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- From raising families to leading armies, women such as Catherine the Great, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen Amanirenas, Queen Elizabeth I, Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Parks, Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin and countless others have played a vital role in history.
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Jul 3, 2019 · A list of the most popular women in history based on online searches, from Rachel Carson to Judy Collins. Learn about their achievements, challenges, and legacies in various fields and periods.
- Lifestyle Editor
- 1 min
- Maya Angelou. From her powerful poetry to her moving autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou forever changed the literary world and opened doors for Black authors everywhere.
- Lucille Ball. While she was an undeniable light onscreen in I Love Lucy, Ball was an extremely powerful figure off camera as well. She was the first woman to own a major studio, called Desilu Productions.
- Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth II served as head of the royal family for 70 years, making her the longest-reigning monarch in British history. She celebrated her Platinum Jubilee in June 2022, just three months before she passed away at 96 years old.
- Rosa Parks. Parks famously became a leader in the 1950s Civil Rights Movement when she refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white passenger. Her bravery sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and was a major factor in the end of legal segregation.
- 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.
70 Famous Women who Changed the World. A list of famous and influential women, including women’s rights activists, poets, musicians, politicians, humanitarians and scientists.
- Fatima Al-Fihri
- Maya Angelou
- Sofonisba Anguissola
- Susan B. Anthony
- Virginia Apgar
- Jane Austen
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- Josephine Baker
- Jeanne Baret
- Clara Barton
In the early 9th century, in what is now Morocco, Fatima al-Fihri could have lived the rest of her life as a wealthy heiress when she inherited a fortune after her father died. Instead, she established the world’s first university. With her inheritance, al-Fihri built a mosque and education center for her community. Those institutions eventually gr...
Maya Angelou was a writer, poet, civil rights activist, dancer, and director best known for titles such as her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1928, Angelou fought back against a society filled with racism and prejudice to write more than 30 books, direct 1998’s Down in the Delta starring Alfre Woodard...
Unlike men, female artists in Renaissance Italy weren’t allowed to learn their craft by becoming masters’ apprentices. But that didn’t stop Sofonisba Anguissola from studying with other artists like Bernardino Campi, Bernardino Gatti (Il Sojaro), and even Michelangelo himself. Anguissola became one of the few globally recognized female Renaissance ...
The year 2019 year marked the 100th anniversary of (many) women gaining the right to vote in the United States—and 2020 marked the 200th birthday of one of the women who made it possible: Susan B. Anthony. Born in Massachusetts in 1820, Anthony was a lifelong activist on behalf of women’s rights. With fellow suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Antho...
Virginia Apgar’s career was full of firsts: In 1937, she became the first female board-certified anesthesiologistand the first woman to achieve the rank of professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she was the first professor of anesthesiology. In 1952, she presented a five-step system for assessing the condition of newborn babies ...
Jane Austen completed just six novels before she died at the age of 41 in 1817, yet she managed to change the course of literature. Her books, including Pride and Prejudice, were groundbreaking in their use of literary realism and free indirect narrative style—modes that would become so commonplace in fiction that it’s easy to miss how experimental...
There’s not a lot to say about Ruth Bader Ginsburg that hasn’t already been stated: The associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who passed away on September 18, 2020, has been the subject of countless articles and books (including several children’s books), as well as an Oscar-nominated documentary (RBG) and a Felicity Jones-starring biopic (O...
On the surface, Josephine Baker is best known as an enchanting singer who wowed crowds pretty much anywhere she performed—but she was much more than that. A dedicated civil rights and social activist, Baker actually worked as a spy for the French Resistance across North Africa and Europe during WWII. She was known to sneak photos of German military...
The French crewmembers of the Étoile voyage in the 1760s fully intended to circumnavigate the globe—they just didn’t think a woman would be doing it with them. Dr. Philibert Commerçon had been hired as the ship’s botanist on the expedition, and he hatched a plan to bring along his lover, fellow botanist Jeanne Baret. Since women weren’t allowed, Ba...
Clarissa “Clara” Harlowe Barton started tending to wounded soldiers just a week after the Civil War began, using supplies from her own home. She proved herself to be a relentless, reliable, fearless nurse throughout the war, eventually earning the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield” and even narrowly avoiding death herself when a bullet tore throug...
Mar 6, 2024 · Whether you're feeling uninspired or simply want to be reminded of just how amazing women are, here are 125 influential women in history! Famous Influential Women in History. Influential actresses...
