5 Historical Women from Around the World that You Should Know About
When our culture thinks of smart, influential, strong women, we look to figures like Hilary Clinton, JK Rowling, even the Queen of England, but how often do we see the accomplishments and stories of women of color being told?
Besides popular culture figures like Beyonce and Oprah, we see very little representation of women of color, not only in our daily news and film media, but also in our history classes. When we are taught about them, they are depicted as background pieces of some other historical figure (*coughs* Sacajawea), or minor influences (Harriet Tubman).
Some of these women of color have even had their stories completely re-written, such as the INCREDIBLY inaccurate depiction of Pocahontas in Disney’s film.
Because of this, I’ve put together a list of badass, incredible women of history, from all races and ethnic backgrounds, to bring light to some of their stories and give them the representation they deserve. So brace yourselves; these women could blow your minds.
- Kimberly Anyadike
This is Kimberly. Born in Compton, California, she grew up with her Nigerian parents encouraging her to follow her dreams, leading her to achieve a degree in Physiological Science from UCLA. However, this is not her only major accomplishment.
Kimberly is also the youngest African-American women to complete a transcontinental flight across the United States. She flew from Compton, California, to Virginia and back when she was 15 years old!
That’s amazing!! Kimberly has made history and should be recognized for her accomplishments and the wonder she inspires.
2. Mary Elizabeth Bowser
Another woman from the United States, Mary Bowser, was born as a slave in Virginia. When the Civil War began, instead of sitting on the sidelines and waiting for the war’s outcome to resolve, she decided to become a spy.
In a world where her presence was viewed as an insignificant, illiterate nobody, Bowser used her photographic memory and her slave position in the Confederate White House to discover and relay vital information on prisoner location, military strategies and troop movement to the Union. By using the racist beliefs held against her by the Confederates to her advantage, Bowser revealed just how genius and totally badass she was.
3. The Night Witches
Okay, while this next group may not be one specific woman, they still deserve to be recognized as people you definitely should know from history. World War 2 still had very few women fighters compared to the number of men, but one of the first female regiments that was established was 588th Night Bomber Regiment in the Soviet Air Force.
These women flew incredibly noisy airplanes, which would alert the Germans to their presence. So to combat this problem, these women would climb their planes high in the sky and then turn off their engines. Then they would coast down to the German positions, drop their bombs, restart their engines in midair and fly away.
Because of the fearless way this regiment took on gunfire and flew in almost soundlessly in the middle of the night before attacking, they were nicknamed The Night Witches by the Germans. They flew over 30,000 missions in some of the slowest planes in the war, routinely fighting off frostbite in the open-air cockpits and sending members to lie down on the wings to offer more weight against the winds blowing against the plane. There’s not many people who are or were as brave and committed as these women.
4. Neerja Bhanot
This is Neerja Bhanot, Indian model and purser for PanAm airlines. In 1986 the plane she was on was hijacked by 4 terrorists. During the hijack, she not only helped hide the passports of American citizens on the plane to keep the terrorists from identifying them as their main targets, she also opened the plane doors and helped guide people outside. In the end, Neerja was shot and killed while shielding 3 American children from the terrorists’ gunfire. This woman deserves to be remembered for her incredible courage and sacrifice.
5. Ching Shih
Talk about a badass feminist who didn’t let anything get in her way. Ching Shih was a Chinese prostitute in the 19th century and later married a pirate lord who commanded the Red Fleet. After 6 years, her husband died, and she took control of the Fleet. Soon, she became pirate lord of over 1700 ships and 50,000 men, being one of the most feared and powerful pirates in the world.
She enacted a strict code on her pirates, ensuring her rule through cruel punishments, and giving protection to the women they captured. Her fleet could not be defeated by any other naval force, and so the Chinese offered her and her pirates amnesty if they stopped their raiding. Ching agreed and spent the rest of her days powerful and rich.
These women inspire me and deserve to be remembered for their amazing, brave, and overall kickass accomplishments. They didn’t let the opinions of other people stop them from changing history, and took life into their own hands. Because of this, they should be recognized as true influential role models of the past; never forgotten and forever admired.