Women have contributed an unbelievable amount of knowledge, discovery, and talent in every field throughout history.
Unfortunately, each and every woman doesn't get the credit and worldwide recognition they deserve. Seriously— you could help found a nation or discover a piece of the human anatomy and still get left in the dust, which is why Women's History Month is the perfect time to reflect on some of the lesser-known heroes out there.
These women haven't become household names (yet!), but everyone should know their incredible contributions. Here are 17 amazing women you should’ve heard of but probably haven’t:
Andrée de Jongh saved hundreds of Allied airmen escaping from the Nazis.
Andrée de Jongh, aka Dédée, was the woman who formed the Comet line that helped Allied airmen get safely through occupied Belgium and France, over the Pyrenees, and into Spain and Gibraltar.
At just 24 years old, Dédée saved 118 of the nearly 700 men throughout her 24 missions. When she was eventually captured, she came clean to the Nazis about her work with the resistance, but because of her young age, they didn't believe her and sent her to a concentration camp.
"I'm as strong as a man. Girls attract less attention in the frontier zone than men," de Jongh, who was later named a Belgian countess and awarded the George Medal, said when the British vice consul asked how she did it all.
Martha Gellhorn made history as a war correspondent, most of whom were strictly men at the time.
She earned a bit of fame for her short-lived marriage to Ernest Hemingway in the '40s but she deserves her own accolades as well. Gellhorn, who famously said she didn't want to be "a footnote in someone else's life," was a legendary journalist who set a precedent as one of the first female war correspondents.
She reported from all over the world, including Asia and Europe, doing what many thought to be a man's job. Her work, which includes photographs, news articles, and novels, was a major contribution to world history and she's celebrated yearly when one outstanding journalist receives an award in her honor.
Alexandra David-Néel snuck into Tibet to learn more about Buddhism and the secretive community's culture.
David-Néel made a name for herself by traveling to remote corners of the world, which was very out of the ordinary for women of her time. She visited places that were forbidden to foreign travelers and encouraged thousands of people to make their way out east as well.
Her novels have long been a source of inspiration for budding travelers and her in-depth commentary on otherwise unknown cultures are still prevalent today.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider