This book looks and feels awesome and I have barely opened it. I am teeming with excitement. (Except there is a nick on the side of the book but who cares because this book looks awesome!). As a girl scout leader and a boy scout leader, I believe whole heartedly in following your heart, challenging yourself, challenging others, and growing strong in who we are as people. United. Women!
"Artists and athletes, pirates and pinks, and other revolutionary women who shaped history."
Who wouldn't want to read it?!
From the get go she tells you to close your eyes and imagine a president, a pirate, a spy... what do they look like? Most of the time you don't think of women because of social standards. These women broke them. Whether a thousand years ago and a woman became pharaoh or today, right now. Maybe the next one is your daughter!
They broke rules, they defied the odds. They kept going. They spoke up. I am in awe and inspired myself to keep moving forward and up.
Some were born into it like Enheduanna who was in ancient Mesopotamia! She was born to the king who gave her the position, the first woman ever, to be the High Priestess which holds so much power both spiritually and politically. Wow! She was also an author which is how we find out about her!
We have heard of Malala Yousafzai who at 17 won the Nobel Peace Prize. How? She told her story. She got shot at 14 years old for exposing what her community was going through. A 14 year old made grown men scared enough to try to take her life on a bus! How sad. It made it stronger. How amazing is that!
Miriam Makeba used her voice to sing of the injustices in South Africa she and her community were experiencing. When she got a part in an anti-apartheid movie and won an award for it, she was exiled from her own original country! She couldn't go back. Like the movement that Alicia Keys is doing with no make up, no facade, she did the same thing! She traveled around the world. She testified about her experience in front of the U.N.
Wangari Maathai became the first East African woman, from Kenya, to receive a PhD! She became an international human and women's rights activist. The country she loved was not the same as when she was a kid and also became an environmental activist as well. She was beaten because of her efforts. She became the first African woman to become a Nobel Prize winner an won a seat in Parliament receiving 98% votes for her.
Kalpana Chawla who was from India and became an astronaut! The first Indian woman to do in a time when most people were becoming house wives!
Aung San Suu Kyi from Burma who became a leader of her country and a nobel peace prize winner.
Kasha Nagabasera from Uganda who started FARUG (Freedoma nd Roman Uganda) which grew to become Uganda's main LGBTI organisations. She testified in front of the UN and too has been beaten for her efforts to change her country's ways.
Hatschepsut who was in 1500 BCE in Egypt who ruled Egypt as a king. Yes, you read that right. A female king. She ruled for 22 years and wanted to be a peaceful ruler.
Qiu Jin who was executed in 1907 for writing revolutionary poetry and helped to stand up for women's rights in China which was rare. She was called the modenr-day Mulan or Chinese Joan of Arc.
Fe Del Mundo was a smart cookie. She got a full ride scholarship to anywhere in the world and she chose Harvard who only accepted her because they thought she was a man. When she arrived, they had no choice because of how smart she was for them to keep her! She was the first female Harvard student! She was able to take her medical knowledge back with her to her war torn country and help many people!
One my sister in law who is a linguist would appreciate is Dame Katerina Te Heikoko Mataira from New Zealand who helped preserve a dying language. The Maori language.
Liv Arnesen and Ann Bancroft became the first women ever to trek on Antartica.
Other names we have learned to know like Frida Kahlo, Venus and Serena Williams, Josephine Baker, and women from ALL over the world and time periods that can inspire any woman or little girl!
Women like these are WHY I do girl scouts! I have and continue to lead over 50 girls and I have only begun! It is SO important and I will for sure be using this book to help teach these girls. What amazing examples!
I am SO using this book to touch as many girls in scouting and women as possible! Let's stand up and be united for all!!! Love love love love!!! One of my faves this year!
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