Anything & Everything.: Happy International Women's Day!

Happy International Women's Day, ladies!

I hope you are having a wonderful day and are happy to be a woman on this great day.

I'm going to name and talk about a few inspirational women who stood up and changed history forever for us girls. It's bit of a long post but I think it's fitting for a day like today. Let's go!

1. Susan B. Anthony

First up is Susan B. Anthony. She was one of the driving forces behind the women's suffrage movement. She was a devoted equal rights advocate and a social activist. She dedicated her life to not only fighting for women's equal rights but for the equality of all people. Although, she was deeply self-conscious of her looks and speaking abilities, because of her Quaker upbringing she overcame these fears and was encouraged to express herself and fight for equal rights. She spent much of her life travelling around the country, speaking about equal rights, discussing petitions and helping to organise local women's rights and labour organisations. Amazingly, she was actually the first woman to be printed on a circulating U.S. coin in 1979-1981 and minted again in 1999.

2. Marie Curie

Marie Curie was a ground-breaking Polish chemist and physicist who worked mostly in France who became known for her historical research on radioactivity. She is the first and only woman to win the Nobel Prize in two fields. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris and coined the word radioactivity and part of her achievements included theories in radioactivity. She was responsible for several techniques used in isolating radioactive isotopes as well as discovering two elements; radium and polonium. To this day, there are many locations, schools and foundations named after her.

3. Helen Keller

Helen Keller was born in 1880 and was healthy until an illness and a severe fever left her both deaf and blind. She was quite intelligent but her childhood suffered due to her handicap as she was unable to communicate, causing her to get frustrated and have frequent tantrums. After many years, help arrived when she was seven in the form of Anne Sullivan. Anne herself was also blind and became Helen's teacher, teaching Helen sign language. Long story short, Anne's future husband, John Macy helped Helen to write her first book about her life. After completing her education, Helen began lecturing and sharing her story with others with the hope of opening up more options for people with disabilities. She spoke about rights for others as well, including women and founded/co-founded numerous foundations including the American Civil Liberties Union.

4. Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks attended segregated schools throughout her childhood which included a long daily walk to the African American school house while the white students in her community took a bus to a large, new building. She briefly attended secondary school but had to leave to take care of her ailing mother and grandmother. Instead of returning to school, she got a factory job and married Raymond Parks at the age of 19. Raymond was a member of the NAACP and helped Rosa earn her high school diploma. She became a civil rights activist alongside her husband and served as a youth leader for the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. The Montgomery city code insisted that bus drivers had to segregate black and white passengers on the bus. If buses became too full, the black passengers had to give up their seats to accommodate white passengers. If they refused, the bus drivers had full authority to call the police to have them removed.

Rosa Parks became an icon when she left work on 1st December, 1951. Riding the bus home, the bus filled up and soon the white half of the bus was full, leaving some white passengers standing. The bus driver stopped the bus and ordered the first row of black passengers to get up and the three passengers in Rosa's row did so but not her. She refused to move and was subsequently arrested for it. After her arrest, the NAACP organised a bus boycott in support of Rosa and racial equality.

5. Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall is a famous animal rights activist and environmentalist. She has made many discoveries in her long term research into chimpanzee society about their behaviour, diet and interactions with one another. She travels around the world, giving lectures on primates and their behaviour. She started the Jane Goodall Institute which now has 19 offices across the world and she spends a significant portion of her time fighting for chimpanzee's rights.

And finally, YOU!

That was cheesy, I know but it's true! You, yourself, are an inspiration either to yourself, to family or to your friends. Whatever you are going through or have been through, you are incredible and have amazing strength. Whatever your dreams and goals are, you have the strength and power to achieve them. I am proud of you for getting this far already and you have so much more to offer this world.

To close this post, I think it is only fitting to include a bit of Beyoncé and Destiny's Child!