Other women who inspire us even today are Joan of Arc, the patron saint of France, who at the age of just 17, inspired a French revolt against the occupation of the English and successfully led the French to victory at Orleans.

Another was Sojourner Truth a feisty African-American abolitionist and women’s rights campaigner who lived at the same time that Florence Nightingale was serving in the Crimean war. Florence’s passion and dedication to the profession changed public perception about nursing.

Marie Curie the Polish/French scientist was the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize and the first person to win the Nobel Prize for two separate categories – one for research into radioactivity and the second for Chemistry.

Helen Keller the deaf and blind American Social Activist who campaigned tirelessly on behalf of deaf and blind people is one of those who taught us determination.

So, have women like Mother Teresa an Albanian nun and charity worker who devoted her life to the service of the poor and dispossessed.

Women like Rosa Parks (American civil rights activist) and Ann Frank whose diary served as an eye witness to the German concentration camps have taught us exemplary courage and dignity in the face of violence and even death.

More recently Burmese opposition politician Suu Kyi won a Nobel prize for a struggle that is considered one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades.

Billie Jean King, the US tennis legend and the winner of 20 Wimbledon titles, who beat Bobby Riggs in 1973 and Oprah Winfrey, a Philanthropist, and a famous US talk show host who was born to a poor single mother in Mississippi have made us swell with pride.