10 Badass Women Of History For International Women’s Day

Badass women have been around since forever. Ching Shih was a pirate and led one of the largest fleets to ever exist. Women have not only destroyed male-dominated fields but they have excelled. These are some badass women you won’t want to forget.

1. Marie Curie

If you did not happen to know Marie Curie is the first women to ever win a Noble Prize. She coined the phrase radioactive and is big deal in physics.

During World War 1 Curie she opened a training program to encourage other women to get involved in the war effort.

2. Margaret Burke-White

Margaret Burke-White was the first female photojournalist to work with the US Army. She brought to light what the Nazis were doing in German concentration camps and showed that she is one badass woman. Her famous photo of Fort Peck Dam was on the first cover of Life Magazine.

3. Annie Lumpkin

18-year-old Annie Lumpkin joined the Freedom Riders in stopping segregation on public transport. She was arrested for sitting in the “white-only” section of a bus in Little Rock, Arkansas.

She was a student in St.Loius, Missouri when her picture was taken outside of the Little Rock police department.

4. Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks is a historical figure that did so much. She was an American activist during the civil rights movement and was called “the mother of the freedom movement”.

After she refused to move seats she became a prominent figure and essentially started the Montgomery bus boycott.

5. Jeanne Manford

Manford founded the organization Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. She became an activist in 1972 after her son was beaten for being gay.

She was an activist for the LQBTQA+ community and a complete badass. She stood up when not a lot of people were and showed to be a prominent voice.

6. Nicole Minet

Nicole Minet was also known as Simone Seguin was a French resistance fighter. At the tender age of 18, this badass women captured 27 Nazis in her village south of Paris. She blew up bridges and derailed trains during her time in the resistance.

7. Mata Hari

Exotic dancing is one of the oldest professions. Mata Hari was a Dutch exotic dancer who moonlighted as a spy for the Germans in WWI.

Ambivalently Always: Meet This Feminist Mogul

She was actually convicted of being a spy and was executed in France by a firing squad. There is another theory where she just took money from the Germans without doing any spy duties. Either way, go girl!

8. Rosalind Franklin

You may of Watson and Crick the pioneers of DNA. She was the real pioneer as her research was used by Watson and Crick and she just happened to not be credited.

She was responsible for x-ray diffraction that led to the discovery of the double helix and was a revolutionary in DNA research. She was a prominent chemist and died of ovarian cancer.

9. Mary Edwards Walker

The only women to ever receive the Medal of Honour is this woman. The only women EVER. She was given the Medal of Honour for her achievements during the Civil War.

Even after her award was taken away she refused to give back her medal and wore it for the rest of her life. She wore a top hat and was even a prisoner of war. Holy shit.

10. Malalai Kakar

The first women to ever graduate from the Kandahar Police Academy in Afghanistan. After receiving death threats from the Taliban, she was eventually assassinated. She was head of the crimes against women and was a Lieutenant Colonel.