Famous Women Personalities (Biography Series)

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The women whose life stories fill these pages were exceptional in more ways than one.

Exceptional in their resolve and undaunting will. Exceptional in their spirit of service to mankind.

The mettle they were made of had a unique blend of the tough and the tender.

Why do so few of us make it to the 'top'? Remember, ascents involve many obstacles and only those who have the grit to surmount hurdles are able to elevate themselves in spirit and stature.

Why write on women personalities?

The women chosen here are representatives of the age in which they lived and worked. Success for women was never easy in a male-dominated world, more so in early times. Men faced fewer challenges, be it at home or at work.

Florence Nightingale silently rebels against the near useless and wasted life of a young girl belonging to a wealthy family. Labouring against parental opposition, she chooses the much neglected and forbidden area of hospitals to work in.

Maria Montessori braved ridicule to be the only girl student in a boy's medical school. We read about the glaring social inequalities that confronted her repeatedly. Yet she became the first woman to get a medical degree in the whole of Italy.

In a sense these women were pathbreakers.

Mother Teresa, of course, makes her choice of renunciation early in life. Success was for her sacrifice, service to the poor and a charitable disposition. No marriage, but an intense dedication to work. By nursing the wounds on the bodies of the sick and old human beings, she directly manages to heal her own soul!

We all make the most of whatever nature gives us. But in Helen Keller's case, nature had not been too generous. Yet she fought the odds in the most hopeless of situations. Help to her came in the form of another notable woman Anne Sullivan.

They take tough decisions. In 1873, Annie Besant had to either conform and attend the Communion or had to leave home. She chose the latter. That is the price she paid for her freedom and opted for an uncertain future.