Catherine became the first secretary of the Wellington After-care Association, established to mind intellectually handicapped children, in 1928 and represented it on the National Council of Women of New Zealand. She also became active in the Wellington women’s branch of the New Zealand Labour Party and was the first president of the party’s Melrose–Houghton Bay branch.
Sophie Willock Bryant was an Irish mathematician who also published on many other topics: Irish history, religion, education, women’s rights, and philosophy.
‘Mamphono Khaketla is a Lesotho mathematician who became a lecturer in mathematics at the National Teacher Training College. She has served in the Lesotho government, holding positions such as Minister of Education and Training.
She wanted economic independence for married women, equal pay, and sex instruction and education for parenthood. She fought for the reform of the marriage and divorce laws, and maintained that prostitution would always exist as long as women lacked equal opportunity in employment. She objected to the stigma of the word ‘illegitimate’. Sievwright worked for disarmament during the South African war (1899–1902), and condemned any project ‘likely to involve Australasia in the participation of warfare’.
Kathleen Ollerenshaw was an English mathematician and educationalist who overcame deafness and went on to become an important political advisor. She was elected Lord Mayor of Manchester.
Saint Helena (247-328), wife of Constantius Chlorus, and mother of Constantine the Great. She won the gratitude of the Christian community by her zeal for the advancement of religion and her acts of piety and munificence.
Anna Howard Shaw (1847-1919), an American suffragist leader, minister and physician.
Immensely popular English novelist.
While she may not always have achieved her aims, through her persistence she not only stood for Parliament but maintained on her own a Māori-language newspaper. Well known and respected among Māori and Pākehā, she was rightly remembered as ‘a busy wheel’.
Dr. Janet Yellen, confirmed in January 2021 as the first female Treasury Secretary of the United States, is no stranger to breaking glass ceilings. An economist with a lifelong commitment to making the American economy one that allows all workers to succeed, she was also the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve and the first person in history to be in charge of the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the White House Council of Economic Advisors.