Nosy Crow is known for its innovative approach, including its Stories Aloud initiative, which provides free audio versions of all its picture books. Its list has a wide appeal that challenges stereotypes, and it works in partnership with the National Trust and the British Museum. Three years on, I look and feel better than ever. People were so fascinated by my transformation that I built a programme to help others be the best versions of themselves, starting with health and fitness.’ Winning is very humbling, especially when you read the achievements of so many outstanding women. It validates the efforts of all the volunteers who work tirelessly to support those most in need. Virginia Apgar’s career was full of firsts: In 1937, she became the first female board-certified anesthesiologist and the first woman to achieve the rank of professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she was the first professor of anesthesiology. In 1952, she presented a five-step system for assessing the condition of newborn babies within a minute of birth and periodically after that. Prior to the development of the test—in which nurses or other delivery room staff assess a baby’s skin color, heart rate, reflexes, muscle tone, and breathing—babies weren’t typically given much attention after birth, which could lead to problems being missed until it was too late.

I used to believe the problem began with “the suits” at the top, so I would talk to high-level executives about unhelpful labelling and pigeonholing, but women put limitations on themselves too. I’m here to help women question this and change their mindset. marks 1,100 years since the death of Aethelflaed, the most powerful woman of the Anglo-Saxon era. A diplomat, warrior, general, scholar and mother, Aethelflaed ruled with remarkable dexterity, tact and fortitude and played a major part in laying the foundation for a united England.Mary Puthisseril Verghese was just beginning her career in gynecology when she was injured in a car accident and paralyzed. While recovering, she switched medical disciplines and decided to focus on hand surgery, studying at the Christian Medical College, Vellore in her native India. Later, she traveled to Australia and New York to learn about the expanding field of rehabilitative medicine, an essential part of giving patients who have suffered major injuries the chance to regain independence—a journey she knew well. In 1966, Verghese founded the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in Vellore, the first center of its kind in the country, and became India’s first specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation. After her death in 1986, the facility she opened was renamed the Dr. Mary Verghese Institute of Rehabilitation in her honor. —OTW 122. Cheryl Marie Wade While gender parity continues to be an ongoing problem (yes, even in 2023), the world is fortunately full of examples of brave women who have stood up to the most daunting challenges to make their voices heard and accept full recognition for their achievements. From singers to scientists and athletes to activists, here are 130 women who have changed the world. 1. Fatima al-Fihri Meera says, ‘My father was diagnosed with vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in 2012. He passed away in September 2018, but the support we received from Alzheimer’s Society was invaluable, particularly from the advisors on the dementia connect support line.

Won an Amazing Women Award for: p roviding activities to reduce social isolation and loneliness through the Live at Home Scheme for national charity MHA. Won an Amazing Women Award for: s upporting the homeless and those living in extreme poverty through the charity Chance Changing Lives and the launch of a Social Supermarket. Wade also founded Axis, a dance troupe for people with disabilities, and made short films spotlighting different aspects of life with a disability. She died in 2013 at the age of 65 due to complications related to her RA, but she is remembered for using her art to help erase the stigma surrounding disability. “Shame is the big killer of us,” Wade said during a speech in 2010, per The New York Times. “Shame and isolation, not our particular disability.” —OTW 123. Kate Warne Susie continues to raise awareness for the charity, which is completely reliant upon donations and legacies. Guide Dogs supports adults and children with sight loss to live the life they choose, thanks to expert advice, dedicated volunteers and staff, and life-changing dogs.

Learn more about women in history

Vice President Kamala Harris has gotten closest to the Oval Office, but Victoria Claflin Woodhull tried to make it there almost a century and a half earlier. Before she became the first woman to run for president in 1872, Woodhull divorced her cheating, alcoholic husband and had a successful, eclectic career alongside her sister, Tennessee. Together, they served as Cornelius Vanderbilt’s personal clairvoyants, became the first women to found and run a Wall Street brokerage firm, and established a leftist newspaper, Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly, which was the first to publish an American English translation of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s Communist Manifesto. She then became the presidential candidate for the Equal Rights Party, running on a liberal platform that supported women’s suffrage, an eight-hour workday, welfare programs, and more. Needless to say, she didn’t win—at 34 years old, she wasn’t really even old enough to run—but her campaign helped clear the path for dozens of female presidential hopefuls who have fought the noble fight since then. —EG 128. Chien-Shiung Wu