WOMEN WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

1. GERTRUDE BELL
● Born → 14th of July 1868, England
● Family:
- Issac Bell (grandfather)
- Hugh Bell (Father) → Supports well being of people
- Mother died when Gertrude was two years old.
● Context:
- Children working in dangerous places.
- There were a lot of poor people.
History: Gertrude was part of a powerful family,
When Gertrude Bell was 2 years old, her mother had a son called Maurice. Unfortunately, a few days later his
mother died. Hugh the father had to take care of the two childrens by himself.
The father’s sister Ada, came to stay with her brother, but she didn’t like living there so she decided to fins a
new wife for Hugh. In 1876, Florence and Hugh were married and had three more childrens.

Gertrude was a very intelligent girl, she went on to study at Oxford University and gain first class honors.
Unlucky, Gertrude was not able to graduate as at this time womens didn’t have the right to graduate.

Her stepmother (Florence) and aunts believed that she should learn more about polite manners to succeed in
life. For them, the most important thing for a young woman was to find a good husband and how to mix in high
society.

Gertrude went to Romania for a time, and when she came back, her parents decided it was time to introduce
her to London Society. She was introduced to Queen Victoria and thereafter, worked in society for three years.
After, one of her opportunities came soon, Frank Lascelles, a British ambassador to Theran.

When Gertrude was in Theran, he met a man called Henry Cadogan. With him they will travel a lot and she will
find one of her new passions, photography.
She and Henry wanted to married but because of wealth and gambling issues her parents wouldn’t let her. A
few days later, Gertrude receives a telegram announcing Henry’s death.
In 1897, Gertrude and her family went on holiday in the French Alps. There she discovered one of her other
passions, mountain climbing. She climbed mountains that no one had ever climbed before and they were
named after her.
In 1899, Gertrude met the brother of one of her university classmates, David Hogarth, who is an archeologist.
We can say that thanks to him, she became interested in archeology.
Britain offered Gertrude a job as a spy. With strength and courage she took it. During this work, she met what
could have been the love of her life, Charles Doughty-Wylie, but he recently got married and his wife
threatened him that if he divorced her she would commit suicide.

During World War I, Gertrude volunteered to work for the Red Cross in Great Britain and France.
In 1913 she received an award from the Royal Geographical Society. She was the first woman to receive such an
award.

Finally after many journeys and many experiences, she and her collegue Lawrence named Emir Faisal the new
king of Mesopotamia. Faisal thanked Gertrude and made her one of his most important advisors.

Finally in 1926, Gertrude took a pill and died of love at the age of 58. Was buried in Baghdad

2. HELEN KELLER
● Born : 1880 and she has a house: Ivy green
● She is a deaf-blind-mute girl
● Family: Rich family: her father was a newspaper editor and her mother is called Kate
Martha: her best friend
Annie Sullivan: personal teacher
She has two siblings
● Context:
- First world war, when a lot of people loses his hearing: she has a foundation that helps the soldiers
that are blind or deaf with visits
● Life:

LLEN KELLER CHAPTER 1: She was born in 1880 and has a big house: Ivy green and is rich. They made her
living from a cotton plantation. the father was a pro lawyer in the american civil war and he had to fight
against the north. he marries kate and they have been together for 20 years, the father becomes a
newspaper editor. Suddenly she becomes ill and becomes unconscious and they realize that she is deaf and
can't see either, they decide that she will grow up at home with her family and her mother's name is Martha
and they express themselves in the form of shaking but no and nodding yes. one day he cut off almost all of
Martha's hair. he realizes that they are different and she runs around the house and when she finds
someone she hits him and always throws tantrums. then the sister cheers up mildred and almost throws her
to the floor. then they see in a book by Dickens a story of a deaf and blind woman who learns at Perkins
School and contacts Am Bell who also has a daughter like that.
CHAPTER 2: at first, it seemed impossible but don't give up. one day he touches the water and gives her a
sign of water in his hand and she realizes that it is completely different from the water and understands. and
learn 30 different objects. and there he wanted to learn and leave his sorrow behind. but she apart wanted
to read and write. Annie makes her some letters so she can play them and teaches her to draw them. later
they learn braille (dots for blind people). dsp shows him nature and Helen goes up to the top and opens it
but suddenly it starts to rain and they learn that nature can be dangerous sometimes. 1888 he goes to
Boston to see the Perkins School and they play things and they describe the scene in hand. even learn
history. she discovers things about the sea and the lakes and asks questions. Annie is paid by a family friend
who recommends her beautiful and who has prescient friends. they give her a dog and learn French. and
they introduce him to a boy and he says that you need to be 9 years old and write his first book called "the
frost king" but it is similar to a
They accuse her (the school's direct) of plagiarism, but they defend her in Belle and Mark Twain. she wanted
to speak and they told her to go to wright-humason pro alla nms there are deaf people. and it's hard for him
to adapt

CHAPTER 3: they give her the news that her father dies and she wants to return to Tuscumbia with her
family, but Belle and Twain want her to go to Harvard, no woman could go to Harvard and next to her was
Radcliffe and she took the test and she passed, and she goes with l annie: she read books and passed the
info to lá helen. she wanted to spread the message about overcoming adversity by giving lectures around the
country. but he needed to be able to speak first and found a singing teacher. Helen was super nervous at her
first reading and she puts on a high-pitched voice and runs off the stage but everyone applauds her and she
feels the vibrations on stage. she wanted to impact the lives of deaf and blind people and fight for their
rights (she wanted to help as her purpose in life) and she thought that this was what the government should
do, as she speaks in New York and says that they should to provide them with aid. she writes a book called
the story of my life and there she explains the joy she has experienced and becomes famous
he graduates with honors in German and English and opens a Bachelor of Arts at Harvard

CHAPTER 4: they become famous and in the 1st world war many lose their sight and a famous uncle
proposes to open a fund to help blind soldiers and that was a lot of work. Annie is sick and needs to rest.
Polly becomes her secretary and they go on vacation to Puerto Rico and an uncle named Peter plays the
piano and they dance together. they fall in love but their family doesn't approve and they both run and the
day they run away, and peter doesn't come and Helen is left heartbroken, we don't know what exactly
happened. hollywood wanted to make a movie about her and you can see that she was a great actress and
she does scenes riding a horse and they transcribed the scenes for her there polly

3. ROSA PARKS
● Born → 4th of February 1913, Alabama
● Family:
 - Grandparents → were slaves on a cotton plantation
- Mother → Leona was a teacher
- Father → James McCauley, was a carpenter, worked on building projects all around the country and
was away from home almost all the time.
- Brother → Sylvester
● Context:
- The slaves were liberated (Civil War 1865)→ many people hoped that people would have equal
opportunities but that was not the case. The things only got worse and laws were signed to limit their
freedom.
- Black people weren’t allowed to do anything and they were discriminated.

● Life:
- First she lived with her parents in Tuskegee.
- When Rosa’s mother was expecting her second child went to live with her parents on a farm in Pine
Level. → Life on the farm wasn’t easy → Family was very poor. Rosa sometimes went without shoes
and other basic necessities.
- The school was only open during the winter, as the children worked on the farms from spring to
autumn.
- Rosa learnt to read at a very young age, her mother taught her and her young brother. → Rose read
every book she could find
- Rosa was very close to her grandparents → grandmother taught her that no matter what anybody
said, she should be proud of herself and her family.
- Ku Klux Klan → white racist organization became very popular in Alabama.
- She go to sleep fully dressed every night, as they might have to get up and run away from the Klan →
Grandfather sat in front of the house holding a gun, he would prefer to die protecting his home than
run away.
- Rosa 4 years old, USA entered the First World War → African-Americans went to fight for their
country (black community hoped they would be treated better after this.
- Winters, Rosa and other black children went to school, White children were taken by buses to large
well-equipped school in a new building. → white children insulted them, although she was tiny, Rosa
refused to be intimidated by these white bullies.
- The school didn’t have any desks or windows, sixty children (6-11 years old), sat confined together in
one room → Time Harlem Renaissance, black people writers and poets began to publish books, Rosa
read all of them.
- Although Rosa received insults from white people, she didn't hate them because she knew they
weren't all bad.
- Leona attended summer classes at State Normal School for Colored Students in Montgomery, to
keep her teaching certificate up to date, Rosa traveled with her. They stayed with Grandma Rose’s first
cousin, Ida Nobles. → Iida lived next to a doctor, witch was helpful for Rosa
- Rosa 11 years old, she became a much healthier child, after recovering from the operation, Rosa was
moved to Montgomery with her aunt. → started studying at the Montgomery Industrial School for
girls. This school was founded by Alice White and Margaret Breard and these two women believed
that all people had the right to receive a good education.
- One day, she stopped with her cousin in a shop and asked the white shop assistant for a fizzy drink,
and she replied that they could have ice-cream cones instated → the shop was segregated.
- Once, while Rosa and Annie were picking berries near the country club where Annie May’s mother
worked as a maid, a young white boy shouted at them to leave the berries alone, the two girls
shouted back. When Aunt Fannie heard about this, she told the girls thay could have been lynched for
being so insolent.
- In Rosa's last year of school, her grandmother and her mother fell ill and for that reason she could
not finish school.
- At the age of 18 she married Raymond Parks, who was a member of the National Association for
Advancement of Colored people. → Finally Rosa finished high school and became part of the 7% of
African-Americans who had a high-school diploma.
- One day when she was on the bus, she did not want to give her seat to a white man, for this reason
she was arrested. After this, black people organized a bus boycott. The boycott lasted like 381 days but
finally the Supreme court declared that the segregation on city buses was illegal.
- In 2004 Rosa was diagnosed with progressive dementia and she died in 2005.