Computer scientist

English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. The engine is an early model for a computer. Her notes on the engine include what is recognised as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine, making Ada the world's first computer programmer.

Scientist British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made critical contributions to the understanding of DNA. Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix. According to Francis Crick, her data was key to formulating the structure of DNA, though she was only credited posthumously.

Activist
Called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". In 1955 Alabama, Parks refused to obey a bus drivers order that she give up her seat in the coloured section to a white passenger. Parks' act of defiance became an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation, organising and collaborating with civil rights leaders.

Activist School pupil and education activist from a north-western province in Pakistan, where the Taliban at times ban girls from attending school. Promoting education for girls, in 2012, she was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen. Surviving; the I am Malala petition calls for all children worldwide be in school by the end of 2015 a petition that helped lead to the ratification of Pakistan's first Right to Education Bill.

Chemist and physicist

Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist, famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthon in Paris.

Scientist Molly Stevens is one of the leading innovators in the multi-disciplinary synthesis of biology and engineering that is redefining approaches to disease, injury and surgery. She is Professor of Biomedical Materials and Regenerative Medicine at Imperial College London, where her research is leading to new ideas in regenerating human bone and reconstructing organs such as the liver and the pancreas.

Astronaut British chemist who became the first Briton in space and the first woman to visit the Mir space station. Sharman launched into space in May 1991, as a researcher on board Soyuz TM-12 with two Soviet cosmonauts. The mission lasted nearly eight days, during which time Sharman conducted medical and agricultural tests.

Politician
British politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the only woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist called her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies known as Thatcherism.

Activist

Celebrated British social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. She came to prominence while serving as a nurse during the Crimean War, where she tended wounded soldiers. She was known as "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night. She championed hygiene in hospitals and popularised the graphical representation of statistics.

Politician As First Lady of the United States, a US senator, and a hugely popular candidate for US president, Hillary Clinton has been a trail blazer for women in politics. Having come closer to being nominated for President by a major party than any woman before her, she has encouraged women to join the political process and pursue their dreams.

Entrepreneur Internet entrepreneur, business woman, philanthropist and public servant. She revolutionised the travel and leisure market in 1997 when she co-founded lastminute.com during the dotcom boom of the early 2000s. Subsequently, she has served on public service digital projects. She is a board member several companies and charities. Lane Fox joined the House of Lords as a crossbencher in 2013, becoming its youngest female member.

Adventurer English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, archaeologist and spy who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making. She played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq. During her lifetime she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials. She has been described as "one of the few representatives of His Majesty's Government remembered by the Middle East with anything resembling affection.

Politician Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma. Though winning the 1990 general election, she was detained under house arrest for almost 15 of 21 years from 1989 to 2010, becoming one of the world's most prominent political prisoners. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Artist
American film director, film producer, screenwriter and television director. Her film, The Hurt Locker, won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture. With The Hurt Locker, Bigelow became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director.

Activist
Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist. She has written many books on the subject of women in Islam, confronting and contextualising various aggressions perpetrated against women's bodies. Imprisoned and often threatened, she wrote: Danger has been a part of my life ever since I picked up a pen and wrote. Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies.

Politician
The third Prime Minister of India and a central figure of the Indian National Congress party. Gandhi, who served from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984, is the secondlongest-serving Prime Minister of India and the only woman to hold the office. Known for political ruthlessness and unprecedented centralisation of power, she presided over a period when India emerged as a regional power.

Religious Activist Founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. They run hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy & tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counselling programmes, orphanages and schools. Her order aims to give wholehearted and free service to the poorest of the poor".

Business woman American business woman, currently Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, the second largest food and beverage business in the world by net revenue.

Writer Promising writer, her Diary of a Young Girl illuminates the mind of a bright young girl and continues to give voice to the victims of the Holocaust. She died tragically of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp towards the end of World War II.

Business woman

A US aviation pioneer and businesswoman, she co-founder the Beech Aircraft Company. In 1983, she was inducted into the American National Business Hall of Fame.

Legal professional British legal academic, barrister, judge, and Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. In 2004, she joined the House of Lords as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. She is the only woman ever to have been appointed to this position. She served as a Law Lord until 2009 when she, along with the other Law Lords, transferred to the new Supreme Court. She remains the most senior female judge in the history of the United Kingdom.

Politician German politician and former research scientist who has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2005, and the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2000. She is the first woman to hold either office. She has been described as the de facto leader of the European Union, and has been regarded consistently by Forbes as one of the top five most powerful persons in the world.

Politician and economist Former French lawyer and politician, appointed managing director of the International Monetary Fund in 2011. Lagarde was the first woman to become finance minister of a G8 economy, and is the first woman to head the IMF.

Politician As the 11th prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto became the first woman to head a Muslim state in 1988. She ended military dictatorship in the country, and was noted for her battle for women's rights. She was assassinated in a suicide attack in 2007.

Politician Dilma Rousseff became a socialist during her youth, and following the 1964 coup d'tat in Brazil joined various left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups that fought against the military dictatorship. Captured and jailed between 1970 and 1972; she entered the political arena in the years after her release. She has been the President of Brazil since 2011 and is the first woman to hold the office.

Aviation Pioneer

American aviation pioneer and author. She was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She received the US Distinguished Flying Cross for this record. She set many other records, and wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences. During an attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1937, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean.

Activist Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She was a vocal advocate for human and civil rights. She was made a delegate to the UN General Assembly and played a key role in in drafting the Universal declaration of human rights. President Harry S. Truman later called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements.

Writer
English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature. Her realism, biting irony and social commentary have gained her historical importance among scholars and critics.

Athlete
American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder. In 1926, she became the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Among other nicknames, the press sometimes called her "Queen of the Waves.

Aviation Pioneer
Pioneer in the field of American aviation, considered to be one of the most gifted racing pilots of her generation. Before the US entered World War II, Cochran was part of "Wings for Britain", an organisation that ferried American built aircraft to Britain, becoming the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. Sometimes called the "Speed Queen", at the time of her death, no other pilot held more speed, distance or altitude records in aviation history.

Adventurer
Japanese mountain-climber, who in 1975 became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Buried in an avalanche during the early part of the expedition, she lost consciousness for six minutes before her Sherpa guide dug her out. Unperturbed, she reached the summit twelve days later.

Activist Abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made more than nineteen missions to rescue more than 300 slaves using the network of anti-slavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. In the postwar era she struggled for women's suffrage.

Activist American marine biologist and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings advanced the global environmental movement. Met with fierce opposition by chemical companies, her book spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy, which led to a nationwide ban on DDT. She inspired a grassroots environmental movement that led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Journalist and Adventurer

She was a ground-breaking reporter known for a record-breaking trip around the world in emulation of Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg, and an expos in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. In addition to her writing, she was also an industrialist and charity worker.

Adventurer The first female sailor to perform a single-handed, non-stop circumnavigation of the globe in 1988. In the Southern Ocean, her 37 foot yacht capsized and she was washed overbroad. Nonetheless, she completed the 189 day solo circumnavigation.

Athlete
The most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel racing. Her win in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only women's victory in an IndyCar Series race. Her third place in the 2009 Indianapolis 500 is the highest ever finish by a woman.

Activist
Deeds, not words defined her life. Her bravery and radicalism shocked society into a new pattern that could not be reversed. Pankhurst and her daughters were jailed repeatedly even then they staged hunger strikes to secure better conditions. In 1918 the Representation of the People Act granted votes to women over the age of 30.

Activist An accomplished author and influential public figure, who helped develop British feminism and philosophy. She is best known for her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. Thanks to her outspoken stance on women's rights and denouncement of 18th century educational and political theorists, Wollstonecraft helped grant women equal rights.

Writer

A literary genius who broke the mould for 20th century novelists. She was known for her experimental fiction writing and influential feminist essays that enlightened readers on Britain's class and gender differences. Woolf's work has impacted readers, writers, historians, scholars and all those who've studied her innovative work and mastery of the English language.

Writer British author J.K. Rowling is best known for writing the ever-popular Harry Potter fantasy series. Rowling's whimsical novels have inspired generations of kids to read. Her books have also inspired readers on social, moral and political grounds. Even her personal story of rags to riches has influenced readers to never give up on their dreams.

Mathematician Influential German mathematician known for her groundbreaking contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. Described by Albert Einstein and others as the most important woman in the history of mathematics.

Entrepreneur French fashion designer and founder of the Chanel brand. Chanel was credited with liberating women from the constraints of the "corseted silhouette" and popularising the acceptance of a sportive, casual chic as the feminine standard in the postWorld War I era. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel's influence extended beyond couture clothing. Her design aesthetic was realised in jewelry, handbags and fragrance.

Medical Doctor When Garrett Anderson was born, there were no female doctors in Britain. Inspired by American physician Elizabeth Blackwell, she trained as a nurse and applied for her MD, but was turned down by every university she approached. Unhindered, she moved to France and qualified at the University of Paris. She set up in practice as a GP in London as the UKs first female doctor. In 1876, she helped usher through parliament an act that formally permitted women to be medics.

Activist Hill is best known for co-founding the National Trust, but she was also a tireless campaigner on issues ranging from the importance of education to the protection of green spaces in and around London. She was particularly concerned with the welfare of people in cities and was a driving force behind the creation of social housing. She has been called Britains greatest ever social entrepreneur, and has had a huge influence on the way we live today.

Athlete English freestyle swimmer. Rebecca won two gold medals at the 2008 Olympic Games in the 400m and 800m, breaking the 19 year-old world record in the 800m final. She was Britain's first Olympic swimming champion since 1988 and the first British swimmer to win two Olympic gold medals since 1908.

Athlete
British track and field athlete, specialising in multi-event disciplines and 100 metres hurdles. She is the current Olympic heptathlon champion.

Activist
Most noted for her work in establishing the Girl Guide movement as a female counterpart to her older brother's Scouting Movement.

Scientist British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape now believed to be ancestral to humans. She developed a system for classifying the stone tools of ancient hominines. She also discovered the Laetoli footprints. It was here, at the Laetoli site, that she discovered hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old.

Entrepreneur American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Born into poverty, she built a media empire and is regarded one of the most wealthy and influential women in the world.

Writer French writer, intellectual, philosopher, political activist, feminist and social theorist. She is best known for her novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins, as well as her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women's oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism.

Activist American birth control activist, sex educator, and nurse. Sanger popularised the term birth control. After opening the first birth control clinic in the US, she was arrested for distributing information on contraception. Sanger's efforts contributed to several judicial cases that helped legalise contraception in the US.

Athlete Holmes specialised in the 800 metres and 1500 metres events and won a gold medal for both distances at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Writer A prolific English children's book writer, she is noted for numerous series of popular books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups. She counts Noddy, The Secret Seven and the Famous Five amongst her creations. Her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world and have sold over 600 million copies.

Writer and Conservationist English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative childrens books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit, celebrating the British landscape and country life. She preserved much of the Lake District from overdevelopment by donating her substantial land holdings to The National Trust.

Activist British welfare campaigner, who is primarily remembered for bringing to the attention of the British public, and working to change, the deprived conditions inside the British concentration camps in South Africa built for Boer women and children during the Second Boer War.

Activist An early English feminist. As a suffragist, as opposed to a suffragette, she took a moderate line, but was a tireless campaigner. She concentrated much of her energy on the struggle to improve women's opportunities for higher education and in 1871 co-founded Newnham College, Cambridge.

Artist British ballerina, widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time. She spent her entire career as a dancer with The Royal Ballet, eventually being appointed Prima Ballerina Assoluta of the company by Queen Elizabeth II.

Artist British cellist, particularly associated with Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor, her interpretation of which has been described as "definitive" and "legendary. Her career was cut short sadly by multiple sclerosis.

Business woman Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange between 2001 and 2009, and was the first woman to hold the position.

Activist British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania. She has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues.

Religious Activist
Church of Scotland missionary who in the 1930s worked at a girls' school in Budapest. When war broke out she refused to leave the mostly Jewish children in her care and died with many of them at Auschwitz. One of a handful of Britons to be honoured in Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.

Engineer A pioneer of electricity in the home, Haslett helped to free women from household drudgery. She was the first Secretary of the Women's Engineering Society as well as first Director of the Electrical Association for Women.

Scientist A Nobel prize-winning chemist, Hodgkin's research into the molecular structure of insulin has helped save millions of lives. As one of the first people to use Xrays to determine the structure of molecules, she also confirmed the structure of penicillin and vitamin B12 and helped pave the way for DNA research.

Entrepreneur Her Body Shop cosmetics chain pioneered ethical consumerism long before it was remotely fashionable. Her business was the first to ban the use of ingredients tested on animals and to promote fair trade with Third World countries.

Spy Chief Served as director-general of the Security Service (MI5) between 1992 and 1996; the first woman to hold the post. She was also the first head whose name was made public. As deputy directorgeneral in 1991, after the collapse of communism in Russia, she made the first friendly contact between British intelligence and the KGB.

Spy Code named "Louise", Szabo was a secret agent in the Second World War, leading a French resistance network to sabotage bridges and communication lines ahead of the D-Day landings. She was caught, sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp, and executed. Posthumously awarded the George Cross.

Activist

English sociologist, economist, socialist and social reformer. Sowing the seeds for what would become the welfare state, Webb's Minority Report an economic and social study of the nation's poor struck a powerful blow against the idea that people in poverty were to blame for their fate. Her research was the template 30 years later for the creation of the Welfare State.

Scientist Zoologist, entomologist and botanist, she spent half her life on a six-volume catalogue of fleas and was the first to understand their jumping mechanism. She was a world expert on chemical odours released by insects. During the Second World War, she helped decode the Germans Enigma machine. She was made Fellow of the Royal Society in 1985.

Athlete A remarkable athlete, Rand was the first British woman to win an Olympic gold in a track and field event. She won the gold for a record-breaking long jump of 6.76m in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, but was such an allrounder that she also took home a silver and a bronze for the pentathlon and 100m relay.

Astronaut

Athlete When she broke the record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe in 2005 she was not just the best woman, but the best. Her achievements helped quash prejudices about women's inferiority in sport. She has helped young people with serious illnesses experience sailing with the Ellen MacArthur Trust.

Politician As leader of the Green Party, who could become Britain's first Green MP, Lucas has given the party a mainstream image in the "Others" backwater of British politics. Formerly active in CND and Oxfam, she is also the vicepresident of the RSPCA and the Stop the War Coalition.

Astronaut

Scientist

Britain's first female physics professor. Had a distinguished career in nuclear, medical and radiation physics at the University of Surrey. Later she worked to promote science careers to women and set up a scheme to help women return to science after childbirth.

Poet She is the first woman to be poet laureate. A prolific writer of poetry and prose, her first poem as Laureate tackled the MPs' expenses scandal; her second commemorated the deaths of Harry Patch and Henry Allingham the last British survivors of the First World War.

Writer Best known for her 80 detective novels featuring French detective Hercule Poirot and the very English Miss Jane Marple, which gave her recognition as one of the most important writers in the development of the crime genre. She remains the most translated and best-selling female author in the world.

Politician
Labour politician and women's rights campaigner who trained as a doctor, and under Clement Atlee became Minister for Social and National Insurance. For 12 years she was on Labour's National Executive Committee and was chair of the party in 1954-1955. Was among Labour's first life peers when she was made a baroness in 1961.

Politician The longest-serving female MP from 1945 until 1979, the "Red Queen" of British politics held two Cabinet jobs in Harold Wilson's government. She made history when she intervened in the Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968. As a consequence of this strike, she put through the Equal Pay Act 1970.

Computer Scientist
An American computer scientist and United States Navy Rear Admiral. A pioneer in the field, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and developed the first compiler for a computer programming language. She conceptualised the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, one of the first modern programming languages.

Writer British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer. Grew up in Rhodesia and left school at 13, described by the Nobel award committee for Literature in 2007 as that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny.

Scientist Northern Irish astrophysicist, who, using a radio telescope that she helped build as part of her PhD, discovered the first radio pulsars, revealed to be rapidly rotating neutron stars. Thought to have made the greatest astronomical discovery of the twentieth century.

Religious Activist
British evangelical Christian missionary to China. She was a revered figure among the people, taking in orphans and adopting several herself, intervening in a volatile prison riot and advocating prison reform, risking her life many times to help those in need. In 1938, the region was invaded by Japanese forces, and Aylward led over 100 orphans to safety over the mountains, despite being wounded herself.

Scientist
Italian particle physicist, who has reached one of the highest peaks during her career at CERN that of deputy spokesperson for the biggest Large Hadron Collider collaboration, ATLAS. The ATLAS collaboration consists of almost 3,000 physicists from 169 institutions, 37 countries and five continents. She was a finalist for the Time's Person of the Year for 2012.

Scientist English paleontologist, who is an expert in the field of evolutionary biology. She studies the "fish to tetrapod transition, having uncovered the evolutionary process by which aquatic animals emerged onto land. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2009.

Writer An American abolitionist and author. Her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852,) was a depiction of life for African Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom. It energised anti-slavery forces in the American North.

Mathematician British mathematician, who was one of the first to analyse a dynamical system with chaos. She was the first woman to receive the Sylvester Medal, to serve on the Council of the Royal Society and to be President of the London Mathematical Society.

Activist In the 1970s, she founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organisation focussed on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004, she received the Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace".

Mathematician The first major Russian female mathematician, responsible for important original contributions to differential equations and mechanics. She was the first woman appointed to a full professorship in Northern Europe. She was also one of the first women to work for a scientific journal as an editor.

Economist An American political economist, her work is associated with the new institutional economics and the resurgence of political economy. Her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons, won her the Nobel Prize for economics in 2009. She is the only woman to have won the Nobel Prize for economics.