There have been many influential women throughout history. Even though women's history has been mostly overlooked or even forgotten over the centuries, many women have made huge impacts on society through activism, art, politics, and leadership.
Here are some of the most influential women in history.
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst was part the British women’s suffrage movement in the late 19th and early 20th century. She was the leader of the Women's Franchise League and later the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she fought for women’s right to vote in the United Kingdom. The WSPU's motto was “Deeds, not words” and the group used vandalism, violent protest, and arson as a way of achieving change.
Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi, of the Manchu Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese noblewoman, concubine to Emperor Xianfeng and later advisor who effectively controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing dynasty for 47 years, from 1861 until her death in 1908. Textbooks blame her unchecked thievery for the country's failures, but historians progressively say she was a strong leader who was gangster-like cunning.
Rosa Parks
During the 1950s, The United States society was largely segregated between Black and white people, including public transport. On December 1, 1955, seamstress Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, for which she was arrested. In response, Parks activated the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) to boycott buses and attract national attention to cruel discrimination laws in the Southern states.
After effectively challenging the law and segregation was declared unlawful by the courts, Parks continued as an important voice and symbol of courage in the civil rights movement. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo spent much of her early life immobilized and in unbearable pain. She developed polio at a young age and was involved in a terrible bus accident when she was only 18 years old. However, it was during her long recovery that Kahlo found her love of art, she developed her unique style that became recognizable around the world.
In 1922, she was among only 35 girls to enroll in Mexico City's National Preparatory School, where she became involved in the school's political and artistic groups. Her political awakening included a passion for Mexican identity, which greatly influenced her art. She voiced concern for her country as it struggled for an independent cultural identity.
Kamala Harris
In 2021, Kamala Harris made history when she became vice president of the United States. She is the first woman, the first Black person and the first Asian American to hold the nation’s second-highest office. She grew up during the 1960s civil rights era. Harris chose a career as a lawyer. She began as a law assistant before being elected attorney general of California in 2010. She specialized in prosecuting child sexual assault cases, and as California’s attorney general fought for foreclosure settlements and against predatory for-profit education.
Harris ran for the Senate in 2016 and was the first Indian American and only the second Black woman to be elected to the Senate. In 2019 she ran for the Democratic Party nomination for president and, after dropping out, was picked as Joe Biden’s running mate. They went on to win the election in November 2020, making Harris the highest-ranking elected female official in U.S. history.
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was an actor, dancer, and journalist. She is recognized as one of the most important figures in modern American literature. Due to childhood sexual abuse and trauma, Angelou became unable to speak for several years. Later, she found her voice through her writing. As an adult, she became involved in the civil rights movement and befriended both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. In 1969 Angelou published her most famous work, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." The fictionalized autobiography described her experience as a young black woman in America. The book was acknowledged for its revolutionary style, beginning Angelou's career as a bestselling author of several books and poems.
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