As women’s history month draws to an end, it is important to look back and celebrate women who have been influential in what they have done. Many put their life on the line to create a change or flourished in a male dominated industry. What they all have in common is their perseverance, determination and the desire to seek change. Below are seven influential women that were pioneers in helping women to be seen AND heard:
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline was the leader of the British suffragette movement, instrumental in getting women the right to vote in the UK. Her 40 year campaign completed its success in the year of her death, where British women received equality and got the right to vote.
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale founded the first secular nursing school in the world at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. She was heavily involved in improving healthcare across the UK, an advocate for better hunger relief in India, helped with expanding women participation in the workplace and helped abolish harsh prostitution laws for women.
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks is most famous for refusing to give up her seat in the ‘coloured’ section to a white person on December 1, 1955. She became the centre of a national movement and international icon of resistance where she helped inspire the black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for over a year.
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin studied at Cambridge University and later went to live in France. She became a research associate at here at King’s College London and became notable for her work on X-ray diffraction images of DNA which would eventually lead to the discovery of the DNA double helix.
Marie Stopes
Marie Stopes founded the first birth control clinic in the UK. Based in north London, it was run by midwives and doctors and offered mothers birth control advice and taught them birth control methods.
Mary Seacole
Born in Jamaica, Mary Seacole is most revered for her humanitarian work during the Crimean War. During the war she set up the ‘British Hotel’ and treated injured servicemen. In 1991 she was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit. Even though she was mixed raced and faced a lot of hardship in her life, she still had a humanitarian spirit and wanted to help as many people as possible.
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa was born in Macedonia, where she created a hospice and centers for the aged, blind and disabled. She is considered one of the greatest humanitarians of the twentieth century and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian work.
What legacy would you want to leave behind? The women above all knew that they wanted to create a change and have an impact on the world. Whether you’re into science, humanitarianism or a creative, be the change that you want to see and who knows, maybe one day you will be in the history books.