Hillary Clinton.

Hands down Wonder Woman! Every night, me and my three year old son watch Justice League Unlimited on the Cartoon Network. Diana, “Wonder Woman” is so amazing. She is very sister oriented coming from Amazon, a place where there are nothing but strong women. But more than that, she’s not catty or toxic. She’s strictly about the business of helping others. She is well-respected in the boys club of superheros and she keeps her attraction to Batman (the only normal human in the group) discreet. I love during the break in the cartoon, they show her in action keeping two women helicopter pilots from crashing. While Wonder Woman holds up the front of the craft, she yells to them, “I got you sisters!”. Now that’s a real woman!!!

I have to cast a vote for Jackie Kennedy Onasis as one of the women I most admire. In addition to being a great beauty and an accomplished horsewoman, she had grace and kindness and lots of courage under fire. Im also a big fan of Eleanor or Aquitane..so beautifully portrayed by Kathrine Hepburn (another lady I admire) in the movie, THE Lion In Winter. Eleanor was a Queen and had a strong influence in a time when few women were ever allowed out of the castle or the hovel, as the case might be. She rode bare breasted along with her 1st husband, the King of France, on a Crusade and upon arrival in Jerrusalum commenced an affair with the King of Jerrusalum..Later she divorced the King of France and took up with Henry the 2nd..And was the mother of Richard the Lion Hearted and John the Cruel..She was also much beloved by the people from her land, Aquitane and is credited for the popularity of the troubadours and Romantic love… Now, THAT is a busy life..and she was also a great beauty and well educated in a time when almost no one could read or write. And finally I want to put Elizabeth the 1st on the list of women I admire. She had a really hard life and built an Empire..that takes some doing.

Alice Paul. Without her efforts and those of the other Suffragists we would be conversing as we are on wOw.

I would be a Slayer, the scion of Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer who capped her career with a magic spell to turn any girl in the world into a Slayer who lived with independence, courage, and gaiety in the face of adversity. GOD, how I wish I’d had Buffy as a role model when I was a girl!

Wonder Woman — but only if I could look as good as she does in that skimpy outfit! She is strong, but sensitive, intelligent, yet charming, she has a dreamy man who worships her and isn’t threatened by her superior strength. And she gets unconditional approval from her mother! What more could you ask for?

Honor Harrington or Ky Vatta or Torin Kerr - yes, I’m a space opera fan! These are all women who grow to be strong in times of need, against the odds.

I guess I would have to break it down into category — Margaret Thatcher — The lady had spunk - and, she was a LADY Lauren Bacall - she moved with such charm Kate Hepburn — the greatest actress — a remarkable woman Lucy Arness - where do I begin? Her comedy was contagious Carol Burnett - ditto And, last, but not least — Miss Piggy — it takes a lot of guts to be in love with a frog.

I never related to the comicbook heroines. They seemed made up as an afterthought to get girls to buy comix. Not real to me, cause my brothers didn’t want to be ‘em. My dad painted George Reeves’ mom’s house in Galesburg, so we knew Superman wasn’t real. So it comes down to real life action figures, always more interesting. Joan of Arc and Poor Claire, Hildegard of Bingen, Kali and Durga, St. Joan and Bernadette on the spiritual side, I think. Dorothea Day. Amelia Erhart. Babe Didriksen. Janis Joplin. Lois Nevelson. Georgia O’Keeffee. (I would say Lily Tomlin, who tap-danced her way from detroit to international stardom and being a national treasure being a total smart ass. But she might be listening.) Virginia Woolf. Willa Cather. Eleanor Roosevelt. Ginetta Sagan. Joanie Baez when she was an upstart with the voice of angels, top of the charts, and chose to risk everything by walking with Dr. King and Caesar Chavez — showing people how to do it. The countless nameless folks in China who kept art and music alive during the Cultural Revolution by risking their lives to protect culture. And the women everywhere who did that but we don’t know about them. All them feminists, like S.B. Anthony, the Pankhursts, Alice Paul, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, to whom we owe the very right to put food in our own mouths and own property. Ah, but you get the idea, the ones who were told “you can’t,” and looked the world in the eye and said, “Who says?”