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Photo credit, Getty Images
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A Victorian statue of Florence Nightingale
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In the March Celebrating Women Month, we highlighted the stories of the struggles of six of the most prominent feminist figures and who have become inspirational role models for others.
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Here, we shine a light on the eventful lives of these women to learn from their positive and inspiring heritage.
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Not to be missed on BBC Africa:
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Florence Nightingale
Not only was Florence Nightingale, the world’s best-known nurse, also responsible for pioneering changes in healthcare as she helped transform nursing into a respectable and vibrant profession we rely on so much today.
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During her well-documented years of service in the Crimean War, she struggled against oppressive and disgusting conditions. “The military barracks hospital where I worked was covered in blood, urine and feces, and it was a hotbed of rats, mice and lice,” she said.
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Photo credit, Getty Images
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Florence Nightingale, social interest, English nurse and founder of Modern Nursing.
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Florence raised financial donations to secure the necessary supplies and equipment, with the contribution of some donors, including author Charles Dickens, to create the necessary health conditions as much as possible.
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She was known at the time as “The Lady with the Lamp” because of her regular nightly visits to the hospital.
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His famous book, Notes on a Nursing Handbook, published in 1859, provided basic advice that proved essential for future hospital planning. The following year, she created the Nightingale School of Nursing, which was the first school to train nurses.
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Mary Seacole
Photo credit, Bruno Vincent/Gettyimages
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Portrait of Mary Seacole, at the National Gallery in London
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Many people know of Florence Nightingale’s activities during the Crimean War, but until recently little was known about the activities of therapist and nurse Mary Seacole.
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Mary’s name became synonymous with perseverance, which faced precarious conditions and racial prejudice.
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Mary learned traditional healing techniques from her mother in Jamaica and traveled widely around the world and supplemented her knowledge of traditional medicine with European medical ideas.
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After her husband’s death, Mary made a return trip to England in 1854 and asked the War Department (later Defense) to send her to the Crimea, but the department refused her request, but Seacol n did not give up, and she continued her trip to Crimea at her own expense.
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She started her work in what was called “the British hotel” near the front line, and the soldiers there loved her and called her “Mother Sekul”.
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Photo credit, Keystone/Gettyimages
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Josephine Baker arriving at the Savoy Hotel in London on April 25, 1945
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Josephine Baker
Dancer Josephine Baker was once the highest performing and highest paid in the world, but her true legacy is not her wealth but rather her role in women’s liberation and civil rights.
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She was forced to work at a young age, after the family home in Saint-Louis was burnt down in ethnic riots in 1917, when Josephine was eleven years old.
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Barely two years later, Joséphine took her courageous first steps towards a career as a stage dancer. She started in New York then moved to Paris.
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Josephine’s lively and liberal style was widely applauded and honored in France, where she became a French citizen.
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With the occupation of France by the Nazis in 1940, Josephine lived a double life. She was still a star who could afford to live well and affordably, but she was also an active member of the underground French resistance.
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When Josephine returned to the United States, she became an openly civil rights activist and, at one point, lost her citizenship. But her distinctive stature has drawn fans such as Fidel Castro, Eva Peron, and Grace Kelly, to name a few.
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Photo credit, Dorling Kindersley/Gettyimages
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Illustration of a 19th century paleontologist Mary Anning.
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Mary Anning
Mary Anning was an intelligent woman with strong determination who became known as the “princess of paleontology” and the greatest fossil hunter who ever lived.
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Today she is immortalized in the movie “Ammonite” and her character is portrayed by Kate Winslet.
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Mary’s hometown of Lyme Regis was a good place for her to develop her interest in geology and paleontology, as it was and still is a region rich in fossils.
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When she was 12 in 1811, she made her first major discovery; It is an ichthyosaur skeleton (an extinct prehistoric sea reptile creature that resembles a dolphin, with a long, pointed head, four fins, and an upright tail), and it was the first such find.
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Many other discoveries followed, including a “plesiosaur” which I discovered at the age of 24, (a sea creature of an extinct reptile, which lived in prehistoric times, with a flat, broad body. , large paddle-shaped limbs, a long neck and a small head. “
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This discovery put Mary on the list of names and scientific bodies, but despite all of her discoveries, she did not achieve significant financial gains due to her social class and gender. It was only after his death that recognition for his findings came.
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However, its mention has remained immortal, as revealed in the movie “Ammonite”, and it was recognized by the Royal Society of Science and its achievement in 2010.
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Photo credit, Smith Collection/Gado
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Harriet Tubman, the first woman in American history to lead soldiers into battle
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Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman, through her anti-slavery activities and her strength of determination, has become an icon for black and white women.
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Harriet Tubman was born in 1822 in Maryland and came from a large family, but some of her siblings and mother were sold to different slave owners, so she did not enjoy any a stable family life.
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Harriet managed to escape slavery and start organizing activities against her, and she helped create various networks to abolish slavery and free between 70 and 100 people, including her brother, sisters and cousins. .
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When the American Civil War broke out, Harriet helped runaway slaves by teaching their families skills to use after the war.
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Harriet was a woman of many talents and the first woman in American history to lead soldiers in combat. Among his actions was the “Kumbahi Ferry Raid” which resulted in the rescue of 750 former slaves.
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Photo credit, Heritage Images
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Portrait of Mary Shelley, by artist Samuel John (1778-1863).
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Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley’s novel, “Frankenstein,” published in 1818, was the first science fiction story ever made.
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Mary was only 20 when she wrote this classic novel, but its prose and wise themes were actually the product of a chaotic and adventurous life.
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Mary Shelley was born in 1797 in London, her father, the extremist philosopher and anarchist William Goodwin, and her mother, the philosopher and feminist activist Mary Wollstonecraft, who died shortly after her birth.
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And when Mary was sixteen. She began dating the free-thinker and freedom-loving radical poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shortly after this emotional relationship, a shared creative path emerges.
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In addition to the novel “Frankenstein”, which warned of society’s harsh treatment of marginalized outcasts, Mary also wrote a number of other novels; among them, “The Last Man”, a visionary work well before her time, in which she dealt with the question of ecological catastrophe, which is a major break with the romantic ideas that prevailed in her time.
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