Athletes and Artists, Politicians and
Scientists, Leaders and Heroines
For millennia women have left their mark on the world, at times changing the
course of history and at other times influencing small but significant spheres
of life. Only in the past century, however, have concerted efforts been made to
mention women's contributions in history books. Moreover, changes in status for
many women in modern times - the right to own property, to vote, and to choose
their own careers - may obscure the accomplishments made by women of earlier
eras. In profiling 300 women who changed the world, Encyclopedia Britannica has
chosen those whose contributions have endured through the ages.
Some, though they lived centuries ago, are still alive in popular culture;
music and poetry by the Roman Catholic abbess Hildegard can be heard in
contemporary recordings, and Murasaki Shiibu's The Tale of Genji is one of the
greatest works of Japanese literature. Many women overcame the oppression of
their surroundings through determination and ingenuity: Harriet Tubman escaped
slavery and risked her life helping others to freedom. Other women grew up in
privileged surroundings; the philosopher and mathematician Hypatia and the
historian Ban Zhao were born to families that permitted the education of girls
in an era when females were rarely even taught to read.
Not all of these women changed the world for the good. Filmmaker Leni
Riefenstahl produced propaganda films that glorified Adolf Hitler's brutal Third
Reich. Many suffered through the deeds of Jiang Qing, who fought bitterly to
advance her own political powers during China's Cultural Revolution.
Some were warriors such as Boudicca, who led a bloody rebellion against the
Romans. Others advocated peace: Bertha, barones von Suttner, influenced
the creation of the Nobel Peace Prize that would eventually be won by many
women, including Wangari Maathai and Mother Teresa. Like Mother Teresa, many
were driven by religious conviction. Khadijah's Khadijah's belief in her husband
Muhammad's revelations helped lay the foundation of Islam. Joan of Arc's
divine inspiration led the French in a decisive victory against the English. Her
feats were celebrated by the poet Christine de Pisan, who also penned some
of the earliest commentaries on women's roles in society.
Learn about 300 women who changed the world - review their accomplishments,
locate their birthplaces, and discover the eras in which they lived. The women's
topics portray significant issues and dates, such as feminism and Mother's
Day. The timeline tells a general story of women's achievements over
the course of human history. Select a link in the upper left column to begin.
- Feminism - A look at the historical development of
feminism, the thinkers who have shaped it, and the political, economic, and
social issues associated with feminist concerns around the world.
- Woman suffrage - A history of women's right to vote,
from its conceptual origins among 18th- and 19th-century thinkers to the
campaigns that made woman suffrage an important component of participative
democracy.
- The women's movement - A review of the
late-20th-century social movement, highlighting its achievements, its
origins, successes and failures, and the debates it enkindled.
- National Women's History Month
- International Women's Day
- Mother's Day
Pivotal Women's Topics
From suffrage to feminism to the women's movement, learn how these issues have
evolved over time and what their impact has been on politics, the economy, and
society.
In Their Own Words
Read essays, speeches, and other works by these accomplished women, including
poems by Emily Dickinson, Maria Montessori's theory on education, former
president of Ireland Mary Robinson's comments on children and human rights, and
Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing.
Multimedia and Learning Activities
View video clips that capture key moments in women's history, take quizzes that
test your knowledge, and use learning activities that bring women's
contributions to life.
Women Who Changed the World from Africa & the Middle East:
- Adamson, Joy
- 'A'ishah
- Ashrawi, Hanan
- Bryceland, Yvonne
- Ciller, Tansu
- Cixous, Hélène
- Cleopatra
- Dinesen, Isak
- Djebar, Assia
- Ebadi, Shirin
- Evora, Cesaria
- Fatimah
- Fossey, Dian
- Goodall, Jane
- Gordimer, Nadine
- Hatshepsut
- Helena, Saint
- Hypatia
- Khadijah
- Khansa', al-
- Leakey, Mary Douglas
- Maathai, Wangari
- Madikizela-Mandela, Winnie
- Makeba, Miriam
- Mary (mother of Jesus)
- Mary Magdalene, Saint
- Meir, Golda
- Nefertiti
- Perpetua
- Sheba, Queen of
- Suzman, Helen
- Umm Kulthum
Woman Who Changed the World from The Americas:
- Adams, Abigail
- Addams, Jane
- Albright, Madeleine
- Anthony, Susan B.
- Apgar, Virginia
- Arbus, Diane
- Arendt, Hannah
- Arzner, Dorothy
- Baez, Joan
- Ball, Lucille
- Bickerdyke, Mary Ann
- Blackwell, Elizabeth
- Bradstreet, Anne
- Burbidge, Margaret
- Butcher, Susan
- Cabrera, Lydia
- Calkins, Mary Whiton
- Campbell, Kim
- Cannon, Annie Jump
- Caraway, Hattie Ophelia
- Carson, Rachel
- Cassatt, Mary
- Chamorro, Violeta Barrios de
- Charles, Eugenia
- Child, Julia
- Chisholm, Shirley
- Clinton, Hillary Rodham
- Collins, Eileen
- Cori, Gerty
- Cruz, Sor Juana Inés de la
- Davis, Bette
- Deren, Maya
- Dickinson, Emily
- Dietrich, Marlene
- Dix, Dorothea Lynde
- Duncan, Isadora
- Dunham, Katherine
- Dworkin, Andrea
- Earhart, Amelia
- Eddy, Mary Baker
- Ederle, Gertrude
- Elion, Gertrude B.
- Fitzgerald, Ella
- Fleming, Williamina Paton Stevens
- Fossey, Dian
- Franklin, Aretha
- Friedan, Betty
- Garbo, Greta
- Gilman, Charlotte Anna Perkins
- insburg, Ruth Bader
- Goldman, Emma
- Gómez de Avellaneda, Gertrudis
- Graham, Martha
- Grandin, Temple
- Grimké, Sarah; and Grimké, Angelina
- Guy-Blaché, Alice
- Hamm, Mia
- Henie, Sonja
- Hepburn, Katharine
- Hopper, Grace Murray
- Horney, Karen
- Hurston, Zora Neale
- Hutchinson, Anne
- Ibarbourou, Juana de
- Jacobs, Jane
- Joyner-Kersee, Jackie
- Kahlo, Frida
- Keller, Helen
- Kirkpatrick, Jeane
- Knight, Margaret E.
- Krim, Mathilde
- Krone, Julie
- Lamarr, Hedy
- Langer, Susanne K.
- Leavitt, Henrietta Swan
- Lee, Ann
- Levi-Montalcini, Rita
- Liliuokalani
- Lispector, Clarice
- MacKinnon, Catharine A.
- Madonna
- Marble, Alice
- Mayer, Maria Goeppert
- McClintock, Barbara
- McPherson, Aimee Semple
- Mead, Margaret
- Menchú, Rigoberta
- Mistral, Gabriela
- Mitchell, Joni
- Mitchell, Maria
- Monroe, Marilyn
- Morrison, Toni
- Munro, Alice
- Navratilova, Martina
- Nevelson, Louise
- Oates, Joyce Carol
- O'Connor, Sandra Day
- Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy
- Parks, Rosa
- Perkins, Frances
- Perón, Eva
- Pocahontas
- Post, Emily
- Rankin, Jeannette
- Reno, Janet
- Rice, Condoleezza
- Ride, Sally
- Roosevelt, Eleanor
- Sacagawea
- Sanger, Margaret
- Smith, Bessie
- Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
- Steinem, Gloria
- Stern, Elizabeth
- Stewart, Martha
- Truth, Sojourner
- Tubman, Harriet
- Walker, Sarah Breedlove
- Wheatley, Phillis
- Whitney, Mary Watson
- Willard, Frances
- Williams, Jody
- Winfrey, Oprah
- Winnemucca, Sarah
- Woodhull, Victoria
- Yalow, Rosalyn S.
- Zaharias, Babe Didrikson
Woman Who Changed the World from Asia and the Pacific:
- Aquino, Corazon
- Aung San Suu Kyi
- Ban Zhao
- Bandaranaike, Sirimavo R.D.
- Bhutto, Benazir
- Cixi
- Clark, Helen
- Deng Yingchao
- Ding Ling
- Doi Takako
- Fraser, Dawn
- Gandhi, Indira
- Gaohou
- Hojo Masako
- Jiang Qing
- Kartini, Raden Adjeng
- Koken
- Li Qingzhao
- Liliuokalani
- Mira Bai
- Murasaki Shikibu
- Okuni
- Pandit, Vijaya Lakshmi
- Sei Shonagon
- Sheppard, Kate
- Shipley, Jennifer
- Song Qingling
- Soong Mei-ling
- Sukarnoputri, Megawati
- Sutherland, Dame Joan
- Te Kanawa, Dame Kiri
- Teresa, Mother
- Walker, Kath
- Wu Hou
- Yang Guifei
Woman Who Changed the World from Europe:
- Adelaide, Saint
- Aethelflaed
- Agnesi, Maria Gaetana
- Akhmatova, Anna
- Albright, Madeleine
- Anna Comnena
- Asclepigenia
- Austen, Jane
- Beauvoir, Simone de
- Bell, Gertrude
- Bernadette of Lourdes, Saint
- Bernhardt, Sarah
- Blackwell, Elizabeth
- Blankers-Koen, Fanny
- Boudicca
- Boulanger, Nadia
- Bradstreet, Anne
- Bridget of Sweden, Saint
- Brontë, Charlotte
- Brontë, Emily
- Brundtland, Gro Harlem
- Burbidge, Margaret
- Cáslavská, Vera
- Catherine II
- Catherine de Médicis
- Catherine of Aragon
- Catherine of Siena, Saint
- Cecilia, Saint
- Chanel, Gabrielle
- Christina
- Christine de Pisan
- Churchill, Caryl
- Cixous, Hélène
- Clare of Assisi, Saint
- Clotilda, Saint
- Colette
- Constance
- Cori, Gerty
- Curie, Marie
- Deneuve, Catherine
- Deren, Maya
- Diana, princess of Wales
- Dietrich, Marlene
- Dinesen, Isak
- Droste-Hülshoff, Annette, baroness von
- Duncan, Isadora
- Eleanor of Aquitaine
- Eliot, George
- Elizabeth I
- Elizabeth II
- Finnbogadóttir, Vigdís
- Fontana, Lavinia
- Förster-Nietzsche, Elisabeth
- Frank, Anne
- Franklin, Rosalind
- Fredegund
- Garbo, Greta
- Gentileschi, Artemisia
- Goldman, Emma
- Gómez de Avellaneda, Gertrudis
- Goodall, Jane
- Guy-Blaché, Alice
- Henie, Sonja
- Herschel, Caroline Lucretia
- Hildegard, Saint
- Hodgkin, Dorothy Mary Crowfoot
- Horney, Karen
- Hrosvitha
- Hutchinson, Anne
- Irene
- Irigaray, Luce
- Isabella I
- Jekyll, Gertrude
- Joan of Arc, Saint
- Joliot-Curie, Irène
- Julian of Norwich
- Kempe, Margery
- Kenyon, Dame Kathleen
- Kollwitz, Käthe
- Kovalevskaya, Sofya Vasilyevna
- Krim, Mathilde
- Kristeva, Julia
- Lamarr, Hedy
- Leakey, Mary Douglas
- Lee, Ann
- Lenglen, Suzanne
- Levi-Montalcini, Rita
- Leyster, Judith
- Loren, Sophia
- Lovelace, Augusta Ada King, countess of
- Luxemburg, Rosa
- Margaret I
- Maria Theresa
- Marie-Antoinette
- Mary, Queen of Scots
- Mata Hari
- Matilda of Canossa
- Mayer, Maria Goeppert
- Meitner, Lise
- Mercouri, Melina
- Montessori, Maria
- Murdoch, Dame Iris
- Navratilova, Martina
- Nightingale, Florence
- Noether, Emmy
- Nüsslein-Volhard, Christiane
- Pankhurst, Dame Christabel Harriette
- Pankhurst, Emmeline
- Pavlova, Anna
- Piaf, Edith
- Polgar, Judit
- Polgar, Zsuzsa
- Potter, Beatrix
- Radegunda, Saint
- Riefenstahl, Leni
- Robinson, Joan
- Robinson, Mary
- Rowling, J.K.
- Sand, George
- Sappho
- Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
- Sheppard, Kate
- Staël, Germaine de
- Stopes, Marie Charlotte Carmichael
- Sutherland, Dame Joan
- Suttner, Bertha, baroness von
- Szymborska, Wislawa
- Teresa, Mother
- Teresa of Ávila, Saint
- Tereshkova, Valentina
- Thatcher, Margaret
- Theodora
- Victoria
- Vigée-Lebrun, Élisabeth
- Weil, Simone
- Wollstonecraft, Mary
- Woodhull, Victoria
- Woolf, Virginia
- Zoe
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"Encyclopedia Britannica Women Who Changed the World")
