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http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-40267364
How a fatal flaw with Spitfires and Hurricanes was fixed by a pioneering female graduate.
Beatrice Shilling: Pioneering Aviation Engineer
(what's a "Modern Worthy"? click here to find out!)
Harnaam Kaur
Sikh Anti-Bullying Advocate
A woman with a disorder that causes male pattern hair growth in women, she bravely maintains the Sikh tenets against hair removal, in spite of the bullying she receives.Marie Duval
The Pioneering Cartoonist That History Forgot
One of the first to push the limits of the format, Duval was a cartoonist long forgotten afterward.Dorothy Levitt
Champion Lady Motorist of the World
Levitt was one of the first female racers, and worked to popularize driving and cars among women.Brenda Hale
The UK's First Female Supreme Court President
On appointment to the Lords, she had created a coat of arms bearing the motto Omnia Feminae Aequissimae, meaning “women are equal to everything.”Megan Hine
Survival Expert
She can climb, abseil, start a fire with a tampon, and catch a fish with her bare hands, making her more than qualified to survive the zombie apocalypse.Maeve O’Rourke
Advocate for the Women of the Magdalene Laundries
Maeve O'Rourke served as the only lawyer for the group Justce for Magdalenes, presenting information to the United Nations which compelled Ireland to finally investigate the Magdalene laundries.Suzelle Poole
77-Year-Old Ballerina
"Life is too short not to do what you want to do... It's never too late. So start doing what you love doing now."Zaha Hadid
The First Woman to Win the Pritzker Architecture Prize
Zaha Hadid, the first woman to earn Pritzker Prize, architecture's Nobel, passed away on March 31, 2016.Shirin Gerami
Iran's First Female Triathlete
Gerami wanted to represent Iran in triathlons, but the Iran Triathlon Federation wouldn't support her because of clothes. So she worked for months to design a hijab she could compete in.Beatrice Shilling
Pioneering Aviation Engineer
This engineer fixed a flaw in the allies' planes, allowing them to dive just as well as the Germans' - an innovation instrumental to winning the war.Related Posts
Esther Morris
50 years before women got the federal right to vote, Esther Morris became America's first female justice of the peace. A contemporary newspaper called her “the terror of all rogues” and said she offered “infinite delight to all lovers of peace and virtue."
Lee Meng
When Singaporean guerrillas tried overthrowing British rule, they turned to this gangster to run their communications. The cat-and-mouse game in which she was caught by a female police officer is riveting stuff.
Gertrude Jeannette
New York's first licensed female cabbie didn't let racism, sexism, or a speech impediment slow her down.
Maureen Mancuso
Without training, this 13-year-old shattered world records for running in 1967 -- unfortunately, it happened shortly after Kathrine Switzer's headline-making Boston marathon entry, and Mancuso's feat was all but forgotten.
Tammie Jo Shults
One of the US Navy's first female fighter pilots took a job with a commercial airline - and then saved the day when an engine exploded mid-flight.
Regina Anderson
Her apartment, which she dubbed Dream Haven, was a “who’s-who of the Harlem Renaissance: artists, poets, writers, songwriters, intellectuals, and activists” - everyone from Zora Neale Hurston to Langston Hughes to W.E.B. Du Bois.
Beate Klarsfeld
Together with her husband Serge, this woman has spent her life tracking down war criminals and bringing them to justice.
Millie Veasey
Part of a WW2 unit that untangled a logistics nightmare, she lived to a hundred and helped run a chapter of the NAACP.
Franca Viola
In the 60s, an Italian woman was abducted and raped - and then pressured to marry her rapist. She instead took him to court and got him tossed into jail.
Georgia Gilmore
She organized the Club From Nowhere - a collection of chefs who helped the effort in anonymity, to avoid reprisals in their personal and professional lives.
Random Princesses
Te Puea Herangi
The reluctant royal who became the Maori's greatest leader.
Hatshepsut
One of the greatest pharaohs to ever live, she built up Egypt so much that a generations-long sustained effort to erase her from history couldn't do the trick.
Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz
This brilliant poet rose from illegitimacy and poverty to become one of the luminaries of her age - until she flew too close to the sun.
Man-deok Kim
When famine hit Jeju island, where she'd been exiled since birth, this prostitute-turned-businesswoman spent her fortune to feed everyone.
Katie Sandwina
Champion weightlifter, suffragette, mom - this "Lady Hercules" did it all.