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Who are Today's Female Heroes?

Well, I'll be parochial (as I usually am), and nominate:
Elena Cornaro (1646 – 1684) the first woman to receive a doctorate degree (from the University of Padua).

Maria Agnesi, (1718 – 1799) the first woman to be appointed professor at a university (Mathematic and Natural Philosophy at the University of Bologna).

Rita Levi-Montalcini (born 1909), Nobel Laureate in Medicine, medic for the Allied forces during WWII, Senator-for-Life of the Italian Republic, and awesome person all around.
 
These are all great suggestions! I'm ashamed of myself for not thinking of many of them. Please keep'em coming if you can. And thank you.
 
J. Allen said:
teacake said:
While I know the US is full of conservative bastions at the same time the US is has had many tv shows featuring gay characters, talk show hosts on mainstream tv who are openly gay and plenty of out gay musicians. I've been a Melissa Etheridge fan for at least 15 years and she is as mainstream gay as you can get. So I guess I don't see what the risk is unless Lady Gaga is showing up in some cowboy bar in buttfuck Nebraska and performing solo while her entourage sits in the carpark.

Being gay in media gets you a lot of attention these days, HUGE attention and from whole swathes of the country it is positive attention. This won't last forever because the novelty value and the trickle down hip effect of being cool about is rapidly becoming old hat. People are caring less and less about gay and hetero. But the risk factor for her kind of music is long past.
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True, but we do see what happens when that conservative bastion gets going, such as what happened to the Dixie Chicks, who received death threats and watched as their CDs were burned and destroyed, as they were shunned in the country music community and the press for speaking out against our then very conservative President. I'd also note that many of the gay characters on television are or were obvious, stereotypical flaming gays. Rarely was someone gay and played straight laced and average.

Radio and television waves have no boundary, and they cross into areas where the bigotry is still rooted deep, and while being gay is becoming more and more acceptable in the mainstream, in the hallowed halls of Congress and among the state and local governments, being gay makes you an undesirable, a threat, a second class citizen. We still have a long way to go.
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I do think it is very important not to take progress for granted. IMO all it takes is a major depression or war for a backwards slump in acceptance to happen. Social conservatism often has follow on growth from a society under pressure or threat.
 
teacake said:
I do think it is very important not to take progress for granted. IMO all it takes is a major depression or war for a backwards slump in acceptance to happen. Social conservatism often has follow on growth from a society under pressure or threat.
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Agreed. It gets tiring, but it's important to always be ready for the fight, because it will happen, if not now, then later, but it will happen. Humanity can be surprisingly vicious when it leaps backwards.
 
I think so, because she would be the first to pave the way for civilians and ordinary people to go to space. It would be a different kind of heroism because likely, we would have seen more everyday citizens in space without the Challenger accident. It would be the heroism of being first to take the chance. And even without the worst coming true, there is still a very basic kind of physical bravery there, too, and that doesn't go away just because you survive.
 
Nerys Ghemor said:
I think so, because she would be the first to pave the way for civilians and ordinary people to go to space. It would be a different kind of heroism because likely, we would have seen more everyday citizens in space without the Challenger accident. It would be the heroism of being first to take the chance. And even without the worst coming true, there is still a very basic kind of physical bravery there, too, and that doesn't go away just because you survive.
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A bravery which I will never share, lol.
 
Caliburn24 said:
I think that sometimes we toss words around too freely, and this is one of those cases. Heroism means...

the qualities of a hero or heroine; exceptional or heroic courage when facing danger (especially in battle); "he showed great heroism in battle"; "he received a medal for valor"
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Entertainers, politicians, and athletes do not generally face such danger. Scorn for lifestyle choices, scorn for taking a principled stand, but not danger. Heroism also implies a selflessness that is lacking in many of the examples posted in this thread so far.

Someone like Corrie ten Boom who faced personal danger every day for years as she helped Jews escape the Nazis is far more of a hero to me than any of the examples mentioned in the OP.
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Perhaps "role model" better describes what the OP is looking for.
 
I'll add Grace Darling to the list, partially because she's an iconic figure in English history.
 
Violette Szabo, who was working with the french resistance in world war 2 when she was captured, tortured and executed by the Nazis; and whose story forms the basis of the film Carve Her Name With Pride.
 
the Blue Peter presenter who canoed the Amazon and walked between the chimney stacks of Battersea Power Station?

right on. she's got more balls than me.
 
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