was truly one of the great women in history.

Jane Austen (1775 – 1817):
Jane Austen defined an entire literary genre with her shrewd social observations and wit. Austen started writing her now classic novels, such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, in her teens. Austen had to hide her identity as the author of some of the most popular novels of her day and it wasn’t until her death that her brother, Henry, revealed to the public that she was the real author

Anne Frank (1929 – 1945):
The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most honest, powerful and poignant accounts of World War II and was written by a German teenage girl. Along with her family, she was sent to concentration camps in 1944. Out of the Frank family, only Anne’s father survived, and he made the decision to publish Anne’s diary. The Diary of Anne Frank is an intimate portrayal of one of the most inhumane moments in history and is able to educate us on the universal human qualities of emotion, passion, love, hope, desire, fear and strength.

Rosa Parks (1913 – 2005):
Born in 1913, Parks moved to Alabama at age 11, and attended a laboratory school at the Alabama State Teachers’ College for Negroes. On December 1st 1955, there were no more seats left in the white section, so the bus conductor told the four black riders to stand and give the white man a whole row. Three obeyed, Parks did not. Parks was subsequently arrested, and her actions sparked a wave of protests across America for people of color’s rights. When she died at the age of 92 on October 24, 2005, she became the first woman in the nation’s history to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.

Marie Curie (1867 – 1934):
Polish-born Marie Curie was a pioneering physicist and scientist, who coined the term radioactivity, discovered two new elements (radium and polonium) and developed a portable x-ray machine. Currie was the first person (not woman) who has won two separate Noble Prizes, one for physics and another for chemistry, and to this day Curie is the only person, regardless of gender, to receive Noble prizes for two different sciences.

Edith Cowan (1861 – 1932):
Her face is on 50 dollar note and she has a University named after her in Western Australia, but what you may not know is that Edith Cowan was Australia’s first ever female Member of Parliament and a fierce women’s rights activist. During her time in parliament Cowan pushed through legislation which allowed women to be involved in the legal profession, promoted migrant welfare and sex education in schools and placed mothers on equal position with fathers when their children died without having made a will. Edith died at age 70, but her legacy remains to this day.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf took office as the president of Liberia in January 2006, becoming the first elected woman head of state in Africa. To investigate crimes committed during Liberia’s civil war, she established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. As a result, she became a global icon with her commitment to fighting dictators, corruption, and poverty through empowerment of women and girls. Sin recognition, in 2011 she received the Nobel Peace prize for nonviolent role in promoting peace, democracy and gender equality together with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman.

Mother Teresa (1910 -1997):
Commonly known as Mother Teresa and honored in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. In 1950, Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation that had over 4,500 nuns and was active in 133 countries in 2012. The congregation manages homes for people who are dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis. It also runs soup kitchens, dispensaries, mobile clinics, children’s and family counseling programs, as well as orphanages and schools. Teresa received a number of honors, including the 1962 Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize and 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.

Marilyn Monroe (1926 – 1962):
An American actress, model, and singer, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was working in a factory as part of the war effort during World War II when she met a photographer from the First Motion Picture Unit and began a successful pin-up modeling career. The work led to short-lived film contracts with 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. After a series of minor film roles, she signed a new contract with Fox in late 1950 and gave big hits. On August 4, 1962, she died at age 36 from an overdose of barbiturates at her home in Los Angeles.

Angelina Jolie (1975 – present):
An American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian, Angelina Jolie is the recipient of an Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards. She has been named Hollywood’s highest-paid actress multiple times. In the 2010s, Jolie expanded her career into directing, screenwriting, and producing. Jolie is noted for her humanitarian efforts, for which she has received a Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and made an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG), among other honors.

Greta Thunberg (2003-present):
Greta is a Swedish environmental activist on climate change whose campaigning has gained international recognition. Thunberg is known for her straightforward speaking manner, both in public and to political leaders and assemblies, in which she urges immediate action to address the climate crisis. Her impact on the world stage has been described as the “Greta effect”. Thunberg has received many honours and awards. Thunberg was also nominated for both the 2019 and 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.

Angela Merkel:
Markel is a German politician serving as the chancellor of Germany since 2005 till date. Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and by some commentators as the “leader of the free world”. In 2014 she became the longest-serving incumbent head of government in the European Union.

Susan Diane Wojcicki:
Susan is a Polish-American technology executive. She has been the CEO of YouTube since February 2014. Wojcicki was involved in the founding of Google, and became Google’s first marketing manager in 1999. She later led the company’s online advertising business and was put in charge of Google’s original video service. After observing the success of YouTube, Wojcicki proposed the acquisition of YouTube by Google in 2006. Wojcicki has an estimated net worth of nearly $500 million.

Oprah Winfery:
Oprah is an American media executive, actress, talk show host, television producer, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, broadcast from Chicago, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and ran in national syndication for 25 years from 1986 to 2011. Dubbed the “Queen of All Media”, she was the richest African American of the 20th century and North America’s first black multi-billionaire, and she has been ranked the greatest black philanthropist in American history. By 2007, she was ranked as the most influential woman in the world.

Malala Yousafzai:
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani advocate for girls education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. In 2009, when Malala was just 11 years old, she began blogging about life under the Taliban, speaking out directly against their threats to close girls’ schools.
In October 2012, a gunman shot her and two other girls as they were coming home from school. Malala survived the attack and went on to publish the autobiography I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. In 2013, she founded the Malala Foundation to champion every girls’ right to education, and in 2014, she received the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Indian children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi.