Summer McIntosh

Summer McIntosh (2006 -     )

Canadian swimmer,

Multi-gold-and-silver medallist for Canada

in Women's Swimming at the Paris Olympics, 2024,

Winner of the 2024 Canadian Press Award for 

Canadian Female Athlete of the Year

Chien-Shiung Wu

Chien-Shiung Wu (1912 - 1997)

Chinese-American nuclear physicist;

Part of the Manhattan Project;

Discoveries made from her "Wu Experiment" won

her two male colleagues the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics,

while she was overlooked;

She did receive several physics awards in the 1960s and 1970s,

including the inaugural Wolf Prize in Physics in 1978.

Samara Joy

Samara Joy (1999 -     )

American jazz singer

Juliette Binoche

Juliette Binoche (1964 -     )

French actor

Annie Lennox

Annie Lennox (1954 -     )

Scottish singer-songwriter and activist

for political, social and charitable causes

bell hooks

bell hooks (1952 - 2021)

American author, theorist and social critic

exploring the intersectionality of

race, feminism, and class

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey (1969 -     )

American singer-songwriter, record producer, actor

"The Queen of Christmas"

Dame Evelyn Glennie

Dame Evelyn Glennie (1965 -     )

Scottish full-time solo concert percussionist.

Profoundly deaf since childhood, she hears with

parts of her body other than her ears

Gisèle Pelicot

Gisèle Pelicot (1952 -     )

By waiving her right to anonymity under French law,

having her husband's and mass rapists' trial open to the public,

insisting that all blame and shame be placed on those rapists,

she has become a feminist icon raising awareness and

promoting the dignity of all women against whom

sexual violence is perpetrated.

Pretty Yende

Pretty Yende (1985 -     )

South African operatic coloratura soprano

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz (1949 -     )

American portrait photographer

and visual artist

Domee Shi

Domee Shi (1989 -     )

Canadian animator, film director and screenwriter,

Winner of the 2019 Academy Award for 

Best Animated Short Film for Bao

Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson (1984 -     )

American actor and singer

Peace Akintade-Oluwagbeye

Peace Akintade-Oluwagbeye

African-Canadian interdisciplinary poet, playwright and actor,

current Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan (2024-2026)

Debbie Wiseman

Debbie Wiseman (1963 -     )

British composer for film, television,

concert hall, and official state/royal occasions

Mary McGee

Mary McGee (1936 - 2024)

American motorsport (cars and motorcycles) racing pioneer,

first woman to race motorcycles in the USA,

first person to finish the grueling Baja 1000 race solo (1968).

Youtube has a half-hour ESPN documentary

on Mary's remarkable life and career --

it is well worth the time to watch! 

Click here!

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith (1894 - 1937)

American blues singer and

recording artist with Columbia Records

Maryam Mirzakhani

Maryam Mirzakhani (1977 - 2017)

Iranian mathematician and

professor of mathematics,

winner of Fields Medal, 2014,

the most prestigious award in mathematics.

Nancy Fuller

Nancy Fuller (1949 -     )

American chef and television personality

Gayle King

Gayle King (1954 -     )

American broadcast journalist

and magazine editor

Dr. Anne Anderson

Dr. Anne Anderson (1906 - 1997)

Canadian indigenous author, teacher,

pre-eminent preserver of 

Cree language and Métis heritage,

honoured namesake of a high school,

community centre and park in Edmonton, Alberta

Ilona Maher

Ilona Maher (1996 -     )

American rugby player,

Olympic Bronze Medallist

for USA in Rugby Sevens

at Paris Olympics 2024,

social media influencer,

advocate for body positivity

Whoopi Goldberg

Whoopi Goldberg (1955 -     )

American actor, comedian,

producer and media personality,

EGOT winner (Emmy, Grammy, 

Oscar, and Tony Awards)

completed in 2002.

[portrait by Annie Leibovitz, 1984]

Deva Premal

Deva Premal (1970 -     )

German singer of Sanskrit mantras

General Jennie Carignan

General Jennie Carignan (1968 -     )

Canadian Chief of the Defence Staff,

Head of the Canadian Armed Forces

Princess Kaʻiulani

Victoria Kawēkiu Kaʻiulani Lunalilo

Kalaninuiahilapalapa Cleghorn (1875 - 1899)

Hawaiian royal princess and last heir apparent

to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii

Lynn Conway

Lynn Conway (1938 - 2024)

American computer scientist,

electrical engineer, and

transgender activist

Jennifer Hudson

Jennifer Hudson (1981 -     )

American singer and actor

EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony)

milestone achieved (2022)

Sandi Toksvig

Sandi Toksvig (1958 -     )

Danish-British broadcaster, comedian,

writer, media personality;

activist in progressive politics,

women's equality and LGBTQ rights

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke (2002 -     )

New Zealand M.P. representing Te Pāti Māori (Maori Party);

leader of her party's November 2024 Haka Ka Mate protest chant

against the Treaty Principles Bill affecting the indigenous treaty

relationship between Māori and The Crown.

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)

Mexican surrealist/magical realist painter

Michelle Douglas

Michelle Douglas (1963 -     )

Canadian military officer discharged in 1989 pursuant to

the Canadian Armed Forces official LGBT Purge policy;

successful litigant in court settlement ending this policy.

Alfre Woodard

Alfre Woodard (1952 -     )

American actor and activist for

many civil and human rights causes

Ashley Callingbull-Rabbit

Ashley Callingbull-Rabbit (1989 -     )

Canadian model, actor, beauty pageant competitor,

Titleholder of Mrs Universe 2015

and Miss Universe Canada 2024,

advocate for indigenous representation

Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul (1962 -     )

American singer, dancer,

choreographer, actor and

media personality

Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin (1920 - 1958)

British chemist and x-ray crystallographer,

overlooked and unrecognized contributor

to the Nobel Prize winning discovery

of the molecular structure of DNA and RNA

Danielle Campo McLeod

Danielle Campo McLeod (1985 -     )

Canadian athlete, motivational speaker,

and disability rights activist,

Paralympic multi-medallist for Canada

in Women's Swimming

Queen Latifah

Queen Latifah (1970 -     )

American rapper, singer, actor

Hiro Arikawa

Hiro Arikawa (1972 -     )

Japanese author

Drew Barrymore

Drew Barrymore (1975 -     )

American actor and media personality

Ann Pornel

Ann Pornel

Canadian comedian, actor, TV host

Zoë Saldaña

Zoë Saldaña (1978 -     )

American actor

Melinda French Gates

Melinda French Gates (1964 -     )

American philanthropist

Selena Gomez

Selena Gomez (1992 -     )

American singer, actor and business person

Tu Youyou

Tu Youyou (1930 -     )

Chinese malariologist and pharmaceutical chemist

2015 Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology/Medicine

Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde (1934 - 1992)

American writer, philosopher, poet,

intersectional feminist, civil rights activist