Ordinary Women: Daring to Defy History

In 10th century Japan, literary prodigy Murasaki Shikibu wrote the first modern novel at a time when women’s names were rarely even written down.

One of the most famous and feared pirates who ever lived was Ching Shih, a young Cantonese woman who became the ruler of one of the largest pirate fleets in history, and the mastermind behind a floating criminal empire so powerful that even the Chinese military couldn’t stop it.

Few stories are as dramatic as that of of Ida B. Wells, a woman who was born a slave in Mississippi in the midst of the Civil War, and became a daring investigative reporter and civil rights crusader who would one day be called the “loudest and most persistent voice for truth” in an era of injustice.

A mathematical genius and pioneer of computer science, Ada Lovelace was not only the created the very first computer program in the mid-1800s but also foresaw the digital future more than a hundred years to come.