If you want something done, ask a woman...

Another female-oriented post here on the Devushka Diaries! I just read a great article online about International Woman's Day (its the 100th anniversary this year) where the question was asked: which women, current or past, inspire YOU?

Here is my list, by no means complete:

- My two great-grandmothers, Bridget Murrins, always known as Little Nanny, and Myra Jean Jackson, who had the unfortunate sobriquet of Big Nanny (but not because she was big, she was just taller than Little Nanny!) Both women were the epitome of hardworking, dedicated, strong, loving, and beautiful women, wives, and mothers, and I feel so blessed that I had them in my life for as long as I did. I just wish my younger cousins had known them.

- Queen Elizabeth II, for her devotion to England, her grace even in the wake of her family's often messed-up antics, and her constancy.

- Anna Akhmatova, the Soviet poet. Her life was incredibly hard, but she managed to find the beauty in it and produced some hauntingly evocative poems such as "Requiem," a memorial for the millions of lives lost in the war and Stalin's Terror.

- Josephine Bonaparte. She survived a loveless marriage and the French Revolution, and somehow managed to never be eclipsed by her second husband Napoleon, using her influence in the political sphere to do good. She also invented the empire waist, which, sartorially speaking, rocks.

- Queen Rania of Jordan, for championing female education in the Middle East and for helping break down barriers between Islam and the West.

- Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, for being great examples of First Ladies, ones who are not just content to sit on the sidelines and watch their husbands.

- My former Russian prof, Nazia, for proving you can be insanely smart, funny, and gorgeous...all while doing a PhD!

- Joan of Arc, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Anne Boleyn, Emma Goldman, Madeleine de Vercheres and Catherine the Great for proving that just because history tends to be written by men, it doesn't have to be shaped solely by them.

- My mum, for...EVERYTHING.

Which women inspire YOU?