24 | November 2011 | woman this month Feature Women may not always have power and public recognition handed to them on a plate, but it certainly hasn’t prevented them from demanding it. Here is a look at some of the most influential women to grace the earth in the last hundred years… Influential Women A Century of Rosa Parks 1913-2005 Rosa stunned the world when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, at a time when black people were still supposed to occupy a different section of the bus to their white counterparts. It was this which sparked the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955, led by Martin Luther King Jr. Her actions became a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement. Sonia Gandhi 1946-Present The Indian national and politician landed in the top 25 of the Forbes 100 Influential Women list in 2010. After being elected for the fourth time in a row as the president of the Indian National Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi became the longest serving president in the party’s 125 year history. She was elected as president of India, but deferred to Sikh economist Manmohan Singh. She is, unequivocally, one of India’s most influential women. Marie Curie 1867-1934 Marie Curie is the Emmeline Pankhurst of the scientific world. She blazed a trail for thousands of other brilliant female scientists, proving that women can be just as daring and just as excellent in traditionally male disciplines. She co-discovered the elements radium and polonium, coined the term “radioactivity” and was one of the first to suggest radiation as a cancer fighting tool. What’s more, she was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in two areas. Virginia Woolf 1882-1941 The famous novelist and essayist changed the face of literature and discourse. She popularised the continuous train of thought process for writing prose and allowed us to enter her protagonist’s minds in ways that other authors hadn’t managed to achieve before. She also reminded us, in A Room of One’s Own, the burdens of the female condition and what women ought to be able to achieve, should society’s restrictions not stand in our way. Natasha Bird
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