Inspirational book about women who changed the world

WHAT a relief it is to find a book like

to keep reminding us of the ability of women to not only change the world but to achieve their personal potential.

contains 100 stories that beautifully capture the lives of extraordinary women. In a world which still sees women earn less than men and the challenges many women face, it is a moving reminder of what women have to do to fulfil their destinies.

Usually men are front of mind when we think of innovation, technology, medicine, physics and sport, but this book tells the stories of the women who did remarkable things to contribute to all of these disciplines.

The stories are written for younger minds and most stories tell of some form of hardship that was overcome with passion and hard work. In South Africa we know that women played a huge role in the struggle and Miriam Makeba is included in the book. There are other women across the globe who also changed their own world and the world for others. In this book is Rosa Parks who grew up in Alabama, a deeply segregated state in the America, and who in 1955 refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white person. This led to a boycott until the US Supreme court declared bus segregation unconstitutional.

Another activist is Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan who in 2014 won the Nobel Peace Prize at just 17. She won for her struggle, despite her being shot, against the suppression of children and the rights

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls

of all children. It is wonderful to also see Serena and Venus Williams included in the book and perhaps one day we can add Caster Semenya to this list of significant stories.

Other stories include the life tales of great writers like Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf; queens such as Cleopatra and Elizabeth I.

One of the tales is about scientist Marie Curie, who was schooled in Poland at a time when girls were not allowed to go to college. She discovered polonium and radium and remains the only person to win the Nobel Prize twice in two different sciences, in 1903 for physics and in 1911 for chemistry. It was also remarkable that she chose to make her research free.

This book was crowd-funded and creators Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallio managed to raise an amazing $1 million with backers from over 70 countries.

During her keynote speech at the Business in Society Conference in May 2017, Graca Machel said that the figures “strongly suggest that in every corner of the world, when women are players in the economy, their families and their livelihoods are better off.”

And finally, another tale beautifully illustrates this point. Fadumo Dayib grew up in war-torn Somalia and only learned to read and write when she was 14. She and her family fled to Finland where she could live in a peaceful and democratic country.

She never forgot about Somalia and eventually went back after achieving three Master’s degrees and working with the UN to build hospitals all over the country. She was the first female presidential candidate despite personal danger. A quote is provided in the tale which says, “my mother always told me, ‘you hold all the possibilities in the palm of your hand,’ And that’s true.”

The stories are told simply and clearly. This is the perfect book, not only to read yourself, but to your girls and boys.