Women
Berenice Abbott
📷 Photography
💡 Inventor
- Studied sculpture & theater in Paris
- Took portraits of people in the arts & literary worlds like Jean Cocteau & James Joyce
- Was an apprentice to Man Ray
- Preserved the works of Eugene Atget
- Documented changes in NY through pictures
- Travelled US 1 from Florida to Maine taking over 2500 pictures of antebellum architecture & automobile related architecture
- Invented a distortion enlarging easel & the telescopic lighting pole (now called autopole)
- Produced photos for a physics textbook
- Held 4 patents
Born: 1898
Country: USA
Education: 2 semesters at Ohio State University; Academie de la Grande Chaumiere; Prussin Academy of Arts
Eleanor Reynolds Abbott
💡 Inventor
- Inventor of Candy Land
- Original game featured a boy in a leg brace because braces were common apparatuses for polio patients
- She created the game to entertain children in the hospital ward she was in who had polio like her; the game was meant to distract them from their pain
- she donated all the money she received from the game to charities dedicated to serving children in need
- the game was inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 2005
- she contracted polio at age 36
- she scratched out the original game on butcher paper
- she sold the game to Milton Bradley & it went on sale in time for Christmas 1949
- almost nothing is known about her life except for her illness, hospital stay & creation of Candy Land
Born: 1910
Country: Canada
Education: Unknown
![Photo of Isabella "Izzie" Aiona Abbott](/women_pictures/Abbott_Isabella "Izzie" Aiona.png)
Isabella "Izzie" Aiona Abbott
📚 educator
🔍 phycologist
🔍 and ethnobotanist
- born as Isabella Kauakea Yau Yung Aiona
- first native Hawaiian woman to receive a PhD in science
- leading expert on Pacific marine algae
- her Hawaiian name means "white rain of Hana" and she was known as "Izzy"
- was the only girl and second youngest in a family of eight siblings
- 1966 became a research associate and taught as a lecturer at Hopkins Marine Station run by Stanford University from 1960-1982
- 1972 was promoted to full professor of Biology, where she was the first woman and first person of color in this position
- 1982 she & her husband retired, returned to Hawaii where she was hired by the University of Hawaii to teach ethnobotany
- her nickname is "First Lady of Limu" (limu means seaweed in Hawaiian)
- several species of algae are named after her, including the Rhodomelaceae family (red algae) genus of Abbottella
- Board of Regents of the University of Hawaiʻi unanimously voted to rename the Life Sciences Building after Abbott in 2023
- her culinary prowess with kelp was featured in Gourmet in 1987
- was among the first scientists to recognize how marine environments rely on healthy seaweed forests
- proudly displayed a Hawaiian flag quilt made by her grandmother on her dining room wall (the heirloom was made by her grandmother in defiance because it was during a time when the flag’s display was banned following the overthrow of the Native Hawaiian government in 1893)
- in high school was known to be a ‘walking dictionary’
- wrote numerous recipes for cooking with kelp and other seaweeds
- frequently brought dishes that used various seaweeds as an ingredient to potlucks and picnics at Hopkins
- allowed her graduate students to explore their own research interests, rather than insisting they work on her topics
- relied heavily on oral histories, often crediting elders in her work, to preserve what was quickly diminishing ocean knowledge
- battled breast cancer
- christened a new alga species hiʻialakaiana; translation: embracing or searching the pathways of the sea
- played an active role in preserving and promoting Hawaiian culture and language, working to document and classify the traditional uses of Hawaiian plants and advocating for the recognition of Hawaiian as an official language
Born: 1919
Country: Maui, HI
Education: University of Hawaii at Mānoa AB Botany 1941; University of Michigan MS Botany 1942; University of California, Berkeley PhD Botany 1950
Faye Glenn Abdellah
⚕️ Nursing
- 1st nurse to hold the rank of Rear Admiral in the US Navy; developed the 1st tested coronary care unit; helped change the focus of nursing from disease-centered to patient-centered; her Patient Assessment of Care Evaluation method to evaluate health care is now the national standard; founded the Graduate School of Nursing at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
- Korean War veteran
- in frustration over the lack of scientific basis in the National League of Nursing guidlines she burned a stack of curriculum guides in the courtyard at Yale University while working there; it took her 1 year to pay for the destroyed books
- has received over 50 academic awards & recognitions
- her theory identified 10 steps to identify a patient's problem & 11 nursing skills used to develop a treatment typology (for a list of both sets of steps see nursing-theory.org/nursing-theorists/Faye-Abellah.phys)
- her only sibling (an older brother) died of pancreatic cancer after a 5-year tour of duty in the Philippine Islands during WWII where he & others were exposed to a highly toxic water supply
- decided to be a nurse after witnessing the explosion of the Hindenburg when she was 18 & feeling helpless at her inability to help others
- her BS focused on sciences like physiology & chemistry whuile her MA & PhD focused on education
- worked at the Public Health Service 40 years
- a collection of her papers is at the National Library of Medicine
Born: 1919
Country: USA
Education: Fitkin Memorial Hospital (now Ann May School of Nursing) RN; Douglass Residential College of Rutgers University; Teacher's college at Columbia University BS, MA & PhD Educational Psychology
Rediet Abebe
💻 Computer Science
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
- 1st female & Black computer scientist appointed to the Harvard Society of Fellows
- Founded MD4SG & Black in AI
- Born & raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; left for educational purposes
- Developes techniques in AI & algorithms with a focus on inequality & distributive justice
- 1st Black female professor in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science Dept at UC Berkeley
Born: 1991
Country: Ethiopia
Education: Cornell University (Ph.D., M.S.)University of Cambridge (M.A.)Harvard University (M.S., B.A.)
Charlotte Abrams
💡 Inventor
- Charlotte Abrams-when she was 14 (about 3 years ago) a family member had a mastectomy & Charlotte observed how difficult it was for this woman to ride in a car. She designed & made the 1st Post-Op Supportive Hug (POSH) Pillow. It is designed to be placed across the chest & held together by a seatbelt. Charlotte holds workshops to show how to make the pillow & a free pattern is downloadable at the POSH Pillow Project. The workshops & pillows are all free & she is funded through a GoFundMe account.
Born: 2005
Country: USA
Education: Freshman at Amherst College
Wendy Abrams
✊ Environmental Activist
- is an Adjunct Professor at USC’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
- was a Producer of several documentaries, including “Years of Living Dangerously” and Apple TV’s five part series, “Visible: Out on T.V.
- is a principal of Medline Industries, Inc., a global manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies
- the inaugural Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet exhibit opened in Chicago in 2007 and has since traveled to three continents
- 2015, Cool Globes launched a campus activist initiative, KNOW TOMORROW, with the goal of amplifying the voices of youth speaking out on climate change
- serves on the Leadership Council for Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and has participated in delegations to Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic
- trustee for Waterkeeper Alliance, the Center for American Progress Action Fund, and the Amy Krouse Rosenthal Foundation
- founding partner of The Earthshot Prize, in partnership with the Royal Foundation
Born: 1965
Country: USA
Education: Brown University BA 1987; Kellogg School of Management MBA 1990
Lilia Ann Abron
⚛️ Chemical Engineering
⚛️ Environmental Engineering
- 1st Black female to earn a PhD in chemical engineering
- Born prematurely at home in Memphis, TN & taken by cab to hospital because ambulances weren't available to Blacks in Memphis at the time
- Was a girl scout & sang in her church choir
- Founder of PEER in US & Africa; goal is to solve environmental problems in providing sustainable housing to the poor
- Her company provides financial support to science fair participants
Born: 1945
Country: USA
Education: LeMoyne-Owen College BS Chemistry 1966; Washington University, St. Louis MS Environmental Engineering 1968; University of Iowa PhD Chemical Engineering 1972
Bella Savitzky Abzug
⚖️ Lawyer
🏛️ Politician
✊ Activist
- a leading figure in what came to be known as eco-feminism
- first campaign slogan was, "This woman's place is in the House—the House of Representatives."
- even in her youth, she was competitive
- ran the cash register at her father's deli as a young girl
- through high school she took violin lessons
- was admitted to the New York Bar in 1945
- nickname was Battling Bella
- took violin lessons throughout high school
- as a lawyer specialized in labor rights, tenants' rights, and civil liberties cases
- was an outspoken advocate of liberal causes, including the Equal Rights Amendment, and opposition to the Vietnam War as well as the military draft
- worked for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Civil Rights Congress
- was a participant in Women Strike for Peace
- was one of the first members of Congress to support gay rights, introducing the first federal gay rights bill, known as the Equality Act of 1974, with fellow Democratic New York City representative Ed Koch (later Mayor of NYC)
- was frequently verbally abusive toward staff members
- was known for her colorful and vibrant hats, and was seldom seen without one
- traveled in a wheelchair during her final years
- battled breast cancer for several years
- died from complications following open heart surgery
- applied to the Harvard Law School but she was rejected because of her gender
- was editor of the Columbia Law Review
- defended many people who had been accused of communist activities by Senator Joseph McCarthy
- she ate macrobiotically, swam regularly, and played poker
- her campaign offices almost always featured day care
- liked to say she was “born yelling,”
Born: 1920
Country: USA
Education: Hunter College BA Political Science 1942; Columbia University LLB 1944; Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Victorine Quille Adams
📚 Educator
🏛️ Politician
- owner of a clothing store for women, the Charm Center, the only black owned and operated clothing store for women in Baltimore
- taught a six-week course called Project Beauty and Charm which taught women and girls how to improve their charm, grace, and self-esteem
- 1967 1st Black woman to serve on Baltimore's City Council serving 4 terms until retiring in 1983
- worked as a teacher in Baltimore for 14 years before entering politics
- husband William L. "Little Willie" Adams got rich through running numbers before becoming a legitimate businessman & power broker
- the National Council of Negro Women (NCONW) campaigned for equity within the military during WWII
- formed the Fuel Fund after an elderly couple in her district froze to death & several fatal fires were started by people who were using flammable alternative fuel sources
- a vegetable garden & community space in Baltimore was founded in 2008 & bears her name
Born: 1912
Country: USA
Education: Morgan State College (now University) BS Social Work 1940; Coppin Teachers College (now Coppin State University
Abigail Adams
💰 Finance
- Told the founding fathers to "remember the ladies" when making new laws
- Received no formal schooling, was self-taught
- As her husband, John Adams, became more active in politics & helping form the new nation, she took on the full responsibility of raising their 5 children & managing their farm outside of Boston
- During a time when women weren't allowed to own property & all fiamily financial decisions were made by the men, she handled the family finances & made investment decisions, making her the reportedly 1st female investor in the colonies
- While her husband wanted to invest in farmland, she felt US government bonds were a wiser choice & invested the famikly money in them
- Was the 1st First Lady to live in the White House
- 1775, was appointed to the Massachusetts Colony General Court
Born: 1744
Country: USA
Education: None-self-taught
Rebecca Adamson
💰 Economics
💼 Businesswoman
- left college in 1970 to work on western reservations to help end the practice of removing Native American children from their homes and placing them in government or missionary-ran boarding schools in the hope of destroying their connections to their native languages and cultures
- her work contributed to the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975
- writes a monthly column for Indian Country Today newspaper
- her first five years at the Coalition of Indian Controlled Schools were spent in and out of jail until the Indian Self Determination and Education Act was passed in 1975 making Indian self-determination legal
- spent her childhood summers with her maternal grandmother in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina
- is of Cherokee descent
- 1970 dropped out of the University of Akron
- studied philosophy at the University of Akron (no degree)
- took courses in law and economics at Piedmont College in Georgia
Born: 1950 or 1949
Country: USA
Education: Southern New Hampshire University MS Economic Development
Jane Addams
🔍 Sociology
🔍 Public Administration
- Leader in social work & women's suffrage
- Co-founder of Hull House in Chicago
- 1st person to receive an honorary degree (MA) from Yale University
- 1931, 1st American female recipient of Nobel Peace Prize
- At age 4, developed Potts disease (TB of the spine) which caused curvature of the spine & lifelong health problems
- Part of the 1st wave of American females to receive a college education
- Believed art was an important element of education 1901, founded what would ultimately become the Juvenile Probation Association, providing probation officers for Juvenile Court
Born: 1860
Country: USA
Education: 1881, graduated valedictorian Rockford Female Seminary, awarded Bachelors following year; 1910, received first honorary degree ever awarded to a female from Yale University
Aglaonica Aglaonica
🔭 Astronomy
- 1st or 2nd century Greek astronomer who studied the moon's cyclical patterns & predicted lunar eclipses; also known as Aganice of Thessaly the 1st female astronomer of ancient Greece; was considered a thaumaturge-a magician with the ability to perform miracles by making the moon disappear (now seen as her ability to predict lunar eclipses) was mentioned in the writings of Plutarch & in the scholia to Apollonius of rhodes as a female astronomer & the daughter of Hegetor (or Hegemon) of Thessaly; her followers were known as the "Witches of Thessaly" & were active between the 1st & 3rd centuries BCE; a Greek proverb used in reference to braggarts translates to "Yes, as the moon obeys Aglaonice"
Born: 1st or 2nd century BCE
Country: Greece
Education: Unknown
Alice Merner Agogino
⚛️ Mechanical Engineering
- worked in the technical industry at Dow Chemical & GE before turning to research & academia; was instrumental in getting more women & minorities into engineering; has written or co-written over 438 articles see scholar.google.com/citations?user=G-xTgkgAAAAJ for a complete list
Born: 1952
Country: USA
Education: University of New Mexico BS Mechanical Engineering 1975; UC Berkeley MS Mechanical Engineering 1978; Stanford University PhD Engineering-Economic Systems & Engineering Management 1984
Julie Aigner-Clark
📚 Educator
💡 Inventor
🔍 Enrepreneur
- is a former English & art teacher & as a stay-at-home mom wanted to expose her children to classical music, poetry, colors, shapes, and more so she created I Think I Can Productions which evolved into Baby Einstein
- 2004 diagnosed with breast cancer twice but is now cancer-free
- after winning her cancer battle wrote a children's book published by Harper Collins called You Are The Best Medicine in 2010
- was recognized by George W. Bush in the 2007 State of the Union Address
- has appeared on TV shows including Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and The View, along with feature articles in USA Today
Born: 1966 or 1967
Country: USA
Education: Michigan State University BA English Literature & Secondary Education 1988; Trinity College-Hartford MA English Language & Literature/Letters 1991; University of London English Language & Literature/Letters
Joanna Aizenberg
🔬 Chemistry
- Pioneer in field of biomimetic inorganic materials
- was a recurring winner of mathematics Olympiads
- 2013 appeared on an episode of NOVA8Holds approximately 90 patents (66 found)
Born: 1960
Country: Russia
Education: Moscow State University BS Chemistry 1981 & MS Physical Chemistry 1984; Weitzmann Institute of Science PhD Structural biology 1996
Reka Z. Albert
⚛️ Physics
🔬 Biology
🔬 Network Science
- Professor of Physics & adjunct Professor of Biology at Pennsylvania State University
Born: 1972
Country: Romania
Education: Universitatea Babes-Bolyai din Cluj-Napoca BS 1995 & MS 1996; University of Notre Dame PhD 2001; Postdoc research in Mathematical Biology at the University of Minnesota
Madelaine (born Marie Jana Korbelova Albright
💰 Finance
🏛️ Politics
- Immigrated to the US in 1948, became a US citizen in 1957
- Was an aide to Senator Edmund Muskie 1976-78
- Helped assemble President Clinton's National Security council after 1992 Presidential election
- 1997, reported her parents never informed her or her siblings of their Jewish heritage, they converted to Catholicism during WWIIParents originally taught her at home so she wouldn't be exposed to communist teachings in Prague, 1st attended school in Switzerland
- Changed her name to Madelaine after learning French
- Met her 1st husband when she was an intern at the Denver Post
- Worked as a picture editor at the Encyclopedia Britannica for 1 year (1960)
- 1st female Secretary of State
Born: 1937
Country: Czechoslovakia
Education: Wellesley College BA Political Science 1959; Columbia University MA, PhD 1975; Certificate in Russian from Russian Institute (now Harriman Institute)
Norma Arcelia Alcantar
⚛️ Chemical Engineering
- born & grew up in Mexico City, Mexico; credits her mother, Acrelia Alcantar, & her grandmother, Balbina Zamora, as the 2 forces who guided her life & career; grandmother was illiterate & Norma taught her how to read & write when she was middle-aged; spent lots of time with her grandmother while her mother was working helping her care for her over 300 birds & tending to her native medicinal plants; grandmother taught her that boiling nopals of prickly pear cactus in muddy water would purify the water; she later discovered it was the cactus mucilage that purified the water; used her water purification method in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake to purify water for the victims; also used the technique after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill; holds 23 patents
Born: Unknown
Country: Mexico
Education: BA Chemical Engineering 1993; UC Santa Barbara PhD Chemical Engineering 2000
Claudia Alexander
⚛️ Geophysics
🔬 Planetary Science
- Program manager for NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter
- Born & raised in Vancouver, BC
- Science coordinator for the plasma wave instrument aboard Galileo
- Oversaw trafficking & navigation support from NASA's Deep Space Network for Rosetta mission to study & land on comet 67P?Churyumov Gerasimenko
- Wrote children's books including some of the "Windows to Adventure" series
- Also wrote science fiction
Born: 1959
Country: Canada
Education: 1983, BA in Geophysics, University of California, Berkeley; 1985, MA in Geophysics & Space Physics, University of California, Los Angeles; 1993, PhD in Atmospheric, Oceanic & Space Sciences specializing in space plasma, University of Michigan
Hattie Elizabeth Alexander
🔍 Pediatrics
🔬 Microbiology
📚 Educator
- 1939, developed a serum that decreased infant mortality from meningitis to approximately 25% as opposed to the existing 100%
- 1964, 1st female to head a national medical association (President of American Pediatrics Society)
- 1st female recipient of the Oscar B. Hunter Award
- Developed the 1st effective remedy for Haemophilus influenzae infection
Born: 1901
Country: USA
Education: Goucher College BA Bacteriology & Physiology 1923; Johns Hopkins Medical School MD 1930
Anna Goldwater Alexander
🎨 Art Photograhy
- former director of photography at WIRED in San Francisco
- lives in Northern California with her husband, two teenagers, three cats, and Trout the dog
- is the granddaughter of politician & photographer Barry Goldwater
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: University of Arizona BFA Photography
Virginia Margaret Alexander
⚕️ Public Health
- both her parents were slaves
- mother died when she was 4
- 4th of 5 children born to her parents
- father lost his livery/riding academy when she was 13 due to the increase in automobiles
- she offered to drop out of school to help with family expenses but her father insisted she obrain a quality education
- waited tables, worked as a maid & clerk to pay her living expenses while she attended University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship
- couldn't get an internship in Philadelphia even from her own medical college because she was Black
- relocated to Kansas city where she & a colleague, Mae MacCarroll, became the 1st Black Female interns at Kansas city Colored Hospital
- returned to Philadelphia in 1927 where she began treating patients out of her own home
- described Aspiranto as an example of "socialized"medicine treating Black people who had experienced racism at other Philadelphia hospitals, often free of charge
- had a romantic relationship with W.E.B. du Bois in the 1930s
- her brother, Raymond Pace alexander, became a prominent civil rights attorney & later a judge & member of the Philadelphia City Council
- her pregnant patients were given a 2-week recuperative stay at Aspiranto after giving birth
- attended her 1st Quaker meeting in 1917 & although she experienced racial discrimination within the Quakers, remained one until her death
Born: 1899
Country: USA
Education: University of Pennsylvania BS Education 1920; Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania MD 1925; Yale University MS Public Health 1937
Annie Montague Alexander
🔍 Explorer
🔍 naturalist
🔍 paleontological collector
🔍 philanthropist
Annie Montague Alexander
🔍 Explorer
🔍 naturalist
🔍 paleontological collector
🔍 philanthropist
- During many of her expeditions, Alexander kept a scrapbook containing photos of landscapes, participants, and fossil finds
- collected nearly 7,000 specimens of birds, mammals, and amphibians for the museum
- collected over 17,000 plants for the University Herbarium and contributed thousands of fossils for the UCMP
- with her companion Louise Kellogg ran a working farm where they raised cattle but eventually switched to asparagus
- by the time of her death, had explored and collected in Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii, Vancouver Island, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico
- mostly remained anonymous in her donations to UC Berkeley & they were noted as given by "a friend of the university"
- used her money to expand public education in the hopes that all could appreciate California's wildlife for generations
- 18 varieties of living & fossil species & a lake in Alaska are named after her
- loved to be in the field collecting specimens & celebrated her 80th birthday while on an expedition to Baja CA
- her parents were from 2 of the Big Five corporations that were originally sugar plantation owner & dominated the economy of the Territory of Hawaii
- she lived on Maui until she was 15 & her parents moved the family to Oakland, CA
- 1888 studied painting & music in Paris until the detailed work caused her vison problems & headaches forcing her to quit
- she had the same problems when she studied nursing & had to quit that also
- 1893 went on a 1500-mile bicycle trip through Europe with her father, sister Martha & a cousin
- 1896 explored the South Pacific (Hong Kong, China, singapore, Java, Samoa, & New Zealand) with an uncle
- 1899 went camping in Oregon with friend Martha Beckwith & visited Crater Lakewhere she became interested in Paleontology& began auditing classes in it at Berkeley in 1900
- the MVZ is closed to the public & is for research purposes only
- was a crack shot
- refused an honorary degree from Berkeley & disliked having species named after her
- a monument stone on the campus of the University of Colorado reads: Annie Montague Alexander She found men a nuisance on her arduous field trips
Born: 1867
Country: USA
Education: Lasell Seminary for Young Women 1886
Svetlana Alexievich
- Nobel Prize Winner for Literature. Alexievich's books trace the emotional history of the Soviet and post-Soviet individual through carefully constructed collages of interviews. New form of historical fiction through interwoven interviews.
Maria Allen
💡 Inventor
- nothing is known about her except she began the 1st mass production of diapers in the US in 1887 & is often mistakenly credited with the invention of diapers
Born: Unknown
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Linda Marie Allen
🎨 Environmental Design
🎨 Interior Design
- Holds a patent for battery powered lamps
- Was a competitive figure skater; featured skater in an Ice Capades touring troupe
- 1996, worked for Earvin "Magic" Johnson as a consultant for his Magic Johnson Enterprises Beverly Hills offices
- Worked with Disney's Imagineering as a lead designer for custom light fixtures in their theme parks, including Tokyo Disney Seas & Disneyland's California Adventure
- Did stints on HGTV's Designing for the Sexes, You're Home, & Area
Born: 1961
Country: USA
Education: California State University in Long Beach, BS in Interior & Environmental Design
June Dalziel Almeida
🔍 Virology
- Brother died of diptheria when he was 6; possibly led to her interest in diseases
- Left school at age 16 (1947) to go to work to help parents pay bills
- 1985 took early retirement from Wellcome after second husband (Philip Gardner Married 1982) had a heart attack; trained as a yoga teacher & taught classes & helped Philip run an antique shop & repaired china
- Taught Albert Kapikian of NIH her IEM techniques & he used them to identify the Norovirus; Had a good sense of humor & wrote a satire of William Blake's poem with an apology to him: "Virus, virus shining bright, In the phosphotungstic night, What immortal hand or eye, Dare frame thy fivefold symmetry"
- Developed a strong passion for photography as a teenager
- Moved to Canada in 1956 with 1st husband (Enrique Rosalio Almeida known as Henry); returned to London in 1964 & divorced in 1967; raised her daughter as a single parent with the help of her parents; After the death of her second husband in 1994 taught herself computer skills & how to play the flute while embracing digital photography
Born: 1930
Country: Scotland
Education: University of London earned a DSc in 1971 & MS in 1970 on the basis of her publications & scientific contributions while working at the Ontario Cancer Institute (now Princess Margaret Cancer Center) & St. thomas Hospital Medical School (now part of King's college London); 1952 Technical Qualification, Institute of Medical Lab Technology (A.I.M.L.T.)
Marin Alsop
🎵 Music
- Began playiong the piano at age 2 & the violin at 5
- Both her parents were string musicians
- 2007 was 1 of 8 conductors of British orchestras to endorse the 10-year classical manifesto "Building on Excellence: Orchestras for the 21st Century" which called for the increased presence of classical music in the UK & giving all British schoolchildren free admission to a classical music concert; has been nominated for 4 Grammys & 1 Emmy
- her discography comprises over 200 titles
- The Conductor is a documentary of her life which premiered at the 2021 NY Tribeca Film Festival
- She was inspired to become a conductor by Leonard Bernstein; won a Bernstein Fellowship & ultimately was his student
Born: 1956
Country: USA
Education: Julliard School Pre-College Division 1972; originally attended Yale University as a Mathematics major but transferred to Juilliard in 1975 where she earned a BM 1977 & a MM 1978 both in the Violin
![Photo of Randice-Lisa "Randi" Altschul](/women_pictures/Altschul _Randice-Lisa "Randi".png)
Randice-Lisa "Randi" Altschul
💡 Inventor
💼 Entrepreneur
- millionaire by the age of 26
- her first successes were with toys and games
- her other successful toys & games included a Barbie's 30th Birthday Game, and a wearable stuffed toy that could give hugs under the control of the child who was wearing it
- invested a portion of her profits into super-thin technology
- has sold licensing rights to some 250 products over the past 35 years
- after losing her fortune via an unscrupulous financial adviser, she reinvented herself as a baby night nurse despite no prior experience with infants
- wanted to drop out of school after the first week of 7th grade because she was bored but instead the local school board provided a tutor for one hour each day after IQ testing determined a high IQ
- dropped out of Montclair State College after one semester & began inventing
- holds 64 patents
Born: 1960
Country: USA
Education: Montclair State College 1 semester
Lori Arviso Alvord
⚕️ Medicine - Traditional Healing Practices
- 1994 second Navajo woman to be board certified in surgery(until March 19, 2024 was believed to be the 1st but it was discovered Loretta Lynn Christensen who is 1/4 Navajo was certified 6 months before Alvord)
- was a 2013 nominee for U.S. Surgeon General
- her autobiography, is titled "The Scalpel and the Silver Bear" tells of her cultural journey from reservation to the operating room and of her work to combine traditional Navajo philosophies of healthcare with that of Western medicine
- is a member of the Tsinnajinnie' (Black Streaked Wood) clan (Ponderosa Pine), and of the Ashihii' Diné (Salt People) clan
- was associate dean for student affairs at Dartmouth Medical School as well as assistant professor of surgery and psychiatry at Dartmouth from 1997 to 2009
- today practices at Astria Toppenish Hospital in Toppenish, Washington state, which houses a Native American Spiritual Center in addition to state-of-the-art medical facilities
- played a major role in developing the Central Michigan University College of Medicine
Born: 1958
Country: USA
Education: Dartmouth College AB Psychology & Sociology 1979; University of New Mexico Pre-med classes; Stanford University School of Medicine 1985
Blanche Ames Ames
🔍 Botanical Illustrator
🎨 Artist
🔍 Suffragette
💡 Inventor
- designed and created plans for many of the dams and ponds surrounding her home at Borderland
- worked on ways to breed a more disease-resistant turkey
- was president of her college graduating class
- illustrated her husband's botanical research on orchids
- her family estate, Borderland, is now a State Park opened to the public in Massachusetts
- hired a newspaper clipping service to save suffrage news from 1915 to 1916
- designed the orchid decorations on the graves of her husband & herself
- during the 1910s she produced a number of political cartoons promoting women's suffrage, which appeared in publications including Woman's Journal, and the Boston American
- her work called, "Cradle of Liberty", was selected to be Massachusetts' suffrage poster
- her etchings are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and her oil painting can be seen at Harvard, Dartmouth, and Columbia University
- supported birth control
- held patents for inventions which included a hexagonal lumber cutter and a method for entrapping enemy aircraft
- at age 80 wrote a biography about her father, Adelbert Ames, called: "Adelbert Ames, 1835-1933; General, Senator, Governor, the story of his life and times and his integrity as a soldier and statesman in the service of the United States of America throughout the Civil War and in Mississippi in the years of Reconstruction" (1964)
- had an athletic childhood & learned golf, tennis, football and sailing
- created formulas for spermicidal jellies and provided instructions on how to make a diaphragm by using such everyday objects as a baby’s teething ring
- established a fund in her name for the medical education of women at the New England Hospital for Women and Children
- designed and the abandoned a swimming pool at Borderland with pipes so complicated that the secret of their operation died with her
- husband was a botanist who discovered over 1,000 new species of orchids in the Caribbean, the Philippines, & Central & South American which she drew & illustrated for his 7-volume compendium of orchids
- was arrested after carving a wooden penis & using it to demonstrate proper condom usage in the middle of boston's busy Commonwealth Avenue
- the Ames Charts of Economic Plants she created for herhusband's botany classes are still in use today
- designed Borderland which was the family home until her death & was featured in the 2019 movie "Knives Out"
Born: 1878
Country: USA
Education: Smith College & School of Art AB Art History 1899
Virgie M. Ammons
💡 Inventor
- little is known about her & the only agreed upon facts are she was living in West Virginia when she applied for her patent in 1974, she was a person of color, was a self-employed caretaker, & received a patent for a fireplace damper actuating tool
- was born in either Gaithersburg MD (the generally accepted info) or Chicago IL
- died on July 12th, 2000 in a car accident
- there is no evidence indicating her invention was ever marketed
Born: 1908
Country: USA
Education: Unknown
Betsy Ancker-Johnson
⚛️ Plasma Physics
⚛️ Engineer
- was the first woman Presidential appointee in the U.S. Department of Commerce 1973 as assistant secretary for science and technology
- fourth woman elected to the National Academy of Engineering
- was an affiliate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington from 1961 to 1973
- became the first woman vice-president in the automotive industry as the vice-president of General Motors' environmental activities staff
- has described plasma as a fourth state of matter after liquids, solids, and gases & observed the occurrence of “pinching,” as well as the phenomenon of microwave emission from an electron-hole plasma initiated only by the application of an external electric field; her work in this area lead to subsequent findings that solid-state plasmas can serve as microwave sources of radiation
- advocated for a conversion to the metric system and DNA research, which eventually led to the Genome Project in 1990
- liked traveling, kayaking, backpacking, scuba diving, & earned a yellow belt in Aikido
- after retiring from GM in 1992 began competitively swimming in the Master's swimming program. & at 80 placed third in the 2008 World Masters Championships at Perth in the 800m freestyle
- after her daughter Ruth lost her vision she began reading scientific books for the blind in her honor
- competed in international swimming events into her 80s
- held 5 patents
Born: 1927
Country: USA
Education: Wellesley College BA Physics 1949; University of Tubingen PhD Physics 1953
Dorothy Hansine Andersen
⚕️ Medicine
- was an American physician, pediatrician, and pathologist who first identified, describe & name cystic fibrosis in 1938
- developed a simple, definitive diagnostic test for it
- during WWII developed a training program for surgeons pioneering in open-heart surgery
- did path-breaking research in nutrition
- 1938 while doing an autopsy on a child who was suspected of dying from celiac disease she noticed a lesion in the pancreas which subsequently led to her identifying cystic fibrosis (CF) as a separate disease
- taught anatomy at the University of Rochester
- 1928 was denied a surgical residency at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY because she was female
- 1929 joined the staff at the Dept of Pathology at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
- considered herself a roofer, stone mason, carpenter & cabinet maker & made her own home improvements
- Was considered a "character" by colleagues because she was outspoken, had an untidy lab, & held semi-annual "glug" parties in her lab in honor of her Scandinavian heritage
- her father died when she was 13 & she assumed full responsibility for her invalid mother who died 7 years later
- during WWII was a consultant to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
- her papers can be found at Columbia University Irving Medical Center Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library
- spent her leisure time at her cabin in the NJ Kittitinny Mountains
Born: 1901
Country: USA
Education: Mt. Holyoke College BA Zoology & Chemistry 1922; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine MD 1926; Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons PhD Medical Sciences 1935
Gloria Long Anderson
🔬 Chemistry
- Pioneer in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
- Known for studies of fluorine-19 & solid rocket propellants
- Started school at 4 years old & already knew how to read
- Attended segregated schools with few science & math classes
- In college, signed up for chemistry classes on a dare
- Was rejected for a job at Ralston-Purina as a chemist because she was African-American
- funded her own research; found it difficult to obtain funding due to her race
- Appointed by President Nixon for a term on the corporation for Public Broadcasting's Board in 1972; served 7 years
Born: 1938
Country: USA
Education: B.S. in Chemistry & Mathematics. Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College, 1958; MA in Chemistry, Atlanta University, 1961; PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry, University of Chicago, 1968
Mary Anderson
💡 Inventor
- Invented windshield wipers for cars
- Born in Alabama at the start of Reconstruction in 1866
- 1889, moved to Birmingham, AL & built Fairmont Apartments, an oddity for a Black female of the time
- 1893, moved to Fresno, CA to operate a cattle ranch & vineyard
- 1902, visited NYC; while riding in a trolley car during a sleet storm observed the driver had difficulty seeing out of the windshield due to falling sleet; he had to stop frequently to wipe the windshield; this observation led to her inventing windshield wipers
- Never financially profited from her invention & allowed the patent to expire in 1920
- 1922, Cadillac became the 1st auto manufacturer to adopt wipers as standard equipment on their vehicles
Born: 1866
Country: USA
Education: unknown
Marian Anderson
🔍 Singer
- was an important figure in the struggle for African American artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid-twentieth century
- 1939 during the period of racial segregation, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
- 1957 sang for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's inauguration
- January 20, 1961, she sang for President John F. Kennedy's inauguration
- 1963, she sang at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
- 1965, she christened the nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine USS George Washington Carver
- 1963 released an album, Snoopycat: The Adventures of Marian Anderson's Cat Snoopy, which included short stories and songs about her beloved black cat
- was nickname "Baby Contralto" when singing in her church choir
- Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR in protest because they refused Anderson permission to sing at Constitution Hall
- composer Jean Sibelius spoke glowingly of her voice and dedicated the song "Solitude" to her
- in 1935 became known as “the voice of a century”
- was a very private person
- began singing at age 3 & joined her church choir at age 6
- age 10 joined the People's Chorus of Philadelphia
- 1923 was the first African-American signed at the Victor Company & did 2 recordings
- 1925 won the NY Philharmonic singing contest
- 1928 gave her first concert at Carnegie Hall
- 1937 Albert Einstein hosted her when she was denied a hotel room while performing at Princeton & hosted her numerous other times until his death in 1955
- during WWII & the Korean War entertained troops in hospitals & at bases
- retired from singing in 1965
- her father bought her a piano when she was 8 & she taught herself to play
- at 15 her church took up a collection to pay for her first singing lessons
- 1943 started the Marian Anderson Awards
- because of race issues her early career success was in Europe during the 1930s
Born: 1897
Country: USA
Education: Completed high school
Mary Anderson
✊ Labor Activist
- emigrated to the United States when she was sixteen in 1888
- believed that the work of feminists should not be constrained to only women's issues but more importantly address broader social concerns
- embraced the idea of Social Justice Feminism (using legislation to bring social justice and improvement of lives)
- was friends with Jane Addams & delivered her eulogy
- retired from the Women's Bureau in 1944 & became the legislative representative of the National Consumers League
- was the youngest of 7 children born to parents who were farmers
- preferred working outside on the farm instead of doing housework
- July 1911, Anderson quit her job as a shoestitcher to become a paid organizer for the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL)
- her autobiography, “Women at Work,” was published in 1951
Born: 1872
Country: Sweden
Education: Unknown
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