5 Trailblazing Female Whistleblowers

These female whistleblowers offer courage and inspiration any day, but are especially exemplary during Women in History month.

Female whistleblowers are women of great courage and worthy of commemorating on any day, but particularly in March when the nation comes together to celebrate National Women’s History Month.

Becoming a whistleblower is no easy task. Speaking truth to power is a tall order. There are many obstacles that at times seen insurmountable. It takes steely courage, determination, and the ability to ride a tidal wave of ups and downs to confront a situation head-on. Most of the time, whistleblowers are singled out and retaliated against. This becomes even more prevalent for female whistleblowers than for their male counterparts. Fortunately, those before us clear a path, making room for change and serving as guides for others.

Here are five trailblazing female whistleblowers worth looking up to and incredibly deserving of recognition:

Whistleblower Karen Silkwood

Karen Gay Silkwood was an American chemical technician and labor union activist. She’s best known for raising concerns about corporate practices related to health and safety in a nuclear facility, even though she never had the opportunity to present her evidence. Back in the 1970s Silkwood was attempting to expose negligence at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron River nuclear facility when she died in a car crash on her way to meet a reporter for an interview. The details of her passing are unclear though they clearly brought needed attention to the dangers and influence of the nuclear power industry. She is revered as a hero to whistleblowers and antinuclear activists. Her story was chronicled in the Academy Award-nominated film, Silkwood, in which she was portrayed by actor, Meryl Streep.

Whistleblower Erin Brockovich

If you saw the movie where actor Julia Roberts portrayed whistleblower Erin Brockovich, then you’re likely already head over heels with this smart, fierce, fiery, female whistleblower! Erin Brockovich is a legal clerk, consumer advocate, and environmental activist, and despite not having a legal education, was instrumental in building a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E). Brockovich discovered groundwater contamination in the town of Hinkley, California, and with the help of attorney Ed Masry in 1993, blew the whistle. Their successful lawsuit became Hollywood gold, winning an Oscar for the film, Erin Brockovich, in 2000. Since then, Brockovich has become a media personality. She also runs her own research and consulting business. She is the author of Superman's Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About It.

Whistleblower Sherron Watkins

Sherron Watkins is known as the Enron whistleblower. She was working with Enron as a vice president in 2001 when she wrote a letter to the company’s chairman, Kenneth Lay, warning him of shady accounting practices. Within months, Enron was all over the news for corporate fraud as its shareholders lost $74 billion in the four years leading up to its bankruptcy, while company employees lost billions in pension benefits. Enron's bankruptcy in December of 2001, was the largest in U.S. history at the time. Watkins’ courage paved the way for the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) corporate reform law of 2002, which created new rules for accountants, auditors, and corporate officers and imposed stricter record keeping requirements. Today Watkins is often referred to as the Enron whistleblower. She teaches business ethics at Texas State University and is the co-author of Power Failure: the Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron.

Whistleblower Cynthia Cooper

Cynthia Cooper is an American accountant who formerly served as the vice president of internal audit at WorldCom where she exposed one of the largest corporate accounting frauds in American history. In 2002, Cooper discovered WorldCom had covered up $3.8 billion in losses through fraudulent bookkeeping. Her case was incredibly high-profile, and she handled it with grit and grace. Most whistleblowers leave their jobs (or are forced out) within a year. Cooper stayed on for two-years, specifically to wait for the company to emerge from bankruptcy. She says she was aware many of those who reported to her would lose their jobs, and she waited for most of them to have secured new employment. Cooper is the author of Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower. In the book she writes about the whistleblowing experience, in case anyone else were to find themselves at a crossroads where there is only one clear path. She also takes readers behind-the-scenes in a more experiential way, so they can think about what they might do, when faced with the same circumstances. Would they also choose to become the WorldCom whistleblower?

Whistleblower Carmen Segarra

Carmen Segarra is often referred to as the Goldman Sachs whistleblower. She is a force that stood up to two of Wall Street’s most powerful institutions. Back in 2011, Segarra was a US New York Federal Reserve–appointed regulator to Goldman Sachs. After combing through company records for half a year, she discovered that Goldman Sachs did not have a company-wide conflict of interest policy when it advised the El Paso Corporation to sell itself to Kinder Morgan, a company in which Goldman Sachs owned a US$4 billion stake, and with several former Goldman Sachs employees who had previously worked for Kinder Morgan on the El Paso team. Segarra was pressured by many of her superiors at the Federal Reserve to go soft and change her report, but she refused and was dismissed shortly after. Segarra is now a lawyer in private practice and the author of Noncompliant: A Lone Whistleblower Exposes the Giants of Wall Street.

These five female whistleblowers chose to put their conscience ahead of their comfort. Some have written books or have blockbuster movies attached to their name but all of them have accomplished something that once seemed impossible. There are more people who’ve come before and after, also worthy of much respect and incredible admiration. Do you have someone in mind – of any gender? Submit your suggestion for our Hero of the Month Award.