Women You Should Know

Are you doing a class project? We are working on, and always building, a comprehensive list of interesting women for your research project. These women would make great topics for National History Day. Check them out!

Ancient History

Ancient History
Americas
 
World​

• Bastet, Egypitian artist
• Peseshet Merit-Ptah, Egyptian physician
• Cleopatra Zipporah, Egyptian physician
• Tapputi-Belatikallim, Egyptian scientist
• Queen Heutop, Egyptian leader
• Queen Khunt, Egyptian leader
• Queen Abah, Egyptian leader
• Hoteb of Thebes, Egyptian leader
• Queen Hatshepsut, Egyptian leader
• Queen Ti, Egyptian leader
• Queen Nefertiti (Akhnatun’s wife), Egyptian leader

Ishtar (Inanna in Sumerian sources) is a primary Mesopotamian goddess closely associated with love and war. This powerful Mesopotamian goddess is the first known deity for which we have written evidence. While largely unknown in the modern day, this powerful ancient deity had a complex and influential role in the religions and cultures of the Ancient Near East.

Ma'at is an Egyptian goddess of truth, justice, and harmony. She was integral to spiritual practice in Ancient Egypt.

Hekenu and Iti were two Egypitian artists, perhaps the first female professional artists ever. Women were most frequently dancers as well as musicians and these two were no exception.

Sarah was the wife of Abraham, the first monotheist, and the second convert to monotheism. They struggled to have a child. In this picture Sarah is offering the servant Hagar to Abraham so that he may have a child and create the Jewish people. According to the Torah, God bestows a healing on Sarah and she is able to give birth to Abrahams son Isaac. This is the first recorded miracle in the western religious traditions and a symbol of God's power.

Wu Zeitan was a concubine to the Chinese Emperor and on his death manuvered her son into power. But she eventually replaced him. She became China's first and only female Emperor in history.

Sappho was a Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. She is one of the few female poets and writers of the time whose work is known. She wrote beautiful poetry about love and non-heterosexual relationships. She published nine volumes of work which were read throughout the ancient world, but only small portions survive today. She had a following of young girls who studied with her.

Classical 

Classical Era
Americas
 
World

• Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs.
• Eulalia, Martyr.
• Helena, Empress.
• Macrina the Younger, one of the first nuns.
• Ban Zhao, first Chinese woman historian, author of Lessons for Women
• Boudicca, Celtic warrior queen
• Cleopatra, last pharaoh of Egypt
• Maria of Alexandria, Egyptian chemist
• Galla Placidia, Roman Empress and regent
• Hatshepsut, Pharaoh of Egypt
• Hypatia, martyred Egyptian-Christian philosopher and mathmetician
• Olga of Kiev, the first saint of the Russian Orthodox Church

Boudicca

(60AD) was the Queen of the Iceni tribe, who was happy with the Roman occupation of Britain until her husband died and the Roman’s decided they wanted to take her lands, and her daughters. She led an uprising of British tribes destroying the Roman capital in Colchester. She led more battles but was ultimately defeated. It is believed she killed herself rather than be taken by the Romans.

Helena Augusta
​(248 - 330 AD) was the mother of Constantine the Great of Rome. He gave Helena the title “Augusta Imperatrix”, giving her many of the powers of a Roman Empress. Helena converted to Christianity with her son, leading to the banning of religious persecution in the Roman Empire. She dedicated her life to the pursuit of religious relics as the first real archaeologist.

Zenobia (c.240-c.274 AD) was a queen of the Palmyrene Empire in Syria, first ruling alongside her husband, then as regent of her son. By 270, she had most of the Roman East under her power, and she quickly assumed the title of empress, for which she was besieged and captured by Rome. She encouraged culture in her kingdom and was intellectual. She presided over a period of stability and was tolerant towards her subjects and religious minorities.

Olga of Kiev
​ (890ish – 965) was married to King Igor of Kiev Rus. Igor was killed by a neighbouring tribe, the Devlians, Olga’s son Svyatoslov became a 3-year-old King and Olga became Regent. She got her revenge on the Devlians in a number of cruel ways including burying Devlian messengers alive, a few massacres and attaching sulphur to carrier pigeons to burn their cities.

Cleopatra

Middle Ages

Middle Ages
Americas

• Ix Chel, Mayan Moon Goddess

World

• Aisha bint Muhammad ibn Abdul Hadi Islamic scholar, shortest chain of narrators to Muhammad
• Amra bint Abdurrehaman, Islamic scholar
• Anna Comnena, first western woman historian, wrote about Crusades
• Ashifa bint Abdullah, first Muslim woman appointed market inspector
• Fatima al-Fihriyya in Fez, Moroccan woman founded the al-Qarawwiyyin mosque
• Fatima of Cordoba, Muslim librarian oversaw 70 public libraries
• Banafshaa’ ar-Rumiyya, Baghdadi Muslim woman reformist
• Hildegard of Bingen, British abbess
• Lady Murasaki, Japanese author of the world's first novel: The Tale of Genji
• Theodora, Empress of Byzantium, married to Justinian
• Trota or Trotula, a medieval medical writer (probably)​

Renaissance and Age of Exploration

Renaissance and Age of Exploration
Americas

• Eleanor Dare, one of the first European women in North America
• Dorothy May Bradford, wife of Governor William Bradford, committed suicide on the Mayflower
• Margaret Brent, first English Colonial woman to demand the right to vote
• Mary Johnson, first African American in the English colonies
• Pocahontas, Algonquian princess of the Powhatan Confederacy
• Virginia Dare, first baby of European descent born in North America
• Weetamo, sister-in-law to Metacomet, sachem during King Philip's War

 
World

• Aphra Behn, first woman to make a living through writing
• Cristina Vasa, Queen of Sweeden
• Elizabeth I, Queen of England
• Isabella I, ruler of Spain who sponsored Christopher Columbus'
• Jeanne d'Albret (Jeanne of Navarre), French Huguenot
• Joan of Arc, French saint and soldier
• Madame de Stael, intellectual and salonist

Elizabeth I
(1533-1603) was the Queen of England from 1558-1603. She was the last of the Tudor line refusing to diminish her sovereignty through marriage. She is seen as one of the greatest English monarchs in history, ruling over the military victory against the Spanish armada. The period of her rule became known as the Elizabethan period, known for literature and global exploration.

Joan of Arc
​(1412-1431) is a saint and a hero of French history. As a teenager she began see
ing visions from God telling her to support King Charles VII in the 100 years war against the English. She wore armour as flag bearer at the front of the victorious French army. She was captured by English sympathisers, put on trial for heresy for wearing men’s clothing and burnt at the stake at the age of 19.

1700s

18th Century: Notable Women of Enlightenment and Revolutionary Eras
United States

• Abigail Adams, American Revolutionary
• Elizabeth Key, first Black woman to sue for her freedom and win
• Mary Martha Washington, First First Lady of the United States
• Mercy O. Warren, American Revolutionary author, first American historian
• Sally Hemings, enslaved concubine of Thomas Jefferson
• Sybil Ludington, Bostonian who did the midnight ride

World

• Ada Lovelace, British mathematics pioneer
• Catherine the Great, Russian Czar
• Wollstonecraft, British mother of modern feminism
• Olympe de Gouges, French Revolutionary
• Sophie Germain, French mathematician

Ada Lovelace
​(1815-1852) was an English mathematician and writer. She worked with Charles Babbage on his concept for the programmable computer and is believed to be the first person to see the full potential of computers beyond calculations. She also happened to be the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron, but that’s the least interesting thing about her.

Mary Wollstonecraft
(1759-1797) wrote novels, treaties, histories and children’s book but is most well known for writing
​“A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” which argued that men and women were equal but the latter were held back by a lack of access to education. She is recognised as one of the founders of feminism. 

Early 1800s

Early 19th Century: Abolition and Notable Women
United States

• Angelina Grimke, southerner, white abolitionist, lecturer
• Charlotte Forten Grimke, free Black, abolitionist, PFASS member
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton, white abolitionist woman suffrage
• Fanny Wright, first American lecturer
• Fraces Ellen Watkins Harper, poet, Black abolitionist, and woman suffrage
• Harriet Jacobs, free Black, abolitionist, PFASS member
• Harriet Forten, free Black, abolitionist, PFASS member
• Harriet Tubman, fugitive slave, soldier, and spy
• Harriet Wilson, first American female novelist of color
• Hetty Reckless, fugitive slave, abolitionist, PFASS member
• Katy Ferguson, free Black, first Black female educator in America
• Lucretia Mott, abolitionist, woman suffrage, and Seneca Falls leader
• Lucy Stone, abolitionist, woman suffrage, founder of AWSA
• Lydia Maria Child, white abolitionist
• Margaretta Forten, free Black, abolitionist, PFASS member
• Maria Stewart, free Black, abolitionist, writer
• Maria Weston Chapman, white abolitionist organizer
• Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Black teacher, abolitionist, and woman suffrage
• Sarah Grimke, southerner, white abolitionist, woman lecturer
• Sarah Louisa Forten, free Black, abolitionist, PFASS member
• Sarah Mapps Douglass, free Black, abolitionist, PFASS member
• Sojourner Truth, freed woman, abolitionist, and woman suffrage
• Susan B. Anthony, white abolitionist, woman suffrage, founder of NWSA

 
World

• Jane Austen, British author

Abigail Adams

Angelina Grimke

Sally Hemmings was an enslaved American, owned by Thomas Jefferson, and mother to many of his children. Little is known of her true history, but her story has fascinated many.

Mercy Otis Warren was an American author and the mother of the American Revolution. She wrote fiery works that enflamed Boston under the pen name the Columbian Patriot. She wrote America's first history and a scathing Anti-Federalist review of the Constitution and her Federalist friend, John Adams.

Late 1800s

Late 19th Century: Women Modernists and Notable Women
United States

• Clara Barton, white founder of the American Red Cross in the U.S. Civil War
• Dorothea Dix, white advocate for the mentally ill during the U.S. Civil War
• Elizabeth Blackwell, first white American woman to graduate from medical school
• Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, white journalist and first advice columnist
• Emily Dickinson, poet
• Emma Lazarus, white poet and essayist, known for “The New Colossus”
• Harriet Martineau, white Whig philosopher, considered first sociologist
• Mary Baker Eddy, white founder of Christian Science
• Victoria Woodhall, radical, white sex-positive advocate

 
World

• Charlotte Bronte, author
• Cixi (Tz'u-hsi or Hsiao-ch'in), last Dowager Empress of China
• Elizabeth Fry, British prison reform
• Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, first British woman to graduate from medical school
• Emily Bronte, author of Wuthering Heights
• Mary Seacole, British-Jamaican nurse and businesswoman
• Florence Nightingale, British nurse and reformer
• James Barry, medical doctor, transgendered or crossdressing, first successful caesarean section in British Empire
• Marie Curie, Polish mother of modern physics, two-time Nobel Prize winner
• Victoria I, Queen of England

Susan B. Anthony was a pioneering American Suffragist. Arrested for voting "as a woman" her trial was monitored around the country. Although she lay the groundwork for the suffrage movement, she never lived to vote legally.

Mary Seacole
(1805-1881) was British-Jamaican and the first ever nurse practitioner. When the Crimean War began she applied to join the British nursing contingent but was turned down because of her race. So she funded her own travel and set up her ”British Hotel” tending to injured and convalescing British soldiers, which was hugely popular amongst the men she helped.

Queen Victoria

James Barry
(1789-185) was an Irish born, British army surgeon, he travelled throughout the British Empire caring for both British Soldiers and the native people of the colonised lands. He was the first European to successfully perform a caesarean in Africa. James lived his childhood as a girl, we can’t know whether he was transgender or whether he lived as a man to pursue his career, but his entire adult life was lived as James.

Early 1900s

Early 20th Century Women: Suffrage, Reform, and Notable Women
United States

• Alice Paul, American woman suffrage, founder of NWP
• Betty (Elizabeth) Robinson, first woman to win an Olympic Gold in Track
• Carrie Chapman Catt, American woman suffrage
• Carry Nation, American temperance
• Frances Willard, American temperance activist
• Gail Laughlin, prominent lawyer, NWP leader, and ERA drafter
• Helen Stephens, Olympic gold medalist, propositioned by Hitler, Marine
• Ida Tarbell, American investigative journalist
• Ida Wells Barnett, founder of NAACP, journalist, civil rights, and woman suffrage
• Jane Addams, American founder of Hull-House
• Josephine Jewell Dodge, American anti-suffragist
• Louise Stokes, Olympic athlete, barred from competing due to racism
• Lucy Burns, American woman suffrage, founder of NWP
• Madam C. J. Walker, American inventor and philanthropist
• Mary Church Terrell, American civil rights leader, founder NACW and NAACP
• Mileva Einstein, scientist, co-wrote Theory of Relativity
• Molly Elliot Seawell, author and American anti-suffragist
• Recy Taylor, civil rights activist and gang rape survivor
• Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist
• Ruby Pigford, Black rape survivor
• Tidye Pickett, Olympic athlete, barred from competing due to racism
• Fannie Lou Hammer, civil rights activist, victim of racist sterilization

 
World

• Emmiline Pankhurst, British woman suffrage
• Sarojini Naidu, Indian poet and political activist
• Selma Lagerlof, first woman to win Nobel Prize for Literature

Mid 20th Century: Women’s Rights Advocates and Notable Women
United States

• Alice Walker, author and Pulitzer Prize winner
• Betty Friedan, American feminist
• Eleanor Roosevelt, American activist, UN Ambassador from the US
• Ethel L. Payne, First Lady of the Black Press
• Jane Goodall, American primatologist
• Margaret Chase Smith, American politician
• Margaret Fuller, American writer
• Margaret Mead, American anthropologist
• Toni Morrison, first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993)
• Shirley Chisolm, first female presidential candidate
• Ida Lovelace,
• Hetty Lamar,
• Grace Hopper,
• Gertrude Perkins, Black rape survivor and civil rights activist
• Kathleen Johnson,
• Joanne Robinson, Black civil rights leader of Montgomery Bus Boycott
• Claudette Colvin, early arrest in Montgomery Bus Boycott

 
World

• Frida Kahlo, first Mexican artist featured at the Louvre, LGBTQ+
• Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel during Yom Kippur War
• Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India
• Simone de Beauvoir, feminist theorist

Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Margaret Murray Washington

Margaret Sanger

Princesss Sophia Duleep Singh
(1876-1948) was the daughter of the last Maharajah of Sikh Empire and goddaughter to Queen Victoria. She was born and raised in England. She was a socialite turned suffragette fighting for votes for women using cunning techniques like Tax Resistance and using her fame to draw attention to the cause. Along with her 2 sisters she also advocated for Indian independence.

Rosa Parks

Late 1900s

Late 20th Century: Firsts, LGBTQ+, Feminism
United States

• Angela Davis, American feminist and activist, LGBTQ+
• Audre Lorde, American poet and writer, LGBTQ+
• Barbara Jordan, African American woman from the south elected to Congress
• Billie Jean King, 39-time Grand Slam winner, activist for women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights
• Cami Granato, first woman inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame
• Gloria Steinem, American feminist
• Judith S. Murray, American feminist
• Lena Waithe, first Black woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, LGBTQ+
• Lori Lightfoot, first Black female and openly LGBTQ+ mayor
• Margaret Thatcher, British prime minister
• Sally Ride, first American woman in space, LGBTQ+
• Shirley Chisolm, first female Representative to the House, first Black female presidential nominee
• Tammy Baldwin, first openly LGBTQ+ senator in American history

 
World

• Maria Corazon Aquino, President of Philippines
• Wangari Maathai: environmentalist, educator

 
Modern Era

• Hilary Clinton, first female presidential candidate for a major political party, First Lady, Senator, Secretary of State
• Kamala Harris: vice presidential candidate, Senator
• Michelle Obama, first African American First Lady
• Nancy Pelosi, first female Speaker of the House
• Katie Sowers, first openly LGBTQ+ and female Super Bowl coach