My first thought was my mother and then I realized it is suppose to be a living woman. I have  to say that it was Gloria Steinmen. When I was a young mother I watched Phil Donahue almost everyday and she was a frequent guest. She said things I had never heard before. I came to realized I needed to be able to not be dependent on a man for all my needs. That realization took me to places I had never thought I would go. There have been times I wish I hadn’t heard what Gloria said. Maybe I would have been happier if I had not become so independent. I just don’t know.

Another "person" who influence me, and does not qualify as an answer,  was Scarlett O’Hara. The scene where  she stood in that field holding that turnip and declared she, and her family, would never go hungry again influenced me more than I realized. During years of therapy I came to understand that I had taken that same vow and that my mother, who saw the movie as a young mother, also had become that person who took on the responsibility of her whole family. I see that persona in so many women in the south. My daughter is the same….the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

The "living" qualification is reminding me of so many that we’ve lost. 

I would say Alice Paul.  Without the risks she and Lucy Burns took way, way back when our lives as women may be completely different today.  We all need to remember these great women of history. 

These two are not the only great women, but there alot of them, too many to name.  We, as women, need to remember all of our great American living and deceased women, without them we would have to fight the battles they have and currently are fighting for us.

Sandra Bullock.. behind the scenes.. she is not afraid.. she is funnier than all heck.. she married the love of her life.. and she doesn’t apologize for loving a man… shes a fighter and she is compassionate and passionate.. about her ideas and her dreams and her work.. oh yea and her man:) She defines her own feminist quality.. not a conformist feminist.