Jane Austen

England recently released a new ten-pound note, featuring beloved author Jane Austen. She will become the second woman only to the Queen to grace the front of an English bank note, which is clear evidence in her continuing fandom and the enduring interest in her work.

The author of the classics Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Northanger Abbey published her work anonymously and did not claim notoriety until her siblings took it upon themselves to publish two previously unprinted books following her death. It was, therefore, not until the mid-19^th century that she gained widespread notability.

Charlotte Maxeke

With thanks to The Open University for allowing us to repost this piece. Originally posted on their website here.

A rights activist against the exploitation what was prevalent in South Africa, Charlotte Maxeke was South Africa’s first black female graduate and one of the first female freedom fighters. Find out more about her extraordinary story.

Maggie Lena Walker

Maggie Lena Walker (1867-1934) spent her life dedicated to improving the status of African-Americans and women, particularly through economic empowerment. She was the first woman in America to found and serve as president of a bank. She was also a leader in her community, a great orator, a successful businesswoman and a philanthropist. This is a just a brief summation of Walker’s accomplishments – how she became all of these things, considering where she started in life, is a testament to her drive and determination and an accomplishment in itself.

Sarah Parker Remond

Sarah was born on 6 June 1826 in Salem, Massachusetts, the second youngest  child of the ten offspring of John and Nancy Remond. Salem was 14 miles from Boston and Sarah says that it contained “about 25,000 inhabitants, who are characterised by general intelligence, industry and enterprise and few  towns in the States can boats of more wealth and  refinement than Salem.”

Kate Warne: First Female Detective

Have you ever heard the name Kate Warne? Most people haven’t. And yet, she did amazing things – every bit as impressive as household names like Amelia Earhart, Sally Ride and Marie Curie. Not only did she convince the founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency to hire her as a female operative – in 1856! – she rose through the ranks to head up a Bureau of Female Detectives within the agency, saved Abraham Lincoln’s life en route to his inauguration, and went undercover as a spy for the Union during the Civil War.

Cathay Williams; female Buffalo Soldier

Cathay Williams was the first African American woman to serve in the US Army, she did so by pretending to be a man and going under the pseudonym, William Cathay.

Cathay was born in Independence, Missouri in 1844. Her mother was a slave and her father a ‘free man of colour’. She was born into servitude, working in the home of a plantation owner. When the Union Army came to her town in 1861 slaves were considered ‘contraband’ property. It was routine for them to be forced into the army to work for them, and this is what happened to Cathay. She was to serve as a cook and laundress, against her wishes, as she recalled:

Jane Addams: Chicago’s Progressive Shero

Jane Addams was born in 1860–the daughter of a wealthy Illinois businessman. At the age of two, her mother died after falling on ice while pregnant. This left Jane empathetic to how fate could work against a person.

Lucy Maud Montgomery

A precocious red-headed orphan from Prince Edward Island captured the world’s heart in 1908. Anne Shirley, otherwise known as Anne of Green Gables, has withstood the test of time and to this day remains a beloved literary heroine. What about the woman who made her? In many ways, Lucy Maud Montgomery has been overshadowed by her popular creation. Little is known about the story behind the story- the orphan raised by strict grandparents in rural Cavendish, fighting loneliness with the world inside her head. Lucy Maud Montgomery most certainly qualifies as a shero in her own right.

Eleanor Marx: ‘Mother of socialist feminism’

Eleanor Marx has been called the ‘mother of socialist feminism’. She was a political agitator, literary translator, actress and campaigner for workers’ rights – deserving of accolades in her own right as more than just the daughter of her more well known father.

Lucinda Hinsdale Stone

Lucinda Hinsdale was born September 30, 1814 in Hinesburg, VT to Aaron & Lucinda (Mitchell) Hinsdale. Lucinda spent her early years attending the public school, briefly attending a female seminary before finding the academic rigor less than what she desired and at age 13 went to Hinesburg Academy, a boys’ high school. Though she surpassed her male counterparts in the curriculum of Greek, Latin, French, and literature, the gender biases of the time kept her from continuing on to college studies, so at age 15 she became a schoolteacher, which was a common occurrence during that time.