Submitted by Jon Freeman
If you thought that it has only been a man’s world throughout history, think again! 100 Women Who Made History is an interesting book about 100 women who made history. It includes women from present day and the past. The book is divided into sections based on the fields the person made her significant impact. These include areas such as politics, science, business, and the arts. The book includes information about famous women you have heard of and are familiar with, such as J.K. Rolling and Oprah Winfrey, as well as others you probably don’t know – until you read about them. This is a great book of history for older elementary school kids and middle school readers as they discover women who had an impact and made history, and learn that it is not just a man’s world.
What kind of women will you discover in “100 Women Who Made History”:
Learn about America’s first female self-made millionaire. She was born into poverty to former slaves during the 1800’s. She got married as a teenager, but became widowed at the age of 20. Eventually she became an entrepreneur and started a successful business.
Discover the female German university student who, along with other students, formed the White Rose – a small non-violent resistance movement that carried out a campaign against Hitler and the Nazis during World War II.
Learn about the woman who was an expert in radioactivity and was asked to join the top secret Manhattan Project: the research project that created the atomic bomb. She was also the first person to prove that nuclear particles don’t always decay in the same way in an experiment that is now named after her.
Discover the story of a woman who was born with a condition that left her legs paralyzed, but she still became an accomplished athlete. She won a total of 16 medals, 11 of them gold, while competing in five Paralympic Games.
Learn about the first African-American woman to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine and Time magazine. She was also the first African-American woman to be in the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Read about the first woman to gain a pilot’s license in the United States in 1911.
Discover the female climber who became the first woman to scale Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain, in 1975. When she and her team set out to climb Mount Everest disaster struck. Nearly three quarters of the way up the mountain an avalanche engulfed their camp. She was knocked unconscious and had to be dug out of the snow. Only 12 days after that avalanche nearly killed her, she reached the top of Mount Everest.
Learn about the British skater who competed alongside men at the 1902 World Figure Skating Championships and earned a silver medal, and helped lead to the creation of a separate figure skating competition for women.
Read about the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in Science.
Discover the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States.
Read about the African-American who became the first American woman to win three gold medals at an Olympic Games.
Discover the woman who invented a radio guidance system based on principles that are still used today, in technologies such as GPS and Bluetooth.