I've had a very busy couple of weeks. It's been both sad, after a funeral, and happy after my first visit to San Francisco to attend an event presented by A Band of Wives and to catch up with old friends. Out of all of it, one of those friends in particular has inspired this week's featured women, The Explorers.
Fellow YoLady, Amber Allen-Sauer, and I were best friends in the fifth grade. In fact, it had been that long since we had seen each other. We picked up with each other as if thirty years hadn't really passed, and I realized that both of us - two small town girls - are just older versions of the little explorers that we were, back then. We were Laura Croft before she was a glint in her creator's eye, and now here we are exploring the business and writing realm together.
In fact, a lot of the women in my life are explorers - seeking out new experiences and knowledge and friends and secret passage ways - they aren't afraid of the unknown and, in fact, look for it. They've put themselves through college, opened businesses, traveled, given birth, learned new hobbies, talked to people their friends wouldn't dare, and otherwise stretched themselves into new situations and realities. I'm blessed to have such inspiration every day!
Even though all of our Featured women are explorers to the nth degree, I would like to pay tribute to some great explorer role-models, past and present.
Isabelle Eberhardt was born in Switzerland in 1877 and traveled extensively through North Africa, with her mother, until her death in 1904. She often dressed as a man, since women were treated like second-class citizens, back in the day, and wrote extensively in newspapers and books. She traveled through the secret Sufi group, who fought colonial rule, and was even attacked with a sabre in an assassination attempt. She lived a short and adventurous life, did good for the downtrodden, and lived a life that a lot of male adventurers would envy.
Margaret Bourke-White was the first female photojournalist and war correspondent. Her photos were featured in Fortune and Life Magazines, and she published her photos taken at the height of the Depression in the book, You Have Seen Their Faces, together with her future husband, Erskine Caldwell. She photographed war scenes in WWII, and captured Ghandi during the India-Pakistani partition violence.
Barbara Hillary was 75 years old when she became the first African-American woman to reach the North Pole. She took up arctic travel after retiring as a nurse, and still plans further explorations and adventures. She is also active in her community, in Arverne, New York and the Rockaway Peninsula, and was founder and editor-in-chief of the Peninsula Magazine. She has rewards out the wazoo - including the Woman of Courage award from NOW - and is even a lifetime member of the NRA. Talk about boomin' granny! Can't wait to read about her next adventure.
Dr. Sunitha Krishnan explores the areas of life that most of us don't want to think of - the trafficked children in India. She and her team at Prajwala rescue children of prostituted mothers, heal them, educate and train them in carpentry, welding, printing, masonry and housekeeping, and try to ensure that they are not sold into slavery by the mothers. She can't hear out of her right ear any longer and has endured beatings during rescues - yet is determined to remain an unstoppable force for the sake of trafficked children. Go, lady.
Madonna needs no introduction. Love her or hate her, she is definitely an explorer. She's not afraid to explore new music styles, fashion and hair styles, cities, accents, sex - she'll do anything. While I'm not in complete agreement with that sentiment, as there is always a line we should stay above (like chilling on the plastic surgery), I love Madonna. She is still a bad-ass musically, stylistically, and culturally. She can still shake it like nobody's business, and I definitely wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley.
Who else would you add to the list?
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