Women Facts

New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world to grant all women the right to vote in national elections, in 1893.

Afghanistan's first-ever modeling competition in 2009 received over 3,000 applications. Only 10 were from women.

The first person to go over Niagara falls was Annie Edson-Taylor. She made the trip in a wooden barrel and survived!

Ching Shih, once a prostitute, became one of the most powerful pirates to have ever sailed. She commanded one of the most formidable pirate fleets in all of China during the early 1800s, with hundreds of ships under her command.

Men get hiccups more often than women.

Men produce about 50% more sweat than women, but women's sweat glands are more efficient at cooling the body.

There's a book titled "Everything men know about women" that has over 100 blank pages.

Last 2 European countries to let women vote: Switzerland (1971) and Leichtenstein (1984).

48% of all video game players in the United States are women, and players aged 45 and older represent the fastest-growing gaming demographic.

In Russia, women outnumber men by about 10.4 million people.

Violet Jessop was on the RMS Olympic when it collided with a warship. She survived. She was on the Titanic when it hit an iceberg. She survived. She was on the Britannic when it hit a mine. She survived. Three sister ships, three disasters, one woman on all of them. She kept going back to sea. Died at 83 — on dry land.

Sisa Abu Daooh, an Egyptian woman, disguised herself as a man for 43 years after her husband passed away so she could work and provide for her daughter. She worked as a shoe shiner, brick layer, and farmer. When she was finally revealed in 2015, the Egyptian government didn't punish her — they awarded her the "Ideal Mother" prize on national television.

The village of Piplantri in Rajasthan, India plants 111 trees every time a girl is born. In a region where daughters were once seen as a burden, the birth of a girl now triggers a celebration — the entire community comes together to plant. They also start a savings fund for each girl's education that she collects at 20. Piplantri now has over 350,000 trees. What was once semi-arid land is now a forest. Every tree is named after a girl.

Julie d'Aubigny — known as La Maupin — was a 17th-century French opera singer and one of the most feared swordfighters in Paris. When her girlfriend's parents sent the girl to a convent, Julie checked in as a novice, placed a dead nun's body in her lover's bed, set the building on fire, and escaped with her. She was sentenced to death. The king pardoned her. She went on to perform at the Paris Opéra for 15 years.

The world's first computer programmer was a woman, Ada Lovelace, who wrote the first algorithm for Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical computer in 1843. Her work included the revolutionary idea that machines could process more than just numbers, envisioning computer-generated music and art.