Who was the first fully accredited female doctor?

Elizabeth Blackwell, the first fully accredited female doctor, defied societal expectations of women when she decided to pursue a medical degree in the 1840’s. The idea that women should receive a medical education was radical as Noah Webster suggests women should be “correct in their manners, respectable in their families and agreeable in society”, in addition to that “education is always wrong which raises a woman above the duties of her station.”

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Who was the first woman staff member at Harper’s Weekly?

Elizabeth Shippen Green, the first woman to become a staff member at Harper’s Weekly, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and later at the Drexel Institute. As a high school student, Green submitted illustrations to newspapers and periodicals. Green’s father, an illustrator himself, encouraged her to pursue art as a career and it was not until after college did Green receive her first commission of fifty cents from The Philadelphia Times. Despite the lack of compensation, Green took gratification in the fact that her illustration had been published.

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Who was one of the leading cultural anthropologists of the 20th Century?

Margaret Mead, one of preeminent anthropologists of the 20th Century, believed that through the study of other cultures people could better understand themselves. As a doctoral student at Columbia University, Mead traveled to American Samoa to pursue fieldwork focusing on adolescent girls. Her studies culminated in her published work Coming of Age in Samoa, which presented the idea that an individual’s early stages of life could be influenced by cultural expectations. Mead also completed fieldwork on Manus Island in New Guinea, publishing Growing up in New Guinea.

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Who was the first woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics?

At the 1960 Rome Olympics, Wilma Rudolph won three gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4 x 100 meter relay, making her the fastest woman in the world at the time. In addition to her medal sweeping performance in Rome, Rudolph won a bronze medal in the relay at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, at the tender age of 16.

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Who was one of the leading female public intellectuals in the 19th Century?

Jane Austen, a keen observer of human nature, continues to influence the public with her analytical, witty, and satirical novels portraying the complexities of human relationships. Austen found a home within her father’s library of 500 books, which sparked her interest in literature. She began writing novels at 15 and by 23 completed the written works of Northanger Abby, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice.

Austen’s novels to a degree reflect her own personal struggles as a woman in 19th Century England. As someone who planned to marry a wealthy brother of a close friend, for whom she had no affection, a major theme in Austen’s novels centered around the fact that marriage was a woman’s only option for social mobility. Austen has written over six completed novels, including Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion.

Click here to read more about Jane Austen and her novels, which have become literary classics.

Who was one of the first African American women to help form the NAACP?

Ida B. Wells was a fierce proponent of racial and gender equality whose journey for justice stemmed from her own experiences growing up in the Deep South in Mississippi. Wells came of age after the Civil War when the 1875 Civil Rights Act was instated to ban racial discrimination in public places. In spite of this law, public and private companies strongly opposed the act and continued to pursue a policy of racial segregation.

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Who is the first female to be elected as an African head of state?

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who in 2005 was elected as Liberia’s President, is also the first African female head of state. Johnson-Sirleaf, raised in Monrovia, received a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard and went on to pursue a sporadic career in Liberian politics following Samuel Doe’s usurpation of governmental power. She campaigned in opposition to Doe’s military rule and was imprisoned for her actions. Johnson-Sirleaf took positions at the UN and World Bank before she challenged Charles Taylor for the Liberian presidency in 1997. Taylor was convicted of war crimes by the UN and coerced out, providing Johnson-Sirleaf with the opportunity to run for office.

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