Because too often female geniuses go unacknowledged.

Baroness Brenda Hale

"She was the first and only female judge in the British House of Lords. After a long and distinguished career in legal academia, during which she literally wrote the book on British family law, she rose through the judiciary to its highest court. In February 2013 she was assessed as the fourth-most powerful woman in the United Kingdom by Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4."

Submitted by laureno4b9ae7106.

Anita Corbin / National Portrait Gallery London / Via npg.org.uk

Harriet Jacobs

"She escaped slavery in 1842, but in order to do so, she had to live in a tiny attic for seven years, with so little room to move that her muscles atrophied. After she fled to the North, she wrote her memoir, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, in which she details the mental and sexual abuse she faced as a house slave. She also dispels myths that were pervasive among white people at the time (and still perhaps today), like the erroneous concept that slaves sang because they were happy (the exact opposite was true). Her insights about the intersection of race and gender stay with me to this day, and guide my opinions about the current civil rights movement in our country. So here’s to Harriet Jacobs, who understood more about the conflicts over race and gender than most of us ever will."

Submitted by marygrace915

commons.wikimedia.org

Michelle Obama

"People only know her as the First Lady but she's achieved incredible things in her own right. She's a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, and then worked as a lawyer and a city administrator. She is by far the most highly educated First Lady to date."

Submitted by Faiza Arshad, Facebook

Stan Honda / AFP / Getty Images

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