The 100 women who changed the world
Pioneering scientist Marie Curie has been voted the woman who has had the most significant impact on world history, in a reader poll by BBC History Magazine. It asked experts in different fields of human endeavour to each nominate 10 women they believe had the biggest impact. That created a list from which readers chose their one to 100, revealed below.
1 MARIE CURIE First woman to win Nobel Prize and first person to win twice, right
2 ROSA PARKS Civil rights activist, far right
3 EMMELINE PANKHURST Suffragette leader
4 ADA LOVELACE Mathematician
5 ROSALIND FRANKLIN Chemist whose work led to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA
6 MARGARET THATCHER UK’s first female prime minister
7 ANGELA BURDETT-COUTTS Philanthropist
8 MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT 18th-century writer/feminist
9 FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE Founder of modern nursing
10 MARIE STOPES Birth control pioneer
11 ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE 12th-century Queen consort of England
12 VIRGIN MARY Mother of Jesus
13 JANE AUSTEN Author
14 BOUDICCA Queen of Iceni tribe and leader of uprising against Roman Empire
15 DIANA Princess of Wales, far right 16 Amelia earhart First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
17 QUEEN VICTORIA Queen of UK and Ireland for 63 years
18 JOSEPHINE BUTLER Victorian feminist/ reformer
19 MARY SEACOLE British-Jamaican nurse during the Crimean War
20 MOTHER TERESA Catholic nun and missionary, above
21 MARY SHELLEY Writer of Frankenstein
22 CATHERINE THE GREAT 18th-century Russian empress
23 VERA ATKINS WWII intelligence officer/ Special Operations Executive
24 CLEOPATRA Egyptian queen
25 ELIZABETH FRY Prison reformer
26 MARY ANNING Palaeontologist
27 JOAN OF ARC 15th-century French heroine and saint
28 ISABELLA OF CASTILE 15th-century queen who established Spain as global power
29 CATHERINE OF SIENA 14th-century philosopher and saint
30 WANGARI MAATHAI Kenyan political activist
31 VIRGINIA WOOLF Writer
32 SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR Feminist and writer
33 GRACE HOPPER Pioneering computer scientist/ US Navy Rear Admiral
34 FRIDA KAHLO Artist, below 35 theodora Empress of Byzantium
36 HYPATIA Philosopher, astronomer and mathematician
37 ELEANOR RATHBONE Independent MP and women’s rights campaigner
38 SACAGAWEA Native American who assisted in the first expedition to cross the western part of the USA
39 NELLIE BLY American journalist
40 LISE MEITNER Physicist who discovered nuclear fission
41 CATHERINE DE MEDICI 16th-century queen of France
42 ISABELLA A BIRD 19th-century English explorer and naturalist
43 BESSIE COLEMAN American aviator
44 APHRA BEHN Restoration era playwright
45 COCO CHANEL Fashion designer
46 ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI Baroque painter
47 ZORA NEALE HURSTON Author of African-American literature and anthropologist
48 KATHARINE MEYER GRAHAM Publisher of the Washington Post when it broke the Watergate scandal
49 INDIRA GANDHI Indian Prime Minister
50 GABRIELA MISTRAL Chilean poet and diplomat
51 CLARA BARTON American Civil War nurse and founder of the American Red Cross
52 ANNA AKHMATOVA Russian poet
53 SRI STATESWOMAN
54 MARYAM MIRZAKHANI Iranian mathematician
54 MARIE VAN BRITTAN BROWN American inventor
56 LAURA BASSI 18th-century Italian physicist
57 JUNKO TABEI First woman to reach the summit of Everest
58 GERTUDE EDERLE Olympic champion swimmer and first woman to swim the English Channel
59 ETHEL SMYTH English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement
60 EMILY HOBHOUSE British welfare campaigner
61 SUZANNE LENGLEN French tennis player
62 SARAH BREEDLOVE philanthropist American entrepreneur and philanthropist
63 RACHAEL HEYHOE FLINT Captain of England women’s cricket team
64 DEBORAH Hebrew prophet
65 Mary SOMERVILLE Scottish science writer and polymath
66 MARTINA BERGMAN OSTERBERG Swedish-born physical instructor education and suffragette
67 MARIE MARVINGT Fench athlete, mountaineer, aviator and journalist
68 MARIA MERIAN 17th-century German-born naturalist and scientific illustrator
69 LOTTIE DOD Five-times winner of Wimbledon Ladies’ Singles Championships
70 JOAN ROBINSON British economist
71 GEORGE ELIOT Author
72 DOWAGER EMPRESS CIXI Effectively controlled Chinese government in late Qing dynasty for 47 years from 1861
73 ANDREA DWORKIN American feminist
74 ALICE MILLIAT Pioneer of women’s sports
75 WILMA RUDOLPH World-record-holding Olympic champion sprinter
76 SONJA HENIE Norwegian Champion figure skater and film star
77 SAROJINI NAIDU activist Indian independence
78 RUTH HANDLER Inventor of the Barbie doll
79 MURASAKI SHIKIBU 10th-century Japanese writer
80 MARIA BOCHKAREVA First Russian woman to command a military unit in WWI
81 LILY PARR English professional women’s footballer
82 HELEN GWYNNE-VAUGHAN Commandant of Women’s RAF in WWI and Chief Controller of the Auxiliary Territorial Service during WWII
83 GWEN JOHN Welsh artist
84 FANNY BURNEY Novelist and diarist
85 FANNY BLANKERS-KOEN Dutch athlete
86 ESTÉE LAUDER American businesswoman
87 ELINOR OSTROM American economist
88 CLARA SCHUMANN German musician and composer
89 BEULAH LOUISE HENRY American inventor
90 ANNA JACOBSON SCHWARTZ American economist
91 AISHA Wife of the prophet Muhammad
92 YESHE TSOGYAL The Mother of Tibetan Buddhism
93 SUSAN SONTAG American writer and political activist
94 SOPHIE BLANCHARD French balloonist
95 KATIA KRAFFT French volcanologist
96 FANNY MENDELSSOHN German pianist and composer
97 ÉMILIE DU CHÂTELET 18th-century French natural philosopher and physicist
98 BUCHI EMECHETA Nigerian novelist
99 ANNETTE KELLERMANN Australian swimmer and Hollywood film star
100 AMRITA PRITAM Indian writer and poet