5 Great Women Of History – Do You Know Them All?
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. … It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Woman; a female human being. The percentage of women that is female, varies across the world. According to calculations in 2017, the percentage of of the world composed of women is roughly 49.6%.
Although we often hear this phrase: Why honour women on one day alone? Let’s spend this day to remind ourselves of those legendary women whose courage, determination and spirit in history can make the next few years inspirational for a whole lot of us who might be engaged in making our time on earth count, on leading meaningful lives that will create a change, in small or big ways, to make the future not just livable, but awesomely livable for the next generation! In short, let this one day be the inspiration you need to keep on trying!
Do you want History to remember you for a life well lived? Then look to any one of these 5 women and take your cue!
1. Fatima Jinnah (1893-1967)
Fatima Jinnah, popularly known to us by the name of Madar-e-Millat was the younger sister of the founder of our country Quaid e Azam. She was a degree holder in Dental Surgery but she was also one of the leading founders of Pakistan.
Her presence was like a brightly lit candle among the women of the subcontinent. She followed a career in medicine & successfully ran her own dental clinic in Bombay. But Fatima, like her brother, led a socially conscious life and participated in innumerable rallies to raise the spirits of women living in the region. She organized the Women’s Wing of the All India Muslim League & formed the Women’s Relief Committee in 1947. She is also instrumental in the formation of The All Pakistan Women’s Association. She was a strong-willed woman and often voiced her opinions on matters of state significance.
Moreover in the 1960s, Fatima Jinnah returned to politics and ran for the Presidency of Pakistan as a candidate for the Combined Opposition Party of Pakistan (COPP). It is said that her vision for Pakistan’s future was similar to the one promoted by her brother, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
2. Amelia Earhart (1897-1937)
Amelia Mary Earhart was an American aviation pioneer and an author. In 1928, she became the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1920, she sat on her first plane ride, and in 1921,she bought her first plane, 2 years later, she earned her pilot’s licence. She was also the 16th woman to be issued a pilot’s license. She set many records and also wrote books about her flying experiences. She mysteriously disappeared during a flight in 1937, and was declared legally dead two years later.
Earhart was also a change-maker at heart and known for encouraging women to reject constrictive social norms and to pursue various opportunities. In 1929 she helped found an organization of female pilots that later became known as the Ninety-Nines. Earhart served as its first president. In addition, she was quite the entrepreneur in times where women did not venture into their own enterprise, and debuted a functional clothing line in 1933, which was designed “for the woman who lives actively.”
An annual event since 1996 is held in her memory every year in Atchison, Kansas. Also there is a bridge named after her called the “Amelia Earhart bridge” located in Atchison, Kansas.
3. Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)
Indira Gandhi was the first female prime minister of India. She was an Indian politician and a vital figure of the Indian National Congress. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, first prime minister of India. Indira Gandhi was the second longest serving Indian prime minister, after her father. She also went to University of Oxford for higher studies.
Her opposition expected her to be a weak woman leader But, contrary to popular expectations, her leadership and policy decisions made her one of the most popular prime ministers ever in the history of Indian politics. Her anti-poverty measures, Green revolution, and her leadership during the Pakistan-Bangladesh war made her immensely popular at home.
Despite losing the elections in 1977, she was victorious once again in 1980 and returned as Prime Minister. Indira Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984. In 1999, Indira Gandhi was named “Woman of the Millennium.”
4. Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan (1905-1990)
Begum Ra’ana Liaquat Ali was the First Lady of Pakistan from 1947 to 1951 as the wife of Liaquat Ali Khan who was the 1st Prime Minister of Pakistan. She was appointed as the Governor of Sindh Province, and took oath on 15 February 1973. Ra’ana was the first woman Governor of Sindh as well as first Chancellor of University of Karachi.
She was born Irene Margaret Pant in Kumaon in the early twentieth century. Intelligent, outgoing and independent, she was teaching economics in a Delhi college when she met Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan of the Muslim League. They married in 1933 and Irene Pant became Ra’ana Liaquat Ali Khan. In August 1947, they left for Pakistan where Ra’ana worked in nation building. After Liaquat Ali Khan’s assassination in 1951, she continued to be active in public life and her contribution to All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) and women’s empowerment in Pakistan is felt to this day.
She participated actively in all the major movements of her time—the freedom struggle, the Pakistan Movement and the fight for women’s empowerment. She was one of the supreme woman politicians and she was also one of the leading woman figures in the Pakistan Movement. Unlike many first ladies, she did not remain a ceremonial figure. She joined the government as the minister for minorities and women’s affairs in her husband’s cabinet.
She played a decisive role in securing fixed allocation of special women’s seats in the Constituent Assembly in 1956. In 1961, the APWA members, under the leadership of Begum Ra’ana, helped to engineer a crucial change in the Islamic marriage law by drafting important clauses and introducing the newly formulated Muslim Family Laws Ordinance. This was to have a far-reaching impact on a repressive, male-centric interpretation of the Islamic marriage laws, raising the age of the girl child for marriage-eligible age from 14 to 16 years.
She founded Pakistan Women National Guards (PWNG), and also helped establish the Pakistan Woman Naval Reserves in the Navy. After her husband’s death she was appointed as the ambassador of Pakistan in Netherlands. She received many awards one of them is Nishan-e-Imtiaz and she was also known by the name of “Mader-e-Pakistan.”
5. Katherine G. Johnson (1918-2020)
Our last but not the least of 5 great women of History is Creola Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician. If 1960s was a time of Space innovation, women can take inspiration from Katherine Johnson’s mathematical genius. She was one of part of a team behind the complex calculations that helped us fly into space for the first time.
She was also one of the three black students to consolidate West Virginia’s graduate schools. She provided some of the Math for the 1958 document Notes on Space Technology. She helped to victoriously send the first man to the moon. Her work is highly acknowledged and is highlighted in the film Hidden Figures which is about the pioneering African American women at NASA. It was the first time a woman in the Flight Research Division had received credit as an author of a research report
These women led their lives and forged ahead, following their passion, paving they way for many more women at a time when Feminism was hardly a ‘Thing’ to be discussed – their struggle marked many firsts in an era when women were not brought to the table as decision makers – yet they made decisions and changed the game for many more women to come – Know them, learn from them, and be them!
I had no idea that Pakistan had a female governor of one of their provinces! My daughter is turning 10 and I want to help inspire her by showing her some stories from women of the past. I think it’s so important to teach little girls about the powerful women who came before them!