Favorite Historical Female

[crazy canuck]

That's a really tough question, especially when you move to premodern era. For example how many of these who say Eleanor of Aquitaine really mean Mrs. Hepburn.

Given that the people who are responding are history and not movie buffs I would guess the number is 0

[MadImmortalMan]

There is a lot of correlation here with attaining power. Is that the admirable thing?

[HVC]

There is a lot of correlation here with attaining power. Is that the admirable thing?

it's hard to have your name remembered across centuries without attaining some sort of power in your life time... Well except maybe losing given power because you're so crappy at keeping it. 

[crazy canuck]

There is a lot of correlation here with attaining power. Is that the admirable thing?

How many women do we have to choose from the historical record if we remove the ones that achieved some measure of power and influence?

[Valmy]

There is a lot of correlation here with attaining power. Is that the admirable thing?

How many women do we have to choose from the historical record if we remove the ones that achieved some measure of power and influence?

Well the further you go back probably zero but there are many from more recent times.  Marie Curie was hardly a juggernaut of political power.

[MadImmortalMan]

Heck I don't know. I said Cleopatra, so it's the same with me. I was just musing. I guess any kind of notoriety is some form of power.

[Neil]

Because she reigned effectively without renouncing her womanhood the way Elizabeth I did.  Because her reign was (excepting only perhaps that of her son) the high point of human civilization on Earth.  Because she was wise enough to use the system that had been built up for her, and to do what was required of her.

Seems a bit unfair to compare Victoria with Elizabeth I since they had very different roles as monarchs. One was a figurehead, the other the supreme ruler.

I agree with the rest of your statement up to a point, but that point ends with the idea that it was due to Victoria that the "high point of human civilization" was due to her. She did, indeed, influence a number of things, but she didn't create the environment nor did she really directly affect anything during her reign.

Don't get me wrong. I adore Victoria. I just have a hard time equating her to rulers who actually ruled.

I certainly can compare the way they handled the fact that they were women.

I think that Victoria certainly had an influence.  Compare the way she interacted with the upper class with the way that her uncles did.  They don't call them 'Victorian' morals for nothing.  Her relative austerity created a great deal of social capital that was invested towards stability and order.  Given the intellectual and social tides that were buffeting Britain at the time, I am more impressed by Victoria's achievements than those of Elizabeth.

[crazy canuck]

There is a lot of correlation here with attaining power. Is that the admirable thing?

How many women do we have to choose from the historical record if we remove the ones that achieved some measure of power and influence?

Well the further you go back probably zero but there are many from more recent times.  Marie Curie was hardly a juggernaut of political power.

She is exceptional because she became a notable scientist at a time there were few female scentist.

[Jacob]

There is a lot of correlation here with attaining power. Is that the admirable thing?

Not necessarily, but those who attain power has more histories written about them and more attention paid to the personal qualities. It's easier for us to know about them... and their mythologies are probably more elaborate as well, making it easier to develop favourites for whatever idiosyncratic reason.

[Jacob]

I have long appreciated Freya Stark - in part because her life and name makes her sounds like a player character - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freya_Stark

[Valmy]

She is exceptional because she became a notable scientist at a time there were few female scentist.

Right.  But she was not powerful in any sense.

[crazy canuck]

She is exceptional because she became a notable scientist at a time there were few female scentist.

Right.  But she was not powerful in any sense.

Valmy, the point is once you remove the women who attained positions of power and influence you are left with a short list of Madam Currie and well not much else.

[Valmy]

Valmy, the point is once you remove the women who attained positions of power and influence you are left with a short list of Madam Currie and well not much else.

I disagee.  I was only using her because she was already mentioned in this thread.  But like Marie you have to look in the arts and sciences and philanthrope and social activism and all that good stuff.

[PDH]

I would have to say the woman who first made beer.

[Lettow77]

 Historical Women I really like-

Queen Victoria immediately comes to mind, naturally, as the epitome of ladylike propriety and the symbol of an age, or Joan of Arc, who was a pure and valiant maiden

I also really like Flannery O'Conner's writing and sense of culture. Jane Austen is wonderful for the extent to which she exalted ordinary rhythms of life and polite society.