The Horsewoman

Coco Gauff

Coco Gauff (2004 -     )

American professional tennis player,

currently ranked no. 2 in women's singles;

has won 10 career singles titles, including 2 majors

at the US Open (2023) and French Open (2025).

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart (1897 – disappeared 1937, declared dead 1939)

American pilot, author, and aviation pioneer;

first female pilot to fly solo non-stop across

the Atlantic Ocean (1928) and also set many other record;

she embraced celebrity culture and women's rights;

one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel;

in 1937, she and her male navigator disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while

attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world;

their plane and remains have never been found.

Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson (1959 -     )

English author, broadcaster and educator;

her first novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985)

was a literary sensation and later made into a TV miniseries;

the literary career which followed has made her

one of Britain's most distinguished modern writers;

awards include the Whitbread Prize for a First Novel,

a BAFTA Award for Best Drama, the E. M. Forster Award

and the Lambda Literary Award twice.

Debbie Harry

Debbie Harry (1945 -     )

American singer, songwriter and actor,

best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie;

biggest hits include Heart of Glass, Call Me, and The Tide Is High;

acting career spans both art films and mainstream movies

such as Union City, Videodrome, and Hairspray;

some of her preferred charities include those devoted

to fighting cancer and endometriosis.

The Light of Persia

Kardea Brown

Kardea Brown (1987 -     ) 

American contemporary Southern chef,

caterer, competitive baking judge,

television host, and cookbook author;

host of Delicious Miss Brown and

co-host of Kids Baking Championship.

Delhy Tejero

Delhy Tejero (1904 - 1968)

Spanish painter and art professor;

her art encompassed a range of styles

from natural, spiritualist and avant-garde

with tendencies towards abstraction;

her self-portrait shown above

was painted in 1937.

Melissa Johns

Melissa Johns (1990 -     )

British actor and disability activist;

born without her right forearm and hand, she has never

seen her disability as a limitation, and has forged

a successful career on stage and screen;

currently portraying Miss Scott in the British 

TV mystery series Grantchester.

Joan E. Biren (JEB)

Joan E. Biren (JEB) (1944 -     )

American lesbian-feminist photographer, film-maker and activist;

in the 1980s and beyond, the goal of her groundbreaking 

photography and films was to "make visible what was invisible," 

to change the way society viewed lesbians and to allow

lesbians to see themselves being represented accurately,

free of distortions from a male or heterosexual gaze.

Recently, her pioneering slideshow of lesbian images

known as "The Dyke Show" has been made the subject of this short film,

which is well worth a watch if you have a spare 15 minutes --

Zión Moreno

Zión Moreno (1995 -     )

American actor and model of Mexican heritage;

she transitioned at 13 years of age and was bullied in school;

best known for her role as Luna de la Cruz ("Luna La")

in the HBO Max reboot of Gossip Girl (2021–2023).

Statuesque

Pink

Pink (1979 -     )

American singer and songwriter, known for her

acrobatic stage presence and activism;

also noted for her gender-bending fashion style

and "adventurous" hairstyles;

numerous music awards, including 3 Grammies;

activist and fundraiser for many causes, including

children's food insecurity, feminism, LGBTQ+ rights,

animal rights and wildfire disaster relief.

Wilma Mankiller

Wilma Mankiller (1945 - 2010)

Native American activist, social worker, community developer,

author, speaker, and the first woman elected to serve

as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation;

a visionary leader, her administration built new health and education services,

developed commercial revenue streams for self-sufficiency,

and established self-government;

tireless activist for civil and human rights of her people;

recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998) and

an honoree of the "American Woman Quarters" program (2022).

Anna Olson

Anna Olson (1968 -     )

American-Canadian pastry chef, cookbook author,

competitive baking judge, television host and media personality;

winner of Iron Chef Canada, Holiday Baking Edition (2018);

widely acknowledged as Canada's "Baking Queen."

Laila Ali

Laila Ali (1977 -     )

American television personality and retired professional boxer;

she competed from 1999 to 2007 and retired undefeated

after holding several female super middleweight

and light heavyweight titles;

her father Muhammad Ali opposed her choice of career

but supported her decision eventually.

Mattea Roach

Mattea Roach (1998 -     )

Canadian broadcaster and gameshow champion;

openly lesbian and non-binary, Mattea's pronouns are they/them;

in 2022 they had a 23-game winning streak

on Jeopardy with an accuracy rating of 93%;

in 2023 they were runner-up in the first season of Jeopardy Masters;

currently the host of Bookends, a CBC Radio show about books and literature.

Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg (1871 - 1919)

Polish-German revolutionary and Marxist theorist;

a key figure of the socialist and communist movements

of Poland and Germany in the early 20th century,

she was critical of Lenin and also opposed reform

in place of revolution against the state;

while trying to overthrow the Weimar Republic,

she was captured and murdered by paramilitary forces.

Katie Piper

Katie Piper (1983 -     )

English writer, activist, television presenter and model;

in 2008 she survived two horrendous physical attacks by

her ex-boyfriend, including acid thrown in her face,

causing major damage to her face and blindness in one eye;

she underwent pioneering surgery to restore her face and vision.

After her recovery, Piper became a tireless activist to help victims of burns

and other disfigurement injuries, wrote a best-selling autobiography,

and has appeared in several documentaries and TV series

about her ordeal and her activism, as well as other TV endeavours.

Woman in the Window

Celine Song

Celine Song (1988 -     )

Canadian director, playwright, and screenwriter based in New York City;

her directorial film debut Past Lives (2023) received critical acclaim and

she was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay Oscars;

her latest film is Materialists (2025) which she wrote and directed.

Betsy Jochum

Betsy Jochum (1921 - 2025)

American outfielder and pitcher who played in the

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League

from 1943 through 1948;

a noted runner and batter, her nickname was "Sockum Jochum;"

after leaving baseball, she earned degrees in physical education

and taught girls high school physical education until her retirement in 1983.

Suzi Quatro

Suzi Quatro (1950 -     )

American singer, bass guitarist, songwriter, and actor;

starting in the mid-1960s, she has been a pioneer for women

in the male-dominated field of rock, hard rock, glam rock and pop rock;

had more musical career success in the UK and Australia than in the USA;

in the late 1970s, had a small recurring role as rocker Leather Tuscadero

on the popular American sitcom Happy Days;

she has released 15 studio albums (most recently in 2023),

10 compilation albums, and one live album.

Women in Love

Commitment Ceremony, New York City (1989)

photo by Kathy Shorr

Sarah E. Goode

Sarah E. Goode (1855 - 1905)

American entrepreneur and inventor;

one of the first African American women to receive

a United States patent, which she received in 1885

for her "cabinet bed," a precursor of the hide-away bed;

invaluable invention for working-class people living

in tiny urban apartments with no space for beds.

Judy Grahn

Judy Grahn (1940 -     )

American poet, author, and educator;

discharged from the United States Air Force in1961 for being lesbian,

she endured much homophobia and violence due to her butchness;

in the 1970s, became an active member of the Gay Women's Liberation Group,

the first lesbian-feminist collective on the west coast;

her groundbreaking and influential poetry is infused

with her lesbian-feminist identity, women's spirituality,

and often addresses racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia.

Flossie Wong-Staal

Flossie Wong-Staal (1946 - 2020)

Chinese-American virologist and molecular biologist;

first scientist to clone HIV and determine the function of its genes,

which was a major step in proving that HIV is the cause of AIDS;

her genetic mapping of the virus made it possible to develop HIV tests.

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand (1942 -     )

American singer, actor, songwriter, producer, and director;

her six-decade career has brought her incredible success and

innumerable awards, most notably that she was the

first performer to ever earn an EGOT

(Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards);

longtime activist and philanthropist in many liberal causes.

Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla (1962 - 2003)

American astronaut and aerospace engineer;

first woman of South Asian origin to fly to space;

one of the seven crew members who died in the

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster;

posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor,

the NASA Space Flight Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.

Laufey

Laufey (1999 -     )

Icelandic singer-songwriter and musician;

classically trained as a cellist, her recording success

is based in jazz-inspired pop.

Mary Berg

Mary Berg (1989 -     )

Canadian television host, author and cook;

first woman to win MasterChef Canada (2016);

current host of daytime lifestyle talk show

on Canadian TV, The Good Stuff with Mary Berg.

Meshell Ndegeocello

Meshell Ndegeocello (1968 -     )

American singer-songwriter, poet, and bassist;

critically acclaimed throughout her musical career,

she has won three Grammy Awards;

her chosen surname means "free like a bird" in Swahili.

Alice Walker

Alice Walker (1944 -    )

American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist;

she is the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction,

awarded in 1982 for her novel The Color Purple;

a noted activist in a wide variety of causes, she is occasionally criticized

for controversial or unpopular views.

New Life In Bloom

Hazel Scott

Hazel Scott (1920 - 1981)

Trinidadian-American jazz and classical pianist and singer;

a child prodigy, she was trained at Julliard and

enjoyed an active and successful jazz career

throughout the 1930s and 1940s;

in 1950, she became the first black American to host her own TV show;

an outspoken critic of racial discrimination and segregation,

she was blacklisted during 1950s McCarthyism and

lived as an ex-pat in France for 10 years;

although she continued to perform occasionally in Europe

and in the United States, her career never recovered

and her talent fell into obscurity;

now being rediscovered via PBS's 2025 American Masters

documentary entitled The Disappearance of Miss Scott.

Dame Helen Mirren

Dame Helen Mirren (1945 -     )

English actor of stage and screen;

her illustrious career has seen her star to great acclaim

in innumerable movies, television series, and plays;

the only performer to have achieved both the

American Triple Crown of Acting (an Academy Award,

an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award) and

the British Triple Crown of Acting (a British Academy Film Award,

British Academy Television Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award).

Nadia Murad

Nadia Murad (1993 -     )

Iraqi-born Yazidi human rights activist now based in Germany;

survivor of the 2014 Yazidi genocide in Iraq committed by

the transnational terrorist organization ISIS/Islamic State;

held in sexual slavery for 3 months before her escape and rescue;

founder of Nadia's Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to

helping heal and rebuild the lives of women and children

victimized by similar atrocities;

co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for her work against 

the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.

Carole Lombard

Carole Lombard (1908 - 1942)

American actor, particularly noted for energetic,

off-beat roles in screwball comedies;

among the most commercially successful and admired

film personalities in Hollywood in the 1930s.

Madison Tevlin

Madison Tevlin (2001 -     )

Canadian actor, broadcaster, singer, model and public speaker;

she says having Down syndrome is the least interesting thing about her,

and being underestimated is her superpower.

Janaya Khan

Janaya Khan 

Canadian social activist, model, organizer and public speaker;

co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto and 

international ambassador for the Black Lives Matter Network;

much of their work analyzes intersectional topics including

the BLM movement, queer theory, Black feminism,

and organized protest strategies.

Woman With A Green Purse

Alice Paul

Alice Paul (1885 - 1977)

American Quaker, suffragette, suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist;

one of the foremost leaders and strategists of the campaign for women's suffrage 

which was successful in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment to

the United States Constitution prohibiting sex discrimination in the right to vote;

she then became a lawyer with several degrees and continued to fight

for women's rights for the rest of her life.