Please enjoy this incomplete list of amazing discoveries and accomplishments made by incredible women both past and present. Generous donations to our Patreon account will help get this page finished faster.

AERONAUTICS

ARCHAEOLOGY

ARCHITECTURE

ASTRONOMY

ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE

BIOLOGY

  • Co-invented Mueller-Hinton agar, which tests antibiotic efficacy against bacteria - Jane Hinton

CHEMISTRY

COMPUTER SCIENCE

CRYPTOGRAPHY

ENGINEERING

  • Pioneered the use of directed evolution to create enzymes with new or improved functions - Frances Arnold

EXPLORATIONS

GENETICS

GEOGRAPHY

GEOLOGY

  • Discovered the first ichthyosaur skeleton - Mary Anning
  • Discovered that bezoar stones were actually coprolites, or fossilized feces - Mary Anning
  • Discovered belemnite fossils contain fossilized ink sacs - Mary Anning
  • Discovered the two most complete plesiosaur skeletons at the time - Mary Anning
  • Discovered the first pterosaur skeleton outside of Germany - Mary Anning

INVENTIONS

  • Windshield wipers for automobiles (1903) - Mary Anderson
  • Apgar Score, test for assessing newborn health (1953) - Virginia Apgar
  • Mueller-Hinton agar, which tests antibiotic efficacy against bacteria - Jane Hinton

MATERIALS SCIENCE

MATHEMATICS

  • First woman to receive the Fields Medal, math’s most prestigious award (2014) - Maryam Mirzakhani
  • First woman to write a mathematics textbook, which was one of the first in the new field of calculus (1748) - Maria Gaetana Agnesi

MEDICINE

  • Mythological figure used by Athenian women to defend their rights to be treated by female physicians (300 BCE) - Agnodice of Athens
  • Used a loophole in the rules of the Society of Apothecaries in Great Britain in order to take exams and obtain certification to become a doctor (1865) - Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
  • First woman to be appointed to a medical post in Great Britain (1870) - Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
  • Co-founded London School of Medicine for Women with Sophia Jex-Blake (1874) - Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
  • First woman to head a specialty division (of anesthesia) at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (1938) - Virginia Apgar
  • First woman to become a full professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (1949) - Virginia Apgar
  • Invented the Apgar Score, the first text to assess the health of newborn babies (1953) - Virginia Apgar
  • First person to hold a faculty position in teratology, the study of birth defects (1965) - Virginia Apgar

NOBEL LAUREATES

  • Jane Addams - 1931 - Peace - Sociologist; International President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
  • Svetlana Alexievich - 2015 - Literature - for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time
  • Frances Arnold - 2018 - Chemistry - for the directed evolution of enzymes
  • Emily Greene Balch - 1946 - Peace - Formerly Professor of History and Sociology; Honorary International President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
  • Françoise Barré-Sinoussi - 2008 - Physiology or Medicine - for their discovery of HIV, human immunodeficiency virus
  • Elizabeth Blackburn - 2009 - Physiology or Medicine - for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase
  • Linda B. Buck - 2004 - Physiology or Medicine - for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system
  • Pearl S. Buck - 1938 - Literature - for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces
  • Gerty Theresa Cori - 1947 - Physiology or Medicine - for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen
  • Marie Skłodowska Curie - 1911 - Chemistry - for her discovery of radium and polonium
  • Marie Skłodowska Curie - 1903 - Physics - in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel
  • Grazia Deledda - 1926 - Literature - for her idealistically inspired writings which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general
  • Esther Duflo - 2019 - Economics - for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty
  • Shirin Ebadi - 2003 - Peace - for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children
  • Gertrude B. Elion - 1988 - Physiology or Medicine - for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment
  • Leymah Gbowee - 2011 - Peace - For their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work
  • Maria Goeppert-Mayer - 1963 - Physics - for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure
  • Nadine Gordimer - 1991 - Literature - who through her magnificent epic writing has - in the words of Alfred Nobel - been of very great benefit to humanity
  • Carol W. Greider - 2009 - Physiology or Medicine - for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase
  • Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin - 1964 - Chemistry - for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances
  • Elfriede Jelinek - 2004 - Literature - for her musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that with extraordinary linguistic zeal reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power
  • Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - 2011 - Peace - For their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work
  • Irène Joliot-Curie - 1935 - Chemistry - for their synthesis of new radioactive elements
  • Tawakkol Karman - 2011 - Peace - For their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work
  • Selma Lagerlöf - 1909 - Literature - in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings
  • Doris Lessing - 2007 - Literature - that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny
  • Rita Levi-Montalcini - 1986 - Physiology or Medicine - for their discoveries of growth factors
  • Wangari Maathai - 2004 - Peace - for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace
  • Mairead Maguire - 1976 - Peace - Founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (later renamed Community of Peace People)
  • Barbara McClintock - 1983 - Physiology or Medicine - for her discovery of mobile genetic elements
  • Rigoberta Menchú - 1992 - Peace - in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples
  • Gabriela Mistral - 1945 - Literature - for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world
  • Toni Morrison - 1993 - Literature - who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality
  • May-Britt Moser - 2014 - Physiology or Medicine - for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain
  • Herta Müller - 2009 - Literature - who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed
  • Alice Munro - 2013 - Literature - master of the contemporary short story
  • Nadia Murad - 2018 - Peace - for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict
  • Writer - Diplomat - Peace - Former Cabinet Minister
  • Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard - 1995 - Physiology or Medicine - for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development
  • Elinor Ostrom - 2009 - Economics - for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons
  • Nelly Sachs - 1966 - Literature - for her outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's destiny with touching strength
  • Donna Strickland - 2018 - Physics - for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses
  • Rosalyn Sussman Yalow - 1977 - Physiology or Medicine - for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones
  • Bertha von Suttner - 1905 - Peace - Honorary President of Permanent International Peace Bureau, Bern, Switzerland; Author of Lay Down Your Arms.
  • Aung San Suu Kyi - 1991 - Peace - for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights
  • Wisława Szymborska - 1996 - Literature - for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality
  • Mother Teresa - 1979 - Peace - Leader of Missionaries of Charity, Calcutta
  • Olga Tokarczuk - 2018 - Literature - for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life
  • Sigrid Undset - 1928 - Literature - principally for her powerful descriptions of Northern life during the Middle Ages
  • Betty Williams - 1976 - Peace - Founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement (later renamed Community of Peace People)
  • Jody Williams - 1997 - Peace - for their work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines
  • Ada E. Yonath - 2009 - Chemistry - for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome
  • Malala Yousafzai - 2014 - Peace - for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education
  • Tu Youyou - 2015 - Physiology or Medicine - for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria (artemisinin)

PHYSICS

PSYCHOLOGY

SOCIAL SCIENCE

  • First First Lady to hold a government position in the US (1775) - Abigail Adams
  • First First Lady to live in the White House when the US capitol was moved to Washington DC (1800) - Abigail Adams
  • First First Lady to have a book published about her (1848) - Abigail Adams
  • Co-founded Hull House in Chicago, a philanthropic and educational enterprise that grew to become a full-fledged community center (1889) - Jane Addams
  • Appointed to Chicago’s Board of Education (1905) - Jane Addams
  • Co-founded the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy (1908) - Jane Addams
  • First female president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections (1909) - Jane Addams
  • First woman to be awarded an honorary degree from Yale (1910) - Jane Addams
  • President of the International Congress of Women (1915) - Jane Addams
  • First American woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize (1931) - Jane Addams
  • Expelled from the Daughters of the American Revolution for opposing World War I - Jane Addams
  • Mastered seven languages by the age of 11 (1729) - Maria Gaetana Agnesi
  • First woman to write a mathematics textbook, which she published in Italian vernacular rather than Latin in order to be accessible to the average student (1748) - Maria Gaetana Agnesi
  • First female mayor in England (1908) - Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
  • First Black female cable car operator in San Francisco (1944) - Maya Angelou
  • First Black woman to have an original screenplay produced (1972) - Maya Angelou
  • First Black woman to direct a major motion picture (1998) - Maya Angelou
  • Co-founded the New York Women’s State Temperance Society, to fight the widespread alcoholism present in their day (1852) - Susan B. Anthony
  • Co-founded the Women’s Loyal National League, which gathered 400,000 signatures to abolish slavery (1863) - Susan B. Anthony
  • Co-founded the American Equal Rights Association for Black and women’s rights (1866) - Susan B. Anthony
  • Co-founded a women’s rights newspaper called The Revolution (1868) - Susan B. Anthony
  • Co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association, which became the National American Woman Suffrage Association (1869) - Susan B. Anthony
  • First woman to be depicted on US coinage (1979) - Susan B. Anthony
  • Advocated for universal vaccination (1964) - Virginia Apgar

TECHNOLOGY

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

TRADES

ZOOLOGY