It’s  International Women’s Day… but what, exactly, does that mean?

International Women’s Day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women. This year’s theme is #PressforProgress and it’s an idea that calls upon all women to help make the world more gender inclusive.

Few of you know — because I do not discuss it here — that I am passionate about politics. Of course, I am. I have strong opinions about the world my Grands, my children and I all live in!

And, although I am very interested in politics, I never write about them here because HoneyGood.com is not meant to be a platform for political agendas, it is meant to be a platform for empowering the wonderful, wise and worthy women we are now and will become as we grow each and every day.

With that said, in honor of today, International Women’s Day, I’m sharing a few pearls of wisdom from some women I admire.

There’s no hidden political message here, just my belief in the power of great women and my admiration for them, no matter what causes or conflicts they fought for — it’s their chutzpah that inspires me!

Mary Wollstonecraft, an English author,  wrote the most significant book in the early feminist movement. Her pamphlet “A Vindication of the Rights of Women” laid down a moral and practical basis for extending human and political rights to women. She was a pioneer in the struggle for female suffrage (via Biography.com).

Sojourner Truth was an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights campaigner. In 1851, she gave a famous extemporaneous speech “Ain’t I a woman?” which explained, in plain language, how women were equal to men (via Biography).

Anne Frank, a young Jewish girl, was gifted a diary by her father when she was 13. However, her diary was published after her death in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15. The diary served as a unique eye-witness account of life during Holocaust and it became one of the world’s most read books.

Mother Teresa, the Nobel Peace Prize winner (1979), aimed at looking after those who had nobody to look after them through her own order “The Missionaries of Charity.” She worked tirelessly towards her goal until her ill-health – that included two heart attacks, pneumonia and malaria – forced her to step down in March 1997. She took her final breath in September 1997.

Amelia Earhart was the first woman to ever fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932 and she became the first woman pilot in 1935 after flying solo from Hawaii to California. She embarked upon her lifelong dream of flying across the world in 1937, however, her flight went missing on that trip but, in the minds of so many, her brave legacy lives on.

(Image via quotefancy)

Helena Rubinstein immigrated to Australia in 1902 without any money or the ability to speak in English. Thereafter, she founded one of the world’s first cosmetic companies after mixing lanolin, the grease found in merino sheep wool, with scented flowers. Following that she became the world’s richest woman and one of the most famous female entrepreneurs.

Rosa Parks was a pioneer of civil rights in a racially segregated Alabama in the 1950s. In 1955, she refused to give away her seat to a white passenger in a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Her once act sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott that crippled the state capital’s public transport system.