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1458 BCE
Hatshepsut
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Period: 1458 BCE to 1507 BCE
Hatshepsut
"The third woman to become pharaoh in 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history, and the first to attain the full power of the position." Hatshepsut calmed civil war and brought trade and prosperity to Egypt, building grand temples while she 'held the throne' for her infant stepson. Under her orders, she was portrayed as male for much of her recorded history, and her stepson tried to erase as much of her legacy as possible--she was left mostly undiscovered until recently. -
630 BCE
Sappho
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Period: 630 BCE to 570 BCE
Sappho
Sappho was an ancient Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Though most of her works exist now in fragments, she's hailed as a symbol of love and desire between women; the word "sapphic" is still used by the LGBT community to describe women-loving-women. "Lesbian" is also in reference to her. Her poetry was written to be performed with music. -
69 BCE
Cleopatra VII of Egypt
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Period: 69 BCE to 30 BCE
Cleopatra VII of Egypt
Though most famous for her love affairs with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, Cleopatra was considered an intelligent, cunning woman and leader. The last true pharaoh, Cleopatra executed political enemies and became the true leader of Egypt (not a subservient wife as was expected). She spoke nine languages and was said not to possess extreme beauty, but charm and wit. -
624
Zetian Wu
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Period: 624 to Dec 16, 705
Zetian Wu
Wu Zetian, also called Wu Zhao, Wu Hou, and during the later Tang dynasty as Tian Hou; referred to in English as Empress Consort Wu or by "Empress Wu," Wu was a Chinese sovereign who ruled unofficially as empress consort and empress dowager and later, officially as empress regnant during the brief Zhou dynasty. She was the sole officially recognized empress regnant of China in more than two millennia. -
1084
Qingzhao Li
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Period: 1084 to 1155
Qingzhao Li
Li Qingzhao was born in 1084, and was one of the greatest poets in China. She was born to a family of scholar-officials, and her father was a student of Su Shi. The family had a large collection of books, and Li was able to receive comprehensive education in her childhood. From very young age, she was unusually outgoing for a woman from a scholar-official family. In ancient China, most women were not allowed to study. Qingzhao Li is the only female poet printed in any Chinese text books. -
1412
Saint Joan of Arc
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Period: Jan 6, 1412 to May 30, 1431
Saint Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc is a canonized Roman Catholic saint and martyr who helped France recover in the Hundred Years War against England, boosting morale and offering military advice. She believed herself guided by God to help France despite her illiteracy and young age. She was captured by English soldiers and found guilty of heresy and cross-dressing (she wore her military clothes to dissuade rape in prison, as she was not held in a typical woman's prison). Joan was burned at the stake, 19 yrs old. -
Abigail Smith Adams
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Period: to
Abigail Smith Adams
Abigail Adams was the first Second Lady and the second First Lady of the United States, partner of second President John Adams, mother of future president John Quincy Adams. She was a notable advocate for women's education and rights, as well as anti-slavery. She was her husband's closest political adviser and was quoted telling the Founding Fathers to "remember the ladies" during the Continental Congress. -
Phillis Wheatley
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Period: to
Phillis Wheatley
Phillis was the first published black female poet. Phillis was born in West Africa, captured and sold as a slave at 7 or 8 years old. She was purchased as a gift by commercialist John Wheatley. The Wheatleys taught Phillis theology, English, Greek, Latin, ancient history, mythology, and literature. Her first poem was published at 13 years old; her book was prefaced by 17 Boston men who had to affirm her authorship. -
Ching Shih
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Jane Austen
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Period: to
Ching Shih
A former prostitute captured by a pirate captain, Ching Shih agreed to marry him in exchange for 50% profits and command of a fleet. She advised him to form the largest pirate alliance in the China Sea, the Red Flag Fleet. After his death, she commanded between 20,000 and 40,000 pirates, an undefeatable group that not even the Chinese, Portuguese, and English navy forces combined could defeat. She negotiated full amnesty and loot rights for her and her men before retiring to open a casino. -
Period: to
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was born on December 16, 1775, in Steventon, Hampshire, England. While not widely known in her own time, Austen's comic novels of love among the landed gentry gained popularity after 1869, and her reputation skyrocketed in the 20th century. Her novels, including Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, are considered literary classics, bridging the gap between romance and realism. -
Susan B. Anthony
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Period: to
Susan B. Anthony
American Campaigner against slavery and for the promotion of women’s and workers rights. She played a key role in the movement to pursue suffrage for women.
“Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.” -
Elizabeth Blackwell
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Period: to
Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States and the first woman to be registered on the UK Medical Register. "Blackwell was inspired to pursue medicine by a dying friend who said her ordeal would have been better had she had a female physician." Her acceptance to a medical college was a joke, but she attended anyway, often excluded from labs and made to sit alone in lectures. She graduated first in her class. -
Jane Addams
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Juliette Gordon Low
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Period: to
Jane Addams
Considered the "mother" of social work and the social work profession, Jane Addams was the first woman to win a Novel Peace Prize. She's also considered a co-founder of the ACLU and Hull House. She was a leader in the women's suffrage movement. -
Period: to
Juliette Gordon Low
Juliette established the first Girl Guide troop in her hometown of Savannah, Georgia. She was the president of the Girl Guides, who became the Girl Scouts three years after founding, until her death at 66 years old. There are 1.8 million girls in Girl Scouts today, ranked as the eight most popular nonprofit in America. -
Nellie Bly
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Period: to
Nellie Bly
Nellie Bly, born Elizabeth Jane Cochran, was a famous journalist. Her career began at 18 years old when she wrote a fiery reply to an opinion piece saying that women should remain home, as the working woman was "a monstrosity." She went undercover to write about the poor conditions in healthcare and women's workplaces. She later traveled around the world in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds, setting a world record while trying to beat the fictional record of a novel character. -
Madam C. J. Walker
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Period: to
Madam C. J. Walker
Born Sarah Breedlove, Madam C. J. Walker was the first self-made female millionaire in America. She built her wealth by selling black beauty products. She was a notable activist and philanthropist: "Walker bequeathed nearly $100,000 to orphanages, institutions, and individuals; her will directed two-thirds of future net profits of her estate to charity." -
Lise Meitner
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Period: to
Lise Meitner
Born to Jewish parents, Lise Meitner was a physicist who (alongside her laboratory partner) discovered nuclear fission that would go on to be the basis of nuclear weapons and energy. She struggled to find schooling and paid positions during her career, and had to leave Germany due to anti-Semitic sentiments. Her partner received the Novel Prize in Chemistry for their work--she received nothing. -
Margaret Sanger
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Period: to
Margaret Sanger
Through her work as a nurse in New York’s Lower East side in 1912, Margaret Sanger worked hard to improve birth control practice to prevent unwanted pregnancies. This groundbreaking shift in attitude led to the foundation of the American Birth Control League. Sanger is credited with playing a leading role in the acceptance of contraception. -
Marlene Dietrich
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Period: to
Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene Dietrich was a German-American dual citizen with a 70 year long acting and singing career. Marlene was honored by several countries for her humanitarian efforts during WII, housing exiles and advocating for their citizenship, as well as supporting them financially. A famous quote of hers: "I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men." -
Katharine Hepburn
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Rachel Carson
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Frida Kahlo de Rivera
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Period: to
Katharine Hepburn
Multiple Oscar-winning American actress. Hepburn’s independence of mind and assertiveness helped redefine women’s roles in Hollywood and post-war America.
“I just recently realized that women are supposed to be the inferior sex." -
Period: to
Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson, a marine biologist and conservationist, published her most famous novel Silent Spring. Her book brought environmental issues to the front of public knowledge, leading to a nationwide ban on DDT. She inspired a movement that later lead to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom after her death. -
Period: to
Frida Kahlo de Rivera
Frida Kahlo was a famous Mexican painter known best for her surrealist art and self-portraits. She explored ideas of identity, race, class, gender, and post colonialism. She's hailed for her non-conformist beauty ideas, representation of Mexican culture, and representation of a woman's experience. -
Irena Sendler
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Period: to
Irena Sendler
Irena Sendler was a nurse and member of the Polish Underground who smuggled 2,500 Jewish children out of the ghettos during the war--with the exceptions of diplomats issuing visas, Irena saved more Jewish people than anyone else during the Holocaust. She kept a record of every child in a jar buried in her yard. She was arrested and tortured but survived to age 98, receiving Poland's highest honors. -
“Babe” Zaharias
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Period: to
"Babe" Zaharias
Mildred Ella Didrikson Zaharias, nicknamed "Babe," was an Olympic athlete. She played golf, basketball, baseball and track and field, winning two gold medals in track at the 1938 Summer Olympics and going on to win ten major golf championships. -
Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson
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Period: to
Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson
Katherine is a mathematician who provided calculations vital to the success of NASA missions spanning from John Glenn and Alan Shepherd, the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon, and the Soace Shuttleprogram. She performed calculations for mission to Mars plans. Her work included trajectories, launch Windows, and emergency backup return paths for many Project Mercury flights. -
Rosalind Franklin
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Period: to
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin was a chemist and X-Ray crystallographer, wildly recognized after her death for her contribution to discovering the structure of DNA, though she also worked on the molecular structure of RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Though she was the one who deciphered the structure of DNA, only her associates Watson, Crick, and Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, as Franklin died young of ovarian cancer (likely caused by her work with X-rays). -
Betty Friedan
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Period: to
Betty Friedan
Leading feminist figure of the 1960s. Her book “The Feminine Mystique” became a best seller and received both lavish praise and intense criticism. Betty Friedan campaigned for an extension of female rights and an end to sexual discrimination. She co-founded the National Organization for Women and is credited with sparking the second-wave feminist movement. -
Shirley Chisholm
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Period: to
Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Chisholm was an American politician--the first black woman elected to Congress. She served seven terms from 1969 to 1983. Shirley pushed for unemployment benefits for domestic workers, black representation in legislature, and schooling opportunities for disadvantaged students. -
Queen Elizabeth II
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Period: to
Queen Elizabeth II
Since ascending to the British throne in 1952, Elizabeth has become the longest serving British monarch. She has witnessed rapid social and economic change and has been a unifying influence for Britain and the Commonwealth. Elizabeth was educated at home, along with her sister. During the Second World War, they were evacuated. Towards the end of the war in 1945, Elizabeth joined the Women’s Royal Auxiliary Territorial Service, where she served as a driver and mechanic. -
Maya Angelou
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Shirley Temple
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Period: to
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson, was a famous author and civil rights activist. Maya worked several jobs as a young woman, spanning sex work and journalism to cooking and acting. She wrote seven autobiographies, books of essays, books of poetry, and was credited in plays, movies, and television shows. Maya worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the Civil Rights Movement. By the end of her life, she had earned countless awards and honorary degrees. -
Period: to
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple is most widely known for her popularity as a child actress. Aged three, she began working in movies: singing, dancing, and acting. As an adult, she became the U.S. Representative to the United Nations, the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Ghana, the U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia, and the first woman U.S. Chief of Protocol. -
Youyou Tu
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Period: to
Youyou Tu
A Chinese pharmaceutical chemist and educator best known for discovering artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin, (used to treat malaria) which has saved millions. For her work, Tu received the 2011 Lasker Award in clinical medicine and the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly. Tu is the first Chinese Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine and the first female citizen of the People's Republic of China to receive a Nobel Prize in any category or receive the Lasker Award. -
Gloria Steinem
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Period: to
Gloria Steinem
An American feminist, journalist, and social activist. She was one of the most prominent leaders of the US feminist movement of the 1960s 1970s. She played a vital role campaigning for the Equal Rights Amendment passed in 1972. She was the co-founder of several feminist groups, such as the ‘Women’s Action Alliance.’
"Believing in the full social, political, and economic quality of women, which is what the dictionary says “feminism” means, is enough to make a revolution in itself.” -
Billie Jean King
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Period: to
Billie Jean King
American tennis player. Billie Jean King was one of the greatest female tennis champions, who also battled for equal pay for women. She won 67 professional titles including 20 titles at Wimbledon.
“I have often been asked whether I am a women or an athlete. The question is absurd. Men are not asked that. I am an athlete. I am a women.” -
Rigoberta Menchú
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Period: to
Rigoberta Menchú
Rigoberta Menchú is an indigenous activist from Guatemala. Rigoberta Menchú has publicized information about the life of indigenous feminists after the Guatemalan Civil War and is an advocate for indigenous rights. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. -
Naomi Wolf
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Liyuan Peng
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Period: to
Naomi Wolf
Author of The Beauty Myth – which argued beauty was a socially manufactured construct. She has been considered one of the leaders of the third wave of feminism. She was also a political advisor for Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
“What are other women really thinking, feeling, experiencing, when they slip away from the gaze and culture of men?” -
Period: to
Liyuan Peng
The wife of the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping, but also a Chinese contemporary folk singer and performing artist. Peng Liyuan is the President of the People's Liberation Army Academy of Art. In 2014, Peng was listed as the 57th Most Powerful Woman in the World by Forbes. -
Serena Williams
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Period: to
Serena Williams
Serena Williams is an all-time tennis champion who has won countless awards and broken several records beginning at age 17. She has four Olympic gold medals in tennis, and has been recognized as the No. 1 singles player worldwide by the WTA eight times, tying a record for most consecutive weeks held. She has 23 singles Grand Slam titles (second most of all-time) and 18 doubles Grand Slam titles, alongside her sister (third most of all-time). She even won while pregnant! -
Emma Watson
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Period: to
Emma Watson
British actress famous for role as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter film series; UN ambassador for women and feminist activist. Watson sought to redefine feminism to be more inclusive of involving men in the campaign for equal rights and ending the idea of feminism as ‘man-hating.’ -
Malala Yousafzai
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Period: to
Malala Yousafzai
Malala is a Pakistani activist fighting for female education, made famous by an incident with the Taliban when she was 15. Malala was shot in the head but survived and continued to fight for a girls right to education. She became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner at 18 years old and opened a school for girls in Lebanon just recently.
