This past week has seen a lot of anniversaries, the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki chief among them. While it's been a big week for sombre rememberance, these last seven days in history have also seen a lot of amazing women do great things. Here's a few of them:
1. In the Supreme Court
20 years ago today, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the second female Supreme Court Justice in history.
RBG, looking awesome as a Justice today, and as a senior at Cornell in 1954.
Photos from Wikimedia Commons and Huffington Post
2. You Strike a Woman, you Strike a Rock
Yesterday was South Africa's National Women's Day, in commemoration of a 1956 march by women in Pretoria to protest laws requiring people to carry the "pass," documentation papers intended to curtail the freedom of movement of black South Africans during apartheid.
Photos from South African History Online
Demonstrators sang a song written for the occasion, and a version of its name - "you strike a woman, you strike a rock" - has become emblematic of the strength and power of women in South Africa.
3. The White Mouse
On August 7th, two years ago, the world lost an incredible force of nature: Nancy Wake.
Photos from NYTimes & Badassoftheweek.com respectively.
Nancy Wake was a British secret agent during the Second World War. Born in New Zealand in 1912, she was raised in Australia, and moved to France at 20, where she married a wealthy industrialist named Henri Fiocca. When the war hit France, she used her wealth and influence to make food from the black market accessible to the people of Marseille, where she lived. She progressed from smuggling food to people, and aided in the escape of French Resistance and British POWs from a nearby German prison. When the local Nazis began to realise what she was up to, she fled through Spain to Britain, where she joined the elite Special Operations Executive. After training with SOE, she returned to France, where she worked with resistance fighters in Auvergne.
By 1943, Wake was at the top of the Gestapo's most wanted list, with a five-million franc reward for her death or capture. Her nickname among the Germans was the "White Mouse," because she consistently evaded capture.
Nancy Wake is one of my favourite figures in history - keep your eye out for a more in-depth bio on this amazing woman soon!
Who is your favourite woman in history? Is there a recent lady BAMF anniversary you'd like to see added to this list?
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