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Jul 3, 2019 · Using internet searches as a parameter, we've created a compilation of the 100 most popular women in history, listed here in ascending order of popularity (that is, No. 1 is the one most popular with searchers).
May 16, 2023 · Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhart, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Michelle Obama are just some of the women who have become famous for shaping history as we know it.
- Lifestyle Editor
- 1 min
- Ineye Komonibo
- Jane Austen (1775 –1817) You can thank Jane Austen for basically creating those rom-com books you love to read. In her teenage years during the early 1810s, she started writing her most famous novels, like Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.
- Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) Ada Lovelace's genius was years before her time. As an English mathematician, she is credited with being the world's first computer programmer.
- Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) Florence Nightingale, a.k.a. Lady with the Lamp, was a British nurse who is credited as the founder of modern-day nursing.
- Nellie Bly (1864-1922) Nellie Bly basically set the standard for investigative journalism. At a time when women writers were confined to the society pages, Bly tackled more serious topics like mental health, poverty, and corruption in politics.
A list of influential women from different fields and periods of history, with brief biographies and achievements. Learn about Sappho, Cleopatra, Mary Magdalene, Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, Jane Austen, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman and many more.
- Women's Rights
- Heads of State
- More Politics
- Religion
- Inventors and Scientists
- Medicine and Nursing
- Social Reform
- Writers
European and British
1. Olympe de Gouges: in the French Revolution, declared that women were equal to men 2. Mary Wollstonecraft: British author and philosopher, mother of modern feminism 3. Harriet Martineau: wrote about politics, economics, religion, philosophy 4. Emmeline Pankhurst: key British woman suffrage radical; Founder, Women's Social and Political Union, 1903 5. Simone de Beauvoir: 20th-century feminist theorist
Americans
1. Judith Sargent Murray: American writer who wrote early feminist essay 2. Margaret Fuller: Transcendentalist writer 3. Elizabeth Cady Stanton: women's rights and woman suffrage theorist and activist 4. Susan B. Anthony: women's rights and woman suffrage spokesperson and leader 5. Lucy Stone: abolitionist, women's rights advocate 6. Alice Paul: a primary organizer for the last winning years of women's suffrage 7. Carrie Chapman Catt: a longtime organizer for woman suffrage, organized interna...
Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance
1. Hatshepsut: Pharaoh of Egypt who took male powers for herself 2. Cleopatra of Egypt: last pharaoh of Egypt, active in Roman politics 3. Galla Placidia: Roman Empress and regent 4. Boudicca (or Boadicea): warrior queen of the Celts 5. Theodora, Empress of Byzantium, married to Justinian 6. Isabella I of Castile and Aragon, ruler of Spain who, as a partner ruler with her husband, drove the Moors from Granada, expelled unconverted Jews from Spain, sponsored Christopher Columbus' voyage to the...
Modern
1. Catherine the Great of Russia: expanded Russia's borders and promoted westernization and modernization 2. Christina of Sweden: patron of art and philosophy, abdicated on conversion to Roman Catholicism 3. Queen Victoria: another influential queen for whom a whole age is named 4. Cixi (Tz'u-hsi or Hsiao-ch'in), last Dowager Empress of China, wielding enormous power as she opposed foreign influence and ruled strongly internally 5. Indira Gandhi: Prime Minister of India; also the daughter, mo...
Asian
1. Sarojini Naidu: poet and political activist, the first Indian woman president of the Indian National Congress
European and British
1. Joan of Arc: legendary saint and martyr 2. Madame de Stael: intellectual and salonist
American
1. Barbara Jordan: first Southern African American woman elected to Congress 2. Margaret Chase Smith: Republican Senator from Maine, the first woman elected to both the House and the Senate, first woman to have her name placed in nomination at a Republican party convention 3. Eleanor Roosevelt: wife and widow of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his "eyes and ears" as president hampered by polio, and a human rights activist in her own right
European and British
1. Hildegard of Bingen: abbess, mystic and visionary, composer of music and writer of books on many secular and religious topics 2. Princess Olga of Kiev: her marriage was the occasion of the conversion of Kiev (to become Russia) to Christianity, considered the first saint of the Russian Orthodox Church 3. Jeanne d'Albret(Jeanne of Navarre): Huguenot Protestant leader in France, ruler of Navarre, mother of Henry IV
American
1. Mary Baker Eddy: founder of Christian Science, author of key scriptures of that faith, founder of The Christian Science Monitor
Americans
1. Jane Addams: founder of Hull-House and of the social work profession 2. Frances Willard: temperance activist, speaker, educator 3. Harriet Tubman: freedom seeker; underground railroad conductor; abolitionist; spy, soldier, and nurse in the Civil War; women's suffrage activist 4. Sojourner Truth: Black abolitionist who also advocated for woman suffrage and met Abraham Lincoln at the White House 5. Mary Church Terrell: civil rights leader, founder of National Association of Colored Women, ch...
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1. Elizabeth Fry: prison reform, mental asylum reform, reform of convict ships 2. Wangari Maathai: environmentalist, educator
Aphra Behn: first woman to make a living through writing; dramatist, novelist, translator, and poetHarriet Martineau: wrote about economics, politics, philosophy, religion- Jone Johnson Lewis
Jun 8, 2023 · From singers to scientists and athletes to activists, here are 130 women who have changed the world. 1. Fatima al-Fihri. In the early 9th century, in what is now Morocco, Fatima al-Fihri could ...
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From Amelia Earhart to Beyoncé and Eva Perón to Malala, meet 100 women who defined the last century.
