Leah Gail - Extraordinary Women In History: 70 Remarkable Women Who Made a Difference, Inspired & Broke Barriers

EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN IN HISTORY

70 Remarkable Women Who Made a Difference, Inspired & Broke Barriers

LEAH GAIL

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Throughout history, women have been quietly changing the world with their brilliant, curious minds; beautiful, creative souls; and courageous, passionate hearts. Now the time has come to tell their stories and celebrate these women, who often went uncelebrated, but fought, created, and adventured nonetheless, to lead us where we are today.

In exploring the influential impact of women, the most awe-inspiring feature is the audacity with which women embarked on their journey, often ignoring the cultural and religious norms for women of their time, to leave their marks in multiple ways. These intrepid women were pioneers of science, forerunners of various movements, and harbingers of productivity and creativity. Their unwavering attitude, often in the face of injustice and other barriers, helped them pave their way.

This book aims to forever seal womens awe-inspiring achievements throughout history on the hearts of the world. Each chapter focuses on a particular area where women have made contributions using their unique personal talents, be it traveling, exploring the world, traversing the skies, fighting for womens rights, inciting political or other social movements, producing prolific literature, stepping into leadership roles, participating in military service, or pioneering inventions and discoveries.

Further, the book offers a compilation of the genius of women, their struggles and efforts in pursuing their goals, their determination to stand against stiff competition, and their admirable quality of advancing in the fulfillment of their goals.

Our desire is for it to be an inspirational piece for people of every age, gender, race, creed, or color, living in any part of the world. May it stir the dormant capabilities of you, the reader, provide encouragement in furthering your target goals, reinforce your belief in the attainment of what may seem as unobtainable, and exemplify what we should all strive for in the contemporary world.

CHAPTER 1

The Suffragette of Sport

Pushed for the Inclusion of Womens Events at the Olympic Games

Known to be the pioneer of womens sports in France and around the world, Alice Milliat devoted herself to sports from a young age. A swimmer, hockey player, and rower, who founded the Fdration Sportive Fminine Internationale (FSFI) in 1921, Milliat was a leading figure in the international movement for womens sports during the 1920s and 1930s. She was a tenacious and strong-willed visionary who highlighted the importance of womens sports.

Her greatest accomplishment was founding an alternative Olympic Games for women. The Olympic Games introduced by Pierre de Coubertin in 1884 were sexist and classist, giving the privilege of participation to upperclassmen only. Men considered that women were the weak members of society, like the elderly and the children, and sports were too aggressive for them. On these irrational grounds, the 1896 Olympic Games were not open to women. During the 1900 Games, women were allowed to partake, but only in a few sports such as golf and tennis; participation in track events was still not permitted. This was their way of including women in the Olympic movement, and Alice certainly did not support this.

Milliat raised her voice against this perspicuous discrimination. She pushed for the inclusion of womens events in the Olympic Games. She believed that sports gave women confidence and strength of character and nurtured their personalities. Being a bold and fierce woman who would not surrender to the misogynistic wishes of men, she took an unwavering stance for womanhood.

Milliat and her peers created FSFI, which gave birth to the first Womens Games in 1921. She became the president of FSFI and took it upon herself to build an international platform for female athletes. The FSFI decided to hold a Womens Olympic Games, which would include all sports, rather than the restricted number allowed to women in the official Olympics held by Pierre de Coubertin back then.

In 1922, thirty-eight countries from five continents were affiliated with FSFI, and it was decided to hold the Womens Olympic Games every four years. In August 1922, the first Womens Olympics were conducted at Stade Pershing in Paris. These games featured five teams, including the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia, as well as the host country, France. Eleven athletic events were conducted, which drew a crowd of twenty thousand people. Although it was hard to organize all these events with the dwindling funds they had, Millat pulled through.

Between 1922 and 1934, FSFI conducted four events of Womens Olympics, which showcased many talented female athletes and provided them the platform necessary to exhibit their talent. In the Paris Games in 1924, fifteen thousand people came to watch. All this could not have been accomplished without Milliat, who also came to be known as the Suffragette of Sport. She faced hardships and tribulations so other female athletes could reveal their full potential. At times, the media also equated the efforts of Milliat to Pierre de Coubertins.

Milliat led a fifteen-year international campaign for the development of womens sports. The fact remains that in the 1920s and 1930s, Milliat, her peers, and FSFI promoted womens sports more than the IOC or the International Association of Athletics Federations IAAF ever had. No doubt, Milliat was a woman possessing qualities of integrity, valor, strong will, and devotion, and she successfully directed her exceptional potential toward the cause of womens emancipation in the arena of sports.

Queen Bess

The First African American and the First Native American Woman Civil Aviator

Bessie Coleman was the first African American and the first Native American woman civil aviator, who inspired black women that were oppressed by the internalized misogyny and oppression prevailing at that time. She motivated women and gave speeches to them, encouraging them to pursue and achieve their dreams. Coleman earned several nicknames, Brave Bessie, Queen Bess, and the Only Race Aviatrix in the World, owing to her courage in standing up against gender and racial discrimination.