Nancy Abeiderrahmane was born in Britain, but raised mainly in Spain. In 1968 she married a Mauritanian politician and moved to her adopted homeland.

In 1989, when Abeiderrahmane opened Africa’s first camel’s milk dairy in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, most Mauritanians baulked at buying processed milk. They now enjoy camel’s, goat’s and cow’s milk products from her Tiviski Dairy, made from milk bought from more than 700 local suppliers.

In 1993 she received a Rolex Laureate for her entrepreneurship and has already done much to improve the quality of life for Mauritanians through the revenue created. In her own words: "To make a living by helping others to make their living is, from a moral standpoint, simply wonderful."

Related links:

Mauritania’s Dairymaid
To the Cheese Course, Prepare to Add Camel
Camel milk: put it on your face as well as drink it

Dr. Bina Agarwal is a prize- winning feminist economist who studies gender, development, and agriculture in India and throughout South Asia.

She focuses on the importance of land and control of land for women. Her work examines and urges political and group action for women. Her writings, especially on women’s land rights, have been used extensively in framing policy by governments, NGOs and international agencies.

Recently, Dr. Bina Agarwal catalyzed a successful campaign for gender equality in Hindu inheritance law in India.

Related Links:
Dr Bina Agarwal Receives Padma Shri Award
Wikipedia

Jill Lengre travelled the world and used her experience to launch (with her friend Andrea Martins ), www.expatwomen.com, a website for, not surprisingly, expatriate women!

Lengre was born in Pasadena, California, and has lived in England, France and Mexico. She has coordinated the creation of a European headquarters for an international database company; marketed software products; developed a web product for a European e-learning company and run business development for a Mexican IT Outsourcing company.

Andrea Martins co-founded www.expatwomen.com with her friend Jill Lengre in 2000.

Besides being an Internet entrepreneur and a mother of two children, Martins has coordinated large national networks in two of Australia’s largest government departments, and worked as an executive headhunter. She was born in Brisbane, Australia and has lived three Australian states as well as Indonesia and Mexico.

Martins now lives back in Australia and coordinates www.expatwomen.com on her own, after Lengre stepped aside to move back to the USA from overseas.

Christine Silverberg has more than her fair share of guts, courage and determination.

At 21, she walked into a police superintendent's office (clad in a very short skirt), to apply for a job – she became the first female recruit on his force.