100 Most Important Women in World History

100 Most Important Women in World History From time to time, people publish lists of top 100 of women in history. As I think about who Id put into my own Top 100 list of women important to world history, the women in the list below would at least make it to my first draft list. Womens Rights European and British Olympe de Gouges: in the French Revolution, declared that women were equal to menMary Wollstonecraft: British author and philosopher, mother of modern feminismHarriet Martineau: wrote about politics, economics, religion, philosophyEmmeline Pankhurst: key British woman suffrage radical; Founder, Womens Social and Political Union, 1903Simone de Beauvoir: 20th-century feminist theorist Americans Judith Sargent Murray: American writer who wrote early feminist essayMargaret Fuller: Transcendentalist writerElizabeth Cady Stanton: womens rights and woman suffrage theorist and activistSusan B. Anthony: womens rights and woman suffrage spokesperson and leaderLucy Stone: abolitionist, womens rights advocateAlice Paul: a primary organizer for the last winning years of womens suffrageCarrie Chapman Catt: a longtime organizer for woman suffrage, organized international suffrage leadersBetty Friedan: feminist whose book helped launch the so-called second waveGloria Steinem: theorist and writer whose Ms. Magazine helped shape the second wave Heads of State Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance Hatshepsut: Pharaoh of Egypt who took male powers for herselfCleopatra of Egypt: last pharaoh of Egypt, active in Roman politicsGalla Placidia: Roman Empress and regentBoudicca (or Boadicea): warrior queen of the CeltsTheodora, Empress of Byzantium, married to JustinianIsabella I of Castile and Aragon, ruler of Spain who, as a partner ruler with her husband,  drove the Moors from Granada, expelled unconverted Jews from Spain, sponsored Christopher Columbus voyage to the New World, established the InquisitionElizabeth I of England, whose long rule was honored by calling that time period the Elizabethan Age Modern Catherine the Great of Russia: expanded Russias borders and promoted westernization and modernizationChristina of Sweden: patron of art and philosophy, abdicated on conversion to Roman CatholicismQueen Victoria: another influential queen for whom a whole age is namedCixi (Tzu-hsi or Hsiao-chin), last Dowager Empress of China, wielding enormous power as she opposed foreign influence and ruled strongly internallyIndira Gandhi: Prime Minister of India, also the daughter, mother, and mother-in-law of other Indian politiciansGolda Meir: Prime Minister of Israel during Yom Kippur WarMargaret Thatcher: British prime minister who dismantled social servicesCorazon Aquino: President of Philippines, reform political candidate More Politics Asian Sarojini Naidu: poet and political activist, the first Indian woman president of the Indian National Congress European and British Joan of Arc: legendary saint and martyrMadame de Stael: intellectual and salonist American Barbara Jordan: first Southern African American woman elected to CongressMargaret Chase Smith: Republican Senator from Maine, the first woman elected to both the House and the Senate, first woman to have her name placed in nomination at a Republican party conventionEleanor Roosevelt: wife and widow of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his eyes and ears as president hampered by polio, and a human rights activist in her own right Religion European and British Hildegard of Bingen: abbess, mystic and visionary, composer of music and writer of books on many secular and religious topicsPrincess Olga of Kiev: her marriage was the occasion of the conversion of Kiev (to become Russia) to Christianity, considered the first saint of the Russian Orthodox ChurchJeanne dAlbret  (Jeanne of Navarre): Huguenot Protestant leader in France, ruler of Navarre, mother of Henry IV American Mary Baker Eddy: founder of Christian Science, author of key scriptures of that faith, founder of The Christian Science Monitor Inventors and Scientists Hypatia: philosopher, mathematician, and martyred by the Christian churchSophie Germain: mathematician whose work is still used in the construction of skyscrapersAda Lovelace: pioneer in mathematics, created the concept of an operating system or softwareMarie Curie: mother of modern physics, two-time Nobel Prize winnerMadam C. J. Walker: inventor, entrepreneur, millionaire, philanthropistMargaret Mead: anthropologistJane Goodall: primatologist and researcher, worked with chimpanzees in Africa Medicine and Nursing Trota or Trotula: a medieval medical writer (probably)Florence Nightingale: nurse, reformer, helped establish standards for nursingDorothea Dix: advocate for the mentally ill, supervisor of nurses in the U.S. Civil WarClara Barton: founder of the Red Cross, organized nursing services in the U.S. Civil WarElizabeth Blackwell: first  woman to graduate from medical school (M.D.) and a pioneer in educating women in medicine  Elizabeth Garrett Anderson:  first woman to successfully complete the medical qualifying exams in Great Britain; first woman physician in Great Britain; advocate of womens suffrage and womens opportunities in higher education; first woman in England elected as mayor Social Reform Americans Jane Addams: founder of Hull-House and of the social work professionFrances Willard: temperance activist, speaker, educatorHarriet Tubman:  fugitive slave, underground railroad conductor, abolitionist, spy, soldier, Civil War, nurseSojourner Truth: black abolitionist who also advocated for woman suffrage and met Abraham Lincoln at the White HouseMary Church Terrell: civil rights leader, founder of National Association of Colored Women, charter NAACP memberIda Wells-Barnett:  anti-lynching crusader, reporter, an early activist for racial justiceRosa Parks:  civil rights activist, especially known for desegregating buses in Montgomery, Alabama More Elizabeth Fry: prison reform, mental asylum reform, reform of convict shipsWangari Maathai: environmentalist, educator Writers Sappho: poet of ancient GreeceAphra Behn: first woman to make a living through writing; dramatist, novelist, translator, and poetLady Murasaki: wrote  whats considered the worlds first novel,  The Tale of GenjiHarriet Martineau: wrote about economics, politics, philosophy, religionJane Austen: wrote popular novels of the Romantic periodCharlotte Bronte: along with her sister Emily, author of key early 19th century novels by womenEmily Dickinson: inventive poet and recluseSelma Lagerlof: first woman to win Nobel Prize for LiteratureToni Morrison:  first African American woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993)Alice Walker:  author of  The Color Purple; Pulitzer Prize; recovered work of Zora Neale Hurston; worked against female circumcision

The Agapito Flores Fluorescent Lamp Controversy

The Agapito Flores Fluorescent Lamp Controversy No one knows who initially proposed the notion that Agapito Flores, a Filipino electrician who lived and worked in the early 20th century, invented  the first  fluorescent lamp. In spite of evidence that disproves the claim, the controversy has raged for years.  Some proponents of the tale have gone so far as to suggest that the word fluorescent was derived from Flores last name, but considering the verifiable history of fluorescence and the subsequent development of fluorescent lighting, its clear that the assertions are false. The Origin of Fluorescence While fluorescence  had been observed by many scientists as far back as the 16th century, it was Irish physicist and mathematician George Gabriel Stokes who finally explained the phenomenon in 1852. In his paper on the wavelength properties of light, Stokes described how uranium glass and the mineral fluorspar could transform invisible ultra-violet light into visible light of greater wavelengths.  He referred to this phenomenon as dispersive reflection, but wrote: â€Å"I confess that I do not like this term. I am almost inclined to coin a word, and call the appearance  Ã‚  fluorescence  Ã‚  from fluor-spar, as the analogous term opalescence is derived from the name of a mineral.† In 1857, the French physicist Alexandre E. Becquerel,  who had investigated both fluorescence and  phosphorescence, theorized about the construction of fluorescent tubes similar to those still used today. Let There Be Light On May 19, 1896, about 40 years after Becquerel postulated his light-tube theories, Thomas Edison filed a patent for a fluorescent lamp. In 1906, he filed a second application, and finally, on September 10, 1907, he was granted a patent. Unfortunately, instead of utilizing ultraviolet light, Edisons lamps employed X-rays, which is likely the reason his company never produced the lamps commercially. After one of Edisons assistants died of radiation poisoning, further research and development were suspended. American  Peter Cooper Hewitt patented the first low-pressure mercury-vapor lamp in 1901 (U.S. patent 889,692), which is considered the first prototype for todays modern fluorescent lights. Edmund Germer, who invented a high-pressure vapor lamp, also invented an improved fluorescent lamp. In 1927, he co-patented an experimental fluorescent lamp with Friedrich Meyer and Hans Spanner. The Flores Myth Busted   Agapito Flores was born in Guiguinto, Bulacan, the Philippines, on September 28, 1897. As a young man, he worked as an apprentice in a machine shop. He later moved to Tondo, Manila, where he trained at a vocational school to become an electrician. According to the myth surrounding his supposed invention of the fluorescent lamp, Flores allegedly was granted a French patent for a fluorescent bulb and the General Electric Company subsequently bought those patent rights and manufactured a version of his fluorescent bulb.   Its quite a story, as far as it goes, however, it ignores the fact that Flores was born 40  years after Becquerel first explored the phenomenon  of fluorescence, and was only 4 years old when Hewitt patented his mercury vapor lamp. Likewise, the term fluorescent could not have been coined in homage to Flores, since it predates his birth by 45 years (as evidenced by the prior existence of George Stokes paper) According to Dr. Benito Vergara of the Philippine Science Heritage Center, As far as I could learn, a certain Flores presented the idea of fluorescent light to Manuel Quezon when he became president, however, Dr. Vergara goes on to clarify that at that time, the General Electric Company had already presented the fluorescent light to the public. The final takeaway to the tale is that while Agapito Flores may or may not have explored the practical applications of fluorescence, he neither gave the phenomenon its name nor invented the lamp that used it as illumination.

Agencies helping homeless people Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Agencies helping homeless people - Essay Example Homeless people can be encountered in any country of the world. The United States of America is not exclusion as well. However, unlike many other nations, Americans strive to support people living on the streets, those who are not able to satisfy their basic needs without outside help. Homeless people are individuals who have no place to live, have very low income, and cannot afford buying food and cloth. Most of the homeless people start living on the streets because they have failed to deal with the life problems. Very few homeless individuals enjoy the life they have, however, they do not see the opportunity to improve the position.According to the statistics, there is almost one million American people living on the streets or staying in the shelters. These include men, women, and children. The government unable to satisfy the needs of all of these people and, for this reason, the non-profit organizations aimed at supporting homeless individuals are the only hope for numerous peo ple without home. Every person has a different reaction when he sees the person with the sign "work for food". Many of citizens do not even know what it is like not to be able to buy even the simple bread. These individuals with the sign experience this feeling everyday. Some of Americans give money to homeless, while most just do not pay attention to them or get angry because of their presence.Most of the organizations offering temporary assistance to homeless people cannot cover all of the expenses associated with accommodation of homeless. For this reason, agencies have developed the official websites describing their activities, informing people about homeless and their problems, and offering the opportunity to donate any amount of money. The Institute for Human Service (IHS) is one of the agencies helping homeless people to cope with the life problems, offering temporary accommodation, and a wide range of different services. The Institute for Human Service is located in Hawaii and provides sleeping places to more than 250 individuals in one location and for 150 women (with approximately 60 children) in the second location; it serves up to 7,000 meals per week, and cooperates with many business units and non-profit institutions (http://www.ihshawaii.org). U.S. Vets Inc is another non-profit American agency offering help to the homeless veterans. Unlike Institute for Human Service, which is located only in Hawaii, Vets Inc has offices is California, Texas, Nevada, Hawaii, Arizona, and Washington D.C. According to the news posted on the official website (http://www.usvetsinc.org), U.S. Vets is the largest national organization dedicated to helping homeless veterans. If the Institute for Human Service provides accommodation services and helps homeless to meet the basic needs, U.S. Vets is focused on "successful reintegration of homeless veterans" rather than merely providing them with food, clothing, and shelter for one night. The agency cooperates with public and private sectors in providing the safe, sober, and clinically supported housing as well as employment assistance. The official websites of U.S. Vets Inc and the Institute for Human Service do not provide information about the intake procedures a participant of the programs has to go through. In addition, the sites do not contain any information about the composition of the staff or any guidance on what one must do to become a participant at the agencies. The lack of this information can be understood: the sites follow informative mission, the aim is to attract public attention to the problem, and generate funds through donations. The intake procedur

Human Sexuality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Human Sexuality - Essay Example Others are confident that homosexuality contradicts the basic laws of nature. However, more often, such misunderstanding is due to the lack of scientific knowledge and theories regarding the development of sexual orientation in humans. The findings of contemporary research in human sexuality are at least controversial. Whether the orientation is the product of genetic of social influences is difficult to define: the current scientific knowledge does not provide an answer to this question. However, based on everything that has been written and said about the issue under consideration so far, the development of sexual orientation is a complex process that combines the features of genetic and social influences. Contemporary science treats sexual orientation as one of the most popular topics of scholarly research, and the issue of human sexuality is often reconsidered from the different philosophic viewpoints. Today, essentialism and social constructivism are fairly regarded as the two principal perspectives in the analysis of sexual orientation development. If we turn to essentialism, we will find out that the orientation, as well as sexuality, in general, as rooted in intrinsic, biological processes. Put simply, sexual orientation, including homosexuality, is the critical feature of the human nature and is an essential element of the human genetic structure. In their philosophic arguments, essentialists primarily apply to the principles of the evolutionary theory, and claim that â€Å"both human sexuality and sexual orientation are coded in human genes; essentialists also claim that throughout the human history, genes promoted reproduction and survival of humans†.

The Road Not Taken and An Unknown Girl Essay Example for Free

The Road Not Taken and An Unknown Girl Essay The Road Not Taken and An Unknown Girl both are written by authors with a peculiar background. An Unknown Girl is by Moniza Alvi who resides in England but was born in Pakistan reflects her ethnic background in An Unknown Girl, where she goes to India to search for her identity. The Road Not Taken was written by Robert Frost who had many professions, a teacher, mill worker, newspaper reporter, farmer and then finally a poet. His life background is reflected in the poem because the poem is about making a choice between different paths. The Road Not Taken is a conceit because the poet is telling us about how he faced two decisions in his life and a decision at this crossroad he encountered. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, Yellow usually represents cowardice, but by saying yellow wood he tells us that it is Autumn and it could be that Autumn represents his later years in life or that he is just around the corner from death. However in An Unknown Girl right from the beginning we learn that the poet is confused about her identity when she says, an An Unknown Girl is hennaing my hand. Literally, she is saying she does not know the girl who is hennaing her hands but more closely, it relates to how the poet still has no identified herself and is also unknown. Another clue the reader sees is there are no stanzas or structure to the poem, which emphasises that she that she is bewildered and confused as to how she is feeling. In The Road Not Taken the poet tries to delay his decision in which way he should go in life, and also literally the path he should take, when he says, Long I stood and looked down one as far as I could. The assonance of the oo sound he uses concludes that he wants to prolong his decision, and when he is looking down as far as he could, he is literally looking down the paths but also looking to his future. In An Unknown Girl, the poet experiences Many Indian images such as, henna, bazaar, rupees, kameez. However, the mix of the Indian and Western images (balloons, perms, neon lights) reflects on her confusion of identity, this is also backed up when she says, I have new brown veins. She is literally talking about the henna she has now on her hand but also that she has found some of her roots, blood and heritage from being in India. But sooner or later this will all be scraped off, It will fade in a week, this literally refers to the henna on her hand but also in a week she will be back in England where her roots and heritage will go back to being English and her Indian culture will fade away like the henna no her hand. A significant moment of the poets identity in The Road Not Taken is when he says, because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there had worn them really about the same. This part of the second stanza is saying the poet wants to be challenged and does not want to follow the crowd in taking the worn away path, which everyone else did, but wants to take the path that seemed fresh and untouched because it may have been more difficult to pass. This literally refers to the choice in path, but also his choice in a life career because he doesnt want to be something regular like a teacher or doctor, but wants to have a different life than the rest of society. In An Unknown Girl the poet also experiences a moment where she wants to be that something special, or different when she says, I am clinging to these peacock lines like people who cling to the sides of a train. She is literally talking about not loosing the henna lines on her hand but actually, she is showings how she is struggling to grasp onto the new culture and she is in danger of losing touch with it. This shows that she is unsure of her Indian roots and she feels that she should be physically marked so she can identify herself with Indian culture. On the third stanza in The Road Not Taken the poet seems to have a slight change in mind and regrets taking the path he took: Oh, I kept the first for another day, and: I shall be telling this with a sigh. The reader realizes that he regrets it because he uses negative vocabulary and phrases, for instance, sigh, doubted and if I should ever come back. These words and phrases show he is a pessimist, he uses a sarcastic tone even though he could have done something good. He is literally talking about how he regrets taking the path he chose at the crossroads but actually, he is saying that he regrets taking the path in life he chose and wants to turn back and start from the beginning where he had the choices. There is also a large decision in An Unknown Girl where near to the end of the poem and her trip to India she feels she will now lose all her Indian identity, When Indian appears and reappears, Ill lean across a country with my hands outstretched. Literally, she is on her last day in India and is reaching out in tiredness, but she is actually attempting to join the two cultures together like a bridge from England to India with her arms. By outstretching her arms, she is longing to stay Indian but she must make a decision and her decision is to go back to England. She feels as if she will never belong in India: Longing for that An Unknown Girl in the neon bazaar, she is saying that she just wants to be both cultures but it wont happen. At the end of The Road Not Takenthe poet has made his once in a lifetime decision and the reader has already realized that he regrets it, but now he had put the full blame on himself, Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less travelled by, and that has all the difference. The caesura after by emphasises his disbelief that he caused the problem for himself. The repetition of I, shows he regrets the choice and wants to go back, but cannot. He shows frustration and bitterness at his once in a lifetime decision that he has ruined by taking the one path he thought was a challenge, but the challenge beat him. Both, The Road Not Taken and An Unknown Girl deal with the pressures of finding ones true identity, in The Road Not Taken the poet has to chose a path on a crossroad, which reflects how he needs to come to a decision in real life as to what he really wants to do or be. In An Unknown Girl, the poet wants to find out who she really is and is in search of her true roots in India. In both there is an ultimate ending where everything goes back to how it was or back to a normal lifestyle without the other identity or life they could have had.

William Staffords Traveling Through the Dark Essay -- Stafford Travel

Profound Meaning in William Stafford's Traveling Through the Dark The power of the poet is not only to convey an everyday scene into a literary portrait of words, but also to interweave this scene into an underlying theme. The only tool the poet has to wield is the word. Through a careful placement and selection of words, the poet can hopefully make his point clear, but not blatantly obvious. Common themes of poems are life, death, or the conflicting forces thereto. This theme could never possibly be overused because of the endless and limitless ways of portraying life or death through the use of different words. In William Stafford's "Traveling Through the Dark", there are conflicting themes between birth and death, man and nature, and ultimately creation and destruction. It would take several years for a fully grown doe to develop, but it would only take a few seconds for that doe to be killed. Using the tools of the poet, Stafford vividly illustrates a scene in which man has completely destroyed and felt no remorse for a product of nature. This disrespect would only lead the driver to travel through the moral darkness of insensitivity and desecration towards nature. There it lay. A dead doe in middle of the road. The previous driver obviously had not thought twice after hitting the deer and had no sincerity towards nature nor the decency to at least move the carcass off the narrow road. The deer lay in the road, unburied, uncared for, unmourned, and untended. Ironically, if the carcass had remained on the road, it might have meant the taking of the life of another driver as Stafford stated in line 4: "that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead". The tone of this poem is one of sadness, but also blata... ...le impact of a car, lasting no longer than a few seconds. With few moral decisions made, the only road that lies as a result, is the road to death and ultimate degradation of society and nature both. In Stafford's poem, it was only the duty of the narrator to roll the carcass off the road and into the river, this duty fulfilled was only provoked by the lack of duty of another. Through the use of several poetic techniques, Stafford describes in a few words what would take somebody hundreds of words to describe. The brutal and harsh theme of his poem is supported by vivid images and symbols, which spotlight the situation at hand. By applying a common situation like an incidence of road-kill to all of human-kind's view towards nature, Stafford finished with a simple situation with a profound meaning. Work Cited Stafford, William. "Traveling through the Dark"

Forever war Essay

Forever war is a novel base on scientific fiction with both contemplative and action laden of interstellar wars between the enigmatic Tauran species and humanity, it has themes like brutality of enigmatic the wars and those involved in wars and reasons why a solder may return home many centuries after the war. The novel is all about a university student, William Mandella, who is called up for elites United Nations task force that is being gathered for war against the Taurans, a strange species realized when they abruptly attacked human colonists ships. Besides being sent for scouting/ reconnaissance purposes, politics of vengeance are also a reason for their formation The army consists of very educated individual with good physical and mental health and the theme of forever war begins in the training camps when very many casualties occur due to the live weapons and the harsh conditions in the training camps. The recruits undergo grueling training on earth and there after on Charon. The newly recruited solder leave for action and travel through worm hole like phenomena (collapsars) that lets ships to envelop many light years within a divided second. However there are relativistic effects realized due to the frequent traveling though the collapsars at almost light speed. The initial encounter with the unarmed Taurans far way from the planet becomes a massacre as the non resisting enemy is wiped out. Mandella painfully reflects how typical that encounter was for man kind past records with interaction with other cultures. From soldier’s point of view, that first expedition only lasted only some months but due to time dilation, several years had passed upon returning to earth. As they return along the long journey, they are attacked by Taurans who have highly advanced weapons while they cannot arm themselves. Marygay, a fellow soldier and a companion and lover to Mandella resume to civilian life but after some time they realize that they cannot fit in the society that has greatly evolved beyond what they can comprehend. The war veterans escape and resume to the army upon realizing the world government is officially encouraging homosexuality to prevent food wars and control overpopulation. They enlist to the army even though they realize that the military does not treat solders with much value but are used as machines. This further displays the Joe idea behind forever war in the Mandellas life and those of other soldiers. Mandella, through luck is able to survive four years of service to the military that can be termed as a number of centuries due to time dilation and as a result he attains higher ranks not from his personal imbibitions but through seniority as he is the oldest surviving soldier in that war. Despite of this Mandella is separated from his lover Marygay who has been his companion on earth since the time of his youth this is by the inevitable and unfriendly military machinery. After engaging in war for many thousand years from the earth, Mandella and other soldiers battle in trying to survive the last conflicts of war. During the past time mankind begins to clone himself and the results of cloning are also called man. Through a special form of communication, the clones are able to communicate with the Taurans who eventually are able to bring peace. It is then realized that the Taurans are clone who could not communicate with the pre-cloned man there leading to misunderstanding meaning that the war was a colossal mistake especially by the trigger happy community. The worst thing in the war from Joe’s point of view is that one is fighting a strange enemy in such a hostile environment and being trained efficiently to fuel yearns for blood. There are also problems when fighting in the clumsy combat in very low temperature besides traveling long distances in the black holes (collapsars). There are many ways a soldier can meet his death while fighting under such conditions there by leading to time dilation that results to the title of the book forever war. The progressions of displaying life as a combatant both in the combat situation and during training are unforgettable and gripping. The author has set a lot of understanding as a soldier during the Vietnam War in to the novel. The two main strengths put in the book are the depiction of progressive alienation of the combatants from the rest of mankind (humanity) and the psychological experience of being a combat that fortunately ends in a sorrowful revelation that the war they were engaged in was merely a blunder. In the novel, the armed forces stuff seemed well presented throughout. There is a particular attention grabber where by when the electricity does not work, the army alternatives is edged weapons. The military implication was well developed though the science in it may be kind of rubbish. Any one who doubts war could be as a result of an enemy that never was should consider the a recent event as the United States army panic stricken response to the international criminal court and their bizarre setting up of a national missile defense, this project will be costly in terms of monetary terms but will be to defend the US against a risk that is vanishingly not likely to become apparent . At the end, Mandela traces his love that had been lost for any years and the other humankind is identified as a race of the bisexual psychic clones. The Forever War doesn’t have happy termination as Mandella and Marygay find each other as the book end with the announcement of their first baby boy, they are in a prison planet where by the genetic curiosity has forced the human race to abandon its humanity in favor of monstrous liaison in the company of its former foe. REFERENCES Joe Haldeman: The Forever War, retrieved on 21st September, 2007, available at www. strangewords. com/archive/forever. html Joe W Haldeman (2003) The Forever War, Econo-Clad Boos publishers, US Review by Nicholas Whyte, retrieved on 21st September, 2007, available at www. nicholaswhyte. info/sf/forwar. htm Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, retrieved on 21st September, 2007, available at www. wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Forever_War