Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine or Freddie and Truus Oversteegen come to mind first, but they’re hardly the last.
My immediate reaction was Marie Curie (reasons self-explanatory I think?), but that’s historical. Next thing that came to mind was Lena Headey probably because I’m primed for thrones season. Then I thought of Elizabeth Warren. All of that feels too “famous people” though.
I have a few,
Leah Litman: Conlaw prof at UCI. Brilliant legal mind, ex SCOTUS clerk, charismatic and charming. I admire her for her accomplishments and her ability to both analyze the law (and court rulings) and make that easy to understand for a layman like me.
Bridget Amari: ACLU lawyer on the Jane Doe abortion case debacle. She really crushed it. I admire her skill and devotion to her cause.
Natalie Wynn: Self explanatory.
Grace Hopper
Danielle Bunten
Maxine Waters
Pat Summitt
IU
I can go all day here.
I mean, I could too if I only had to give who they were and not why I admired them
I think it would be awesome to have Admiral Hopper on a dollar bill.
I mean my initial reaction (before I remembered I’m not a man) was Harriet Tubman or Victoria Woodhull. No shame in admiring someone accomplished you don’t personally know.
On a more local scale, PRD (former head of all PAX enforcers) has always been the target of a great deal of my respect.
PRD is a legend.
Off the top of my head and skipping historical figures (too easy):
- Jane McGonigal
- Meguey Baker
- Hillary Clinton
I stopped when I realized I could make this list go on for a long time.
At the risk of sounding juvenile I’m going to name admirable women from mythology and legend
Lilith:
The most relevant text being the myth that she was the original wife of Adam, before Eve, and after quarreling over who gets to be on top she ran away. God sent three angels after her and the following encounter happened
They said: “We won’t let you go until you accept upon yourself that each day one hundred of your children will die.” And she accepted it…
Alphabet of Ben Sira 23a-b
I think there is a lot implied in this story, how abhorred and demonized women who would choose their own autonomy over their prescribed role in society and the strength it takes to rebel against a system that will actively seek to harm you when you reject it.
Clotho, Lachesis, & Atropos (the Fates, honorable mention to the Furies)
Greek/Roman culture gets a lot of rightly deserved criticism for its overtly patriarchal culture but I think it bears observing that while they did not accept women as equal to men they had pervasive fears of femininity. Not only do a collective of women hold power over the life of every god or mortal, but a group of women are the proto-judge/jury/executioner of humanity. The persistent motif of the triumvirate (daughter, mother, crone) is a stark contrast to the individualistic rule under traditional hierarchies in both it’s control through shared power and equal value assigned to the young, mature, and old.
Anne Bonny and Mary Read
While real, these famous pirates have been immortalized in tall tales and legends. Neither turned to piracy out of desperation, it was simply in their blood. Anne Bonny abandoned her husband to join Calico Jack, who would later conscript Mary Read after capturing her ship (Read joined willingly and had already spent years disguising herself as a man to act in the British military) .
Both Anne and Mary disguised as men during their piracy, although it seems to be a public secret that they were women. Their own relationship has also been widely speculated and romanticized, it often assumed that the two were lovers. While there are very few firsthand accounts of the two women, they have inspired numerous plays and stories, both tawdry and motivational.
So yeah, like everyone else I could go on. I think it is valuable for us to remember our mythic history and the women who live in it. Regardless of your own gender, we should look to legendary females for inspiration.
To name a few woman who you should know if you already don’t, especially for Twitter reasons:
Dr Jess Wade
Lena Waithe
Sara Alfageeh
Mona Chalabi
Is there a .csv of men who can’t make a long list? And is there an automated way to slap them all?
Her finisher is to melt for.
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Third Impact Dive
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LCL Driver.
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I’m not sorry
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