Women Who Changed the World: The Most Remarkable Women of the Last 100 Years

by Sarah Vaughan (Editor)

The 20th century began with a sense of great optimism after centuries of oppression. It was to be one of the most violent and tumultuous in world history and paved the way for many people to seize opportunities and make a difference. And women have been there every step of the way.

From extraordinary breakthroughs in science, to revolutionary political shifts, this is a collection of some of the most remarkable achievements of women in the last century.

Genres: Feminism, History, Nonfiction

190 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2018

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Reviews

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautifully presented hardback book, which I came across at a little book fair. I just couldn't resist picking it up. The book is split into sections, and in these sections we have particular women and the field they relate to, such as, medicine, The arts, politics, etc. There are one hundred various women in total, and each has a page that tells us, in short, something about their significance how they changed the world.

Although I am a feminist, I do believe that a few of the women included in here, did not need to be. I mean, they did not change the world, or, have any kind of impact in doing so.

Unfortunately, as I was reading through, I noticed rather a lot of typos, plus, a couple of errors in factual information, such as dates of birth. This was pretty poor, in my opinion.

Despite that, this is meant to be a book about celebrating women and their achievements, and I'll always be dedicated to that.

[Phi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Rush: book five
Challenge: read a book set in another continent from your own (this covers women from all continents - I believe)

Let’s start with the typos? Why did they call Jackie Kennedy Onassis “Christina Onassis”. Other honourable mentions: Queen Victorian and Oprah Winfreys. I’m no stranger to typos (most of my writing has them) but you’d think that the editor would have picked up on that.

Also, Germaine Greer? Really? She’s such an awful person and transphobic and contradicts her views constantly (something which is hardly touched upon).

There’s also a section which describes chromosomes as determining gender (which is simply not true and shows the absence of thorough editing).

However, I did learn a lot about women whose efforts have previously been disregarded by the media.

A good read for people who are already educated on feminism, I’d say. Take it with a pinch of salt.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two significant issues with this book: 1) It is absolutely riddled with typos, and additionally I identified at least two outright factual errors. I don't feel confident that this was fact-checked or proofread. 2) There are some questionable inclusions. A few of these women are not to be celebrated or admired. Although to be fair, it is called 'Women Who Changed the World' - not 'Women Who Made the World Better.' But still. Issues aside, I still appreciate the spirit of the book. I learned about many women who contributed to society in a positive way and paved the path for other women to succeed.

[Lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book served its purpose, but had so many typos, mistakes and a few straight up factual inaccuracies that made me believe that not much care or time was put into it. It's fine as a coffee table read and gave me a few ideas to jump off and do my own research on, but I don't know how much I'd recommend it.

[eimear.reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice read but too many typos and the biographies for certain women were very odd.

[Chrissy Shea Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot of small bits about many influential women from multiple genres. Some influence may not be judged as good influence but that shouldn’t erase them from history. Some I was aware of but many I was not, especially for things out of my area of knowledge (e.g., physics). Many of the women, especially in the sciences, were parts of teams where often the men they worked with are more well known. So it is good to say their names.

I read some of the low reviews and either these criticisms/errors were fixed by the time the paperback was released, the reviewers were mistaken themselves, or I don’t know the people well enough to know (of course, all are possible but it seemed okay to me).

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains one page summary for each one of the extraordinary women listed by eight categories - Humanity and Liberty, Science, Medicine, Technology, Space and the Environment, Politics, Culture and Society, and The Arts. 

I recognized quite a few of the women listed (e.g. Mother Theresa, Rosa Parks, Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Amelia Earhart, Jane Goodall, Eleanor Roosevelt, Condoleezza Rice, Helen Keller, Audrey Hepburn, Beatrix Potter, and Agatha Christie).

But there were quite a few of the women for whom I did not recognize (e.g. Emmeline Pankhurst, Nettie Stevens, Mary Leakey, Hertha Ayrton, Henrietta Leavitt, and Mary Cassatt).

I say thank you to all these remarkable women and their awesome contributions!

[Geraldine Gaffney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is empowering and I learned a lot.

It is something you can dip in and out of. I don’t see anyone reading it all in one go- like a coffee table book.

Something that would have made it a whole lot better is a few photographs of each woman.

[Olivia-Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been very promising but let down by the obvious omission of proof reading. Also, this should be re-published with the removal of JK Rowling. I’d like to think this was printed prior to her transphobic comments.

[Alyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable read. A few typos but I learned about amazing women I wasn't aware of before. I'd recommend.

[Gaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Very good for learning about lots of amazing women, but there were some typos (and factual inaccuracies according to some reviews), and the biographies of each woman were very brief

[Tina Bennett babineaux · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book!! I learned about a lot of women that I had never heard of and some that I had. It was a great and easy read.

[kate. · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5.

[Rebecca Learmouth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been higher but Thatcher

[Sonja · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many women to study and applaud!