Page 44 - San Diego Woman Amy Haber Issue

If you had a chance to make a list
of who you thought were the most 10
powerful women in history, who
would make your list? I actually
did some research on this very
subject and a myriad of names
appeared on various lists. I agreed
with some and thought why would
somebody pick her? Well since
this is my sandbox, the following is
my list, who would make your list?
1. Cleopatra VII
was one of the most famous
female leaders and rulers
in history. She was the last
active pharaoh of Ptolemaic
Egypt, from 51 B.C. to 30 B.C.
Remembered for her love
affairs with Roman leaders,
Julius Caesar and Mark Ant-
ony. Forged many political al-
liances and turned Egypt into
one of the world’s greatest
powers. Obviously, she was
a strong woman and much
more than a pretty face.
2. Ada Lovelace
(1815 – 1852)
“That brain of mine is
something more than
merely mortal; as
time will show.”
What a fantastic quote, Ms. Lovelace,
wrote her own epitaph or sorts. I would
venture to say that most readers have no
idea who this privileged daughter of the
famous poet Lord Byron was. She was a
woman of society and rubbed elbows
with the likes of Charles Dickens. Okay I
will tell you why she made my list of fa-
mous and powerful women. Ms. Lovelace
was an English mathematician and wait
for it, she was the world’s first computer
programmer. Way ahead of her time, Ms.
Lovelace published the first algorithm in-
tended for a computer. Ms. Lovelace died
at the age of 36, from cancer and it took
nearly a century for people to appreciate faithful day in December there was no more seats on the back of the bus, ergo the bus conduc-
her notes on Babbage’s Analytical Engine, tor instructed four black riders to stand to allow a white man to sit. Three of those riders obeyed,
which became recognized as the first de- Rosa did not! Ms. Park's arrest caused a wave of protests across America. When she died, at the
scription for computer and software, ever. age of 92, on October 24,2005, she became the first woman to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.
44
POWERFUL WOMEN
in History
By Carol Heath
3. Amelia Earhart (1897-1939)
“Women must do things as men have
tried. When they fail, their failure must
be but a challenge to others.”
Amelia Earhart was the true definition
of a rule breaker. An American aviator,
who was the first woman to fly solo across
the Atlantic. She was also the first person
to fly solo from Hawaii to the mainland.
She refused to be boxed in by her gender
at an early age playing basketball growing up; she took auto repair courses
while attending college briefly. In 1920, she began flying lessons and decid-
ed this would be her avenue to blaze new frontiers. Ms. Earhart disappeared
in July of 1937 and presumed dead in 1939, while trying to circumnavigate
the globe. Her plane was never found and remains one of the mysteries of
the 20th century.
4. Jane Austen (1775-1817)
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who
has not pleasure in a good novel, must be
intolerably stupid.”
Can you imagine being defined as the
woman that created an entire literary genre
with her shrewd social observations and
wit. Ms. Austen, one of eight children began
writing her classic novels, such as Pride and
Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility in her teens. I think we would have
to search the world over to find a teen with as much wit and wisdom
as Ms. Austen. Her novels are funny, endearing, and questioned wom-
en’s roles within society. She had to hide her identity as the author of
the most popular novels of her day and it wasn’t until her death that
her brother Henry revealed her identity. Her literary influence and the
themes and lessons from her novels still hold up today.
5. Rosa Parks (1915-2005)
“I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to
be free….so other people would be also free.”
In 1955, Rosa Parks was on a bus in Montgomery, Ala-
bama, when the bus driver asked her to stand and give up her
seat to a white man. Ms. Parks, a black seamstress, refused.
Her action sparked an entire civil rights movement in Amer-
ica. In 1955, Alabama was still governed by segregation laws
and there was a policy for municipal buses where white citi-
zens only were allowed to sit in the front of the bus. On that