Women

(INTRODUCTION)

The world is fi lled with fascinating women, each with her own compelling story. Clearly, no single tome can hold all the intricate details of their collective lives. But this book, filled with profiles of striking individuals who serve as outstanding representatives of their gender, covers many of the most outstanding, infl uential women from around the globe. Coverage runs the gamut from queens to commoners, with a tip of the hat to those who have made their mark in the arts and sciences, in their country’s political arena, and on the world stage.

Most of these women managed to fl ourish in the face of adversity. Some withstood opposition from outside sources, while family intrigue was a malevolent force in the lives of others. For centuries, merely being a woman was an obstacle these individuals had to overcome. Consider the case of Hatshepsut, the eldest daughter of ancient Egyptian King Thutmose I and his queen, Ahmose. After her father and half brother died, Hatshepsut was allowed to assume the role of regent only because the rightful heir, her son, was an infant. She took full advantage of the situation, essentially claiming the throne for herself while nominally coruling with her son. For a woman, Hatshepsut wielded unprecedented power. Court artists, unfamiliar with representations of a queen in such fi rm control, took to depicting her as a man, full beard and all.

Another ruler of Egypt, Cleopatra, rose to power when she was 18 years old, coruling with her brother, Ptolemy XIII. As the eldest sibling by eight years, Cleopatra quickly became the dominant ruler, much to Ptolemy XIII’s displeasure. It did not take long for Ptolemy to forcibly remove Cleopatra from her position. The young queen did not take this coup lying down. She fl ed to Syria, where she promptly gathered an army and returned to confront her brother in a successful attempt to reclaim the throne.

Restored to power after forcing Ptolemy to flee Alexandria, Cleopatra fortified her position through clever political and romantic alliances with future emperor Julius Caesar and the Roman general Mark Antony. Although forced to share power with first her brothers, then her son (allegedly fathered by Caesar), Cleopatra proved to be the true driving force behind the Egyptian throne for 22 years.

Other women became influential rulers directly through marriage or by giving birth. Eleanor of Aquitaine, for example, had considerable power as the wife and mother of several reigning kings of France and England. As the daughter of William X, the duke of Aquitaine, Eleanor inherited a large portion of western France upon his death. In 1137, she married the heir to the throne of France, Louis VII, and became queen of France. When the marriage was annulled in 1152, she married the heir to the throne of England, Henry II, and became queen of England. She and Louis had two daughters, but she and Henry produced three daughters and five sons, including Richard the Lion-Heart, and John, both of whom would become kings of England. Her daughters also married into the royal families of Bavaria, Castile, and Sicily.

The women of England were not always relegated to the role of wife and mother of kings. Some of them ruled the country on their own. The first English queen to rule in her own right was Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Mary is better known by the nickname “Bloody Mary,” a moniker she earned while trying desperately to suppress a Protestant uprising and restore Roman Catholicism to England. Hundreds of people died during this three-year, ultimately unsuccessful, battle.

After the death of her half-sister Mary, Elizabeth ascended the throne and became the queen of England at the age of 25. Religious and political strife did not disappear under her rule, yet England did emerge as a more powerful country on the world’s stage by its end. Remembered far more fondly than “Bloody Mary,”

Elizabeth I ruled for 45 years. Her reign, though, was not the longest in the history. That honour goes to Queen Victoria I, who ruled the United Kingdom for almost sixty-four years. So influential was she during her lengthy reign that she has been immortalized by having an epoch named after her—the Victorian Age.

Even today, the United Kingdom is ruled by a woman. Like the first Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth II came to the throne when she was 25 years old. Through her son and heir apparent, Prince Charles, Elizabeth is connected to another notable women profiled in this book, Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana’s personality, beauty, and unwavering support of the arts, children’s issues, and AIDS relief quickly made her a popular public figure all over the world. Her untimely death in 1997 at the age of 36 was mourned by many.

Other countries around the world also have been led by women in the modern age. The first female prime minister in history was Sirimavo Bandaranaike, elected to lead Sri Lanka in 1960. She would ultimately go on to serve three terms in that office, remaining an important part of Sri Lankan politics until her death in 2000. Six years later, Indira Gandhi became the first female prime minister of India. She served four terms before being assassinated in 1984. Ireland elected its first female president, Mary Robinson, in 1990, and in 2006, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf became the first woman to be head of state in an African country when she was elected president of Liberia.

While the United States has yet to elect a woman president, there have been women who have achieved high political office. Among them is Hillary Rodham Clinton, who made political history as the first American first lady to win an elective office when she became a United States senator in 2001. Although her bid for president failed, Clinton earned her way back into the White House as secretary of state in Barack Obama’s administration.

Rather than wield power themselves, some of the individuals featured in this title came to the fore by helping to empower other women. In the United States, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton struggled to win for women in America the right to vote. In 1920, their work culminated in the 19th amendment of the United States Constitution, which granted women this right. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel did much the same thing in England. In 1928, these suffragists saw the passage of the Representation of the People Act giving women and men equal voting rights in England.

Still others fought for the rights of other marginalized groups. In the 1800s, Harriet Tubman fought to see African American men and women treated as equal in American society. An escaped slave, Tubman helped countless others fleeing for freedom on the Underground Railroad. Sojourner Truth, another former slave, also spoke out against slavery as well as for equal rights for women in the 1800s.

Another woman who worked tirelessly on behalf of others was Eleanor Roosevelt. One of the most admired women of the 20th century, Roosevelt used her position as first lady to help African Americans, children, and the poor. Active in the Women’s Trade Union League and the League of Women Voters, and, in later years, as chair of Pres. John F. Kennedy’s Commission on the Status of Women, she also helped pave the way for American women to make a difference in politics and other fields.

Activism isn’t the only means by which women have been able to help scores of people at once. The medical professionals among the elite individuals featured in this book impacted the masses by not only their service but by advancing the field of health care as well. Florence Nightingale, fondly remembered primarily as a nurse, was also a tireless social reformer who was instrumental in overhauling military medical and purveyance systems. She also devised models for the practice of nursing that are used to this day.

Around the same time as Nightingale was staging her renaissance of nursing, Elizabeth Blackwell was blazing a trail that would eventually allow women to become physicians. Regarded as the first woman doctor in modern times, Blackwell opened a medical college for women in New York City. Women’s Medical College was instituted to help others bypass the difficulties and prejudice Blackwell herself had endured when she enrolled in medical school.

Women of science made great strides toward helping humanity, too. Elizabeth Stern conducted pioneering research into the risk factors for, and the causes and progression of, cervical cancer. Early detection and highly successful treatment measures for this particular disease were made possible because of Stern’s findings. Margaret Sanger’s promotion of birth control did more than give women choices when it came to procreation. Her advocacy helped lower the high rates of infant and maternal mortality prevalent in early 20th-century America. And although her work was largely uncredited, Rosalind Franklin played a vital role in unraveling the mystery of DNA.

Then there are the women who have left their mark on humankind’s collective creative history. Several distinguished and talented women have entertained and enlightened the public through their art. Sarah Bernhardt and Marlene Dietrich, for example, are grand dames of stage and screen, respectively. Their performances became the watermark by which other actresses have measured their own careers.

A star of stage and screen in her own right, Lucille Ball is perhaps best known as the star of the I Love Lucy television program. The show revolutionized TV sitcoms by utilizing a three-camera setup, as opposed to the one static camera, to capture the action. Other shows quickly followed suit. Today, the multicamera format is the standard for television comedies. Ball made us laugh as one of the world’s greatest comic actors. More than that, she was a shrewd businessperson who became one of the first women to run a major Hollywood production company, paving the way for future generations of female producers and studio heads.

Other women chose to sway public opinion with the written word. The world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, was written by a woman, the Japanese author Murasaki Shikibu. Joining Homer in the panoply of great poets of ancient Greece is Sappho, who wrote about love, passion, and the education of young women in the “nuptial arts.” In England, novelist Jane Austen and, later, the Brontë sisters, Charlotte and Emily, were weaving tales that would eventually become classics. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre was an immediate hit with critics and readers when it was first published, while the dramatic and poetic nature of Emily’s Wuthering Heights wasn’t fully appreciated until years later. Regardless, both novels are considered prime examples of superb English literature—as is Austen’s entire oeuvre.

Another book that still has the power to touch people today is not a novel, but a memoir. The Diary of a Young Girl portrays the short life of Anne Frank, one of the millions of Jewish victims of the Holocaust. More than a classic of war literature, Anne Frank’s diary puts a human face on an unimaginable tragedy, and serves as a beacon of hope to all young women who face adversity.

The influence of these women, and the others profiled in this book, reverberates throughout the ages. Their leadership, scientific research, and artistic vision have served to enrich, enlighten, and shape modern society. These amazing and influential individuals have given all of us, men and women alike, something to admire and strive for in our own lives.

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