International Women’s Day: Celebrating the Unseen, the Unheard

International Women’s Day: Celebrating the Unseen, the Unheard

I am an ordinary woman who has spent a few decades on this planet- yet I am acutely aware that there is so much, rather infinite amount, to learn. When I first watched Hidden Figures, a film based on the true story of three African American mathematicians who played key roles in NACA (later NASA), what struck me was how little I knew about women trailblazers in different fields.

On International Women’s Day today, people in every country and city would organize events to sing the praises of the fairer sex, clap for their contributions, declare on microphones how they plan to fight for their rights etc., my humble effort is to bring to light just about a dozen women who were groundbreakers in fields known to be dominated by men. Shouldn’t we be telling their and similar stories every day?

Abbye Stockton (weightlifter) lifting 135 lbs. sometime in the 1940s.  Doesn’t she make it seem so easy?

Dr Anandibai Joshi (left), the first Indian female doctor of western medicine. She completed her two-year degree from Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) in 1886. In the centre is Kei Okami (Japan) and on the right is Sabat Islambooly (Syria) who too were among women pioneers from their respective countries to obtain a degree in Western medicine. You will be surprised that it was Dr Joshi’s husband who pushed her to pursue her studies in medicine after marriage. 

Augusta Ada King (1815-1852), Countess of Lovelace and English mathematician (Left) was the first to recognise that Analytical Engine, the mechanical general-purpose computer designed by Charles Babbage, had applications beyond pure calculation.

Engineer Karen Leadlay (right) working on analog computers in the space division Of General Dynamics in1964. 

Katherine Switzer (left) was assaulted by race co-director Jock Semple for wearing a number while she was running the Boston Marathon in 1967. Original photo by Harry A Trask.

Meanwhile, Bobbi Gibb (right), the first woman to cross the 1967 finish line, with a time almost an hour less than Switzer's, completed the race for the second time. She had run the year before too. Both times she ran without a race number.

Women Assembling the Beatles' album ‘Rubber Soul’ at the Hayes Vinyl Factory in 1965.

Ruth Gordon Schnapp (1926-2014) was California's first female structural engineer and an equal rights activist. In 1984, she founded Pegasus Engineering, Inc. Her company performed earthquake and natural disaster structural assessments for the next 17 years. Do not miss the words on her tee shirt!

Remember how we all ooh-aahed over Yusuf Dikec (male Olympian 2024) and this is Annie Oakley (sharpshooter) shooting over her shoulder using a hand mirror way back in 1899.

E. Lilian Todd, a self-taught inventor considered the first woman on our planet to design and build her own aircraft, in 1909.

Cairo Mary, bouncer (left), at Shanghai Red (5th and Beacon in San Pedro) ‘escorts’ a customer to the door in 1953. (I am not sure if the bar still exists).Closer home, the first Indian woman bouncer is Mehrunissa Shaukat Ali (right). In her mid-thirties, Ali started working as a bouncer nearly two decades ago and now runs her own security agency.

American women welders during World War II.

Also, during WW1, the MI5 is said to have used girl guides to deliver secret messages. They preferred them over boy scouts because they found out that the latter were boisterous, talkative and not efficient enough.

Theresa Kachindamoto, the first female Ngoni chief (traditional authority figures) in Malawi, broke up 850 child marriages in three years. The only child among 12 in her family who received an education, she went on to live and work in another city.

In some African tribes, 10-year-old girls have to attend “marriage initiation camps” where they lose their virginity and learn how to “please a man”. Theresa, with the support of the President and First Lady of Malawi, abolished child marriages and in 2017, Malawi enforced a law banning marriages for those under the age of 18.

Confronted and harassed by Basij paramilitary forces over compulsory hijab laws in Iran, with her clothes torn during the encounter, Ahoo Daryaei, (30), a Ph.D. student in French literature at Islamic Azad University, Teheran, staged a protest by sitting partially dressed (or undressed) in the university courtyard on  November 2, last year. 

A female firefighting team on a converted motorcycle In London in 1932.

I could go on but this should enough for today.

When the date changes on the calendar and the day fades into memory, perhaps a few names would linger in your mind of such pathfinding women who beat the odds and rewrote history. Meanwhile, I leave you with the thoughts of common women found across social media about their experiences in daily life.

Does any of them stir something within you? Do they prick your conscience or strike a familiar chord?

Photo: boredpanda.com

                                                                                       - Anupama s Mani