March is Women’s History Month, a time to recognize the remarkable women who stood up, stood out, and helped shape history—often without the recognition they deserved.
So in honor of these trailblazing women who refused to follow the rules I’ve rounded up ten of my wow-worthy favorites. Some became famous. Others worked quietly behind the scenes. But each one changed the world a bit in her own way.
Some challenged science… Some fought injustice… Some simply refused to take “no” for an answer…
Wow-Worthy Women in This Article
In the list below, you can click a name to go directly to that section, or you can just continue reading and enjoy them all.
✍️ Women With Pens – Writers who used words to challenge society and change how people thought.
- Jane Austen – The Novelist Who Quietly Defied Society’s Roles for Women
- Sarah Josepha Hale – The Influencer Who Created Thanksgiving
- Nellie Bly – The Journalist Who Went Undercover
🌿 Women and the Natural World – Women whose curiosity about nature reshaped science and conservation.
- Mary Anning – The Fossil Hunter Who Rewrote Prehistory
- Beatrix Potter – The Author Who Protected Sheep and Land
🩺 Women in Nursing – Compassionate nurses who transformed care for the sick and wounded.
- Florence Nightingale – The Lady Who Reinvented Nursing and Had the Data to Prove It
- Mary Seacole – The Healer Who Went Anyway
🎭 Women in the Arts – Creative women whose influence extended far beyond the stage or canvas.
- Josephine Baker – The Entertainer Who Fought Tyranny
- Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger – The Widow Who Made a Genius Famous
- Monique Bourgeois / Sister Jacques-Marie – The Nun Who Co-Created a Masterpiece
✍️ Jane Austen (1775–1817) – The Novelist Who Quietly Defied Society’s Roles for Women
She wrote stories about love and marriage – but quietly challenged the rules that governed women’s lives.
For women of Jane Austen’s class, marriage was often a financial arrangement where love was considered secondary.
However, the heroines in Jane’s novels didn’t bow to society’s expectations. They refused proposals from men who were rich – but boorish and self-absorbed. Instead, they held out for respect and affection. Jane herself turned down a financially-sound marriage proposal because it wasn’t based on affection. That was a pretty risky move in her day.
Jane wrote about the injustices of Georgian society with wit and a critical eye. She brought the plight of women to the forefront by revealing their inner thoughts about marriage, inheritance, and their dependence on men for financial security. Her novels show us that change can begin quietly with a well-sharpened quill.
Wow-Worthy Fact
Jane Austen never saw her name in print during her lifetime, as her books were published anonymously: “By A Lady.” Today her novels have sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
- Also read about how Jane’s books were prescribed for PTSD.
✍️ Sarah Josepha Hale (1788–1879) – The Influencer Who Created Thanksgiving
One determined editor spent nearly two decades persuading presidents to create a national holiday.
In the 1800s there were sporadic Thanksgiving Days declared in various American states, but it wasn’t a national holiday. One influential woman with a powerful pen set out to change that.
In 1822, Sarah was a 34-year-old widow with five children. She landed a job as editor of one of the most widely read magazines in America – and that made her an early influencer.
She launched a one-woman campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She published articles about Thanksgiving and recipes. And she encouraged everyone to celebrate with her on the last Thursday of November.
She wrote to American presidents for 15 years until finally, in 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November a national Thanksgiving Day. And thus, a holiday was born.
Sarah’s powerful pen influenced thousands, including a president, to establish a nationwide tradition. Now every Thanksgiving dinner is part of her legacy.
Wow-Worthy Fact
For 15 years, Sarah Hale wrote annual letters to five US presidents before Abraham Lincoln finally made Thanksgiving a national holiday. That’s persistence!
- Read more about Sarah and Thanksgiving.
✍️ Nellie Bly (1864–1922) – The Journalist Who Went Undercover
To expose injustice, she was willing to risk her own freedom – and her sanity.
She started writing for American newspapers at age 21 and went by the pen name of Nellie Bly. Her “stunts,” as they were called at the time, shaped what we now call investigative journalism.
At age 23, she faked mental illness to get the inside story on a Women’s Lunatic Asylum in New York. Once inside, she witnessed first-hand the abuse, neglect, and unsanitary conditions of the patients.
She published her story in the newspaper and later in a book called, Ten Days in a Mad-House. Her exposé forced the asylum to change how it treated patients. Nellie’s undercover, investigative reporting techniques were almost unheard of at the time but proved to be very powerful.
She didn’t just write stories; she changed the conditions she reported on. Nellie pushed journalism to the limits and proved women were capable of the toughest assignments. Today’s investigative journalism owes a debt to her fearless methods.
Wow-Worthy Fact
Nellie Bly feigned mental illness and spent 10 days inside an asylum to expose patient abuse. Her report led to major reforms and increased funding for mental health care.
🌿 Mary Anning (1799–1847) — The Fossil Hunter Who Rewrote Prehistory
An uneducated girl on the English coast helped uncover creatures no one knew had ever existed.
Mary Anning was one of the most important figures in the early science of paleontology – and she did it all without formal education, from a tiny seaside shop in Dorset on the English coast.
She was only 12 years old when she made her first major discovery: the entire fossilized skeleton of a 17-foot-long prehistoric ichthyosaurus. And throughout her life, she went on to find many more previously unknown creatures – which transformed our understanding of prehistoric life.
Her finds were displayed in museums and featured in scientific papers, even though she was rarely given credit. The Geological Society of London, which studied her finds, didn’t admit women until 1904, many years after her death.
Mary’s work was pivotal in establishing paleontology as a branch of science and shaping new theories about extinction, evolution, and prehistory.
Wow-Worthy Fact
Some say the tongue twister, She Sells Sea Shells by the Sea Shore, was inspired by Mary Anning selling her fossils by the sea.
- More about Mary and her fossils here.
🌿 Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) — The Author Who Protected Sheep and Land
The creator of Peter Rabbit became an unlikely conservation hero.
Beatrix Potter is best known for her children’s books – most famously, The Tale of Peter Rabbit – but there was more to this talented Victorian woman than bunny books.
Before becoming a children’s author, Beatrix was a serious fan of fungi. She studied and illustrated them. She wrote an essay that was read at a natural history society but wasn’t taken seriously.
So, she threw her energy into publishing her animal drawings and stories. She used the funds from her books to buy farms in England’s Lake District, which otherwise might have been lost to development. Then she populated them with endangered Herdwick sheep.
Beatrix was a naturalist, an artist, an author, and a farmer at a time when it was quite difficult for women to have even one career. What an inspiration!
Wow-Worthy Fact
Beatrix Potter used the profits from Peter Rabbit to buy farms and preserve more than 4,000 acres of England’s Lake District.
- Read more about Beatrix’s mushrooms, bunnies, and sheep here.
🩺 Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) — The Lady Who Reinvented Nursing and Had the Data to Prove It
She didn’t just carry a lamp through hospital wards – she carried statistics that would change medicine.
Victorian women of her class were expected to marry, not manage hospitals or analyze data.
Florence felt called to be a nurse when she was 17, but her parents forbade it. They wanted her to find a nice man, marry, have children, and forget all about that nursing thing.
But Florence couldn’t forget about it. She read everything about nursing and researched nursing schools. When she was thirty-one, her parents finally gave in, and she achieved her lifelong dream of becoming a nurse.
The Crimean War broke out in 1853, and Florence was asked to recruit a team of nurses for the Scutari hospital in Istanbul. Her nurses brought in cleanliness, fresh air, and healthy food which greatly improved survival rates.
Every night, Florence would take her lamp and walk quietly through the dim hospital wards, stopping at each bed to check on the wounded soldiers. They began calling her “The Lady with the Lamp.”
To prove how effective her hygienic methods were, she tracked the statistics and plotted them on charts. It seems that you can’t argue with a determined woman holding a lamp and a spreadsheet.
Florence proved the value of trained nurses, and thanks to her, nursing became a respected profession.
Wow-Worthy Fact
Florence Nightingale was one of the first to use graphs and charts. She used them to convince the British government to improve hygiene in military hospitals and save lives.
- Read more about the lady with the lamp and pie chart here.
🩺 Mary Seacole (1805–1881) — The Healer Who Went Anyway
They said she couldn’t go to war as a nurse, but she simply went anyway.
Mary was born in Jamaica to a Scottish soldier father and a Jamaican “doctress” mother. She learned Caribbean and European healing practices from her mother.
When she applied to go to the Crimean War as a nurse, she was turned down. Did that stop Mary? No way! She packed her bags and went to war.
She didn’t go to the army hospital – which was hundreds of miles from the action. She went directly to the front lines and opened the “British Hotel.” It was part canteen, part supply store for the officers and part field hospital where she treated the sick and wounded.
After the war, Mary went back to England and fell on hard times, but the former soldiers rallied to support “Mother Seacole”, as they called her. Today, she stands as a powerful example of resilience, compassion, and the ability to carve a place in history without permission.
Wow-Worthy Fact
Mary Seacole was voted the “Greatest Black Briton” in 2004 for her heroic, independent work during the Crimean War.
🎭 Josephine Baker (1906–1975) — The Entertainer Who Fought Tyranny
Dancer, singer, spy, activist—Josephine Baker refused to live a small life.
Born into poverty in St. Louis, Missouri, she rose to fame in 1920s Paris, where her electrifying performances made her one of Europe’s highest-paid entertainers. In France she found a level of admiration and freedom from racial prejudice that she had been denied in the US.
During World War II, Josephine became a spy for the French Resistance. She used her fame to attend diplomatic parties, gather intelligence, then write it on her sheet music in invisible ink. She received France’s highest honors for her bravery.
In later years, she devoted herself to civil rights in the US. She spoke at the 1963 “March on Washington” alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and refused to perform for segregated audiences. She also adopted twelve children from different countries, calling them her “Rainbow Tribe.” They were her living statement against racism.
Josephine’s life was inspiring – from impoverished child to global star, wartime hero, and symbol of racial equality. She used her fame to defy segregation and fight for justice.
Wow-worthy Fact
In 2021, Josephine Baker became the first Black woman honored in France’s Panthéon, the nation’s monument for its greatest heroes.
🎭 Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (1862–1925) — The Widow Who Made a Genius Famous
Without her determination, the world might never have known the paintings of Vincent van Gogh.
Johanna was married to Theo van Gogh, Vincent’s brother who had supported him financially and emotionally throughout his career. Theo died just six months after Vincent did, leaving Johanna with hundreds of virtually worthless paintings.
Vincent’s work wasn’t appreciated at the time. However, Johanna knew that her husband had believed in Vincent’s talent, and she did too. She wouldn’t let their dream die. She set about organizing the collection, and lending paintings to exhibitions across Europe.
Along with the paintings, she also had all the letters from Vincent to his brother which explained each painting and what the artist was feeling as he created it. Johanna published these letters and gave the public a glimpse into Vincent’s soul. They presented the artist as a passionate, misunderstood genius and caused people to view his paintings in a different way.
Johanna reshaped art history by ensuring Van Gogh’s work reached the audience it deserved. She shows us that cultural change sometimes depends on those behind the scenes who simply refuse to let brilliance be forgotten.
Wow-Worthy Fact
Out of the more than 800 paintings by Vincent van Gogh, there was only one documented sale during his lifetime. Today he’s one of the most influential figures in the history of Western art. Well done, Johanna!
🎭 Monique Bourgeois / Sister Jacques-Marie (1921–2004) — The Nun Who Co-Created a Masterpiece
A young nun became the unlikely collaborator of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.
In 1942, Monique was 21 years old and living in Nice, France. She answered an ad placed by 72-year-old Henri Matisse for a temporary nurse position. They hit it off immediately. The artist became a grandfather-figure to her, and she posed for some of his paintings.
They went their separate ways when Matisse’s regular nurse returned. But the following year, in 1943, they found themselves living across the street from each other in Vence. Matisse had moved inland to escape coastal bombing, and Monique was in the Dominican convent. To Matisse’s surprise, she had become a nun.
When the convent needed a chapel, Monique (now Sister Jacques-Marie) went to Matisse for help, and he ended up designing everything as a favor to his friend.
Matisse and Sister Jacques-Marie worked together, and the nun became a bridge between the modern artist and the religious community. She helped Matisse understand religious symbolism so the designs would be meaningful, as well as decorative.
The Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence became one of the best examples of collaborations between 20th century art and sacred architecture. The unlikely pair proved that spiritual devotion and artistic modernity can co-exist.
Wow-Worthy Fact
Henri Matisse said of the chapel he created with Sister Jacques-Marie: “I consider it to be my masterpiece.”
- Read more about Matisse, a nun, and a chapel here.
These ten women refused to accept the limits society placed upon them – they followed their convictions, and the world is better for it.
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