British yachtswoman Dee Caffari was the first woman in history to sail solo, non-stop both ways around the world.
She completed a double world first on 16
February 2009 by completing the gruelling Vendée Globe, the round the
world yacht race that is known as the 'Everest of the Seas'.
Caffari first sailed into the record books in May 2006 by becoming the
first woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world the 'wrong' way
(against the prevailing winds and currents).
That solo circumnavigation took her 178 days in a 72 foot steel yacht.
Jill Lengre travelled the world and used her experience to launch (with her friend Andrea Martins ), www.expatwomen.com, a website for, not surprisingly, expatriate women!
Lengre was born in Pasadena, California, and has lived in England, France and Mexico. She has coordinated the creation of a European headquarters for an international database company; marketed software products; developed a web product for a European e-learning company and run business development for a Mexican IT Outsourcing company.
Zainah Anwar’s great grandfather, an Islamic scholar who divided his
time between Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, married an Abyssinian slave
girl he bought in Mecca.
Her grandfather had a total of seven wives (not all at the same time).
She
says her mother waited on her father hand and foot, and her brother
never did a lick of housework – not the kind of family history one
might expect to produce an Islamic feminist activist.
Or perhaps it is. Amazing women flourish in all kinds of interesting environements...
Besides being an Internet entrepreneur and a mother of two children, Martins has coordinated large national networks in two of Australia’s largest government departments, and worked as an executive headhunter. She was born in Brisbane, Australia and has lived three Australian states as well as Indonesia and Mexico.
Martins now lives back in Australia and coordinates www.expatwomen.com on her own, after Lengre stepped aside to move back to the USA from overseas.
Ela R. Bhatt, a lawyer, is widely recognized as one of the world's most remarkable pioneers and entrepreneurial forces in grassroots development. Known as the "gentle revolutionary," she has dedicated her life to improving the lives of India's poorest and most oppressed citizens.
In 1972, Ela Bhatt founded the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) to bring poor women together and give them ways to fight for their rights and earn better livings. Three years after SEWA was founded, it had 7,000 members. Today it has a total membership of 700,000 women, making it the largest single primary trade union in India.
Bhatt lead SEWA to form a cooperative bank in 1974 - with a share capital of $30,000 - that offered microcredit loans to help women save and become financially independent.
British yachtswoman Dee Caffari was the first woman in history to sail solo, non-stop both ways around the world.
Jill Lengre travelled the world and used her experience to launch (with her friend 
Andrea Martins co-founded 
Canadian Dr. Roberta Bondar became the world’s first astronaut-neurologist when she flew onboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1992. 
Ela R. Bhatt, a lawyer, is widely recognized as one of the world's most remarkable pioneers and entrepreneurial forces in grassroots development. Known as the "gentle revolutionary," she has dedicated her life to improving the lives of India's poorest and most oppressed citizens. 
