3 women you respect

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I thought it might be a nice idea to compile a collection of respected women from the broad perspectives represented on WP.
List as many as you want, with a short snippet of information about the person. (High profile or your Grandmother, 3 is just the minimum )

Nell McCafferty is an Irish journalist, playwright, civil rights campaigner and feminist. In 1971 she was one leader in a group that took the "contraceptive train" from the North across the border to the Republic of Ireland laden with condoms and contraceptives, to challenge the ban on contraception. (Contraception was illegal in Ireland from 1935 until 1980) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nell_McCafferty

Mary Robinson: first female President of Ireland from 1990 to 1997. She altered the traditional presidential role, by not treating it as a retirement position, and actively using the role to create change, for example she was the first serving Irish president to visit the United Kingdom and meet Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. She also served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and was the first Commissioner to visit Tibet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Robinson

Constance Markievicz: A politician, revolutionary nationalist, suffragette and socialist. The first woman elected to the British House of Commons and one of the first women in the world to hold a cabinet position (Minister for Labour of the Irish Republic, 1919–1922) W.B. Yeats, the Irish poet wrote a poem for her and her sister 'In Memory Of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz'. She died in 1927 having given away the last of her wealth, in a public ward "among the poor where she wanted to be" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Markievicz

Anna Politkovskaya a brave Russian journalist that was critical and reported about the war in Chechnya. She was murdered in 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya

Astrid Lindgren a Swedish writer, she wrote children’s books. She wrote great books, where children were important and also the girls (like Pippi and Ronja ) in her stories were adventures and brave.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrid_Lindgren

Sophie Scholl, she was a member of White Rose an Anti-Nazi group in Nazi Germany, she was executed at the age of 21.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Scholl

1. My maternal grandmother. Born into and raised in a very wealthy family, married poor, lived poor, but never lost her spirit or sense of humour. I miss her dearly.

2. Rosa Parks (no explanation necessary).

3. Cleopatra VII, last Pharaoh of Egypt. A "hands-on", working Queen who did much to better the lot of her subjects, and who did her best to keep Egypt independent of Rome, despite hostile attempts by the latter to take over the land. After her death, Egypt was annexed and became a Roman province, devoid of power or any say in the politics and power balances of the Occident. Her current representation (which has survived 2000 years) is the direct result of Augustus Cesar's calumny and postmortem propaganda about / against her. The real Cleopatra was "just" a woman who dared to take on the might of Rome (with some Roman assistance, of course).

1 ) Marie Curie, first female nobel prize winner and only female two time winner

B ) Ada Lovelace, first computer programmer (female or otherwise)
Ada Lovelace biography

iii ) Mary Wollstonecraft, first wave feminist
Mary Wollstonecraft wiki

Personally, I feel rather sorry for Mary Wollstonecraft. Her love life was very unhappy and her daughters were a scandalous lot. Poor lady.

one of the perils of being at the forefront of a movement opposed by nearly everyone is that life will be hard (and the idea that people should take on hurt due to the rebellious or controversial actions of their children is silly be hurt by what people do to you and not even by what they think of you and life becomes much simpler and relaxed)

So far Ive only read a little bit about her, but what an interesting life, her perspective would have been quite normal in today's world, but a life less ordinary in the 18th century. It makes sense that her unconventional way of being impacted on her personal life, and perhaps her sisters too.

1. My grandmother(s). One died, she was cool. The other is 73 and lives a five minute drive away. She can cook well (before she retired, she was a chef) and I can talk to her about anything and she understands and she has interesting stuff to tell me about.

2. Marie Curie, cuz she is a renowned scientist.

3. Susan Haack, philosopher of epistemology. Concept of foundherentism is a decent perspective.

Helen Keller - turned profound disability into ability, after being generally written off by the human race as a waste of space and air

Naomi Klein - author of The Shock Doctrine - gifted analyst unafraid of naming political corruption at high levels

All women who manage to produce wonderful adult children despite hardship and/or parenting alone and the lack of support at policy and personal levels