Influential Women in History

Vocabulary flashcards covering influential women in science, civil rights, aviation, art, and leadership as described in the lecture notes.

Marie Curie

A groundbreaking scientist born in $1867$ who discovered the elements radium and polonium and remains the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences—physics and chemistry.

Radium and Polonium

Two chemical elements discovered by Marie Curie through her pioneering research on radioactivity.

Rosa Parks

An American civil rights activist whose refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus in $1955$ sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

A major protest sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks that helped launch the modern civil rights movement in the United States.

Amelia Earhart

A pioneering American aviator born in $1897$ who became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in $1932$.

Frida Kahlo

A Mexican artist born in $1907$ whose self-portraits explored themes of identity, pain, and Mexican culture following a serious bus accident.

Malala Yousafzai

A Pakistani activist for girls’ education who survived a Taliban attack in $2012$ and became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in $2014$.

Susan B. Anthony

An American leader in the women’s rights movement during the $19^{th}$ century whose efforts led to the passage of the $19^{th}$ Amendment in $1920$.

19th Amendment

An amendment to the United States Constitution passed in $1920$ that granted women the legal right to vote.

Cleopatra VII

The last active ruler of ancient Egypt’s Ptolemaic Kingdom who became queen in $51\text{ BCE}$ and formed alliances with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

Eleanor Roosevelt

An American diplomat and First Lady who helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the United Nations.

Harriet Tubman

An American abolitionist born around $1822$ who guided enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad and served as a spy and nurse during the Civil War.

Underground Railroad

A network of secret routes and safe houses used by Harriet Tubman to help enslaved people escape to freedom.

Jane Goodall

A British primatologist who began studying chimpanzees in Tanzania in $1960$, discovering that they use tools and exhibit complex social behaviors.