Ogino Ginko was born on March the 3rd 1851 in Kumagaya, Saitama, Japan. Throughout her early life, Japan was urged to “Westernize” (Maggs) and by the 1870’s the countries modernisation which included “compulsory education for all children” (Maggs). Only boys were permitted to progress to middle school and universities so unless women wished to pursue […]

Lorraine Hansberry was born on the 19th of May 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up as most black women did at the time and “was the granddaughter of a former slave” (Lee). At fifteen, “her father died” (Lee) which she believed was a result of “the toll of American racism” (Lee) and was inspired […]

Azucena Villaflor was born on the 7th of July 1924 just outside of Buenos Aires. She had a fairly typical life at the time, finished school, got married and had four children. Between the years 1976 and 1983, “Argentina was in a state of political upheaval” (Lee) and suffered at the hands of a military […]

Annie Jump Cannon was born in America in 1863. From a very young age, Canon was taught “the names of the constellations” (Lee) by her Mother which encouraged her early interest in astronomy. She attended “Wellesley, the women’s college in Massachusetts” (Lee) where she studied “physics and astronomy” (Lee) and various other subjects of interest […]

Bessie Blount Griffin was an African American forensic scientist, writer, and inventor born in 1914. Her early life opportunities were limited by the rife racism prevalent in America at that time. Blount’s schooling was conducted “at a one-room schoolhouse called Diggs Chapel” (Maggs) built by “Black members of the local community” (Maggs) for the purpose […]

Amalie Emmy Noether was born in 1882 in Germany. She was named after her Mother and Grandmother thus, went by her middle name for most of her life. Originally, Noether aspired to become an English and French teacher at a girl’s school in Germany “where she was born and raised” (Lee). Those wishes dissipated and […]

Noor Inayat Khan was born in Russia to an American Mother and Indian father. She was raised in France and earned two degrees before World War II one in “psychobiology of the child” and another “in Harp” (Maggs). Her family were pacifist’s although she was a descendant of “Tipu Sultan” who was her “great-great-great grandfather” […]

Irena Sendler was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1910. Sendler was not Jewish however her father who was a Doctor had many Jewish patients and always taught Sendler to stand up for those treated unequally especially “history’s most stepped-on religious community” (Lee). The Germans had started transporting Jewish people to the Warsaw Ghetto, “Irena used […]

The Night Witches or the “Nachthexen” (Porath) were an all-female Soviet regiment during World War II. They were the “588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment” (Porath) initially started by a famous Russian pilot called Marina Raskova who was born in 1912. She was said to be “on par with Amelia Earhart even before World War II […]