The first woman to run for president and the first female stock broker on Wall Street, Victoria Woodhull achieved remarkable success in finance, journalism, and politics. A spiritualist, suffragist, and free love advocate, Woodhull was an iconoclast who fought for her beliefs no matter how controversial they were at the time.
ʿIṣmat ad-Dīn Khātūn was the daughter of a regent of Damascus, and wife of two of the 12th century’s greatest Muslim generals, Nur ad-Din and Saladin.
Azerbaijani composer Aghabaji Ismayil gizi Rzayeva received many honors, including the Honored Art Worker of the Azerbaijan SSR (1960), Order of the Red Banner of Labour and the Order of the Badge of Honour (1972).
From 1906 onwards Annie McVicar was actively engaged in social and educational work in Wellington. As an early member and vice president of the New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children, she was involved in establishing the local branch of the Plunket Society in 1908. She was the first secretary of the branch in 1908–9 and served again in 1913, and was a vice president for a number of years in the 1920s and 1930s. When the first Plunket nurse, Joanna MacKinnon, promoted the society’s work in Wellington, Annie McVicar accompanied her on her visits to mothers; occasionally Annie carried out this work on her own. She served on the Worser Bay School committee, chaired the ladies’ advisory committee of the Technical College from 1923 to 1949, and was a parents’ representative on the college’s board of governors from 1927 to 1939.
Annie McVicar was also interested in politics. In 1913 she was a vice president of a local women’s branch of the New Zealand Political Reform League. She became a Miramar borough councillor in 1919 and in February 1921 was nominated to represent the borough on the Wellington City Council. In April that year, after Miramar had amalgamated with Wellington, she became the first woman to be elected to the Wellington City Council. An Evening Post editorial proclaimed that ‘Never before has Wellington had a lady City Councillor, and the innovation is full of promise.’ Annie McVicar held the seat in 1923 but was defeated in 1925. She was a member of the Wellington Hospital and Charitable Aid Board (later the Wellington Hospital Board) from 1915 until she retired in 1938. In local government, as in her other activities, McVicar was energetic and pragmatic: her particular interests were education and health, especially that of women and children.
Barbara Angus was one of New Zealand’s earliest woman diplomats, and its first female ambassador to head a bilateral post. Initially working as an historian, Angus joined the Department of External Affairs as a researcher at a time when few women held positions of influence or authority in the organisation. She gradually worked her way up the ladder, and was appointed ambassador to the Philippines in 1978.
In 1892 Ada Wells, with Professor Alexander Bickerton, founded the Canterbury Women’s Institute, of which she was president for many years. This was one of many offices she was to hold. In 1896 she became the first national secretary of the National Council of Women of New Zealand, and in 1898 she helped to spearhead the campaign for the formation of the Canterbury Children’s Aid Society. In 1899 she became one of the first two women to be elected to the Ashburton and North Canterbury United Charitable Aid Board, serving as a member until 1906 in spite of the antagonism of male members of the board to her presence. In addition to this she was associated with the Prison-gate Mission, an organisation engaged in the rehabilitation of prisoners. She was a member of the National Peace Council of New Zealand and worked with groups providing aid to conscientious objectors during the First World War.
Millie Best was born in Lower Barrington, Tasmania in 1900. She first became active in public life through the Methodist Young People’s Missionary Movement, and served as a commandant of the Voluntary Aid Detachment Canteen Services during World War II. Best had an arts and crafts business in Launceston but was also active in community organisations, including the Women Show Judges Association, the Business and Professional Women’s Club, the Launceston Girl’s Home, the United Nations Association, Meals on Wheels, the Good Neighbour Council and the National Council of Women. For her services to social welfare she was awarded an MBE in 1956.
Hōjō Masako, known as the “nun shogun”, exercised significant political power in the early years of the Kamakura period (1192 to 1333).
Most Americans know Shirley Temple as the adorable child actor with curly hair who graced movie screens from 1935 to 1938. After enjoying a successful career as an entertainer, Temple dedicated herself to public service, working as a politician and ambassador.
A shy, insecure child, Eleanor Roosevelt would grow up to become one of the most important and beloved First Ladies, authors, reformers, and female leaders of the 20th century.