Herstoryportraits
A series of portraits of exceptional women that with their actions, creations or life choices made an important contribution to women’s emancipation and gender equality without necessarily calling themselves feminists, in some cases openly rejecting the definition, but acting with the same values.
Can female action be more feminist than feminist activism?
Tina Modotti - She's recognized as one of the most important female photographers of the 20th century. She was also a model, an actress, a traveller and a revolutionary activist. She lived many lives in many worlds, becoming a symbol of freedom and women's empowerment
Lucia Valerio - She was the best Italian female tennis player during the late 1920s and the 1930s. Used to be called "The Lady of Tennis " she preferred to be called "Miss" instead of "Lady" because she chose to never marry for the love of tennis
Amelia Earhart - On May 1932 she became the first female aviator to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean
Eileen Gray - According to critics Le Corbusier was affronted that a woman could create such work of modernism and out of jealousy he painted murals all over the house, to claim a bit of ownership of the project, thus causing Eileen's architectural career break. Villa E-1027 is now recognized as one of the first masterpieces of modernist architecture
Coco Chanel - Her revolutionary designs allowed women to put away the corsets and restricting garments and replace them with comfortable simple and elegant outfits that influenced the fashion world in a way that won't ever be forgotten
Nadia Comaneci - She was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games. No longer allowed to travel outside of Romania she defected Ceausescu's dictatorship
Fanny Durack - She was the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal in swimming during the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, first Games that allowed women in swimming competitions
Ida Lupino - She began her acting career during the mid-30s. Then she switched from acting to directing, becoming the first woman to direct a noir film, "The Hitch-Hiker"
Marie Curie - She was a physicist, a chemist and the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, for her researches on the radioactivity
Agatha Christie - She is the most successful author of detective stories and the most famous woman writer ever
Franca Viola - She was the first woman to say no to the Italian "rehabilitating marriage" law according to which the crime of rape could be cancelled by the marriage between the victim and the rapist. She refused to marry her rapist breaking the Southern Italy social conventions and allowing the abolition of the law on August 5th, 1981
