Here's an entry from @plushzilla via email. Judges make sure you consider this when you vote for this round.

This week we are celebrating international women's day and I have been working hard on developing a program using origami to improve mental health and well-being, so I thought following the idea of finding information on fringe subjects I would dig up some information on influential female origami artists (by the way, I looked up the three that @apolymask provided and it was hard to get information on them but they were very interesting in their own ways!).

I think at the top of the list would be Tomoko Fuse (布施 知子) – famous for boxes and unit origami, and interestingly enough she first learned origami as a child while in hospital, and I have certainly made a number of her well-known origami models. She continues to invent new models and publish books covering many types of origami models, and is revered in the community as a master of the art.

Miyuki Kawamura began origami at the age of two and it should come as no surprise that she is a well respected folder in Japan and is a board member of the Japan Origami Academic Society, contributing to the art of origami by combining her background in physics to delve into the mathematical side of origami in her publications.

Not all famous origami artists are from Japan, and one of the reasons is that many people from overseas have helped popularize this art outside of Japan. One such person is Ligia Montoya, and although not much is known about her life and work, there were many correspondence with famous and influential origami artists of her generation to ensure that her place in origami history is preserved.

One of the reasons why American has one of the most active origami communities outside of Japan can be attributed to the efforts of origami artists such as Florence Temko, who lectured on the subject as well as publishing many books and even making films about the art. Her association with many museums and organising exhibitions contributed to elevate the status of origami as an art form in the US.

There are many applications of origami in areas like mathematics and physics, but one of the most important aspects is its symbolism of peace and hope. I was fortunate enough to become acquainted with the founder of the Peace Crane Project (https://www.peacecraneproject.org/) Sue DiCicco who helped to author and illustrate the book on probably the most influential origamist of all - Sadako Sasaki, the young girl whose courage and spirit is forever captured in the tradition of making the senbazuru (thousand origami cranes) in the aftermath of the Hiroshima atomic bomb tragedy that affected so many lives to this day.

So I hope you enjoyed this short piece on women in origami on International Women's Day, and make sure that you let the special women in your lives know that you are thinking of them :)