"Phenomenal Women" is a group about women who have made a significant difference in the world. These women are the ultimate role models for our children.
Joining this group... | Qualities of a phenomenal woman...
Photograph of statue holding hands by Valerie Everett
Meet some truly amazing women...
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Girl Powered Peace
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It is now universally agreed in aid organizations worldwide that empowering the women of a community will empower the children and the men as well. Women are caretakers and nurturers, watching over others. They tend to use practical wisdom to make de...
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Wise Women of the World
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Wise Women know they are the power in their lives and that they have the ability to achieve any goal they desire. Wise Women deserve respect and attention for who they are and who they inspire others to be.
Women who take action
It takes amazing strength to be an activist or advocate, whether the fight is for the environment, animal rights, or the rights of human beings.
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Starhawk
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Starhawk is a writer, human-rights and eco-activist and self-identified Witch who lives in the Bay Area. She is best known for her work with the Reclaiming Collective. Starhawk is going to be one of the featured guests at the Wisteria Summer Sol...
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Annie Oakley
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In an era when opportunities for women were limited, Annie Oakley's amazing ability with a gun proved that a woman could do just as well (or even better) than a man, even in traditionally "masculine fields" like shooting. Through talent and hard work...
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Gloria Steinem -- A Feminist Superhero
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Is it too bold a statement to make that WE GIRLS have this feminist superhero Gloria Steinem to thank for being able to SQUIDOO? To be able to blog and twitter? It's been over 40 years since her 1962 Esquire magazine article about women being forced...
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Yoko Ono
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Yoko Ono is perhaps best known as being the widow of Beatle legend, John Lennon, with whom she became synonymous with the expression "Give Peace a Chance." She has gone on after John's untimely death in 1980 to become one of the major Peace Activists...
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Severn Suzuki - a famous environmental video: where is she now?
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She's full of fire about the environment. She spoke to the UN at the age of 12. She's a scientist. I want to introduce you to Severn Suzuki. This lens isn't just about that speech - though I have gathered the info to show what lead up to it - but al...
Women who get things done
They see a need and they simply step up and do what needs to be done.
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Amy Jaffe Barzach
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Amy Jaffe Barzach is the founder of Boundless Playgrounds, an organization created to develop barrier-free, developmentally advantageous playgrounds. After the death of her son Jonathan from a rare condition, Amy found a way to cope with the grief o...
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Margaret Anstee
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Dame Margaret Anstee worked for the United Nations from 1952 to 1993, leaving the organization at the highest rank under the Secretary-General, the senior woman in the United Nations, and the longest serving official of either sex at any level. Imag...
Joining this group
If you want to tell the world about the amazing women you know of, join us by adding an existing lens, or creating a new one specifically for this topic.
Please read the guidelines below first, though. As this group grows, lenses that show clearly how their subject is phenomenal will stand a greater chance of acceptance and be given preference on the main page. Don't hide her greatness behind links to other sites - shout about it in your lens!
Let's show the world what one woman can do!
Qualities of a phenomenal woman
Read these guidelines before you add your lens
A phenomenal woman is one who manages to do more than the rest of us, and who makes the world a better place because of her actions.There are thousands of women doing well in each professional field; a phenomenal woman goes beyond her profession and adds things like volunteering, philanthropy, and activism to her resume. These are things she does "above and beyond" her calling.
Or, a phenomenal woman may be one who has dedicated herself almost solely to helping others. She may be in a situation where others are permanently in her care, or have to rely on her, but she carries her duties with grace. Again, she does a little bit extra, because she knows it will help ease the burdens of someone else.
She may be going through hardship or illness or war, but she uses her courage and strength to inspire and help others get through it too. A phenomenal woman rarely focuses on herself for long. She goes back into the fray to help others even though she's already fought her own battle.
Conversely, a woman may need to focus so intently on a career or sport or artform that she is able to reach the top echelons of her arena. We hope that when she reaches the top she will be in a position to turn around and give back to others. Women who are still focusing and reaching will receive the benefit of the doubt and honorary status.
Many wonderful women are great role models in their day to day lives. A phenomenal woman goes a step further and strives to reach others, or reach her goal, every day. A phenomenal woman often gets asked "Why do you keep giving so much of yourself?"
It's not easy being a phenomenal woman, otherwise we'd all be phenomenal.
Photograph of statue holding hands by Valerie Everett
Women who inspire
They've beaten great odds and inspire others to do it too
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Helen Keller
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Helen Keller, American author and lecturer, who was deaf and blind and who served as an inspiration for other people with disabilities. She was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, the daughter of well-to-do parents: Arthur Keller, a former officer in the Con...
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Shirley Temple
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Curls. Dimples. Dancer. Singer. Movie star. Mrs. Black. Mother of three. Gramma. Breast cancer survivor. Diplomat. Did we say dimples? (Picture from the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, Women of Our Time Po...
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Jill Taylor M.D.
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Jill Bolte Taylor M.D. is a Harvard-trained brain scientist. Suddenly, unexpectedly on a December morning in 1996 when she was 37-years-old Jill Taylor had a stroke. Jill was named one of Time Magazines 100 Most Influential People in the World for 20...
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Marlee Matlin - Actress
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Marlee Matlin, is a critically aclaimed, Oscar-winning actress who also happens to be deaf. She appeared on season 6 of Dancing with the Stars, getting voted off in week 6. Her partner was Fabian Sanchez. Here's the latest news and information abou...
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Judy Gordon and Dan Gordon's Book on Cancer
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I have known Judy Gordon for about a decade. In 2003, when Judy was 55 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Judy had been a writer for years at that time. As the book title says, she fell apart when she got the diagnosis. So throughout the treatment...
Raising awareness
Some illnesses go unresearched for decades until someone begins the fight to raise awareness and funds for research into prevention and cure.
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Super Hero - Sue Byrnes
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When your doctor hands you a paper with the word lymphangioleiomyomatosis on it and tells you that is what you have, the first reaction is disbelief. As he continues by saying the name and telling you that it is a rare disease affecting women and of...
Newest Lenses
Secretary of State: Woman's Work?, Tale of Grace O'Malley, Warrior Woman & Pirate Queen !, Gloria Steinem
Women with courage
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Revolutionary Heroes: Women As Homestead Warriors
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"With ladies on our side, we can make every Tory tremble."These words from the Sons of Liberty made a powerful statement. They were speaking of the Daughters of Liberty, women who formed unofficial groups to support America's fight for freedom. Names...
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Tale of Grace O'Malley, Warrior Woman & Pirate Queen !
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The tale of my fellow O'Malley clanswoman Gráinne Ni Mháille, known as Granuaile (pronounced Granya Wale) or more simply, Grace O'Malley, as she is most widely known today, is a tale of a woman's courage, strength and love for high adve...
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Molly Pitcher - Revolutionary War Heroine
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"Molly Pitcher" was a nickname given by Revolutionary War soldiers to the women, often wives of the soldiers or camp followers, who brought water to hot and thirsty artillerymen during battle. The water was by some accounts for drinking, by others fo...
Humanitarianism
Because women care
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Mother Teresa of Calcutta Quotes, Biography, Facts, Letters, Accomplishments, Faith, and more.
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Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity, and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her humanitarian work. In 2003, six years after her death, Mother Teresa began a passage to saintho...
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Clara Barton
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When it comes to having heroes - Clara Barton is the type of person I like to think about. All that she was able to accomplish is amazing enough, but that she was able to accomplish it as a woman in the era she lived, well, that is spectacular....
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Florence Nightingale
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Florence Nightingale helped to mold the fields of nursing and public health. She earned the nickname "The Lady With the Lamp" for her tireless nursing care delivered to British soldiers during the Crimean War (1853–1856). Although most...
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Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD
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Dr. Elisabeth Kubler Ross has the distinction of writing the first best selling book on a topic that no one wanted to discuss. On Death and Dying, written in 1969 is still required reading for many medical, nursing, psychology programs and college de...
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Dr. Margarita Pereyda - inspiring achievement and giving
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Dr. Pereyda is originally from Arizona, where she grew up within an impoverished community that did not expect students to succeed. However, a few exceptional teachers encouraged Margarita. The tenth of eleven children, she was the only one to gradua...
Lensmasters who admire phenomenal women
Philanthropy
They've climbed all the way to the top... and then turned around and given back to others.
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Poker Diva Liz Lieu
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Liz Lieu is a professional poker player born on August 2, 1974 in Vietnam and raised in Colorado. Chilipoker signed an exclusive contract with talented, astute and stylish Poker Star Liz Lieu back in Aug, 2007. Nicknamed the Poker Diva by fellow pok...
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Oprah Winfrey
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Oprah Gail Winfrey is thought to be the most influential woman in the world now. She is also considered to be the most philanthropic African-American of all time and one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the United States. Oprah, as she is kno...
Royal charity work
Part of a royal's job is charity work, humanitarian aid, fundraising, and raising awareness - some do the job better than others
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Princess Diana
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I was deeply-saddened that night in August 1997, along with millions of others, when we received the news of Princess Diana's death. I can only think of a couple of other instances that touched me in that manner -- John F. Kennedy and John F. K...
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Diana Princess of Wales
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I was one of the thousands of people, who were stunned and in shock 10 years ago by the tragic death of Princess Diana and then a few days later the death of Mother Teresa. As I watched the enormous worldwide outpouring of grief for the deaths of the...
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Queen Rania of Jordan
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Queen Rania is the queen consort of Jordan's King Abdullah II, and the mother of Prince Hussein, Princess Iman, Princess Salma, and Prince Hashem. Formerly Rania Al-Yasin of Kuwait, Rania has a Palestinian heritage. She earned a degree in Busine...
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Grace Kelly
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Grace Kelly. Even just her name is elegant. And, that is not even taking into account her work or her life. Her success in films meant a lot to her, and she walked away from that for love and marriage...and to be a princess. H...
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Queen Elizabeth II
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Elizabeth II became Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 06 February 1952. In addition she is Head of the Commonwealth. However, Elizabeth was not born to be Queen. Her Uncle was King Edward VIII, but he was never cro...
Business
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Mitchell Baker
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Mitchell Baker is the CEO of Mozilla Corporation, part of the company behind the open source Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email program. She is also on the board of directors of the Open Source Applications Foundation. Winifred Mitchell Baker s...
Politics
Phenomenal women in the political arena, in the forefront or behind the scenes
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Sarah Palin
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John McCain caught everyone off-guard when he announced Sarah Palin as his running mate for the 2008 GOP presidential ticket. The grass-roots effort to get Palin on the ticket had been gaining ground since the beginning of the year when she first sta...
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Secretary of State: Woman's Work?
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I grew up in the 1950's where sex roles were pretty rigid. However, my parents were different. They owned small town newspapers under .Arrowsmith Printing Company . I thought it was women's work to be the editor of newspapers because my Mom was and...
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Indira Gandhi
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Indira Gandhi was India's first female prime minister and part of a family political dynasty that included her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, her son, Rajiv Gandhi and her daugher-in-law, Sonia Gandhi. She served four terms before being assassinated.
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Should Obama Pick Oprah for Vice President?
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Since Oprah endorsed Obama before the Iowa primaries, it has been the source of many rumors about who would be the vice president nomination. Would she make a good vice president? (Wanna get into the debate with your own page? Start here - it's f...
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Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
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Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf made history in 2005 when she was voted the first female president of an African country - Liberia. Ellen was born in Monrovia, Liberia in 1938. Ellen's parents were the first generation in their families to receive an education...
Career
Women who have put in the long hours and pushed boundaries in their career
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Dara Torres
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Dara Torres is a 41 year old American swimmer who will be competing in her 5th Olympics this summer in Beijing, China.
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Kalpana Chawla
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Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian-American woman in space and the first Indian-American to fly the space shuttle. She was one of seven astronauts killed in 2003 when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere.
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Fashion Designer Coco Chanel
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Fashion designer Coco Chanel's influence on haute couture was so immense that she was the only person in the fashion industry to be named on TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century! Coco Chanel was a French fashion designer wh...
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Greatest Real Estate Agent In The World
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Greatest Real Estate Agent In The World | Colleen Lane | The contest is on and here is an entry for the greatest real estate agent in the world submitted by Colleen's husband Joe. Let the games begin! RSS feed | Email | Print | Add to Favorites | Len...
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Vivienne Westwood
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Vivienne Westwood got her start in the Kings Road, designing clothes for punk rockers back in the 1970s. Over the decades she moved from streetwear to haute couture, mixing elements of club style with tradtional UK fashion however she wishes.
Art
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Alice Neel-American Artist
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Born in 1900, Alice Neel was an American portrait artist. Neel's difficult and unconventional life mimicked the approach she took towards her paintings. Although her early work received limited attention, Neel would enjoy great success and the recogn...
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Susan Dorothea White
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Susan Dorothea White is a multi-talented artist based in Sydney, Australia. She works in a wide range of media including clay, wood, and metal sculpture, acrylic painting, and pencil, chalk, and metalpoint drawing. Photograph of Susan Dorothea White...
Lensmasters who admire phenomenal women
Literature
Their writing helps us see ourselves anew
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Maya Angelou
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She has seen sorrow, she has experienced pain, yet she inspires all to press on and enjoy the life that has been given to them. Maya Angelou can touch people's hearts, and make them see things they have not seen. Words are tools, and Maya...
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Vita Sackville-West
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I have been fascinated by Vita Sackville-West for over a decade. This woman was so many extraordinary things: author, biographer, poet, correspondent, wife, mother, lover, aristocrat, gardener and so much more. And she did each with...
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Emily Dickinson, Private Poetess
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During her quiet, reserved life, Emily Dickinson privately wrote some of the most important and persevering poetry in all of American history. While many of her acquaintances probably knew of her love of writing, very few had any idea of the great ex...
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Stella Gibbons
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On January 5, 1902, in Hampstead, London, England, Stella Dorothea Gibbons was born. Gibbons career as an author would span forty years, and would include the award-winning Cold Comfort Farm, which remains Gibbons most identifiable work of literature...
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Sappho
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Sappho, born around 630 BCE on the Greek-settled island of Lesbos off the coast of Turkey, is one of the earliest writers in the western world. Only fragments of her poetry have survived, preserved by later writers quoting her or on badly-damaged p...
Women we remember
They had grace and style, courage and endurance. They touched our lives forever.
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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994), wife of the 35th president of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Admired for her elegance and taste while in the White House, she won further admiration for her courage following the assassination of h...
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Diana Princess of Wales
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I was one of the thousands of people, who were stunned and in shock 10 years ago by the tragic death of Princess Diana and then a few days later the death of Mother Teresa. As I watched the enormous worldwide outpouring of grief for the deaths of the...
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Kirsty MacColl: Humor, Tragedy, and Song
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From her witty satires to her songs of longing, Kirsty MacColl was a consummate singer and songwriter. Her voice, creativity, and sense of fun allowed her to cross genre lines and build a strong following. Unfortunately, the careless pilo...
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Anne Frank -- A True Superhero
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It is incomprehensible to imagine what Anne Frank endured in her young and short life nor is it possible to comprehend the terror that her family experienced. To me Anne Frank is without a doubt a true superhero of immeasurable proportions. I heard...
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Jane McGrath
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Jane McGrath died on 22 June 2008 at her home, ending a ten-year battle with cancer. Jane was the wife of Australian cricker Glenn McGrath, and together they founded The McGrath Foundation, a breast cancer support network promoting awareness and fund...
Lensmasters who admire phenomenal women
Women who give to others
It might be a gift of time, comfort, or craft, food, or talent - these women don't hesitate when another is in need.
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The Arlington Ladies
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For more than 35 years, the Arlington Ladies volunteers have represented veterans of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard at every funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. Currently 195 Arlington Ladies, volunteer time to pay tribute to nation's...
Great thinkers
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Annie Besant, teacher, lecturer, secularist and theosophist...
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Minister's wife, student of medicine, raised a prophet, reformer, secularist and more. Annie Besant (1847-1933) was many things in her lifetime - and living in the 19th and early 20th century, all of those things were revolutionary for a woman to be...
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Blavatsky : Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
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Blavatsky compared the science of her day, studied the world religions and came up with her own synthesis, which she called 'theosophy', or ancient wisdom.
Firsts
Who was the first woman to...?
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First Woman To ...
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It never ceases to amaze me in this day and age to hear that someone is the first woman to do something. But given that we're on the verge of having our first serious female presidential candidate and possibly female president here in the United Stat...
Awards
Thanks to lensmaster Spirituality for awarding Phenomenal Women HQ this Excellent Group award! Excellent books about phenomenal women
Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou
Phenomenal Woman is poetry that speaks to us of wh more...1 point
Jewels: 50 Phenomenal Black Women Over 50 by Michael Cunningham, Connie Briscoe
Photographer Michael Cunningham (coauthor of Crown more...0 points
Never Learn to Type: A Woman at the United Nations by Margaret Joan Anstee
A fascinating account of a remarkable life that to more...0 points
Talk to us!
daoine wrote...
Hi Phenomenal Lensmasters
Get your lensmaking hats on - I'm looking for more top quality lenses for the topics of Philanthropy and Courage.
Have fun,
Daoine
Posted June 15, 2009
jacquelinestone wrote...
Hi, Daoine.
Your group has grown tremendously. That's fantastic!
Wishing you an incredible, amazing New Year!
Posted January 03, 2009
monarch13 wrote...
Awesome Resource. I have your group as a link on my Wise Women of The World lens.
In Health and Gratitude!
Posted November 12, 2008
BethErickson wrote...
This group is amazing. Kudos to those women who take action. Very inspirational. I'm adding my lens here. Hope I'm qualified to this group.
Posted August 14, 2008
Comfortdoc wrote...
Thank you for featuring the Arlington Ladies. I truly believe these Angels of the Arlington National Cemetery are phenomenal women.
Posted July 23, 2008
eva wrote
Blessed. I think there are many Latin women. that that make the difference in having to manage daily many roles. as breast, hardworking, friendly, and work hard not only to make money but to contribute to changing society (sorry for my bad english)
Posted July 10, 2008
ebay-grandma wrote...
Thank you for adding the lens about my super hero Sue Brynes! She indeed is a phenomenal woman. I am proud to be associated with such a great group.
Posted July 06, 2008
JaguarJulie wrote...
Again, it is wonderful to be a part of this group that recognizes the phenomenal women who have touched us and inspired us! My grandmother Julia Nagy is undoubtedly the most incredibly phenomenal woman in MY life! ;-)
Posted June 26, 2008
Meet the Groupmaster
daoine
Phenomenal Women is a group about women who have made a significant difference in the world. These are real role models for our children.
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Created March, 2008
There are 105 lenses in this group
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About this Group
Phenomenal Women is a group about women who have made a significant difference in the world. These are real role models for our children.
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