Women Who Moved History

Marie Antoinette was queen consort of Louis XVI. Later restored French monarchies had other queens, so she was not France's last queen.

Boudica led an uprising that destroyed several Roman settlements before the rebels were defeated.

Hatshepsut ruled ancient Egypt as pharaoh and presided over extensive trade expeditions and building projects.

Empress Dowager Cixi effectively ruled China for decades from behind the throne of two child emperors.

Wu Zetian rose from concubine to become the only woman ever to rule China as emperor in her own right.

Cleopatra ruled Ptolemaic Egypt and was fluent in multiple languages, unusual among rulers of her time.

Joan of Arc led French forces as a teenager during the Hundred Years' War and was later canonized a saint.

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery, guided others to freedom, and later served as a Civil War scout and spy.

Susan B. Anthony campaigned for women's suffrage and was once arrested for illegally voting in an election.

Eleanor Roosevelt redefined the first lady's role and later chaired the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Malala Yousafzai survived an assassination attempt over her advocacy for girls' education and became the youngest Nobel laureate.

Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her bus seat in 1955 helped trigger the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Mary Wollstonecraft wrote an influential early work advocating for women's rights and education.

Sojourner Truth escaped slavery and became a powerful speaker for abolition and women's rights.

Emmeline Pankhurst led Britain's suffragette movement, founding a militant organization campaigning for women's votes.

Frida Kahlo painted vivid, symbolic self-portraits that often reflected chronic pain from a childhood accident.

Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic before disappearing on a round-the-world attempt.

Florence Nightingale founded modern nursing and dramatically improved sanitary care during the Crimean War.

Coco Chanel transformed women's fashion and introduced the enduring Chanel No. 5 perfume.

Simone de Beauvoir's landmark writing on the condition of women shaped modern feminist thought.

Virginia Woolf pioneered modernist narrative technique and argued for women's creative independence in her essays.

Mother Teresa founded a religious order serving the poor in India and won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work.

Curie shared the 1903 physics prize with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel.

Johnson worked as a human computer when teams of people carried out essential calculations.

Tu's team investigated sweet wormwood while searching for antimalarial compounds.

The Green Belt Movement connected tree planting with community participation.

Lovelace translated an article by the Italian engineer Luigi Menabrea.

Rubin studied how orbital speeds vary with distance from a galaxy's centre.

Photo 51 was a diffraction pattern rather than an ordinary photograph of a DNA molecule.

Noether's contributions also transformed abstract algebra.

Indira Gandhi served as India's only female prime minister, leading the country through several major crises.

Golda Meir served as Israel's only female prime minister and led the country during the Yom Kippur War.

Margaret Thatcher became Britain's first female prime minister and served longer than any other 20th-century UK leader.

Angela Merkel served as Germany's first female chancellor, leading the country for sixteen consecutive years.

Benazir Bhutto became the first woman to lead a modern Muslim-majority nation, serving two terms as prime minister.