The entire nursing fraternity knows the Lady with the Lamp. As a social reformer, she was instrumental in introducing modern nursing to society. She became an icon of Victorian culture for her role in the Crimean war when she tended to soldiers even in the middle of the night caring for their wounds and even comforting them. Hence she was known as “the Lady with the Lamp”.
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Jeanne de Clisson was a regular housewife but when her English nobleman was killed during the proxy wars between England and France, she was so angered that she sold off her estate and became a pirate in the English Channel attacking and robbing French ships beheading every French nobleman she captured and came across. As they say, hell hath no fury than a woman scorned.
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Good Queen Bess as she was fondly called was perhaps one of the most famous figures in history, Elizabeth I the daughter of Henry the VIII, was a strong and determined queen ruling England between 1558 and 1603. She preferred to remain unmarried and was known for her reforms where England flourished under her reign which was known as the Elizabethan Era. She established the protestant church that later came to be known as the Church of England. It was during her rule that English drama and theater gained prominence giving birth to playwrights such as Shakespeare.
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Yaa Asantewaa was a warrior Queen of Ghana who was known for her role in the war against British colonialism. She was also a 60-year-old grandmother but that didn’t stop her from fighting for her country. She was an icon of African womanhood and a prominent figure of resistance to European Colonialism.
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Among amazing women in history, Ching Shih was a Chinese woman who was captured by a pirate Cheng I in the early 1800 who married her. Upon his death, she assumed the role of the captain and grew her fleet to 1800 ships. She soon became the commander of 40,000 to 80,000 pirates and is hailed as the most successful pirate in history. Shih was also depicted in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean as one of the nine Pirate lords.
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