If you emphasize politics, arts or engineering in a different balance than I did, you will end up with other equally notable people. Indira had an enormous impact on the future of India, defining many policies and systems of government still in use today.Īs my historical note suggested, I’m not surprised these women lived in the last few centuries. I acknowledge that best of / top lists of anything are at best subjective. Indira Gandhi became prime minister of India in 1966, second elected woman head of state in modern history, the first was Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka (1960).And if that weren’t enough she was an Admiral in the U.S. Grace Hopper invented not only the programming language COBOL, one of the first high level programming languages, but the very idea of a compiler, the critical engine that most programming languages depend on to function (1952).Elion (pioneer in cancer medication, Nobel Prize in Medicine 1988) and Clara Barton (founded the Red Cross) and Elizabeth Blackwell – First woman to receive a medical degree (1849) and become a doctor in the U.S. Medicine has been a productive field for women, with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (contributed to discovery of HIV), Gertrude B. Florence Nightingale – More than a nurse (although she was a progressive there too), she pioneered the use of statistics and visualizations ( Nightingale Rose Diagram, diagram below) and was a prolific writer and teacher.Her reign was one of the greatest periods of expansion for China. The only female monarch in Chinese history, her amazing story of obtaining power and ruling, directly or indirectly, for decades. She died 14 years before the 19th U.S. Amendment was passed, granting voting rights to women. She was arrested, in an act of civil disobedience, for voting in the 1872 U.S. presidential election.
Anthony – A relentless advocate for equal rights for women, she wrote, lectured and organized groups in the pursuit of voting and other rights. She is possibly an example of historic gender bias, as some of the work Babbage is credited with possibly should be attributed to her, although the history from the time leaves many questions about who did what, as the work they were doing was of interest to few at the time.
Ada Lovelace – The first computer programmer in history.Jane Austen – Helped define the style and structure of the modern novel and is one of the most popular writers in history.She was the first woman to have a solo show at The MOMA in NYC (1946). Most well known for her works in the Southwest, her career spanned different genres and context, comparable to Picasso’s in many ways. Georgia Okeefe Her creative work over a prolific lifetime is staggering.She discovered two elements and developed the first treatments using radioactive isotopes. Her life story of fleeing Poland for France, helping her family, and charitable works is awe inspiring. She also defined the theory of radioactivity, a discovery she died for. Marie Curie – First person in history to win two Nobel Prizes (only other person to do it was Linus Pauling).bias, although I attempted to explore as many different histories as possible. I’m an American, so there is unavoidable U.S. My criteria defined innovation as significant positive change, which led me to focus on women who made profound contributions to their fields (I list notable mentions and more about my process below).
From that research these are the women who had the most impressive careers and achievements. Much of my work is studying the true history of scientific, technological and artistic ideas (see The Myths of Innovation). Among the better known is Hypatia, but few works from the time survived and it’s hard to know how much influence she had. This is a subject well beyond the scope of this post.Įven the ancient Greeks, who were progressive on many fronts, had few female philosophers and scholars, although there were some. Even by the time of the Western Enlightenment, women were still given few opportunities to study, work in pioneering fields or to receive acclaim for their work. It’s hard to identify a singular cause but there’s evidence the shift to monotheism changed what had been a more balanced view of gender power, when there was still respect for male and female roles, into masculine centric cultures (see The Alphabet vs. The majority of our most famous inventors and discoverers are men in large part because women were denied the education and opportunity required to make similar achievements or to get credit for them. Historical note: a disturbing element of history is its unfairness to women.
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