Cheers to the Mad, by Monica Spencer
My version of Wonderland consists of the women who’ve been described as, completely off their head, but have helped pave the way for a more equitable world. My Mad Tea Party guests of honor include:
Junko Tabei (Upper Right) 22 September 1939 – 20 October 2016 Japanese mountaineer, Junko Tabei was the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and the first woman to ascend the Seven Summits, climbing the highest peak on every continent. Tabei was also a teacher and author. She wrote seven books, organized environmental projects to clean up rubbish left behind by climbers on Everest, and led annual climbs up Mount Fuji for youth affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Angela Yvonne Davis (Middle Right) Born January 26, 1944 Davis is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS). She is the author of more than ten books on class, gender, race, and the US prison system.
Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón (Bottom Right) 6 July 1907 – 13 July 1954 Kahlo was a Mexican painter who explored questions of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class, and race in Mexican society through her many brilliantly colored portraits and self-portraits. Kahlo is remembered for being a woman who broke all social conventions. Her defiance against needing to fit in is nothing less than admirable, both back then and even now.
Amelia Mary Earhart (Upper Left) Born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) An American aviation pioneer and writer, Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.
Malala Yousafzai (Middle Left) Born 12 July 1997 Yousafzai is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Awarded when she was 17, she is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and the second Pakistani and the first Pashtun to ever receive a Nobel Prize. She is known for human rights advocacy, especially the education of women and children in her native Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the Pakistani Taliban have at times banned girls from attending school. Her advocacy has grown into an international movement, and according to former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, she has become Pakistan's "most prominent citizen”.
Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Bottom Left) March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020 Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor. Ginsburg spent much of her legal career as an advocate for gender equality and women's rights, winning many arguments before the Supreme Court.
Cheers to these women and the many others who continue to pave the way for future generations!
Stay mad!