great thread! pkg--I enjoyed reading what you had to say.

When I think of the women I admired as a child: well...Dr. Joyce Brothers (I wanted to be a psychologist--she just seemed so smart and sure of herself!).

I remember I would get frustrated that there was no female Evil Kneivel at that time. I was a bit of a odd mixture of tomboy and egg head. I do not recall any women in media doing anything too physically taxing, aside from tennis (not a sport I was interested in).

Even the media put forth Charlies Angels (bright, physically fit, but also looking beautiful the whole time).

As far as other strong women I admire: Georgeanna Terry, Janice Longo, Adrienne Rich, Maya Angelou, Jodi Foster for picking non-trad female characters to play.

close to home: any woman engineer, scientist...any woman in a non-trad female career!
oh yeah, my grandmother--who was a flapper in the 20's and thought it was great that I rode a motorcycle. (my mom, well...another story...)