Which woman? No, seriously, greatest is a relative and subjective term. Your greatest may be different from mine or hers. None the less, some women have achieved some remarkable things. Several women have been elected to head of government positions such as Kim Campbell of Canada, Golda Meir of Israel, Indira Ghandi of India, and Margaret Thatcher of the United Kingdom. Other women have become head of government through succession or intrigue. England’s power and world influence increased greatly during the reign of Elizabeth I. The state of Virginia is named for her. Catherine the Great of Russia increased the size of the Russian Empire more than any other ruler. She divided and gave away an entire country in the process (the partition of Poland).
Several women have won the Noble Prize and not just in the Peace and Literature categories, which are cool enough. Several women have won the Noble Prize in Science categories including Marie Curie who won it twice; one for physics and one for chemistry.
Joan of Arc was a heroic and brilliant teenage military commander who became a saint. Eva Peron won the undying love of her nation. Mary raised a loving son and became queen of heaven. Mahalia Jackson became the greatest gospel singer of all time, sang at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr., and mentored a young family friend named Aretha Franklin.
One of my favorites, though, is Belva Lockwood (see picture above) of Royalton, New York. Belva Lockwood was the first women to run for president of the United States. There is evidence that she even received some votes in the electoral college. And she ran twice, in 1884 and 1888; more than 30 years before women won the right to vote in the United States. She was also the first woman to practice law before the Supreme Court of the United States and in the federal courts. Also remarkable was that she began her legal education in her thirties as a widowed mother after already having a career as an educator. As preceptress (i.e., principal) of the Lockport Union School in Lockport, New York in the 1850s she did radical things like institute public speaking and gymnastics classes for girls. She encouraged girls to engage in regular physical activity just as she did. Belva Lockwood believed in and tirelessly worked for equal rights for everyone and for universal peace. Those are ideas that were way ahead of their time in the nineteenth century and still sound pretty progressive and good today.
