Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter (1866 - 1943)

English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist.

She is best known for her charmingly illustrated children's books

featuring animals, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902).

Before her literary success, however, Beatrix Potter was keenly interested

in mycology, the scientific study of fungi, producing brilliantly observed

illustrations of many types. She wrote a learned paper on mycology that

was dismissed and ignored because of her gender. It was only on her death,

when she left hundreds of her mycological artworks to a museum, 

that her scientific talents were recognized.

Today, Potter’s precise and beautiful

paintings and drawings of fungi are helping

modern mycologists in their efforts to identify species.

Her best-selling books enabled Beatrix Potter to become

a prosperous farmer and a prize-winning sheep breeder.

She bought several farms in the Lake District to preserve

its unique hill country landscape. Much of that land

now constitutes the Lake District National Park.

Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju

Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju (1997 -     )

Indian primary care physician, actor, content creator and transgender rights advocate.

She became well known online by documenting her gender transition and

speaking about queer and trans rights, medical discrimination, bullying,

mental health and the need for LGBTQ+-inclusive healthcare.

Tinetra began her acting career by being the first trans woman

to play a main character in an Indian streaming series.

Yanar Mohammed

Yanar Mohammed (1960 - 2026)

Iraqi architect, feminist and women's rights activist. Co-founder and

director of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI).

Editor of the newspaper Al-Mousawat (Equality).

Mohammed started the first shelters for women in Iraq in 2003,

protecting them from honor killing and sex trafficking,

a network that expanded to 11 houses in five cities by 2018,

serving more than 800 women.

She was shot and killed outside her home in Baghdad

in 2026 by two unknown men, the victim of

what is widely regarded as a targeted assassination.

She Walks in Beauty, Like the Night

[Robert Wun | Haute Couture Fall Winter 2024/2025]

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

-- George Gordon, Lord Byron

Louise Arbour

Louise Arbour (1947 -     )

Canadian lawyer, prosecutor, civil servant and judge.

New Governor-General of Canada (2026 -     ).

Former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Was Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals

dealing with war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

Also served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Companion of the Order of Canada (the country's highest honour).

In appointing her, Prime Minister Carney stated that she

"will represent the best of Canada . . . that is . . .

steadfast in the values we uphold."

Iris van Herpen

Iris van Herpen (1984 -     )

Dutch fashion designer known for fusing technology

(such as 3D-printing) with traditional haute couture craftsmanship.

Every year she exhibits her new collections at Paris Fashion Week.

Iris van Herpen's work has been included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York

and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.

Lady Gaga, always at the forefront of fashion, has worn

Iris van Herpen Designs many times --

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir (1930 -     )

Icelandic politician, French teacher and artistic director

of the Reykjavík Theatre Company. In 1980, she ran for

President of Iceland to prove that women were able to lead

political campaigns. She faced a barrage of ignorant and

insulting questions and assumptions due to being female.

She did not expect to win, but she did.

First woman to serve as President of Iceland, she held that

position for 16 years (1980 - 1996). This made her the

first woman in the world to be democratically elected as

president of a country, as well as the longest serving

elected female head of state in history.

Ayo Edebiri

Ayo Edebiri (1995 -     )

American actor, comedian, television writer, and director.

Best known for her role as Chef Sydney Adamu in the

comedy-drama series The Bear, for which she has won

a Golden Globe, 2 Actors awards, and a Primetime Emmy.

She is queer and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.

Mary Trump

Mary Trump (1965 -     )

American psychologist, author, and political commentator;

niece and outspoken critic of President Donald Trump;

author of the best-selling book Too Much and Never Enough:

How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man (2020),

an unauthorized biography and psychological profile of President Trump;

author of two other books exploring trauma, politics, and Trump family dynamics.

Happy International Women's Day!

Margaret W. Rossiter

Margaret W. Rossiter (1944 - 2025)

American historian of science at Cornell University.

In 1993, she coined the term The Matilda Effect to describe

the systematic erasure of women's achievements in science

over the centuries and the theft and attribution of

their work and discoveries to male colleagues.

She named it in honour of suffragist and abolitionist

Matilda Joslyn Gage who had sounded the alarm 

about this practice more than a century earlier.

Following decades of research, her 3-volume work,

Women Scientists in America, restored women to

their rightful place in the history of science.

Her books inspired programs and policies which ensure 

that today’s women in STEM are properly

credited, published, and remembered.

This Blog Is Back!

Posts are going to resume on Beautiful Woman of the Day!

But instead of being every day

(a pace I could not maintain),

posts will appear twice each month --

on the 1st and on the 15th.

Some months there may be an additional post

to mark some special occasion or event --

like International Women's Day next Sunday.