International Women’s Day: Inspirational Women Who Broke Stereotypes
Women power! International Women’s Day is celebrated all around the world on 8th March to commemorate the achievements of women who broke conventional ideals of femininity and paved a way for change. A fight for gender equity.
This year’s theme is #BreakTheBias where we fight for a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. What better way to celebrate than to read about inspirational women from around the world who crushed stereotypes, fought against discrimination, and broke bias. Women whose actions paved the way for the freedom of expression we have today.
You may already have a long list of women who inspire you, but here are some women you may not have heard of!
Charlotte Perkins Gilman – Writer
You may have heard of classic women writers such as Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and Louisa May Alcott, but have you heard of Charlotte Perkins Gilman? One of her most famous pieces of work is her short story “The Yellow Wall-paper,” published in 1892. This absolutely terrifying story illustrates contemporary patriarchal attitudes towards the mental and physical health of nineteenth century women. The narrator, possibly suffering from postpartum psychosis, is gaslighted by her physician husband who locks her in a room so she can recover from her “temporary nervous depression – a slight hysterical tendency.” Hysteria was a very common diagnosis for women who swayed from the norms of a docile, subservient lady.
Perkins also suffered postnatal depression after giving birth to her daughter. Her disdain for the infamous “rest cure” (basically imprisonment of women) is clearly illustrated in this story. Perkins said that “The Yellow Wall-paper” was “not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked.”
I could go on all day. I mean, I wrote tens of thousands of words on the fin de siècle and the portrayal of the New Woman for my dissertation!
Jane Austen – Writer
We can’t discuss writers without mentioning the famous Jane Austen! She wrote at a time when women were not encouraged to read novels, let alone write them! Nineteenth century patriarchy often prohibited women from reading books because this enabled women to escape their reality, transporting them from the private feminine sphere of domesticity to the adventurous, exciting public masculine sphere. After all, we can’t let women question what society tells them to do!
Austen, like many women writers, had to publish their work under a male pseudonym or anonymously under “By a Lady” or “By the author of…” This was to “preserve” their femininity because after all, a woman should not work for money! To this day, Jane Austen is one of the most famous authors of all time. I have read many of her novels, but my favourite is Pride and Prejudice.
Anna May Wong – Hollywood Starlet
Considered to be the first Chinese-American Hollywood star and fashion icon, Anna May Wong (born Wong Liu-tsong) paved the way for East Asian actresses and models to enter the limelight. She is famous for her silent films and, notably, her role in Shanghai Express (1932) alongside Marlene Dietrich. It was quite a rare occurrence for an East Asian character to be seen as a white character’s equal. Unfortunately, this is still often the case in many twenty-first century films!
Despite her fame, Anna May Wong fell victim to American miscegenation laws, which criminalised interracial marriage and sex between people of different races. This meant that Anna May Wong could not play a white actor’s on-screen love interest, therefore barring her from leading roles.
When I first watched Shanghai Express, I was in awe about seeing an East Asian woman playing a leading role. I spent hours researching her. I am half-Chinese half-white and still do not feel represented in books, films, and fashion/beauty advertisements. Anna May Wong got the ball rolling for diversity, but we still have a long way to go.
Amy Johnson – Pilot
Amy Johnson started off as a typist, a good feminine job… but then she set her eyes on the sky. This female pilot inspired a generation of women pilots and engineers. She not only broke gender stereotypes, but records too! Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930. Other records including flying solo from London to Cape Town in 1932 and then crossing the Atlantic with her co-pilot husband in 1933. She then turned her ventures to fashion and modelled clothes for Elsa Schiaparelli. She even created her own travelling bag!
Unfortunately, on 5th January 1941, Amy Johnson disappeared. The official story is that her plane ran out of fuel and she drowned in the icy waters of the Thames Estuary. But is this the truth? Sixty years later, a former British soldier confessed that he shot Johnson’s plane down, thinking that it was piloted by Nazis.
Her body has never been found, but her legacy lives on.
Mary W Jackson – NASA Engineer
Mary W Jackson was not just a mathematician and aerospace engineer… she was the first female African American engineer to work for NASA. This inspirational lady diversified NASA’s workforce by leading programmes that influenced the hiring and promotion of women in NASA’s STEM careers.
In 2021, the NASA Headquarters Building in Washington D.C. was officially renamed after Jackson. In a Tweet, NASA wrote: “She helped us propel the dawn of the Space Age through her work as a ‘human computer’. Now, our headquarters building will be named in her honour.”
There are so, so many inspirational women who changed history. Women who challenged stereotypes and prejudices about sex and race. We have accomplished so much, but we still have a long way to go.
Happy International Women’s Day!
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