Ordinary Women: Daring to Defy History

Once dubbed one of the most dangerous people in America by J. Edgar Hoover, activist and speaker Emma Goldman defied history with her revolutionary support for labor rights, women’s rights and “everyone’s right to beautiful radiant things.”

In 10th century Japan, literary prodigy Murasaki Shikibu wrote the first modern novel at a time when women’s names were rarely even written down.

One of the most famous and feared pirates who ever lived was Ching Shih, a young Cantonese woman who became the ruler of one of the largest pirate fleets in history, and the mastermind behind a floating criminal empire so powerful that even the Chinese military couldn’t stop it.

Few stories are as dramatic as that of of Ida B. Wells, a woman who was born a slave in Mississippi in the midst of the Civil War, and became a daring investigative reporter and civil rights crusader who would one day be called the “loudest and most persistent voice for truth” in an era of injustice.

A mathematical genius and pioneer of computer science, Ada Lovelace was not only the created the very first computer program in the mid-1800s but also foresaw the digital future more than a hundred years to come.