Few stories are as extraordinary as those of Zainab Salbi,
  founder and former CEO of Women for Women International, an organization dedicated to helping women rebuild their lives after suffering war and civil strife.  Born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq she grew up in a time of civil and political unrest. She came to the U.S. at a young age, and has since resided in the country while traveling to many other countries throughout the world to visit women who are desperately seeking to rebuild their lives after war.  Zainab founded Women for Women International in 1993, and she remained CEO of the organization through 2011. The statistics of the organization are astounding; over 315,000 women have been helped, approximately 1.7 million family lives have been impacted, and $103 million has been distributed through either direct aid or microloans. Zainab had a vision that would not only give these women aid, but also the skills that they would need to quite literally rebuild their lives.  
                
     The ability to touch the lives of women throughout the world is not limited by Zainab’s efforts with Women for Women International; she is also an acclaimed author of three books (the most recent book released in March 2013), featured in various publications including the New York Times, a highly coveted speaker, and an activist who has a voice that people not only want to hear, but also listen to.  She speaks on the issues of women’s empowerment and relevant foreign policy issues, and was described in 2008 by Time Magazine as someone who “gives women a voice.”  Zainab has been honored as one of the 100 Extraordinary Women who Shake the World by Newsweek, one of the Top 100 Women Activists and Campaigners by the Guardian, and she was named one of the most inspirational women in the world by the Economic Intelligence Unit.  Zainab is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative’s lead team. 

“I find it amazing that the only group of people who are not fighting and not
killing and not pillaging and not burning and not raping, and the group of
people who are mostly—though not exclusively—who are keeping life going in the
midst of war, are not included in the negotiating table.”  
 - Zainab Salbi on women and war
              
     There seem to be an infinite number of words that you could use to describe Zainab—inspirational, activist, humanitarian—and what it really comes down to is the fact that she is a visionary paving the way for the future of women. Zainab had the courage to do what she felt needed to be done in order to impact the lives of women suffering from civil strife throughout the world by founding Women for Women International, and she has used her voice in multiple ways to reach the women of the world. Whether it is through her books, articles, blog posts, speaking engagements or in person, Zainab’s strong and hopeful voice can be translated throughout the globe as one of truth and empowerment for the past, present, and future of women. 

Information source: Women for Women International. Zainab Salbi. http://www.womenforwomen.org/about-women-for-women/zainab-salbi.php
 Zainab Salbi, personal website. http://www.zainabsalbi.com/humanitarian
TED Speaker Zainab Salbi: Activist and Social Entrepreneur. http://www.ted.com/speakers/zainab_salbi.html


 

Natalie Portman is an Oscar-winning actress and she has truly set the example for a celebrity using their status and voice as a platform for global issues, in particular micro-financing to inspire entrepreneurship and other vehicles for female empowerment and social change.   

As the first Ambassador of Hope for FINCA International, an organization dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs in low-income households and communities through the process of micro-lending by the means of “village banks”, Portman is an advocate for many social causes and uses her influence to draw attention to these issues and how a positive change can be made to those in dire circumstances.  She has visited FINCA programs in Guatemala, Ecuador, Uganda and Mexico and met the women and men who benefit from the programs and village banks that FINCA provides.  One story that she has mentioned in an interview is about a woman that she had met during her time in Uganda:

“I was in Uganda and I met this woman who had ten children and she had been in FINCA for eleven years. And she had ten children - when she started out her husband was beating her because she couldn’t have a boy. She had only girls. So he had kicked her out and she was living on 80 cents a day. With ten kids. And she was like begging her neighbors to give her like old laundry water just to clean their clothes. And she started on a $50 loan with FINCA eleven years ago, and she now has, I think it’s a $2,000 loan, eleven years later, and she owns a huge restaurant. She sends one of her daughters to university and she employs seven other women in her village. “

               It is stories such as this that inspires Portman to speak out against injustices for women, those who live in poverty and for those who either lack the resources or do not know how to invest in their community.  This hope of empowering a new generation that wants to make a positive change in the world drives Portman to invest her time and energy into an organization that provides financial services to those in low-income environments, and inspires these individuals to become entrepreneurs and improve their standard of living.  Portman’s advocacy for social change and her positive attitude for this change throughout the world make her an incredible role model for women of all generations and her confident, humble voice for change has the power to reach women throughout the world.

Information source: Interview with Marianne Schnall, founder of Feminist.com. See full interview at http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/interviews/natalieportman.html

It is no question that Maya Angelou is indeed a renaissance woman—she is a renowned poet, activist, actress, musician, educator and historian.  But perhaps most importantly, she is a voice;  a voice of courage, strength, love and grace.  Born in Mississippi in 1928, she faced the intense hardships of racial discrimination and has since used her experiences to tell a continuous story of courage and faith through many artistic outlets, including poetry, dance and spoken word. 

When asked the question in a 2008 interview: “What message would you want to instill in young girls and what do you wish you had known as a child?”,  Angelou responded:

“That one, courage. Also, I encourage courtesy. To accept nothing less than courtesy and to give nothing less than courtesy. If we accept being talked to in any kind of way, then we are telling ourselves that we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world that we are not very intelligent.”

It is this assertion of courage and humility that enables Maya Angelou to inspire women to be proud of who they are as women and most importantly that they have the ability to inspire others to optimistically move forward towards change.  In the same interview referenced above, she stated that she notices an incredible shift in social communities where women are seeking out other women to form groups; activist groups, social groups, special interest groups, etc.  As a woman who grew up during the time when women did not have the right to vote and witnessed the first stages of feminist activism in the United States, Angelou was amazed to see how the women in society have progressively come together to form a stronger voice for women throughout the world.   There is no doubt that this progressive movement is in many ways indebted to both her words and work that speak to the courage and confidence of women. 

Maya Angelou will celebrate her 85th birthday this year and is currently a professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.

Information source:  Interview with Marianne Schnall, founder of Feminist.com http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/interviews/mayaangelou.html
Maya Angelou, Biography www.mayaangelou.com

President Barack Obama appointed Melanne Verveer as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. The President’s decision to create a position of Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues is unprecedented, and reflects the elevated importance of these issues to the President and his entire Administration. In her capacity as director of the Department of State’s new office on Global Women’s Issues, Ambassador Verveer coordinates foreign policy issues and activities relating to the political, economic and social advancement of women around the world. She mobilizes concrete support for women’s rights and political and economic empowerment through initiatives and programs designed to increase women’s and girls’ access to education and health care, to combat violence against women and girls in all its forms, and to ensure that women's rights are fully integrated with human rights in the development of U.S. foreign policy.

Ambassador Verveer most recently served as Chair and Co-CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international nonprofit she co-founded. Vital Voices invests in emerging women leaders and works to expand women’s roles in generating economic opportunity, promoting political participation, and safeguarding human rights. Prior to her work with Vital Voices, Ambassador Verveer served as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady in the Clinton Administration and was chief assistant to then-First Lady Hillary Clinton in all her wide-ranging international activities to advance women’s rights and further social development, democracy and peace-building initiatives. She also led the effort to establish the President’s Interagency Council on Women. Prior to her time in the White House, Ambassador Verveer served in a number of leadership roles in public policy organizations and as legislative staff.

Ambassador Verveer has a B.A. and M.A. from Georgetown University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Women’s Foreign Policy Group, and numerous other organizations.

Dr. Sally Ride, Ph.D. studied at Stanford University before beating out 1000 other applicants for a spot in NASA's astronaut program. After rigorous training, Ride joined the Challenger shuttle mission on June 18, 1983, and became the first American woman in space.

Born on May 26, 1951, Sally Ride grew up in Los Angeles and went to Stanford University where she was a double major in physics and English. Ride received bachelor’s degrees in both subjects in 1973. She continued to study physics at the university, earning a master’s degree in 1975 and a Ph.D. in 1978.

That same year, Sally Ride beat out 1,000 other applicants for a spot in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) astronaut program. She went through the program’s rigorous training program and got her chance to go into space and the record books in 1983. Prior to her first space flight, she was subject to media attention due to her gender. During a press conference, she was asked questions like "Will the flight affect your reproductive organs?" and "Do you weep when things go wrong on the job?” Despite this and the historical significance of the mission, Ride insisted that she saw herself in only one way—as an astronaut. On June 18, Ride became the first American woman in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. As a mission specialist, she helped deploy satellites and worked other projects. She returned to Earth on June 24.

The next year, Sally Ride again served as a mission specialist on a space shuttle flight in October. She was scheduled to take a third trip, but it was cancelled after the tragic Challenger accident on January 28, 1986. After the accident, Ride served on the presidential commission that investigated the space shuttle explosion.

After NASA, Sally Ride became the director of the California Space Institute at the University of California, San Diego, as well as a professor of physics at the school in 1989. In 2001, she started her own company to create educational programs and products known as Sally Ride Science to help inspire girls and young women to pursue their interests in science and math. Ride served as president and CEO. Along with her life partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy, Ride co-wrote six children's books on space with the goal of encouraging children to study science.

For her contributions to the field of science and space exploration, Ride received many honors, including the NASA Space Flight Medal and the NCAA’s Theodore Roosevelt Award. She was also inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the Astronaut Hall of Fame.

On July 23, 2012, Sally Ride died at the age of 61, following a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Ride remains the youngest American astronaut to be launched into space. She will always be remembered as a pioneering astronaut.

Information source: A&E biography profile.
 

"Too educated, too strong, too successful, to stubborn and too hard to control" was Wangari Maathai's ex-husband's verdict when he divorced her. And perhaps the judge agreed: when she called him "incompetent", he promptly slapped her in jail for six months for contempt of court.

But that verdict has been echoed by thousands of supporters over the years to describe Africa's first female Nobel peace prize-winner. Brought up in a village in Kenya's central highlands, she was educated by nuns before joining Barack Obama's father as one of 300 Kenyan students given scholarships in the US in 1960. Maathai, 70, became the first east African woman to hold a doctorate, and a job offer at the University of Nairobi was withdrawn because she was seen as too ambitious for a woman. She found a job in a different department, before becoming furious at the sexism that saw her paid less than male academics, and denied pensions and medical insurance for her children. In 1977, she started encouraging village women to plant trees to prevent deforestation and provide them with fuel. "Women from the countryside [in Kenya] were talking about how they did not have enough food because their land had been converted into cash crops," she explained. So far, 45m have been planted in Kenya alone under her Green Belt Movement, for which she received the Nobel prize, and 7bn worldwide in the UN program she patronised.

Maathai was beaten and jailed for her protests against President Daniel Arap Moi's government, including its plans to build a 60-storey government building in the middle of Uhuru Park in central Nairobi. In the end her campaign was successful, and she went on to win a seat as an MP, with a whopping 98% of the vote.

Social justice, democracy and the environment are intrinsic to her campaigns. And she has spoken out about the "new colonisation" that has seen the continent sell off its natural resources to fund infrastructure such as roads. In 2006, she helped found the Nobel Women's Initiative to push for peace, justice and equality around the world. One panellist said: "Her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace is astounding."
Written in March 2011 by Homa Khaleeli for The Guardian.
In late 2011, Maathai died of complications from ovarian cancer.