Zitkála-Šá (also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) was a brilliant writer, musician, educator, and activist who fought for Native American rights.

Known as “Queen of the Poor” and a friend and colleague of Charles Dickens, Angela Burdett-Coutts was a brave female philanthropist, often going against the advice of her peers to help the poor through her “scandalous projects.” Angela became heir to the Coutts estate at age twenty-three, including a 50% share of the Coutts & Co. Bank, and one of the wealthiest women in England.

In present-day northern Angola, Queen Nzinga Mbande (1583-1663) was a warrior, diplomat, and Queen. She proved to be an exceptional negotiator and diplomat. From 1656 until her death, Nzinga transitioned from warfare to state-building. Matamba became a thriving trade hub dealing with Portuguese and Dutch merchants.

Louise-Reine Audu, “La Reine des Halles” (the Queen of the Markets), was a brave woman of the French Revolution, a leader in both the Women’s March on Versailles in 1789 and the Storming of the Tuileries Palace in 1792.

In the White Rose Movement in Nazi Germany, Hans Scholl dealt with the ideological and strategic aspects, while his sister Sophie spread the message. She ensured the leaflets reached as many people as possible. As a last act of defiance before arrest, Sophie scattered the leftover leaflets from a university balcony.

The powerful 12th-century Eleanor of Aquitaine was already Duchess of Aquitaine at fifteen years old. Thus, she was a perfect target for petty church clerics who declared her a “black legend.”

Noor Inayat Khan was the first female Muslim British wireless operator in France during WWII to prepare for D-Day.

Angelina Weld Grimké (1880–1958) was a pioneering African-American poet, playwright, and activist.

Bobbi Gibb and Katherine Switzer were the first women to run in the Boston Marathon in 1966 and 1967.

Dr. Mary E. Walker was a courageous surgeon serving during the American Civil War and being imprisoned by the Confederates.

First grader Ruby Bridges showed courage amid hatred. Could you do that?

In a time when some are trying to push women back to the 19th century, remembering Eleanor Roosevelt serves as a beacon of hope. We are...

Anna May Wong (1905–1961), born as Wong Liu Tsong in Los Angeles, was one of Hollywood’s first Asian-American film stars.

Naomi Wadler and Carter Anderson protest gun violence with walkout and silence.

Nellie Bly, the investigative journalist who traveled the World in only 72 days and spent ten days in an insane asylum.

Lillian Wald founded the Henry Street Settlement in 1893 on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

In the summer of 1962, angry about her disenfranchisement as a Black woman, Hamer became an SNCC organizer.

Fannie Lou Hamer | Civil Rights Advocate My grandmother, born in 1898, worked as a child sharecropper near Galveston, TX, hoeing...

Fannie Lou Hamer, a sharecropper and Civil Rights advocate in a white supremacist society.

Many consider Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) to be the first computer programmer. Imagine that! She was the first, even without “masculine energy.