awesome – The Blog of Awesome Women

Arlene Blum: “A Woman’s Place is on Top”

Arlene Blum has made a success by doing what she’s not “supposed” to do. Born in Chicago in 1945 and raised by her mother’s parents, Arlene overcame “arithmaphobia” to go to the top of her class in mathematics and science, where she developed a taste for competing academically with boys. She decided to study chemistry at Portland’s Reed College, ultimately earning a doctorate in chemistry from U.C. Berkeley. In an interview with Ms. in 1987, she indicated that this spirit of competition still propelled her, “I know that…girls weren’t supposed to be chemists. And it’s always sort of nice to do things you’re not supposed to do.” Reed’s location near Oregon’s mountain peaks was auspicious for the young scientist. She fell in love with mountain climbing and even worked it into her academic regimen by analyzing volcanic gas from the top of Mount Hood.

More exotic ranges beckoned, and Arlene soon trekked to Mexican and Andean peaks. An eye-opening event happened when she submitted an application to be a part of a team destined for Afghanistan and was turned down for being a woman. After a second ejection for an Alaskan expedition, Arlene Blum took the “bull by the horns” and put together her own all-woman team of six climbers,
all of whom made the peak of Alaska’s Mount Denali (formerly known as Mount McKinley) in 1970. This was just the beginning for the barrier-breaking shero, who in 1978 took another all-woman team to Annapurna, one of the highest mountains in the world. At the time, only four teams had ever made it to the top of Annapurna, a treacherous mountain known for fierce storms and dangerous avalanches. In addition to the danger, such treks are always extremely expensive. Ever plucky, Blum and her team of Sherpas and sheroes paid their way to the top of Annapurna, the world’s tenth highest peak, by selling t-shirts and gaining corporate sponsorship. The t-shirts became real conversation starters with the winning slogan, “a Woman’s Place is on top…Annapurna!”

Amazing Arlene has gone on to walk the entire Great Himalayan mountain range, crest Everest, and organize many expeditions and explorations. She has also excelled at her other profession, chemistry, and helped identify a carcinogenic flame-retardant in children’s clothing. Arlene’s daughter Annlise joins her mother on climbs now, part of the generation of women for whom Arlene cleared the path. Arlene Blum showed the world that, when it comes to excluding women from sports, there “ain’t no mountain high enough” to keep a good woman down!

“People say I’ve organized all-women’s expeditions to show what we can do; but it wasn’t like that. It was more a rebellion against being told I couldn’t do something, or…that women couldn’t do something.”
— Arlene Blum

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Fierce Asiatic Females

In the year 39 A.D., the Vietnamese Trung sisters led a revolt against China. Phung Thi Chinh was in the last stages of pregnancy, but fought beside the other women, gave birth in the middle of the rebellion, and kept on fighting with her babe bound to her back with cloth.

Hangaku was a medieval noble’s daughter with topnotch archery skills. Born to the Taira shogunate, she fought beside the men to defend the family’s castle. She was fully acknowledged for having superior bow and arrow skills in comparison with her father, brothers, and husband, “shooting a hundred arrows and hitting a hundred times.” In 1201, a fateful attack on the familiar fortress occurred, during which Hangaku dressed like a boy and stood, unhidden, raining arrows down upon the attackers. Even her flawless archery couldn’t save the Tairas that round, and she was felled by an arrow and captured as a prisoner-of-war.

Afra’Bint Ghifar al-Humayriah was a veil-less Arab woman who fought in the legendary tent-pole battles with Khawlah in the seventh century. These resourceful women rebelled against the Greeks who captured them with the only available weapon—the poles of the tents they were imprisoned in!

Hindustan’s warrior queen of Gurrah, Durgautti led a bold and colorful army of 1,500 elephants and 6,000 horseback soldiers. “Like a bold heroine, mounted within her elephant’s howdar, armed with lance and bow and arrow,” writes herstorian Eleanor Starling, she bested the invasive Mongol Asaph Khan and his army of 6,000 horses and 12,000 foot soldiers. When he later turned the tables on her, she killed herself with her elephant handler’s dagger rather than endure defeat.

Lakshmi Bar, the Rani of Jhansi is one of India’s national heroines. Raised in a household of boys, she was fearless and brilliant as a military strategist. When her husband died, she came out of purdah to fight the British, becoming the key figure extraordinaire who trained women for her army with special care. These women came to be known as the “amazons of Jhansi.” Lakshmi herself was famous for calmly taunting enemy generals, “Do your worst, I will make you a woman.” Her fame spread like wildfire throughout India, making her their national shero when she broke through an encircling ambush of British soldiers during battle and escaped in horseback to a hundred miles away in just twenty-four hours with a ten-year-old boy clinging to her back. She and the boy were the only two survivors of the slaughtered Indian troops. It should also be noted that Lakshmi was in full armor in sweltering 120 degree heat. She died on the battlefield in Gwalior when she was barely thirty; a British general called her the “greatest hero” he’d ever known.

Qui Jin was called a “Heroine Among Women” by Sun Yat-Sen. She was simply amazing! Born in 1874, her hobbies included cross-dressing and riding through the streets of Chinese cities and villages. She founded the first newspaper for women in China, founded a school for girls, and escaped from her arranged marriage to pursue her revolutionary goals of overthrowing the Qing Monarchy. Quite the intellectual, she wrote poetry and took a vow of silence during her imprisonment upon being arrested for plotting the assassination of the Qing governor. Her daughter followed in her mother’s pioneering footsteps by becoming China’s first aviatrix.

This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Women by Becca Anderson which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.

Shaeera Kalla: Never Stop Fighting

A student representative council president at Wits University, Shaeera always believed in the power of protest. In her term as president, Shaeera felt the unfair increase in school fees further marginalized the poor students. She organized a committee and the slogan “WitsFeesMustFall.” Their aim was to “systematically shut the school down.” The movement caused other universities to hold similar protests, and Shaeera was the flagship. She received backlash from the police and school boards, but that did not stop her. During one protest at the school, police officers intervened. Shaeera tried to negotiate with the police officers and calm the students down when a police officer shot her multiple times with rubber bullets. In the hospital, Shaeera recovered and was as vocal as ever. She shows that in the face of fear, staying strong can inspire others.

“I hope that one day…we will not have to utter the hopeless truth, ‘no one has been held accountable.’ ”

—Shaeera Kalla