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Modern Day Wonder Woman of History

By SC September 25, 2011 11 Comments

One of my favorite concept pages here at Comic Vine is the Wonder Women of History page. Its a page dedicated to a back up feature from Golden Age Wonder Woman comics. The feature would basically give you a rough retelling of the lives of influential and inspirational woman from the past, who stood out in someway that should be remembered and celebrated. (examples being Caroline Herschel, Annie Jump Cannon, and Nellie Bly) The reason I like this feature is because I am a fan of unsung heroes and a fan of people who practice humility, and self sacrifice, those who are driven to make things better for others, those who who aren't complacent, those who do not settle, those who inspire and seek truth. It was a really cool feature, it almost makes me wish the modern day Wonder Woman comics could have such a feature. Not necessarily just for woman now either. Wait, what am I talking about, no such feature will be reintroduced anyway. I just wanted to address a point though, because I liked this feature in old Wonder Woman comics, but inspirational and heroic people never stopped existing and many continue to break barriers and instigate change, I thought it might be nice to create a thread asking what modern day woman deserve a comic style back up feature? I'll admit I wish I was an expert in this area, but I am fairly ignorant. When I was younger, the books I had access to? Really only male figures (Henry Cavendish, Kurt Gödel) stood out to me. As in the books I read had more space devoted to them. So later I do plan on writing my own blog for them later. With that context in mind, I am creating this blog more in mind for modern day females who may be unsung and under recognized. If you wish, feel free to join in. You may use your own criteria, and feel free to browse the Comic Vine concept page for inspiration. Here are my own personal (read subjective) picks that I would like to see appear in comic form. Do you have any?

Zainab Salbi

Born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1970, Zainab is the co founder of Women for Women International. This organization is an advocating for women's rights. Its a very hands on approach, and their goal is help women, help woman, help woman achieve independence and self-sufficiency, by steering them to the right jobs, education. Women for Women distributed $9.3 million in aid to 30,000 women in 2005 alone. It is estimated to have helped assisted more than 243,000 women, and in ways those women in turn have been able to help others. As a child, due to who her father was, Salbi, witnessed and experienced psychological abuse under Saddam Hussein. Her first hand experience, motivating her to want the world to be a better place, particularly for women in war worldwide. She has a Bachelor's degree in Sociology and Women's Studies as well as a Master's degree in Development Studies. One simple exercise to illustrate how Salbi helps women help themselves is just take a bunch of them, in war stricken countries, the women who are isolated and just getting them to met each other and form connections. Many such woman have been raped and have lost children and husbands, and just let them know that they have futures and that they can have purpose. Her contributions have earned her several awards including Harper's Bazaar 21st Century Heroine (nominated by Bill Clinton) and the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award. She is an author of two books - Between Two Worlds Escape from Tyranny: Growing up in the Shadow of Saddam, and The Other Side of War: Women's Stories of Survival and Hope.

Jodie Williams

Born in Vermont, United States October 9, 1950, a teacher, outspoken peace activist, and aid worker, she is also a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to her in 1997. Educated at various schools though out her life, including the University of Vermont, School for International Training and Johns Hopkins University, one of her first ventures into aid and charity work being the Nicaragua-Honduras Education Project. Later on she was appointed the deputy director of Medical Aid for El Salvador. Jody played a significant role in 1997's Ottawa Treaty/Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, an international treaty that involved ceasing the production and development of anti-personnel mines, among other things. She is a joint founder of the The Nobel Women's Initiative. Her co founders, also woman, and Nobel Prize Laureates each represent North America and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and its goal is the support of woman's rights around the world as needed. Williams is also considered a pioneer in Mass collaboration Aid. Essentially meaning, that with today's technology, its even easier to get small groups of people connected to unite for a shared goal/project to help achieve said goal faster. In her words " Imagine trying to get hundreds of organizations – each one independent and working on many, many issues – to feel that each is a critical element of the development of a new movement. I wanted each to feel that what they had to say about campaign planning, thinking, programs, actions was important ." In 2004 she was listed as of the 100 most powerful women in thew world. Currently she is a distinguished professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work.

Rachel Carson

Born in Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S. in May 27, 1907, she was a scientist, ecologist, writer, environmentalist, and marine biologist. When her father passed away she 1935, supported and lived with her mother, and in order to do so well, she turned writing magazine science pieces, and even compiled those articles into a book, Under the Seawind, where she extolls the wonders of the sea. It spent 86 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, and opened up the eyes of an entire generation. Her book Silent Spring, warning and discussing the risks and dangers of toxic chemicals and pesticides and herbicides caught the attention of John F. Kennedy, thus leading to the US Senate to launch investigations. This book also impacted on popular culture and general perceptions, helping to spark the environmental movement. It however created several enemies for her as well from large chemical corporations and companies. She passed away in April 14, 1964. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously, among many, many other honors. Her significant cultural influence and inspiration is broad as well, with many honors being named after her, such as Norway's Rachel Carson Prize, awarded to women who excel/contribute in environmental protection. Society for Social Studies of Science, awards annually the Rachel Carson Book Prize for authors whose work is especially socially and politically relevant in the fields of science and technology. Two quotes attributed to her " The control of nature is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man" and "One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, 'What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?'”

Audrey Hepburn

Born in Ixelles, Belgium on the 4 May 1929, noted and famous actress and fashion icon (American Film Institute 100 Years...100 Stars, lists her as the third greatest screen legend of American cinema) she was much much, more, and gave a lot more to mankind, with her humanitarian actions, and efforts and her philanthropy. She was a Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her work, among other honors. Both during and after a successful film, and fashion career she increasing gave more of her time, earnings and effort to aid, increase awareness and support in such places as the slums of Africa, South America and Asia. Naturally bright and well educated, small things like her fluency in Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, and German languages. Her first work for UNICEF began in the 1950s with humble radio and TV spots. By 1988 she participated in her first field mission, it was to an orphanage in Mek'ele, Ethiopia. She was devastated and heartbroken by what she witnessed. She is quoted as saying "The 'Third World' is a term I don't like very much, because we're all one world. I want people to know that the largest part of humanity is suffering" she participated in Operation Lifeline, and various other aid missions and tasks in places such as Vietnam, Sudan and Somalia.

I also sort of wanted to highlight and think would be cool to see Chloe Bruce (martial artist), Herta Müller, Lara Logan (news journalist), Arundhati Roy (writer), Lady Gaga (music aside, she is one person right now, that actually plays a huge role in making many youth/teenagers a bit more accepting of themselves) among others as well. Lots of interesting people who might be underrated, under appreciated really. Also I must and would like to say thank you to three CV posters in particular who also helped me with my blog/suggesting worthy, inspirational woman, rather fittingly all three CV people being pretty inspirational themselves.

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