Women of color with significant contributions to science, history, etc.

I don't know if it's okay to list artists, but I find them as important as authors.

Frida Kalho.
Nikki Lee.
Doris Salcedo.

I'll be back with more later. It's hard because so many female artists are involved with civil rights art and I can't think of many that aren't specifically doing that.

snafu1056 said:

If you haven't read it already you might like a book called The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan rescued his Empire. History tends to overlook the fact that Mongol women were as fearsome as Mongol men.

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Thanks for the book. I did list the Yuan women somewhere in there, which is definitely Mongol.

I'd rec the Foreign Brides and the Women of Korea book but both are hella expensive.

Bessie Coleman, aviator
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Coleman

Elizabeth "Bessie" Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926) was an American civil aviator. She was the first female pilot of African American descent[1] and the first person of African-American descent to hold an international pilot license.

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Some cool Indian ladies (After some Googling):

Lashmibai, the Rani (Queen) of Jhansi

Savithri, from the legend of Savitri and Satyavan. (Not sure how relevant this is, as it is from legend)

Sulochana Gadgil

Phillis Wheatley

Buffalo Calf Woman-- my personal favorite.

From my adopted state of Texas:

Charlye O. Farris - first black female attorney in Texas

which leads to:
Lisa Tatum - Just elected as President of the Texas Bar Association

Zenobia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenobia

Zenobia was a 3rd-century Queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Roman Syria, who led a famous revolt against the Roman Empire.

My apologies if these are already posted.

Caroline Still Wiley Anderson, physician and educator, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to William and Letitia Still. Supporting his family through coal mining investments and a stove store, William Still, a prominent antebellum abolitionist, helped escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad.

Chien-shiung Wu 1912-1997 In 1956 Chien-Shung Wu devised an experiment by which one of the basic laws of physics—so-called parity conservation—was overturned, an achievement that helped win a Nobel Prize for two of her colleagues and revolutionized the study of particle physics.

Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Steward was the first African American woman to earn a medical doctorate (M.D.) in New York State and the third in the United States. Though her early education was musical, Susan Smith entered the New York Medical College for Women in 1867. She earned her M.D. in 1870, graduating as valedictorian.

thebloodfiend said:

I don't know if it's okay to list artists, but I find them as important as authors.

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... me too.

Marian Anderson.
One of the best singers of all time!

Makes most every other singer crummy by comparison.

Also pretty, btw.

Ching Shih! I'm surprised no one has mentioned her yet. A Chinese pirate whose fleet totaled over one thousand ships at the height of her reign. She's one of the most powerful and influential pirates in the history of the world. Also famous for killing any of her men who raped a woman.

I just wish there was more information on her! I would read accounts of her life (true-to-fact or fictionalized) all day long.

I don't know if anyone else has mentioned these scientists.

NASA astronauts Mae Jemison and Ellen Ochoa

Patricia Bath, who is a very prominent ophthalmologist and inventor.

Valerie Thomas, inventor of the illusion transmitter


And

Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to congress.

And Cathay Williams , who fought in the Civil War while posing as a man.

And celebrated composer and conductor Tania Leon