You probably are familiar with the modern-day feminist movement and some of the names that kicked it off in America a century ago with the Suffragettes: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott. But what some people don’t think about is that there are centuries- millenniums, even -of other women who also made huge strides in society. Basically, bad b*tches have been around for a while.
Agnodice (around 350 B.C.)
Born in Athens, Agnodice watched the women in her life struggle and die from childbirth. Often times, women didn’t want to call a physician for help because they were all men since no women were allowed to practice because men suspected them of providing abortions. To fight back against the unfair rules, Agnodice traveled to Egypt to study medicine before returning to Greece with her new skills to provide comfortable services to the women there. Since she wasn’t legally allowed to practice, Agnodice dressed herself up as a man. She became such a fantastic and popular doctor amongst the women in Athens that her patients fought for her to keep her license (and life after being found out) and, because of her, women doctors were legalized in Athens.
Wu Zetian (624 – 705)
Having displayed impressive intelligence from an extremely young age, Wu wowed the Emperor of China with her abilities and became his secretary, an upgrade from the concubine position she had held before. The Emperor died in 649, but his son, Gaozong, fell in love with Wu, keeping her in the palace as his own concubine. Wu soon gave birth to their first son, making him the future emperor. She and Gaozong got married, getting Wu even closer to political action and huge decisions. Gaozong became paralyzed, leaving Wu to govern in his place. The people were furious at having a female authority, and people conspired against her. She created her own secret police out of suspicion, just in time as her husband passed away and her son took over the throne, although eventually abdicating it to Wu herself in 690. This made her Shengshen, the first and only woman ever in the history of China to hold the title of Empress Regnant. She even founded her own dynasty: the Zhou Dynasty, thus distinguishing herself from her husband. After Confucianism degraded the ideas of a woman’s societal place, Wu paid scholars to write biographies of women in history. It has been argued that her dynasty was one of China’s most peaceful, artistic, and socially prosperous periods in history.
Nzinga (1583 – 1663)
The daughter of King Kiluanji, Nzinga’s brother took the throne after their father’s death. Knowing she was much smarter than him, her brother had her son killed, so as not to risk his position on the throne. He then sends her, at only 16, to negotiate with the Portuguese, with whom she managed to convince into signing a treaty, but they don’t honor it. Shortly after, her brother died, and Nzinga told her people to call her the Queen of Ndongo. As Queen, she refused to ever have a King by her side, although she had a number of lovers. Nzinga led her armies into battle herself, and held power for almost forty years, living to be 80 years old and finally attaining peace with the Portuguese.
Nellie Bly (1864 – 1922)
One of fifteen children, Elizabeth Cochran grew up in poverty after her father passed when she was six years old, helping her mother out at home to care for the many children. Eventually, she’s inspired by an article in the Pittsburgh Dispatch called “What Girls Are Good For.” It sent her into a fit of rage and triggered her to write a letter to the editor, who was impressed by her response and invited her to show her face at the paper. Upon confrontation, the editor offered a job writing for him, at which point she decided to change her name to Nellie Bly. She was a champion for women in her first articles, covering poor working women and those struggling for a divorce. But after being assigned to write a “women’s column” about gardening and sewing, Nellie resigned, taking off to do undercover reporting in a mental asylum. She faked being crazy to get herself admitted, and delivered a magnificent piece of investigative reporting about the torture and abuse that went on within. Nellie traveled the world, eventually going to Austria to be the first female war correspondent in World War I.
Naziq Al-Abid (1898 – 1959)
Part of a wealthy Syrian family, Naziq understood her privilege and hated how unfair it was. She hated the Ottoman Empire and wrote op-eds under a male name to protest. But Naziq didn’t stop there and recruited women to an advocacy group she founded for Syrian women’s rights. Because of her rebellious behavior, she was exiled to Egypt. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, Naziq founded the first women’s NGO in Syria, Noor Al-Fayha. She went on to found the Syrian Red Crescent, which acted as a sort of sister to the Red Cross, giving aid to those wounded in the war. Her involvement in the war extended to her grabbing her own weapons and fighting in massacres, before she snuck back into Syria to fight the French, and founding the Damascene Women’s Awakening Society to help educate widows in rural Syria. Naziq never had her own children, but adopted three orphans instead, and taught them to never be bystanders and always stand up for what’s right.
Betty Davis (b. 1945)
Betty graduated high school early at the age of 15 and jetted off to New York City to study fashion, where she joined a girl group called the Cosmic Girls. She grew up loving music and made friends with many of the best in the music scene at the time, including Jimi Hendrix. She married Miles Davis, a trumpet player 20 years her senior, changing her name from Betty Mabry to Betty Davis only to divorce one year into their marriage. In 1973, she moved to San Francisco and started to record her own music. But her artistic touch is different – she had a message unheard by anyone before. She wrote extremely provocative lyrics and performed confidently with her sexuality. Her second album addressed prostitution and kinky sex, but also about how hard it is to become an adult. Her fierce femininity made many people of that time period uncomfortable, which banned her from the radio and even garnered some protests at her concerts. Refusing to compromise her artistic license for people’s sensitive palettes, she dropped her entire music career to move home and live in isolation. She’s been living that way for thirty years, but recently, she started to write songs again.
Cheryl Bridges (b. 1947)
Cheryl struggled growing up. Her mother remarried to a creep that sexually preyed on Cheryl, so to avoid going home, she took up running. When she tried to join the track team, she’s told she must keep away from the boys on the team so as not to be too much of a “distraction,” but Cheryl was extremely fast. She began competing as the only girl in the race, and was forced to start five seconds behind so she “wouldn’t be in the way.” But Cheryl never gave up and was the first girl in America to be granted a sports scholarship to college. She even went to the 1969 World Championship and finished fourth. After marrying a running coach, she competed in her first marathon, setting a new world record and becoming the first woman to finish a marathon in under two hours an fifty minutes. Her daughter, Shalane, grew up to love running as well and won bronze in the 2008 Olympics.
Leymah Gbowee (b. 1972)
Growing up in Liberia, Leymah had mixed cultural heritage. At 17, the NPFL (a group of rebels) took over and triggered a civil war. Leymah was forced to flee with her family to a refugee camp in Ghana. In the camp, Leymah met Daniel, who seemed charming at first, but eventually became violent towards her. She wanted to leave him but had fallen pregnant with their baby, which caused him to become even more aggressive. However, UNICEF had started to offer social work training to war victims, and Leymah signed right up, teaching women about breaking the cycle of domestic abuse. She saw the women for everything they had been through; rampant rape, losing their sons to become child soldiers, and relentless, inescapable violence. Eventually, Leymah and Thelma Ekiyor (a highly educated woman) came together to include women in peace negotiations, creating “WiPNET” (women in peacebuilding network). The war raged on, and Leymah organized a colossal sit-in to block the exits of peace talks until peace was achieved. She was even invited to weigh in on the negotiations. After relentless protests and fierce leadership, in 2011, Leymah was awarded the Novel Peace Prize.