Wikipedia:WikiProject Women/Women in Green/Most prominent women
Appearance
This is a list in alphabetical order of notable women, both past and present, based on a variety of sources (see below). It is still being developed and expanded. Further lists by continent or country are under consideration.
List
[edit]- Jane Addams (1860–1935), pioneering American social worker and women's rights activist
- Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), Austrian-born Queen Consort of France
- Corazon Aquino (1933–2009), Filipina politician, President of the Philippines
- Anna Atkins (1799–1871), early English photographer
- Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945), Burmese politician, State Counsellor of Myanmar
- Jane Austen (1775–1817), English novelist
- Josephine Baker (1906–1975), American vaudeville dancer and entertainer
- Sirimavo Bandaranaike (1916–2000), Sri Lankan politician, modern world's first female head of government
- Mary Barra (born 1961), American business executive, CEO of General Motors Company
- Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1968), French philosopher and writer
- Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), English traveller, explorer and administrator
- Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923), French actress
- Annie Besant (1847–1933), British women's rights activist, writer and orator
- Liliane Bettencourt (1922–2017), French businesswoman, world's richest woman
- Benazir Bhutto (1953–2007), Pakistani politician
- Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891), Russian occultist
- Karen Blixen (1885–1962), Danish writer
- Enid Blyton (1897–1968), English children's writer
- Letizia Bonaparte (1749–1836), mother of Napoleon I
- Boudica (died ca, 60 AD), leader of the early Britons
- Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855), English novelist
- Gro Harlem Brundtland (born 1939), Norwegian politician, Prime Minister of Norway
- Carla Bruni (born 1967), Italian-French singer and songwriter, First Lady of the French Republic
- Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973), American novelist, Nobel Literature laureate
- Maria Callas (1923–1977), Greek-American soprano opera singer
- Catherine the Great (1728–1796), Empress of Russia
- Coco Chanel (1883–1971), French fashion designer and businesswoman
- Eileen Chang (1920–1995), Chinese writer
- Agatha Christie (1890–1976), English crime novelist and playwright
- Cleopatra (69–30 BC), Egyptian ruler
- Hillary Clinton (born 1947), American politician
- Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695), Mexican nun, writer and philosopher
- Marie Curie (1867–1934), Polish-French physicist and chemist
- Princess Diana (1961–1997), British Princess of Wales
- Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992), German-American actress and singer
- Isadora Duncan (1877–1878), American modern dancer
- Amelia Earhart (1897–1937), pioneering American aviator
- Shirin Ebadi (born 1947), Iranian lawyer and human rights activist
- Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122–1204), Queen Consort of France and later of England
- Elizabeth I (1533–1603), Queen of England and Ireland
- Elisabeth II (born 1926), Queen of the United Kingdom, Head of the Commonwealth
- Cesária Évora (1941–2011), Cape Verdean morna singer
- Renée Fleming (born 1959), American soprano opera singer
- Margot Fonteyn (1919–1991), English ballet dancer
- Anne Frank (1929–1945), Dutch Jewish diarist
- Aretha Franklin (1942-2018), American singer and songwriter
- Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958), English chemist and X-ray crystallographer
- Indira Gandhi (1917–1984), Indian politician
- Sonia Gandhi (born 1946), Italian-born Indian politician
- Melinda Gates (born 1964), co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Zaha Hadid (1950–2016), Iraqi-British architect
- Mata Hari (1876–1917), Dutch exotic dancer, executed for spying
- Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993), British film actress
- Caroline Herschel (1750–1848), German astronomer
- Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), German abbess, writer and visionary
- Dorothy Hodgkin (1910–1994), British chemist and Nobel chemistry prize winner
- Grace Hopper (1906–1992), American computer scientist
- Hypatia of Alexandria (ca. 350–415), Greek mathematician, astronomer, philosopher and educator
- Michaëlle Jean (born 1957), Canadian stateswoman
- Joan of Arc (1412–1431), French heroine
- Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Mexican painter
- Helen Keller (1880–1968), deaf-blind American writer and political activist
- Grace Kelly (1929–1982), American actress and Princess of Monaco
- Billie Jean King (born 1943), American tennis player and gender equality activist
- Melanie Klein (1882–1960), Austrian-British psychoanalyst
- Umm Kulthum (1898–1975), Egyptian singer and actress
- Yayoi Kusama (born 1929), Japanese artist, avant-garde painter and writer
- Christine Lagarde (born 1956), French politician, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
- Estée Lauder (1908–2004), American businesswoman specializing in cosmetics
- Jenny Lind (1820–1887), Swedish opera singer
- Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002), Swedish children's writer
- Audre Lorde (1934–1992), American writer, feminist and civil rights activist
- Ada Lovelace (1815–1852), English mathematician
- Ida Lupino (1918–1995), Anglo-American actress, singer and film director
- Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919), Polish-German socialist politician
- Wangari Maathai (1940–2011), Kenyan political activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
- Madonna (born 1958), American singer and actress
- Miriam Makeba (1932–2008), South African musician and civil rights activist
- Mary Magdalene (1st century AD), biblical figure, follower of Jesus
- Winnie Mandela (born 1936), South African politician
- Margaret Mead (1901–1978), American cultural anthopologist
- Catherine de' Medici (1519–1589), Italian noblewoman, influential queen consort of France
- Meera (1498–1546), Indian Hindu mystic
- Golda Meir (1917–1956), Israeli politician, Prime Minister of Israel
- Rigoberta Menchú (born 1959), Guatemalan civil and women's rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize lauteate
- Angela Merkel (born 1954), German politician
- Lise Meitner (1878–1968), Austrian-Swedish nuclear physicist
- Lee Miller (1907–1977), American photographer and war correspondent
- Maria Montessori (1870–1952), Italian physician and educator
- Berthe Morisot (1841–1895), French impressionist painter
- Alice Munro (born 1931), Canadian short story writer
- Murasaki Shikibu (ca. 973–1014), Japanese novelist
- Nefertiti (ca. 1370–1330), Egytian queen
- Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), English social reformer, founder of modern nursing
- Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba (1583-1663), Angolan queen of the Mbundu people
- Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986), American modernist artist
- Michelle Obama (born 1964), American lawyer, First Lady of the United States
- Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793), French playwright, political activist and feminist
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–1994), First Lady of the United States
- Camille Paglia (born 1947), American academic and social critic
- Anna Pavlova (1881–1931), Russian ballet dancer
- Édith Piaf (1915–1963), French cabaret singer and songwriter
- Rosa Parks (1913–2005), American civil rights activist
- Eva Perón (1919–1952), First Lady of Argentina
- Jiang Qing (1914–1991), Chinese politician, active in the Cultural Revolution
- Qiu Jin (1875–1907), Chinese feminist, revolutionary and writer
- Ayn Rand (1905–1882), Russian-American writer
- Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900–1978), Nigerian political campaigner and women's rights activist
- Leni Riefenstahl (1902–2003), German film director, screenwriter and actress
- Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962), American politician, activist and First Lady
- Dilma Rousseff (born 1974), Brazilian economist, former President of Brazil
- J. K. Rowling (born 1965), British novelist, writer of the Harry Potter series
- Sheryl Sandberg (born 1969), American technology executive
- Margaret Sanger (1879–1966), American birth control activist
- Sappho (630–570 BC), ancient Greek poet
- Clara Schumann (1819–1896), German musician and composer
- Irena Sendler (1910–2008), Polish nurse, social worker and Jewish resistance leader
- Mary Shelley (1797–1851), English novelist
- Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (born 1942), Icelandic politician, world's first openly lesbian head of government
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 1938), President of Liberia
- Soong Ching-ling (1893–1981), Chinese politician
- Gloria Steinem (born 1934), American feminist leader
- Meryl Streep (born 1949), American actress
- Joan Sutherland (1926–2010), Australian colatura soprano
- Kiri Te Kanawa (born 1944), New Zealand soprano
- Mother Teresa (1910–1997), Albanian-Indian nun and missionary
- Valentina Tereshkova (born 1937), Russian cosmonaut, first woman in space
- Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), British politician
- Margrethe Vestager (born 1968), Danish politician, European Commissioner for Competition
- Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797), English philosopher and women's rights advocate
- Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), English modernist writer
- Janet Yellen (born 1946), American economist, Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Malala Yousafzai (born 1997), Pakistani women's education activist, Nobel Prize laureate
Works consulted
[edit]- Addams, Jane (18 November 2010). "The 25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century". Time.
- Apotheker, Jan; Sarkadi, Livia Simon (2011). European Women in Chemistry. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-3-527-63646-4.
- Ashby, Ruth; Ohrn, Deborah Gore, eds. (1995). Herstory: women who changed the world. New York, New York: Viking Press. ISBN 0-670-85434-4.
- "Famous Women in Modern History". HistoryNet. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
- Hartley, Cathy (2003). A Historical Dictionary of British Women. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-1-85743-228-2.
- Helleberg, Maria (2015). Kvinder der forandrede verden (in Danish). Informations Forlag. ISBN 978-87-7514-861-5.
- Kuiper, Kathleen (December 2009). The 100 Most Influential Women of All Time. The Rosen Publishing Group. pp. 4–. ISBN 978-1-61530-010-5.
- Merritt, Alicia, ed. (2006). Women and War: A Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-770-8.
- Resch, Yannick (2009). 200 femmes célèbres: Des origines à nos jours (PDF) (in French). Eyrolles. ISBN 978-2-212-54291-2.
- Rosenberg, Jennifer (2017). "100 Famous Women of the 20th Century". ThoughtCo.
- Showalter, Elaine; Baechler, Lea; Litz, A. Walton (1993). Modern American Women Writers. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-02-082025-3.
- Smith, Bonnie G. (2005). Women's History in Global Perspective. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-02997-4.
- Vega, Carlos B. (2003). Conquistadoras: Mujeres Heroicas de la Conquista de America (in Spanish). McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-8208-5.
- "Women who changed the world". Biography Online. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
- "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women". Forbes. Retrieved 9 October 2017.