International Women’s Day may have passed on the calendar, but the stories behind it shouldn’t disappear once the day is over. If anything, it’s a reminder to keep celebrating the women who have shaped our world, not just the famous names we learned about at school, but the many others whose stories don’t always make the headlines.
We all recognise the giants of history: Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Rosa Parks and Mary Seacole. Their achievements are rightly celebrated. But behind the names we know are countless other women who challenged expectations, broke rules and quietly changed the world in their own way.
So, inspired by International Women’s Day, I decided to go looking for a few of those stories, the women who may not always be in the spotlight, but whose impact is impossible to ignore.
Kathrine Switzer
In 1967, Kathrine Switzer did something that at the time was considered almost unthinkable, she ran the Boston Marathon.
The problem? Women weren’t allowed to enter.
Determined to prove they could compete just as strongly as men, Switzer registered under the name “K. V. Switzer,” hiding her gender. An official realised what had happened and attempted to physically remove her from the course. Photographs captured the moment, Switzer continuing to run while being confronted by the race organiser and the images spread across the world.
Instead of stopping her, the moment became a turning point. By 1972, women were officially allowed to compete in the Boston Marathon.
Watching the TTP Cambridge Half Marathon recently, surrounded by hundreds of determined female runners crossing the finish line, it’s difficult to imagine that not so long ago they simply wouldn’t have been allowed to take part.
Winifred Atwell
In the 1950s, Winifred Atwell was already rewriting the rules of the music industry.
A classically trained pianist with extraordinary talent, she became the first Black artist in the UK to achieve a number one single. Her music filled concert halls and living rooms across the country, bringing a unique style and energy to audiences who had never seen anything quite like her before.
But her impact went far beyond the stage. Atwell also ran several successful businesses, including a pioneering salon in London that provided specialist haircare for Black women, something that was incredibly difficult to find at the time.
In doing so, she wasn’t just entertaining audiences; she was creating space and opportunity for others too.
Ada Lovelace
Long before laptops, smartphones or even electricity-powered computers existed, Ada Lovelace was already imagining what machines might one day be capable of.
A mathematician and writer in the nineteenth century, Lovelace worked alongside inventor Charles Babbage on his design for the Analytical Engine, an early mechanical computer. But while others saw the machine as simply a tool for calculations, Lovelace recognised something far more powerful.
She realised that the machine could follow a sequence of instructions, what we now call an algorithm. In other words, it could be programmed.
That idea may seem obvious today, but at the time it was revolutionary. It’s why Ada Lovelace is now widely recognised as the world’s first computer programmer, laying conceptual foundations for the technology that shapes our everyday lives.
Wangari Maathai
Some people change the world through invention. Others do it through action.
Wangari Maathai did both.
A Kenyan environmental activist, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, an initiative that encouraged women across Kenya to plant trees in order to restore forests, secure sources of income and strengthen local communities. What started as a grassroots effort grew into a global movement. Millions of trees were planted, landscapes restored and communities empowered.
Maathai was also the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. Her work eventually earned international recognition when, in 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Nellie Bly
In the late nineteenth century, journalism looked very different for women. Most were expected to write about fashion, home life or social etiquette. Nellie Bly had other plans.
Determined to report on real issues, she went undercover in ways that few journalists had ever attempted. In one of her most famous investigations, she pretended to be mentally ill in order to expose the shocking conditions inside a New York asylum. Her reporting sparked outrage and forced reforms.
But Bly’s sense of adventure didn’t stop there. Inspired by Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days, she decided to attempt the journey herself.
Travelling alone, something almost unheard of at the time, she completed the trip in just 72 days, setting a brand new world record.
Katharine Graham
Leadership in journalism has long been dominated by men, but Katharine Graham changed that.
After the sudden death of her husband, Graham stepped in to lead the Washington Post Company. What followed was one of the most defining eras in modern journalism.
She oversaw the publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and supported the investigative reporting that uncovered the Watergate scandal, a story that would ultimately lead to the resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon.
In doing so, she not only protected the role of a free press but also became the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Marie Van Brittan Brown
Some innovations are so embedded in modern life that we rarely stop to think about where they came from.
Home security cameras are now everywhere, protecting homes, businesses and public spaces. But the technology began with a simple idea from Marie Van Brittan Brown, an African-American nurse living in New York.
Concerned about crime in her neighbourhood and slow police response times, she designed a system that allowed her to see who was at the door from inside the house. Her invention used a movable camera connected to a monitor, allowing homeowners to safely identify visitors before opening the door.
In 1966, she patented the design, creating the foundation for the modern CCTV systems we see today.
The Stories Still Waiting to Be Told
History often highlights a handful of famous names, but progress has always been built by many more people than we tend to remember.
The women above are just a few examples of the countless individuals who challenged expectations, broke barriers and reshaped the world around them, sometimes quietly, sometimes dramatically, but always with determination.
International Women’s Day reminds us to celebrate those achievements. But it also invites us to keep discovering the stories we might not yet know.
Because somewhere right now, another woman is doing something extraordinary and one day, her story might inspire someone else to do the same.
