International Women's Day... What's your story?

Three very good choices. Despite all three being law adjacent in many ways, as a lawyer I'm going to highlight Brenda Hale, otherwise known as Baroness Hale of Richmond. One of those rare judges that is sufficiently famous that many non lawyers will at least know her name. Her headline achievement is being the first woman to sit as the President of the Supreme Court, but she was also the second ever woman to be a judge of the Court of Appeal, and the first woman to be appointed as a Law Lord (a judge who sits in the House of Lords). But outside of those headline roles, she is considered to be one of the best and most prominent judges of her generation, which is made all the more remarkable by the fact that she was an academic lawyer, and therefore had a really unconventional path to the judiciary in the first place. You can obviously read about her on her Wikipedia page, but I'd also recommend her biography, Spider-Woman, which was named due to her becoming well known for wearing a spider broach when she delivered the Supreme Court's judgment in Miller 2 regarding Boris Johnson's decision to prorogue Parliament (also the reason why many non lawyers will know her name).

@Crazy Jamie If you feel this post would be better suited in another area of the board, feel free to move it.

Anyone who has actually met Doreen Lawerence wouldn't be heaping praise on her like this.

Anyone who has actually met Doreen Lawerence wouldn't be heaping praise on her like this.

Bit of a strange comment. Mainly because I don't think anyone in this thread would be likely at all to have met the people they're talking about, but also because even if they had, individual interactions with a person aren't necessarily going to give you much insight into their character, nor do those insights, even if they are correct, necessarily undermine their other work or achievements. You obviously have met her, though, so to the extent that it is relevant, what is your experience?

I have met her twice and on both occasions she was angry, rude, judgemental and dismissive. On the first occassion she seemed intoxicated with her own status. She appeared (to me) to have no concept of the implications of her behaviour and very much had become a Tomas de Torquemada type figure.

And these two occasions on which she was rude to you are, in your view, sufficiently serious to undermine her other life work and achievements to the extent that people should not praise her to any significant degree and/or mention her in a thread such as this?

My personal experience of her is that she should not command the authority that she does by mission of her personal tragedy; and that her work is counterproductive to the values that she espouses.

My personal experience of her is that she should not command the authority that she does by mission of her personal tragedy; and that her work is counterproductive to the values that she espouses.

I see. I'll avoid making the obvious point and instead go in a different direction. Who would you put in this thread?

That's fair enough... if you have met her, and those were your honest impressions, you're entitled to your say / opinion.
However, this thread isn't about one person, it's supposed to be about women who have achieved great things (or those you do admire). Therefore, to try and keep a positive twist on this thread, I would be genuinely interested to whom you feel deserves a mention.

No woman needs to be patronised by me giving her a special mention, and half of our population does a perfectly good job of letting their actions speak for themselves without my endorsement.

As above. I reject the notion that on IWD it is for me to say who I think "deserves" a mention.
What I would do is to look to the example of another person whom I've met (whose character and moral fibre easily eclipses that of Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon) and that would be Liz McConaghy. 12 tours of Iraq and Afghanistan and on IWD she chose to highlight her mum.