top of page

A few of the many...

available

Mickey Wright

1935–2020

Built one of the most technically perfect swings in golf history.

available

Elouise Cobell

1945–2011

Held the United States accountable for its financial stewardship of Native lands.

María “Tules” Barceló

1800–1852

Held the winning hand in a war that redrew North America.

Available

Properzia de’ Rossi

1490-1530

Carved marble at monumental scale when sculpting wasn’t considered feminine.

Available

Chien-Shiung Wu

1912-1997

Proved the universe doesn’t behave symmetrically - overturning a fundamental law of physics.

Available

Esther Lederberg

1922-2006

Discovered that bacteria can share genes - revealing a hidden engine of evolution.

Available

Lise Meitner

1878-1968

Explained how splitting an atom releases enormous energy - a discovery that changed the world.

Available

Enheduanna

2285–2250 BCE

Earliest known named author in world history - harder to erase when it’s pressed into clay.

Available

Rosalind Franklin

1920-1958

Revealed the structure of DNA - for years credit followed the men in the room.

Available

Alice Hamilton

1869-1970

Proved industrial toxins were killing workers — evidence industry preferred ignored.

Available

Tapputi Belatekallim

1200 BCE

Developed early methods for extracting scent and oils - the process outlived the name.

Available

Octavia Butler

1947-2006

Redefined science fiction by centering power, race, and survival — refusing to let difference be invisible.

Available

Christine de Pizan

1364-1430

One of the earliest documented women in Europe to support herself entirely through writing - turning authorship into a profession.

Available

Ray Eames

1912-1988

Co-created modern design culture, but recognition rarely reflected the partnership.

Available

Lizzie Magie

1866-1948

Invented a satirical game to expose capitalism — then capitalism rewrote the rules.

Available

Margaret Jones

1613-1648

Practiced medicine when women were trusted - until healing without credentials became a crime.

Available

Pauli Murray

1910–1985

Built the legal framework others used to win civil rights - often without her name on the ruling.

Available

Zitkála-Šá

1876–1938

Used the colonizer’s systems to fight colonization — protecting Indigenous sovereignty from within.

Available

Doreen Valiente

1922–1999

Founder and theologian of Wicca - restoring women to sacred authority.

Available

Zheng Yi Sao

1775 – 1844

Commanded the largest pirate fleet in recorded history — and forced empires to negotiate.

Available

Jane Jacobs

1916–2006

Changed who gets to decide how cities are built.

Available

Angélique Marguerite Le Boursier du Coudray

1712–1794

Invented the first hands-on training model for childbirth

Available

Petra Herrera

1887–1917

Fought where women weren’t allowed — then built a revolutionary women’s army.

Available

Mother Jones

1837–1930

Turned exploited workers into a political force corporations couldn’t ignore.

Available

Vinnie Ream

1847–1914

The first woman commissioned to create a U.S. national monument - breaking into the federal machinery that decides who is immortalized.

Available

Anne Truitt

1921–2004

Transformed Minimalism from industrial abstraction into a language of lived experience.

Available

Inge Lehmann

1888–1993

Discovered Earth’s solid inner core — revealing the hidden structure of the planet itself.

Available

Margaret Bourke-White

1904–1971

The first accredited female war photographer on the front lines — turning conflict into public witness.

Available

Fatima al-Fihri

c. 800–880 CE

Built the world’s first continuously operating university — creating the blueprint for modern higher education.

Available

Hypatia of Alexandria

c. 350–415 CE

Director of the world’s most advanced knowledge hub - safeguarding science during civilizational instability.

Available

Belva Lockwood

1830–1917

Opened the Supreme Court to women — and became the first to argue there.

Available

Phyllis Schlafly

1924-2016

One of the most influential organizers in modern American conservative politics.

Available

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky

(1897-2000)

Designed the first modern kitchen, treating domestic labor as work worthy of design.

Available

Trota of Salerno

(11th-12th c)

Authored foundational writings on gynecological medicine then the texts were re-attributed to men.

Available

Evelyn Berezin

(1925-2018)

Invented the first computerized word processor. then her innovation was filed as clerical.

Available

Nina Simone

(1952-2021)

Fused music with political truth and made art you couldn’t ignore.

Available

Judith Leyster

(1609–1660)

Once as renowned as Rembrandt, her work was later absorbed into Frans Hals’ legacy for centuries.

Available

Bell Hooks

(1952-2021)

Changed who feminism was for - and who it had to answer to.

available

Beatrice Hastings

(1879-1943)

Shaped modernist writing and radical politics. Then history focused on her lovers.

Available

Mary Wollstonecraft

(1759-1797)

Author of "A Vindication of the Rights" arguing that women were rational equals centuries ahead of her time.

© 2026 Women's Freedom Museum Nonprofit corporation | 501(c)(3) status pending

©2025 by Women's Freedom Museum. Powered and secured by Wix

bottom of page