Category Great Women

The Mexican painter Frida Kahlo created striking, often shocking, images that reflected her turbulent life. She did not originally plan to become an artist. A polio survivor, at 15, Kahlo entered the premedical programme at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City. However, this training ended three years later, when Kahlo was gravely hurt in a bus accident. During her convalescence, Kahlo had begun to paint with oils.

Her pictures, mostly self-portraits and still lives, were filled with the bright colours and flattened forms of the Mexican folk art she loved. At 21, Kahlo fell in love with the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, and married him. The couple travelled to the United States and France, where Kahlo met luminaries from the worlds of art and politics. She had her first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City in 1938.

During her lifetime, Frida created some 200 paintings, drawings, and sketches related to her experiences in life, physical and emotional pain and her turbulent relationship with Diego. She produced 143 paintings, 55 of which are self-portraits.

Perhaps best known for these self-portraits, Kahlo’s work is remembered for its ‘pain and passion’, and its intense, vibrant colours. Mexican culture and Amerindian cultural tradition figure prominently in her work, which has sometimes been characterized as naive art, or folk art. 

       Margaret Bourke-White was born in New York City on 14th June, 1904. She became interested in photography while studying at Cornell University. She first gained recognition as an industrial photographer based in Cleveland, Ohio, where she specialized in architectural photography. Margaret later joined Fortune magazine as a staff photographer. She made several trips to the Soviet Union, and in 1931, published ‘Eyes on Russia’. In 1936, Bourke-White joined Life Magazine, and her photograph of the Fort Peck Dam appeared on its first front-cover.

       During her unique career, Bourke-White was torpedoed in the Mediterranean, attacked by the Luftwaffe, stranded on an Arctic island, bombarded in Moscow, and pulled out of the Chesapeake when her chopper crashed. She was the first Western photographer to document Soviet industry. It was after the revolution. She was in Czechoslovakia and other Balkan states just before Hitler moved in to ignite World War II, to prepare a travelogue. She was stationed in Moscow just before Germany bombed its former ally.

       Margaret’s photographs are in a number of museums. Her mastery of the medium, her daring, cleverness, and knack of being in the right place at the right time has all made her a legend among photographers.

What’s it like to make an amazing discovery-and then have nobody believe it? Barbara McClintock experienced this. In the 1940’s, she unlocked some of the deepest secrets about genes and DNA. Yet, it took nearly 20 years for her work to be accepted.

Barbara McClintock was one of the first women geneticists. The daughter of a physician, McClintock was born in Connecticut, and educated at Cornell’s College of Agriculture, where she received her PhD in for work in botany. In 1944, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, becoming only the third woman to be so honoured. McClintock then joined the Carnegie Institute’s Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York., where she stayed on for the rest her life.

In 1983, Barbara won Nobel Prize for her study in genetics. She won the prize in the Physiology and Medicine categories, for her discovery that chromosomes can break off from neighbouring chromosomes, and recombine to create unique genetic combinations. The importance of her research, performed on corn was not recognized for many years. She won the Nobel Prize for this discovery only years later. Her discoveries form the very foundation of much of today’s research in genetic engineering.

        Margaret Mead was a distinguished anthropologist, an intellectual and a scientist. She is the author of numerous books on primitive societies, and she also wrote about many contemporary issues. She was born in Philadelphia on December 16th, 1901, and her parents were professors.

        Barnard College was the place where Margaret studied, and became interested in the field of anthropology, which is the study of diversity among cultures. While in school, Margaret travelled to Samoa, in order to study how Samoan girls and American girls are raised differently. Margaret found that a girl’s personality is largely shaped by culture, and not by genetics. Her book, ‘Growing up in Samoa’, was considered a very important work, and her book is still a best seller.

         Margaret continued her studies of different cultures. She devoted her entire life to teaching people that all cultures share things in common, even if the people of that culture are considered ‘primitive’. She went on to become the most famous and well-respected anthropologists in the world, and because of her, we all have a better understanding of the world and our place in it.

       Golda Meir was one of the founders of Israel, and the most prominent woman politician of her era. Her childhood in Russia was a time of severe poverty. Her father left for America to try to make a better life for his family, and settled in Milwaukee. Three years later, the rest of the family followed, when Golda was 8 years old.

       When Golda was 19, she married Morris Meyerson, and they immigrated to Palestine. In 1928, she was offered the job of secretary of Histadrut’s Council for Women workers. Golda moved quickly up the political ranks, and during World War II, she held key posts in the World Zionist Organization.

       When the state of Israel was established in 1948, a vast amount of money was needed to equip the army to defend the new Jewish state from attacking Arab nations. Golda volunteered to go to the United States to raise money. She was so successful with her speeches in establishing an emotional link between the U.S. Jewish community and Israel that she returned with $ 50 million dollars.

       Golda Meir was a signer of the Israeli Proclamation of Independence on May 1948. In her first position, she was appointment as the Israeli envoy to Russia.

       In 1956, Golda Meir became Israeli foreign minister, the second-highest position in the government. She was chosen to be Prime Minister in national elections, at age 71. Golda Meir began her term as Prime Minister after Israel’s stunning victory in the Six-Day War of 1967. She overcame many personal hardships because she was a woman. As a child, she fought with her parents to continue her education, and as a married woman, she made a difficult choice between her family and her career, making her an icon for the feminist cause. 

Amy Johnson was the first woman to have flown solo from England to Australia in May 1930 – a distance of 17,600 kms. In 1936, she also achieved a record breaking solo flight from England to South Africa. In July 1933 she and her husband made a transatlantic flight from England to America. It was the first non stop flight from the two countries. Her flying career began in 1928, and her other triumphs included becoming the first female ground engineer licensed by the Air Ministry.

       Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, and also the first female pilot to make solo transatlantic and transpacific flights. During the war, Amelia worked as a military nurse in Canada, and later, she became a social worker and taught English to immigrant children. Besides work, Amelia had one hobby. She enjoyed watching airplane stunt shows, which were popular in the 1920’s. Then one day, she took 10-minute plane ride and knew what her vocation would be she would learn to fly.

       After 10 hours of instruction and several crashes, Amelia was ready to fly. She made her first solo flight in 1921. By the next year, Amelia had saved enough money to buy her own plane. In1928, she flew with two other pilots from the United States to England. Though Amelia was just a passenger, she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic. The plane they flew in was ‘The Friendship’, and the trip was made on June 17-18th 1928.

        After this, Amelia became very famous. In May 1932, she crossed the Atlantic alone, and set a new transatlantic crossing record of 13 hours, 30 minutes. Several years later, she became the first woman to fly from California to Hawaii. Amelia’s last flight began in June 1937. However, the American Coast Guard lost track of the plane and it was never found. No one knows what really happened, and Amelia Earhart’s disappearance remains a mystery to this day. 

Pearl S. Buck was a great writer who was ‘absorbed in the wonder of earth’. Fittingly her greatest work was ‘The Good Earth’. This novel tells the tale of a poor Chinese peasant and his love for the earth. It was an American bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize.

Pearl S. Buck was born in West Virginia, but she spent her youth in China. She raised her voice for the children of American fathers and Asian mothers, who were often abandoned. She also took an active interest in mentally retarded children; her own daughter was mentally retarded. She won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938. 

Hercule Poirot often tapped his forehead and said “These little gray cells. It is up to them – as you say over here”. Hercule Poirot was the Belgian detective with the egg shaped head, created by Agatha Christie. Poirot appears in Christie’s first detective novel, ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’. Miss Marple was Christie’s other famous fictional detective.

Christie’s father died, when she was a child. Her mother encouraged her to write at a very early age. In 56 years, Christie wrote 66 detective novels. She entertained more people for more hours at a time than any other writer of her generation.

        American women can never forget Alice Paul and her fights for women’s rights. Alice Paul was born in New Jersey. Alice turned politically active while studying in London, and joined the movement for women’s right to vote. She was jailed and went on a hunger strike.

        Alice Paul returned to the United States, and threw herself into the American women’s struggle for the right to vote. She served as the Chair of the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. However, she left the party, and joined the Congressional Union of Woman Suffrage. The party later became the National Women’s Party. This party used dramatic tactics, and even picketed the White House. Alice was jailed, and went on a hunger strike in protest. Women won the right to vote in 1920. Thereafter, Alice Paul fought to gain equal rights for women, until she was felled by a stroke in 1974.