10 Women from History Who Would Have Been Amazing US Presidents ...

Marie Curie was an incredible woman. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize (hers was in Physics), the first and only woman to win twice, the only person to win twice in multiple sciences (her second was in Chemistry), and was part of the Curie legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995, the first woman to be entombed on her own merits into the Pantheon in Paris. That’s not to mention her cancer research. What an incredible president she would have been.

You’ve probably heard of Amelia Earhart. She was an American aviation pioneer, and the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She was even awarded the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross! She went on to set many records, wrote many best-selling books about her flying, and helped to set up “The Ninety-Nines”, an organization that supported and encouraged female pilots. Earhart planned a circumnavigational flight of the world in her Lockheed Model 10 Electra in 1937, but she disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean. In 2007, a TIGHAR expedition visited Gardner Island, looking for evidence that she may have landed there. They discovered that the body of a “tall white female of northern European descent” had been found on the island back in 1940, but the bones had since been lost in Fiji. They also found bronze bearings which may have belonged to Earhart’s aircraft, a zipper possibly from her flight suit, and finger bones. To this date, the mystery of her disappearance hasn’t been solved. With her bravery and drive, she’d have made an incredible president.

Joan of Arc is considered a heroine of France, and a Roman Catholic saint. She was a peasant girl who, believing she was acting under divine guidance, helped lead the French army to a momentous victory at Orleans, repulsing an English attempt to conquer France in the Hundred Years War. She was captured a year later, and burnt as a heretic by the English and their French collaborators. She became the greatest national heroine of her compatriots, and she is featured prominently in pop culture. She was just 19 years old when she died – how amazing would she have been as a President?!

Eleanor Roosevelt was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, holding the position between March 1933 and April 1945, throughout her husband Franklin Roosevelt’s four terms as president. Eleanor was outspoken on issues regarding race and human rights, and she became the first presidential spouse to hold press conferences, write newspaper columns and speak at conventions. She remained in politics following her husband’s death, pressing the US to join and support the United Nations, and becoming one of its first delegates. She also served as the first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, and she oversaw the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Such an amazing woman would surely have been a brilliant candidate to run the country?

Have you heard of Sacagawea? Reliable historical information from this period is scarce, but it’s believed that she was born into a tribe of Lemhi Shoshone near Idaho. In 1800, aged twelve, she was taken captive and held captive at a nearby Hidatsa village. Aged 13, she was taken as a wife, and she became pregnant with her first child at 17. She was hired to be an interpreter and guide for the Clark and Lewis expedition of the Western United States then, and between 1804 and 1806, she covered thousands of miles between North Dakota and the Pacific Ocean with the expedition. In 1810, Sacagawea gave birth to a daughter, Lizette. She died of putrid fever in 1812. Lizette died during childhood. Her first son became an adventurer, eventually settling in Europe. He died of pneumonia while on a gold hunting adventure in 1866. She was brave, resourceful, peaceful and proud – and they are excellent qualities for a country's leader.

Have you heard of Harriet Tubman? She was born into slavery in 1822, but after escaping, she made thirteen missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved families, using a network of antislavery safe houses called the Underground Railroad. As a child, Harriet suffered a severe head wound from a heavy metal weight. The injury led to epileptic seizures and headaches which plagued Harriet throughout her life. Despite this, she dedicated her life to abolishing slavery, including writing her now infamous letter to US President Abraham Lincoln.

Victoria Woodhull was another woman who spent her life achieving “firsts”. She was a leader of the women’s suffrage movement, and she and her sister were the first two female stockbrokers on Wall Street. She was also the first woman to be nominated and campaign for presidency, although she was under the constitutionally mandated age of 35 at the time. Victoria even became the first woman to run a newspaper, although this led to her being jailed for “publishing an obscene newspaper” after she dedicated an issue to exposing double standards between men and women. She was definitely ahead of her time!

Grace Hopper was a computer scientist, and a United States Navy Rear Admiral. She was a pioneer in her field, becoming one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark 1 computer language in 1944, and she invented the first compiler for a computer language. She’s even credited with popularizing the word “debugging”, for fixing computer glitches, a phrase said to be inspired by removing an actual moth from a computer. Due to the breadth of her accomplishments, she’s also known as Amazing Grace, and she has a US navy destroyer (the USS Hopper) named after her, as well as the Cray XE6 Hopper Supercomputer.

Clara Barton was a pioneering nurse who founded the American Red Cross. At aged ten, her brother fell off a roof and received a severe injury. Clara assigned herself to the task of nursing him back to health, learning how to administer his medicine, and even applying leeches to bleed him. She continued with the treatments long after doctors gave up, and her brother eventually recovered to full health. Clara worked as a teacher for 12 years from 1838, but when her father died, she became a nurse for the American Civil War instead. In 1862, she gained permission to work on the front lines, attending to wounded soldiers in close proximity to battles. By 1864, she was appointed as the “lady in charge” of the hospitals. She became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield”. She then went on to set up the American Red Cross, working tirelessly on both promotion and logistics. She never married, as she believed married women were too restricted, although she did have a well publicized relationship with a married soldier. She died in 1907, aged 90, from tuberculosis which she had contracted two years earlier. What a woman.

Think a president needs to be strong and battle-ready? Annie Oakley certainly was. Annie was born in August 1860, the sixth of nine children. In 1866, Annie’s father became an invalid from exposure in a blizzard, and eventually died of pneumonia. Annie’s schooling stopped then, as the family plummeted into poverty. Annie began trapping, shooting and hunting to support her siblings and mother, selling the shot animals to local shopkeepers, hotels and restaurants. Her skill was so good that she paid off the mortgage on her mothers farm aged just 15. She eventually became part of a travelling show, along with a marksmen and dog trainer called Frank Butler. The pair fell in love, and were married. The pair were so good that they toured Europe shooting, including performing for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. She was such a good shot that, at his request, she managed to shoot the ash off a cigarette held by German Kaiser Wilhelm II. Annie went on to have an amazing career, before dying of pernicious anemia in Ohio, aged 66. She had been married to Frank for over 50 years by this point, and he was so grieved by her death that he gave up eating, dying himself 18 days later.

Any of these women would have made an amazing first female president – they all offer intelligence, passion and decisiveness, as well as strength and the ability to overcome adversity. What leaders they would be! Have we missed someone that you think would make an amazing president? Let us know in the comments!