From @joannechocolat

#Maria_Gaetana_Agnesi (1718 – 1799) was an #Italian mathematician, philosopher, theologian, & humanitarian. She was the first woman to write a #mathematics handbook and the first woman appointed as a mathematics professor at a university.

Maria was recognized early on as a child prodigy; she could speak both Italian and French at five years of age. By her eleventh birthday, she had also learned Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, German, and Latin, and was referred to as the "Seven-Tongued Orator".

When she was nine years old, she composed & delivered an hour-long speech in #Latin to some of the most distinguished intellectuals of the day. The subject was "A Woman's Right to be Educated."

As an adolescent she suffered convulsions, which were attributed to excessive studying, but when it was noted that her health deteriorated when she was not allowed access to books, she was permitted to continue.

She never married, and although her father would not allow her to enter a convent, lived in semi-seclusion throughout most of her adult life, devoting herself to her studies. After her father's death in 1752 she devoted herself to the poor, giving away the gifts she had received.

She is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral #calculus and was a member of the faculty at the University of Bologna, although she never served. In spite of her family's wealth, she died in poverty and was buried in a pauper's grave.

#CelebratingWomen

From @joannechocolat

Lucy Eldine Gonzalez Parsons (c. 1853 – March 7, 1942) was an American labour organizer, feminist and radical socialist. She is remembered as a powerful orator.

Personal note: Her early days are difficult to pin down. It is believed she was born into slavery, although she said she was born to Mexican & Native American parents.

She led the first May Day parade in #Chicago in 1886, and also unionized the city’s only female workers organization at the time, Working Women’s #Union No. 1 (WWU).

She was feared & revered for her ability to organise, and in the words of the Chicago police she was “more dangerous than a thousand rioters.”

For readers, you might be interested in a biography titled 'Goddess of Anarchy : The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical' by #Jacqueline_Jones

#CelebratingWomen #Lucy_Parsons #Lucy_Eldine_Gonzalez_Parsons #Resistance #History #HistoryMatters #BlackHistory

From @joannechocolat

Wallada bint al-Mustakfi (born in Córdoba in 1001 – died 1091), was an Andalusian poet. The only child of Muhammad III of Córdoba, Wallada inherited his fortune, and used it to open a palace and literary hall in Córdoba.

There she offered instruction in #poetry and the arts of love to women of all classes, from those of noble birth to slaves.

She was considered a great beauty for her time: blonde, fair-skinned and blue-eyed, in addition to being intelligent, cultured and proud.

She was also controversial, walking out in public without a hijab, wearing transparent tunics with her verses embroidered on her clothing. Her behaviour was regarded by the local mullahs as perverse and was harshly criticized, but she also had a tremendous following.

#Wallada gained recognition for her skill in public poetry competitions, which was at the time a male pursuit. It was during one of these competitions that she met her great love, the poet Ibn Zaydún, though their relationship had to remain a secret.

Only 9 poems by Wallada have survived. Eight of these were written about this relationship. One implies that the relationship ended because of an affair between Zaydún and a black (male) lover.

She writes:

"You know that I am the moon of the skies, But, to my disgrace, you preferred a dark planet."

Reminder to those still unconvinced about the historical realism of various kinds of diversity:

THIS WAS THE EARLY ELEVENTH CENTURY.

#CelebratingWomen

From @joannechocolat

Radia Joy Perlman (born 1951) is an American computer programmer, network engineer, & major figure in assembling the networks and technology to enable what we now know as the Internet.

Personal note:

First of all, I love her name! "Radiating (happy, bright) Joy" - and all the photos of her I have seen seem to bear that out! 😊

Her best-known contribution is the Spanning Tree Protocol (#STP), which transformed Ethernet from a technology limited to a few hundred nodes confined w/i a single building into a technology that can create large networks with hundreds of thousands of computers, & made fundamental contributions to internet routing, making it more resilient, scalable & easy to manage. The protocols she designed in the 80s remain widely deployed today.

At the time, if a network had extra connections (called redundant links), it could create a "loop." A loop would cause data to circle around forever, flooding the network and causing it to fail.

Perlman came up with a brilliant solution in just a few days. She created STP, which allows networks to have backup paths for safety, but turns off any extra paths that could cause a loop. This leaves just one clear, active path for data to travel between any two points on the network.

Perlman even wrote a short #poem, called "Algorhyme," to explain how STP works: 🤩

(To be continued ...)

1/2

#CelebratingWomen #Radia_Joy_Perlman #Computer_Science

From @joannechocolat

Maria Anna Mozart (1751 – 1829) was the sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As a child she accompanied him on foreign tours, often earning top billing, and excelled in both performance and composition, but when she reached marriageable age at 17, she was no longer allowed to perform.

Instead she became a music teacher. Letters from her brother show that he thought very highly of her compositions, but none of them have survived. Her father took charge of her eldest son Leopold when he was born - supposedly to help out after the birth - but the boy never returned to his mother.

She had several other children, and lived till the age of 78. People often ask themselves what would have happened if Wolfgang Amadeus had survived beyond the age of 35. To me, the real question is: what would have happened if his sister had been allowed to pursue her talent?

#CelebratingWomen #MariaAnnaMozart #Maria_Anna_Mozart #Mozart #MusicHistory

From @joannechocolat

Naqiʾa was a wife of the Assyrian king Sennacherib (705–681 BC).

She was highly influential in Assyrian #history as well as being one of only a few Assyrian women to be depicted in art,

... and is the only known ancient Assyrian figure other than kings to write and issue a treaty. 🤩

#CelebratingWomen #Zakūtu #Naqiʾa #Assyria

From @joannechocolat

Jeanne Villepreux-Power (1794 – 1871), was a pioneering #French marine biologist, described by English biologist Richard Owen as the "Mother of Aquariophily."

In 1832 she was the first person to invent and create aquaria for experimenting with aquatic organisms.

Personal note: She created the first offshore research stations — a system of immense cages she anchored off the coast of #Sicily, complete with observation windows through which she could study #argonauts * undisturbed. 🐙

(* an octopus known as paper #nautilus for the thin, intricately corrugated shell of its females and the sail-like membranes protruding from it like a pair of bunny ears)

Every day, she prepared food for them, rowed her boat to the cages in her long skirts (👀 !!), and knelt at the platform, observing for hours on end.

As one can imagine, that got old fast (!!) so, in order to transfer her observations and experiments ashore, she pioneered the #aquarium.

For interested readers, you might want to check out The Lady and the #Octopus:
How #Jeanne_Villepreux_Power Invented #Aquariums and Revolutionized #Marine_Biology by #Danna_Staaf

or this essay https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/12/26/jeanne-villepreux-power-argonaut/

#CelebratingWomen #MarineBiology #Cephalopods

From @joannechocolat

#Veleda (AD 69–84) was a seeress of the #Bructeri, a Germanic people who achieved prominence during the Batavian rebellion of AD 69–70, headed by the Batavian chieftain Gaius Julius Civilis, when she correctly predicted the initial successes of the rebels against Roman legions. #CelebratingWomen

From Wiki:

'The ancient Germanic peoples discerned a divinity of #prophecy in women & regarded prophetesses as true and living goddesses. In the latter half of the 1st century AD, Veleda was regarded as a deity by most of the tribes in central #Germany and enjoyed wide influence.' 😃

She has been referenced in art, music, and books - and for fans of historical mystery / crime genres, in The Iron Hand Of Mars and Saturnalia, both in the Marcus Didius Falco series by #Lindsey_Davis.

#CelebratingWomen #Laurent_Marqueste #HistoricalFiction #Historical_Fiction #HistoricalMystery #Historical_Mystery

From @joannechocolat

#Benerib (c. 3050 BC) was a queen consort of ancient #Egypt from First Dynasty.

She was a wife of #pharaoh Hor-Aha, but it is unclear which one ("Benerib" means "sweetheart.")

Either way, she was loved. 🥰

(Image below is a fragment of an ivory box with the names of Hor-Aha and Benerib, found at #Abydos.)

Personal note: In researching this, I came across a different ivory panel described as 'serekh of Hor-Aha in the centre, and Benerib's name is only partially visible at the bottom'.

#TIL from Wiki a 'serekh' is a rectangular enclosure representing the niched or gated façade of a palace surmounted by (usually) the Horus falcon, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name.

The serekh was the earliest convention used to set apart the royal name in ancient Egyptian iconography, predating the later and better known #cartouche by four dynasties and five to seven hundred years.

(And 'cartouche' is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the feature did not come into common use until the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh Sneferu.)

#CelebratingWomen #HorAha #Hor_Aha #Hieroglyphs