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12 of the most famous women in history: these are the women who changed the world!

History has recorded quite a number of "dangerously" intelligent and bright, but above all brave, influential and inspiring individuals. Some stood up for women's rights, for racial equality, others co-shaped the world of science, mathematics, aviation, literature...

Each of these twelve women, be they inventors, scientists, politicians or writers, is undoubtedly changed the world for the better. The women on this list go down in history as women who broke the rules, as pioneers who showed their male counterparts what it means to be a role model. Their stories should be written again and again, as an inspiration and a reminder that it is possible if we so decide!

These are 12 women who changed the world!

Jane Austen (1775–1817)

"A person, male or female, who does not find particular pleasure in reading novels is unacceptably stupid."

Jane Austen she defined an entire literary genre with her detailed observation of society and wry humor. She was born in England, in a family with eight children. Already as a teenager, she wrote her cult works Prudence and Sensibility and Presumptuousness and Prejudice, which were also adapted into films.

The red thread of her witty and charming novels is the role of women in society. Her works were very popular during her lifetime, but Austen had to remain anonymous as an author. It was only after her death that her brother Henry revealed to the public that she was the true author of these popular novels. Her literary influence is deeply rooted in the literary world, and the themes and lessons from her novels are still relevant today.

Anne Frank (1929–1945)

"How wonderful it is that no one has to wait a single moment to start changing the world.”

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Anne Frank starts writing in her diary on her 13th birthday. She has no truly close friends to confide in, so in her diary she writes detailed letters to an imaginary girlfriend named Kitty. During the hiding period, Anne also writes short stories. Some of her "Tales" she reads aloud to the people in hiding. Besides her diary and the stories, Anne also writes her "favorite quotes" in a separate notebook. If she reads a sentence in a book and it makes an impression on her, she then copies it into that notebook. ⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Which sentence of Anne would you write in your own book of beautiful sentences?⁠⠀ _⁠⠀ #ANneFrank #ANneFrankHouse #InstaHistory #DiaryofAnneFrank

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The novel The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most honest, powerful and harsh confessions about the Second World War. The Franks were a Jewish family that lived in Germany during the reign of Adolf Hitler. The family, which hid from the Nazis during the war, was exposed in 1944 and sent to a concentration camp. Only Ana's father Frank survived, who also decided to find a publisher for Ana's diary.

The Diary of Anne Frank has been translated into 70 languages and is the most intimate portrait of one of the most inhumane periods in history. Her story teaches us about the most important universal human values: emotions, passion, love, lust, fear and strength.

Maya Angelou (1928–2014)

"I realized that people will forget what you say or do, but they will never forget how you made them feel."


Maya Angelou is certainly one of the most important women in American history. She was a singer, poet, memoirist, activist, civil rights fighter... Her award-winning autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings went down in literary history as the first non-fiction work written by an African-American woman.

Angelou, who was born Marguerite Ann Johnson in 1928, also later wrote about being raped by her mother's partner at the age of seven. When she told her family what had happened, the perpetrator was murdered before he could go to prison for his act. She remained mute for five long years, and her voice was only restored by her love for literature, for storytelling.

Her works are considered the loudest and most resounding in the fight for civil rights, they discuss the topics of violence, identity, rape, racism, literacy... They are a wonderful illustration of how the strength of character and the love of literature overcome and transcend racism and trauma.

Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603)

"Although I am a member of the weaker sex, I am still a rock that does not bend to any wind."

Elizabeth called herself the "virgin queen" because she preferred to marry her country rather than a man. Applies to the most successful monarch in the history of England. Under her rule, England became the most powerful political, commercial and artistic power in Europe.

Her path to the crown was a thorny one, as she should never actually have become the ruler of England: she was the wife and daughter of Anne Boleyn, the hated ex-wife of Henry VIII. Nevertheless, she went down in history as one of the best female rulers, famous for her intelligence, cunning, prudence and hot temper.

Catherine the Great (1729–1796)

"The power of a ruler without the trust of the people is worth nothing."

Catherine the Great, queen of Prussian roots, went down in history as the most ruthless ruler. Catherine agreed to an unhappy marriage with the Russian king Peter III, who was very unpopular. In order to overthrow and destroy him, she organized quite a few coups d'état and finally, in 1762, declared herself the Empress of Russia.

During her reign, Russia modernized, she opened the first school for girls, strengthened the power of the church, encouraged the development of economy, trade and art. She was also famous for her insatiable sexual appetite. She had many lovers, whom she lavished with jewels and high-sounding titles before dismissing them and replacing them with new ones.

Sojourner Truth (1797–1883)

"Truth is the power that prevails."

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Sojourner Truth, born Isabella Baumfree, was born into slavery in 1797. She was later sold at the age of nine with a herd of sheep for $100. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Sojourner Truth was known for her work as an abolitionist, but did you know that she was the 1st black woman to successfully challenge a white man in a United States court? When Sojourner's son was illegally sold into slavery in Alabama, she sought his freedom and secured his return to NY. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ She continued to fight for property rights, prison reform and universal suffrage. "Truth is remembered as one of the foremost leaders of the abolition movement and an early advocate of women's rights. Abolition was one of the few causes that Truth was able to see realized in her lifetime. The 19th Amendment, which enabled women to vote, was not ratified until 1920, nearly four decades after Truth's death." (citation from https://www.biography.com/activist/sojourner-truth) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It is easy to look at the devastation that surrounds us and allow it to start overtaking our light. If Sojourner Truth could stand in the midst of the darkness, only seeing slavery come to an end in her lifetime, perhaps we can stand boldly as well. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Thank you for teaching us the power of being a light. May we have the courage to do the same.

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African-American civil rights activist Truth Sojourner is her own left a historical mark with her speech at the Akron Women's Rights Convention in 1851.

At the age of nine, Truth was sold as a slave along with a flock of sheep for US$100. In 1829, she escaped to freedom with her daughter Sofia, who was still a baby at the time. She was unable to save her two other children.
At the end of 1840 she started advocate loudly for the rights of women and African Americans. She became famous for her impassioned speeches highlighting women's rights, prison reform and universal suffrage. She died in 1883 in Michigan, and is still known today as one of the first advocates of the women's rights movement.

Rosa Parks (1913–2005)

"I want to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free...so that other people could be free too."

It all started in 1955 when Rosa Parks was riding a bus in Alabama and the driver asked her to get up and give up her seat to a white man. Rosa resisted this, and with this seemingly small step launched the civil rights movement in America.

Born in Alabama in 1913, she began attending laboratory technician school at an all-black school at age 11, until she was forced to interrupt her schooling to care for her ailing grandmother. She was a member of the Montgomery African-American community and joined the NAACP chapter, becoming its secretary in 1943. Segregation laws were still in effect in Alabama at the time. In the buses, whites sat in the front and blacks in the back. On December 1, as Parks was riding a bus and sitting in the front of the bus with three other black men, a white man entered the full bus. The driver asked the four to get up and give him a whole row of seats. The three obeyed, but Parks did not. And this disobedience of hers is sparked a wave of protests across America. She died in 2005, aged 92.

Malala Yousafzai (1997–)

"I am not telling my story because it is something special, but because my story is the story of many girls."

Malala was born in 1997 in Pakistan. Her father was a teacher and ran a girls' school in their village. When the Taliban took over the village, the school was closed and banned. In 2012, when Malala was 15 years old, she went public for the first time spoke about the issue of women's right to education. Shortly after that, someone shot her in the head while riding a bus. She survived.

She moved to Great Britain, where she became a regular member of the world stage and in 2014, at the age of 17, also the youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize. He is currently studying philosophy, political science and economics at Oxford University.

Marie Curie (1867–1934)

"We shouldn't be afraid of anything in life, we just have to understand it. Now is the time to understand more to fear less.”

Marie Curie went down in history as a scientist and physicist with Polish roots. She made an appointment radioactivity, discovered two new chemical elements (radium and polonium) and developed portable x-ray machine.

She was the first in the world (not just the first woman) to get a car two Nobel Prizes, one for physics and one for chemistry. To date, Curie is the only one in history to have received the Nobel Prize for two different branches of science.

Throughout her career, she faced constant pressure and discrimination. The fields of physics and chemistry were in the male domain. However, despite this, her research was accepted and relevant, and still has a great influence in the world of science today.

Ada Lovelace (1815–1852)

“This brain of mine is more than mortal; time will tell”.

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Portrait of Ada Lovelace for @ovoenergy HQ 💡🔌⚡️ “Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (née Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. She was the first to recognize that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and published the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she is sometimes regarded as the first to recognize the full potential of a "computing machine" and one of the first computer programmers.” #adalovelace #algorithm #earlycomputing #ovoenergy #illustration

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English mathematician and the world's first female computer programmer was the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron (who left the family when Ada was only two years old) and Lady Wentworth. Ada was very popular in society, and her friends were big names, such as Charles Dickens. However, neither her famous father nor famous friends wrote her down in history. She credited herself as the first to create an algorithm for a computer. Pretty revolutionary for the time.

She died very young, at the age of 36. Almost a century later, her notes became famous as the first notes suitable for computer software.

Edith Cowan (1861–1932)

"Women want to be equal and equal to men. We ask for nothing more and nothing less than that.”

Today, Edith Cowan's face is on the 50 Australian dollar bill, and a university in Australia is named after her. Edith Cowan was the first female representative in parliament and a fearless fighter for women's rights.

Her childhood was, to say the least, traumatic. Her mother died when Edith was only seven years old. Eight years later, however, her father was convicted of killing his second wife and executed.

Edith was a fighter for women's rights from a young age, and her election to parliament was unexpected and controversial. She advocated that they were allowed women to become part of the legal profession, campaigned for the welfare of migrants and promoted sex education in schools. She died at the age of 70, but her legacy lives on today.

Amelia Earhart (1897–1937)

"Women also have to try things that men have tried. If they fail, their defeat must be a challenge to the others."

Amelia Earhart is a famous American aviator who is as the first woman in the world to fly across the Atlantic alone, the first in the world to fly solo over the area from Hawaii to the United States.

Amelia did always fought against gender stereotypes. Even as a girl growing up in Kansas, she did things that not many girls did: she played basketball, learned to fix cars, and in 1921 she already received her pilot's license to fly. In July 1936, she began preparing a new venture, a flight around the world. This was not the first flight around the world, but it would be the longest, as Amelia charted a route around the equator, which would cover a total of 47,000 kilometers. In July 1937, the plane disappeared from radar and was lost forever somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Her death remains one of the greatest riddles and mysteries of the 20th century.

You, me, them, me: ALL THE WOMEN OF THIS WORLD

Just about every woman belongs on the list of women who changed the world. Just because we haven't achieved anything that has a major impact on society as a whole, and nothing that fills the front pages of newspapers and magazines, doesn't mean that our daily actions don't count. Mothers, wives, daughters, students and workers: we all face challenges, we all have to work even harder to achieve our dreams. Many women in the world still have to deal with many limitations due to their gender. Discrimination is still very much alive. Therefore, dear women, applaud each other, every single day. Be strong and brave. Don't bow your head, raise your voice. Nurture the woman in you. And remember, strength is on the side of the brave!

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