Daring Women (Photos) | 03/06/2009 7:30 am

Women Who Dared: Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, Barbara Walters, Rosa Parks and More (Photos)

In honor of Women’s History Month, wowOwow and the website findingDulcinea.com pay tribute to 15 inspirational women who helped to shape the world in which we live.

Photo Essay

In honor of Women’s History Month, wowOwow.com has teamed up with findingDulcinea.com, a website known as the “Librarian of the Internet,” to recognize women whose actions shattered the status quo. Through guts, grit and unyielding perseverance, these women have made a difference in the way we live today, and raised our expectations for ourselves, our daughters and our granddaughters.

To learn more about any of the women, visit findingDulcinea — the site that scours the Web to find and present the best sites on any topic.

48 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Is there any woman that hasn’t dared? the sheer fact taht she is a female means that she fought for something, somewhere. The fact that some women despite the need to struggle for even the basice do and have the stamina and vision to fight an even more strenuous battle. Notwithstanding, however, that it all must be reflected within a specific context.

By Wafaa El Jusmani on 03/11/2009 1:40 pm

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Women who dared. Some of our greatest women in the fight for women’s rights are missing and a lot of them did it quietly….

My favorite woman who dared is (no surprise here: I quote her all the time!) Helen Gurley Brown. Helen dared in the early 1960s to write "Sex and the Single Girl" which effectively broke through the stereotype of a single girl sitting at home waiting for a marriage proposal. It sounds kind of a given now, but back then it was a BIG DEAL and my parents forbade all us girls from reading the book. When my sister went off to college, she bought the book and we all read it (I think I was eight or nine by the time I found it in my sister’s dorm room and didn’t understand anything except that I should always own my destiny. Helen’s biggest message)

Helen, along with her friends Gloria Steinem and all sorts of other women from that time, gave women the freedom to be women, in all our glory, while still encouraging us to fight for equal pay for equal work and to work at careers that were not traditional at that time.

The fact that there even is a wowOwow is because of women like Helen and Liz Smith and a ton of other women who dared to break into journalism with a woman’s real message instead of perpetuating the 1950’s June Cleaver stereotypes.

Thanks, ladies.

By nanchan u on 03/11/2009 8:28 pm

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What a beautiful picture of Amelia Earhart, soft serene features like a young Mia Farrow. She was a pioneer for avation, one of my loves. I think Hattie could give us all a run for our money on the oft times needed lesson of frugality. A woman in the making of her own wealth, is a wise woman indeed.

By HA BIBI on 03/12/2009 8:48 pm

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HA BIBI,

I thought Amelia Earhart was great also. There’s a poster on WOW named Elaine Al Elqad (hope I didn’t spell her name wrong) who is in the business of aviation. I wondered if you were acquainted with her? She hasn’t posted in a few days to my knowledge.

By Murphy Mac on 03/14/2009 3:17 pm

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Hi Margaret,

That would be Al Meqdad but that’s ok, people always mis-spell it and HA BIBI would be me! It means my love towards the reference of the male in Arabic. I did it as a tribute to my wonderful husband who is Arabic. And yes, I look up to Amelia because she was indeed a pioneer in Aviation.

By HA BIBI on 03/14/2009 5:23 pm

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OK, so I feel as if I’m as good as an Agatha Christie character (not the one who gets murdered)!! I was at dinner when I read your reply on my Blackberry. I just smiled. My dinner partner asked me why I was smiling and I went into a detailed background. I had already looked up (Googled) what your new name meant so that’s another reason I wondered. You’d already told me about your husband and I knew you’d said it was his birthday on another thread. It "was the way, the special, very wonderful way you talked about him." Plus, aviation? BINGO! But I still wasn’t sure. I hope it’s okay that I figured it out. I won’t ask why; your call.

:) M

By Murphy Mac on 03/14/2009 6:41 pm

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No problem, I don’t recall offhand what thread it was but I stated I wanted to pay tribute to my husband. My Daughter sent me the avatar because it dances and also because it looks just like my three Blue Burmese cats. Was disapointed that in this pixel format, the cat is not able to dance. It’s a total hoot and one cannot help but crack up at the way this cat rocks out, LOL.

By HA BIBI on 03/14/2009 7:07 pm

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Your tribute thread was about Friday, the 13th and was it bad luck? You said it was your husband’s birthday, I think.

As for the cat, no matter that it can’t dance, it’s beautiful. I have 3 rescued cats, all of different varieties, but I love ‘em. I use a Mac so I’ve never been able to attach anything anywhere that can dance, but I always try anyway.

Keep the faith and best to you,

By Murphy Mac on 03/14/2009 7:28 pm

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I’m not superstitious in the least! It was a wonderful day and yes it was my Husbands Birthday, we went out for a lovely romantic dinner, sumptious food! Best to you as well!

By HA BIBI on 03/14/2009 8:37 pm

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HA BIBI,

I’m not superstitious except for the one thing I wrote about earlier, somewhere above, and I’m not sure why the issue with mirrors. It’s not something that I think about all the time, it just happens when I’m moving things around. Anyway… I’m glad you and your husband had a great romantic dinner. I’m sure you made his birthday as perfect as possible.

Wanted to follow up talking about Amelia Earhart. One of the last assignments I had to help my students complete during my last year of teaching (2007) was a compare/contrast essay about Amelia and Charles Lindbergh. My students were like "blank slates" when it came to knowing who these people were. So, we spent a lot of time doing research about each one of these people first. Then, the hardest part was guiding them through the process of comparing Amelia and Charles, then teaching the contrast part of each one. These assignments were required as part of their end of grade proficiency tasks. I could only teach the process, they had to do the assignment by themselves. Since the children completed their essays on computers, they could at least use the spellchecker to "fix" those kinds of problems in their work. Just thought I’d tell you that Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh were in my lesson plans and now, in the minds of those students I used to teach. It was a good assignment.

By Murphy Mac on 03/15/2009 7:48 am

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Here are some books with names of incredible women who dared. Women who fought for human and civil rights. Women who contrbuted in various fields. Women who are buried in history books because of racism and sexism. "When And Where I Enter,The Impact of Black Women On Race And Sex In America" —Paula Giddings " Women Race & Class"— Angela Y. Davis—"We Are Your Sisters Black Women in the Nineteeth Century"—Edited by Dorothy Sterling—"Black Women Feminism and Black Liberation Which Way"— Dr. Vivian Gordon—"Black Pearls Blues Queens Of The 1920s"—Daphne Duval Harrison—"Woman With Guitar Memphis Minnies Blues"—Paul And Beth Garon. "Women Leaders In African History"—David Sweetman. These are just a few of the books which hold the stories of incredible women and the history they made. Many of whom are unknown along with their contributions. To learn more please visit one of Americas greatest institutions "The Schomberg Center For Research In Black Culture."

By L. C. on 03/16/2009 3:24 pm

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How about Helen Suzman? Only woman in an apartheid government for many many years, fighting on her own for the liberation from this horrid system - apartheid.
Helen died recently and we in South Africa are poorer for the loss

By Gill Katz on 03/26/2009 12:15 pm