7 Instagrammers Talk About the Most Influential Women in History
7 Instagrammers Talk About The Most Influential Women in History
And this is enough to get you all inspired to go change the world
Do you think there were inspirational women in the past before women got any rights and a say in society? You’d be surprised to know that there wasn’t just one but many women who have achieved groundbreaking accomplishments in their own right. Some women fought wars, others were mathematicians, some helped run entire countries. These are the women who make your heart swell with pride and assure you that you to can make your own mark in this world.
The best place to seek this motivation is none other than good old Instagram. There are many history fanatics who are on a mission to get these trailblazing yet forgotten women in history to you.
This March I asked them all a question- Who is the most inspirational woman in history, according to you? Here are their answers-
@women.ofhistory
Thanks for your question. too many influential women for me, but what I like most is Joan of Arc, because she was inspired, a French revolt against the occupation of the English. An unlikely hero, at the age of just 17, the diminutive Joan successfully led the French to victory at Orleans. She was a badass woman! 👏
'I am not afraid... I was born to do this.' -Joan of Arc #quotestoliveby #quoteoftheday http://giglee.in/instagrammers-talk-influential-women-history/ Click To TweetWho was Joan of Arc?
Joan of Arc was born somewhere in 1412 in the northeastern region of France known today as Domrémy-la-Pucelle with reference to her.
At a young age she claimed to hear God and voices urging her to participate in the long drawn out English-French war. She said God had told her to lead France into victory.
At a mere age of 17 she convinced King Charles of Valois to let her into battle with some troops. She had no experience or training in combat.
Joan reached the city of Orléans which was under siege by the English. Marching into battle, she came out victorious. The English were shocked to know that a woman who wasn’t trained in combat had defeated them.
She was caught shortly after by the English and burnt at stake at 19 years of age.
Her heroism though had spread far and wide. She was canonised in 1920 as the Maid of Orleans but her many have considered her a saint way before that.
https://instagram.com/p/Bb5pxKkl_tV/
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Building a fashion brand with Coco Chanel
Woman Behind the Benz- Bertha Benz
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@historysforgottenwomen
I would have to say Margaret Sanger. She was a pioneer of birth control in America. She campaigned against the censorship of material promoting birth control. She opened the first birth control clinic in America in 1916. She also established organisations which eventually became Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Her campaign is a significant reason why birth control and abortions are now safe and regulated in America. She also popularised the term ‘birth control’.
I admire her so much because she was prosecuted, risked imprisonment and even exiled herself to Britain for several years to escape. However, she did not let this stop her from campaigning for a cause she felt so strongly for. Without her determination and passion American women may not have the access to safe abortions they do today.
Also she was one of the inspirations for Wonder Woman which I love too haha:)
'Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.' -Margaret Sanger #quoteoftheday… Click To TweetWho was Margaret Sanger?
Margaret Louisa Higgins was born in 1879 in New York City. She became a nurse and worked as a obstetrical nurse in the Big Apple. During her stint there, Margaret saw the poverty, the threat of maternal mortality, infant mortality and abject sorrows as a result of unwanted pregnancies.
She dedicated her life to help fellow women make this important choice themselves. Margaret campaigned for the basic rights of a woman to choose. This was deemed outrageous and was an illegal act in many countries even in the 20th century.
After much stress and strife she managed to make people listen to her and has since then save countless lives.
https://instagram.com/p/BRT0ErvBw-b/
@historia.arte
What a difficult question. There are so many influential women and sadly silenced in history. Perhaps the most relevant for me was Tarsila do Amaral. My mother is Brazilian and when I lived in Brazil I always heard about her.
Tarsila was the woman who introduced Modernism in Brazil and is an icon of Brazilian culture. In fact, I’m reading about her for college and I had thought about putting some work on her in the blog.
'I invent everything in my paintings. And what I saw or felt, I stylize it' -Tarsila do Amaral #quoteoftheday http://giglee.in/instagrammers-talk-influential-women-history/ Click To TweetWho was Tarsila do Amaral?
Tarsila do Amaral is known in Brazil to have been a pioneer in modern art in the country. Born in a family of coffee plantation owners, she studied art in Paris. She learnt amongst some of the best teachers to be found. Tarsila tried to find her style of painting and finally found it in the city of lights.
Tarsila do Amaral is fondly referred to as Tarsila in Brazil where she remains a very prominent figurehead especially in the field of modern art.
https://instagram.com/p/BgEJ0q1AZ1T/
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Scaling the unscalable peaks- Junko Tabei
Soaring around the world- Amelia Earhart
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@ladies.in.war
It’s hard to choose one, I wanted to choose one before I answer your message but it’s hard. Irene Sendlerowa because of her great big heart. Roza Georgiyevna Shanina when I read her dairy! When i read “Nobody needs me” I cried.
I think these two… I wish I was as good as Irene… and as brave as Roza
'Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory.' ― Irena Sendler #quoteoftheday http://giglee.in/instagrammers-talk-influential-women-history/ Click To TweetWho was Irene Sendlerowa?
Irene Sendlerowa was a Polish nurse in the WW2. She is known to have successfully smuggled approximately 2,500 Jewish Children and saved them from the Holocaust. No other individual has saved more lives than her during these dark times.
She created false identities and saw to the safe passage of the children. She must have been but 30 years of age at the time. Later in her life, she was awarded Poland’s highest honour- Order of the White Eagle. You must know that anyone aiding the Jewish would be shot dead in Poland according to Nazi rules.
Who was Roza Georgiyevna Shanina?
Roza Georgiyevna Shanina was a soviet snipper and the very best of them. She is known to have successfully killed 59 times all by the age of 20. She was a braveheart indeed. @ladies.in.war has posted some snippets from Roza’s diary which are indeed heart wrenching and courageous.
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Woman With a Knack for Crime- Agatha Christie
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@womenadventurers
Hey! Here’s an important women in history, to me:
Nature writer Nan Shepherd, (1893–1981), Scotland
Novelist, poet, and hill walker Nan Shepherd wrote the non-fiction book “The Living Mountain” — an exceptional, 80-page ode to the Cairngorms. And unlike typical mountain literature, where the focus is the summit, Shepherd reasoned that we walk not up mountains, but into them.
She also believed that we’d be better to abandon the notion of the summit as the goal, and instead focus on what she called the ‘total mountain’ — the hope just to be in its company, to sleep high, wander, explore, pry into its hidden corners, to, as she put it, become “a peerer into nooks and crannies.”
'Am I such a slave as that? Dependent on a man to complete me! I thought I couldn't be anything without him- I can be my own creator!' ― Nan Shepherd, The Quarry Wood #quoteoftheday… Click To Tweet
Seems like there is a lot to learn from this short passage by Nan Shepherd. Every life, goal is about the journey and not just the ultimate destination. There are many beautiful things to see, experience and learn from, won’t you agree?
https://instagram.com/p/BTZXBbrh2mx/
@virasatehindfoundation
Zehra Chhapiwala of the Virasat-E-Hind Foundation says in her article that there are plenty women in Indian history who exemplify women power. When I asked her to pick one, she shortlisted three women- Nur Jahan, Ahilyabai Holkar and Begum Samru.
'That wrist which has ability, intelligence and tact can become a secular, democratic Monarch' -Ahilyabai Holkar #quoteoftheday http://giglee.in/instagrammers-talk-influential-women-history/ Click To TweetWhy are they influential according to her?
Because they were good administrators. They thought about the welfare of the people and promoted art and architecture instead of fighting wars and amassing territories. They stabilised the economy … they were not driven by false pride but a genuine concern for welfare of their subjects.
Bhopal owes its identity to the Begums and their rule.
Nur Jahan broke conventions and stood tall among men when women were relegated to a role in the Zenana only. She promoted art, literature, poetry, painting and gardens and architecture at a time when all Mughals could think of was supreme rule over India! She minted coins, changed and drafted policies, oversaw constructions, introduced new design ideas, increased trade, stabilised foreign relations. A very talented woman!
She is influential because she did what no women in the annals of Mughal history could even dream of doing nor anyone did!
Roshanara (Olive Caddock, Anglo-Indian dancer) and Jahanara Begum Sahib (daughter of Shah Jahan) have many architectural achievements to their credit too but they had no say in administration or policymaking.
https://instagram.com/p/Bf7DNslgtzL/
@british.history
@british.history claims Jane Franklin, Clementine Churchill, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Queen Victoria and Abigail Adams to be his favourite and most influential women in history. And to pick out one- it would be Jane Franklin. When I asked him why, he gave me this long answer, a wonderful account of Jane Franklin’s life that made me realise what an independent focused go-getter she was.
'Do the right thing with Spirit.' -Jane Franklin #quoteoftheday http://giglee.in/instagrammers-talk-influential-women-history/ Click To TweetJane Franklin
In 1836, her husband was appointed lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). Lady Franklin took an interest in the colony and did a good deal of exploring. In 1839, she became the first European woman to travel overland between Port Phillip and Sydney. (Her husband was the famous Sir John Franklin who got lost in 1843 while looking in the arctic for a northwest passage to China).
She encouraged the founding of secondary schools for boys and girls, botanical and art galleries and in 1842, she and her attendant, Christiana Stewart, were the first European women to travel overland from Hobart to Macquarie Harbour.
She had much correspondence with Elizabeth Fry about the female convicts of Australia, and did what she could to ameliorate them.
In 1842, she commissioned a classical temple, intending the building to serve as a museum for Hobart (Capital of Tasmania), and left 400 acres in trust to ensure the continuance of what she hoped would become the focus of the colony’s cultural aspirations.
Her husband started on his last voyage in May 1845, and when it was realised that he must have come to disaster, Lady Franklin devoted herself for many years to trying to ascertain his fate.
Until shortly before her own death, Lady Franklin travelled extensively, generally accompanied by her husband’s niece Sophia Cracroft, who remained her secretary and companion until her death. Lady Franklin travelled to the Shetland Islands of Scotland, the northernmost of the British isles, to get as close as she could to her missing husband.
She sponsored seven expeditions to find her husband by the explorers Charles Forsyth, William Kennedy, Edward Inglefield, Francis Leopold McClintock, and Allen Young.
Her efforts made the expedition’s fate one of the most vexed questions of the century. Ultimately evidence was found by Francis McClintock in 1859 that Sir John had died twelve years previously in 1847. Prior accounts had suggested that, in the end, the expedition had turned to cannibalism to survive but Lady Franklin refused to believe these stories. She poured scorn on explorer John Rae, who had in fact been the first person to return with definite news of her husband’s fate and that she had for a decade search in vein as a widow.
The popularity of her in the Australian colonies was such that when it was learned in 1852 that Lady Franklin was organising an expedition in search of her husband, subscriptions were taken up and those in Van Diemen (Tasmania) alone totalled £1,671.
Although McClintock had found conclusive evidence that Sir John Franklin was dead, Lady Franklin remained convinced that their written records might remain buried in a cache in the Arctic. She provided moral and financial support for later expeditions that planned to seek the records, including those of William Snow and Charles Francis Hall in the 1860s.
Finally, in 1874 she joined forces with Allen Young to purchase and fit out the former steam gunboat HMS Pandora to undertake another expedition to the region around Prince of Wales Island. The expedition left London in June 1875, and returned in December, unsuccessful, as ice prevented her from passing west of the Franklin Strait.
She died on 18 July 1875, her funeral being attended by many dozens of arctic explorers.
Her determined efforts, in connection with which she spent a great deal of her own money to discover the fate of her husband, added much to the world’s knowledge of the arctic regions. It was said: ‘What the nation would not do, a woman did’.
In addition, as one of the earliest women in Tasmania who had had the full benefit of education and cultural surroundings, she was both an example and a force, and set a new standard in ways of living to the more prosperous settlers who had passed the stage of merely struggling for a living.
https://instagram.com/p/BfoPapEBaGe/
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Brave heart and a lioness- Rani Laxmibai
With Deeds not Words- Emmeline Pankhurst
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History has seen so many women from different walks of life, some known others hidden between the lines of our textbooks. I have learnt a lot of new names because of this little question- Which woman influences you the most from history? How about you, who is your most influential woman in history?
As for me I say it is Jijabai, Shivaji Maharaj’s mother. She was the driving force behind Swarajya. She fulfilled her mission and achieved her dream, I believe if she could have, she would’ve marched into battle herself and won freedom.
The second most influential women would be Emmeline Pankhurst and her fellow Suffragettes.
https://instagram.com/p/BRP7x9GhTEo/
Concluding this ultra long article, I ask you to respect, honour and help women thrive, give one wings the change will show itself, even if you empower just you.
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