![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
International Women's Day
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 06:32 pmNobody told me the Daniel Craig in drag / Judi Dench video for International Women's Day was directed by Sam Taylor-Wood! (And scripted by Jane Goldman, recently branded 'very peculiar' because she sometimes stays in bed all day.)
Some other inspirational women:
Caroline Herschel, who passed up a career as a singer to act as housekeeper to her brother William, and made quite a few astronomical discoveries herself. (She has a cameo appearance in one of the Aubrey / Maturin novels: Jack is very impressed by her.)
Aphra Behn, possibly the first female professional writer in England; early voice against slavery, writer of erotic literature celebrating the female gaze, and spy. Virginia Woolf wrote of her, "All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds."
Hedy Lamarr, not just a Hollywood film star but also a scientist and inventor whose patents included an ingenious cryptographic technique involving piano rolls.
Marina Raskova, Hero of the Soviet Union and probably the woman who convinced Stalin that women-only aviation regiments were a Good Thing. (There were three such regiments in WW2, though only one remained exclusively female until the end of the war.) While I hesitate to celebrate war, I celebrate Raskova for her determination in convincing the Soviet military machine that women could pilot, navigate and fight as effectively as men.
Some other inspirational women:
Caroline Herschel, who passed up a career as a singer to act as housekeeper to her brother William, and made quite a few astronomical discoveries herself. (She has a cameo appearance in one of the Aubrey / Maturin novels: Jack is very impressed by her.)
Aphra Behn, possibly the first female professional writer in England; early voice against slavery, writer of erotic literature celebrating the female gaze, and spy. Virginia Woolf wrote of her, "All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds."
Hedy Lamarr, not just a Hollywood film star but also a scientist and inventor whose patents included an ingenious cryptographic technique involving piano rolls.
Marina Raskova, Hero of the Soviet Union and probably the woman who convinced Stalin that women-only aviation regiments were a Good Thing. (There were three such regiments in WW2, though only one remained exclusively female until the end of the war.) While I hesitate to celebrate war, I celebrate Raskova for her determination in convincing the Soviet military machine that women could pilot, navigate and fight as effectively as men.
