Want to know about a young woman who's famous for something other than being famous? Then you've come to the right place. Forget those young women whose main contribution seems to be their bodies or their faces. Find out about real role models for girls--not the corporate counterfeit of "girl power" you see
reflected in the media, magazines and
children's fairy tales.
10. Sofia Kovalevskaya - Mathematician
Kovalevskaya (also written Kovalevsky) was a Russian mathematician, and the first woman in Europe to receive a doctorate in mathematics.
Although born into an aristocratic family, Kovalevskaya had to fight tooth and nail to realize her genius. She was not allowed to even audit classes when she pursued her doctorate in Berlin. However, through tutoring and her own initiative, she was able to present three papers for her doctoral dissertation. Kovalevskaya also wrote a novella, Nihilist Girl, a loosely autobiographical work about a young woman's awakening social conscience after leaving university.
9. Doria Shafik
Although she campaigned her whole life for the rights of women, Shafik is best known for storming the Egyptian parliament, with 1500 other women, and "orchestrat[ing] four hours of boisterous demonstrations before...extracting from the president of the senate a verbal promise that parliament would immediately take up the women's demands" (Nelson 168-77). The day before this historic event, Shafik declared, at a meeting for Egyptian feminists
We [women] are half the nation! We represent here the hope and despair of this most important half of the nation. Luckily we are meeting at the same hour and in the same part of town as the parliament of the other half of the nation. They are assembled a few steps away from us. I propose we go there, strong in the knowledge of our rights and tell the deputies and senators that...the Egyptian parliament cannot be a true reflection of the entire nation until women are admitted. --From
Al Ahram Weekly.
Shafik faced stiff opposition from the government and the religious institutions, which were then part of the state. In 1954, she went on a hunger strike to protest the then-new military junta, and Israeli treatment of refugees. She was put under house arrest by then-dictator Nasser in 1957, which sadly brought the heyday of the Egyptian women's rights movement to a close.
8. Asta Nielsen ("Die Asta") - Silent Film Actress
Considered a peer of Chaplin and Keaton, Asta Nielsen was an undeniable woman of genius. At first misunderstood in her native Denmark, Nielsen was the first international movie star. In 1911, she earned $80,000 a year--then the highest salary for any film actress anywhere. Nielsen founded her own film studio in 1920s Germany; after the rise of Naziism, she fled to more neutral Denmark. During World War II, she gave money to assist Jews; her money was used to buy and deliver food parcels to inmates at the Theriesenstadt concentration camp. She died in 1972.
Asta Nielsen is best remembered for her adaptation of Hamlet, in which she played the titular role. She is also known for co-starring with Greta Garbo in The Joyless Street.
7. MC Lyte
Widely considered one of the best women rappers, MC Lyte began her career at seventeen. Lyte was the first female solo rapper to perform at Carnegie hall, to be nominated for a Grammy, and to be signed to a major label. Lyte was also one of the first rappers to point out the rampant misogyny in much of mainstream rap. She influenced a whole generation of women rappers, singers and musicians, from Lauryn Hill to Queen Latifah.
6. Emma Goldman - Anarchist
Infamous in her day, famous in ours, Emma Goldman never apologized, never compromised, and never capitulated in her battle against the tyrants of industry, family and the state. She was not afraid to go to prison for her principles. She wrote on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, atheism, family planning, capitalism, and many other topics. Goldman is a perfect counterpoint to the sanitized picture of women's rights girls learn in school. Anyone who has read her books know that er personality is larger than life, and shines through her words.
5. Chizuko Ueno
A noted Japanese feminist, Ueno has repeatedly spoken out about
sexual harassment, the glass cieling, and corporate exploitation of workers.
Ueno is a professor of sociology at the University of Tokyo. Ueno is a great example of how women can rebel even in a patriarchal society, and (hopefully) an inspiration.
4. Sophie Scholl
Sophie Scholl was 21 when she died by the guillotine. Her crime? Treason--against Nazi Germany. The year was 1942; the Holocaust had already started; and people were "so corrupted and spiritually crushed that they [did] not raise a hand." Scholl, along with her brother and a friend, distributed "White Rose" leaflets around Munich, urging the German people to rise up and overthrow the criminal regime. She was caught and killed.
Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be "governed" without opposition by anirresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct. --the First White Rose Leaflet
History has vindicated Scholl and exposed her accusers as the real traitors. She is a testament to how even a seemingly powerless person can take a stand against the seemingly unstoppable, brutal regime.
3. Kathleen Hanna
Tired of bubblegum pop, without substance? Looking for a female musician with a feminist message? Look no further than Kathleen Hanna, frontwoman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, women's rights activist, and feminist fashion icon. Hanna puts the cliche'd "Girl Power" pop princesses--yeah, in a miniskirt and heels, with a drug addiction to boot--to shame. One of the original members of the Riot Grrrl movement, Hanna has been involved in the feminist movement from her days as a college student in Olympia, Washington.
I wanna spread my dementia I wanna knock it off the line Give me attention Every day and every night Don't want no crusty bullshit No crap or attitude Just wanna get electric tonight You know with you you you you --"Let's Run" by Le Tigre, from Feminist Sweepstakes
Hanna's lyrics powerfully express rage at the hypocrisy and mediocrity in much of mainstream culture and politics. If you're worried about your daughter, little sister or niece falling victim to the "tween marketing machine," why not give her a copy of Reject All American as a birthday present?
Ida B. Wells was a pioneer in the civil rights movement, who exposed the extent of lynching in the United States and participated in the women's suffrage movement. One of the first
muckrakers,
Wells also refused to give up her seat to a white man, 71 years before Rosa Parks, and sued the train company for mistreatment, becoming a public figure in the process. She became the co-editor of Free Speech, an anti-segregationalist paper, where she described the racism she, and others, experienced in day-to-day life. Through a series of investigative reports on lynching, she showed that lynching was primarily a way to keep blacks from economic progress. A true role model for any aspiring writers or journalists you know.
1. Joan of Arc
In 1424, a peasant girl had a vision of God, telling her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to his coronation. After one of her predictions about the military came true, she petitioned Charles VII to wear the uniform of a knight. She succeeded in spurring the French army to victory after victory. Though captured by the Burgundians, tried for a trumped-up charge of heresy, and buried at the stake, she is now a national hero of France.
Joan's bravery and courage in the face of long odds makes her an ideal role model for girls, especially young girls. Even if they are not religious, Joan's story can show girls and young women how important integrity--and listening to yourself--is.
Real girl power has nothing to do with dressing a certain way, liking a certain band, or consuming a certain product. Real girl power, like all real power, comes from having the courage of your convictions, from standing up to your beliefs, and from being unafraid of the system of coercion, corruption and oppression which tries to stifle you. Anyone who possesses these traits is a real role model, not just for girls, but for everyone.
