Sept / Oct: Powerful Women

I was thirteen years old when I discovered Elizabeth I. To my eager young mind, she was an amazing woman – the first (and only) English Queen to rule her nation without marriage, on her own merit. She kept hold of her kingdom even when Rome and Spain threatened it, restored it to its former glories after her father bankrupted it, and died the most famous “virgin” in history. As a girl who never much fancied marriage, she was my heroine.

To my delight, as I read history books, I found many more incredible women to admire, respect, and emulate, who did remarkable things… either in defiance of the time period that tried to constrain them, or who knew how to work the system to achievement and personal success despite being a woman in a man’s world. I found them everywhere, as proof that where courage exists, a woman can set out to achieve great things. Some of them married, others didn’t; some changed the world, some only changed their mind, but all of them left a mark on me, and each of them taught me that who we are is less remarkable than what we decide to achieve.

In this issue, my writers celebrate fictional and historical females they admire. I invite you to join us as we pay tribute to some truly remarkable ladies.

IN THIS ISSUE:

(Not So) Black and White: Jessica Dryden Prescott in A Distant Trumpet

Jasmine: The Flower of the Orient

Tinsel Town Trailblazer: Anna May Wong

The Neglected Queen: Katharine of Aragon

Queen Esther

The Power of a Pen: Sara Joseph Hale

Small and Mighty: Golda Meir

The Defiant Duchess: Eleanor of Aquitaine

A Self-Made Woman: Eliza Lucas Pinckney

Mother of a Dynasty, Founder of Universities: Margaret Beaufort

Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Aviatrix and Author