Billions of women change the world each day — here is a handful from the years gone by…
#1 18-year old French Résistance fighter, Simone Segouin, holds her rifle during the liberation of Paris. (19 August 1944)
#2 This iconic photo of a concerned pea-picker, Florence Thompson, as she survives in the Dust Bowl. (1936)
#3 A Muslim woman cover the yellow star of her Jewish neighbor with her veil to protect her from prosecution. This was in the capital city of Sarajevo in what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina, the former Yugoslavia. (1941)
#4 This samurai warrior poses for a photo. With their husbands almost always away in battle, samurai women were responsible to protect their children and their home from enemies. (c. late 1800s)
#5 Aviator Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. (1928)
#6 Margaret Hamilton stands next to the code she herself wrote by hand — it would the be the exact same code that was used to take people to the moon. (1969)
#7 This Dutch woman stayed by her husband’s side. He was a German soldier and she followed him into Allied captivity. (1944)
#8 American astronaut, Anna Fisher, was “the first mother in space.” To date, she is the oldest active American astronaut. (1984)
#9 A group of the first women sworn into the United States Marine Corps. (August 1918)
#10 Female pilots leaving their B-17, lovingly named “Pistol Packin’ Mama” (c. 1941 – 1945)
#11 This Swedish woman strikes a neo-Nazi protester with her handbag. Allegedly, she was a concentration camp survivor. (1985)
#12 This suffrage activist protesting after “The Night of Terror.” (1917)
#13 Sarla Thakral, 21, was the first Indian woman to earn a pilot license. She first flew a Gypsy Moth solo. (1936)
#14 Actress and professional swimmer Annette Kellerman posed to promote women’s rights to wear one-piece swimming suits. She was immediately arrested for indecency. (c. 1907)
#15 Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon. Organizers protested and attempted to stop her. (1967)
#16 Afghan women at a public library. Prior to Taliban rule, women were not barred from going to school or work. (c. 1950s)
#17 This 106-year old Armenian woman guard her home with an AK-47. (1990)
#18 Prominent Japanese suffragist, Komako Kimura, marched in New York. (23 October 1917)
#19 Young women took over the delivery of heavy ice blocks after male workers were conscripted. (1918)
#20 Photographer Margaret Bourke-White at work while on the edge of the Chrysler Building. (1934)
#21 Marina Ginesta, a 17-year-old who served as a reporter and translator during the Spanish Civil War. This photo was taken on the rooftop of Hotel Colon in Barcelona. (1936)
#22 A picture of railroad workers at lunch. Most of them are wives and mothers of men who were conscripted for WWII. (1943)
#23 This woman tries to enjoy her tea in the aftermath of the London Blitz. (1940)
#24 “Winnie,” one of the 2,000-plus women who worked in the US shipyards during WWII. (1943)
#25 Volunteers during a firefighting exercise at Pearl Harbor (c. 1941 – 1945)
