list 50 women little girls should admire instead of symbols of stupidity and weakness

Rhiannon, jazz vocalist.
From her work with the five-women ensemble Alive! to SoVoSo with Bobby McFerrin to today’s spirit work with other composers like Jennifer Berezan, Rhiannon is one of the great vocalists – and singing teachers – of our time. http://www.rhiannonmusic.com/

Julia Morgan, architect for Hearst Castle in southern CA, and creator of Asilomar conference center in Pacific Grove, CA. Notable in the Arts and Crafts movement / school of design thought. http://www.visitasilomar.com/Architecture.aspx

Ruth Asawa, sculptor, mother, gardener, says “Making art is like farming. If you just keep at it little by little, it’s amazing what you can get done.”
http://www.ruthasawa.com/

Syne Mitchell is a physicist, SF author with five novels in print, and creator/producer of the WeaveCast ‘net-radio podcast, who has earned support from the national Handweavers Guild of America and her local guild, as well as many listeners individual support, for her excellent and generous work. Splendid to listen to even if you don’t weave, that’s how good it is. http://weavecast.com/

Laura Fry, a production weaver in Canada, shares her knowledge, skill, and lifetime full of earned fiber arts wisdom online via discussion groups and a study group, as well as having published the definitive book on finishing one’s handweaving, and who created a series of kits and workshops-in-a-box that folks could mail off for and have for their local study. http://laurafry.com http://fiberarts.org/weavers/
When she found weaving, she fell in love with all the aspects of it, and knew she wanted to make her living from it – and she has.

Suzanne Gaston-Voute taught weaving in the Twin Cities in the 1960s-70s and had a LOT to do with the fiber arts boom in that place and time; she taught my mother, who also spent her life as a colorist in weaving and the fiber arts. Suzanne is retired and living in the Seattle area at the time of this writing.

Meridel Le Sueur, author whose work from the Depression era through the end of her life, 1900-1996. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridel_Le_Sueur/

A lot of my heroines moved from being feisty young women to being feisty old women; at 94, I heard her say that she had at that time maybe two hours a day where she had any energy, but in those two hours she was a genius. All those distilled thoughts and all the practice of conversing and writing…

Brenda Dayne, writer / podcaster, is the creator of Cast-On, a podcast for knitters. Exemplifying some of the best of what podcasting can be, this is a splendid pro-quality amateur* radio, discussion, music, and the Universality that can only come from a deeply examined artistic life. *Amateur in the French sense of the word, one who does a thing from the heart, for the love of it. May a livelihood just continue to grow and deepen from it so she can do this a long, long time. http://cast-on.com/

Nelly Bly, the American news reporter who was an incredible early undercover investigator, and who really did go around the world in fewer than Jules Verne’s 80 days when that was an astonishing feat. She went on to be a pioneer in humanely-run industry, and being in the wrong place at the right time, covered the outbreak of WWI.

Women’s Hall of Fame entry (all of which is worth perusing):
http://www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=23

Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly
(with links to her available works up at Gutenberg Project)

Susan B. Anthony, another important figure of high ideals and strong convictions, who worked it, baybee. The account of her trial ( http://manybooks.net/pages/anon1828118281-8/0.html ) for having the temerity to vote (a woman, voting?! horrors!), and a biography by Alma Lutz, who knew her and her contemporaries well ( http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20439 ), are both up at the Gutenberg Project, and well worth reading.

In her old-age photo at wikipedia she looks just too much like George Washington in mutton-sleeves: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony