Category: Iconic Women

The South African government revoked her passport and outlawed her records in 1963. Hugh Masekela, a trumpeter and another Belafonte protege, and she were married in 1964.

She served as Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from June to August 2006. She was voted Global Finance Minister of the Year by Euromoney in 2005.

She was also the university’s first female and African American chemistry professor. Alice Ball’s work saved many lives, but her work nevertheless remained forgotten mainly in the scientific record.

Kavitha Rao’s Lady Doctors tell the extraordinary stories of six women who lived from the 1860s to the 1930s and defied the notion that they were unfit for medicine because of their gender.

Zura Karuhimbi was a Rwandan woman who intervened in the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda to prevent the deaths of more than 100 people by posing as a witch.

Theodosia Okoh was also the first female chairman of the Ghana Hockey Association and later President of the Ghana Hockey Federation for more than 20 years.

bell hooks began using feminism in the analysis of pop culture, and convinced many of her readers that feminism is for everybody.

Nawal had been resisting her whole life: Resisting an early marriage, resisting being objected to the male-dominated society she lived in, with sons valued far more highly than daughters.

We spoke with Angel Nduka Nwosu, our in-house culture writer and journalist, about her thoughts on Ama Ata Aidoo’s influence through her writing and advocacy for education in Ghana.

While the Supremes remain the second best-selling girl group ever, behind only the Spice Girls, Diana Ross has sold over 100 million records as a solo artist which makes her one of the best-selling of all time.