The Periodic Table of Women's History - 90 Women Who Made History

1. Amelia Earhart was an American aviator and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She was also the first person to fly over both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans before her mysterious disappearance in 1937.

Valentina Tereshkova is an engineer, member of the Russian State Duma, and former Soviet cosmonaut. She is known for being the first and youngest woman in space, having flown a solo mission on the Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963.

Elizabeth Blackwell was a British physician, notable as the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, and the first woman on the Medical Register of the General Medical Council.

Molly Williams was the first known female firefighter in the United States.

Frances Marion was an American screenwriter, director, journalist and author often cited as one of the most renowned female screenwriters of the 20th century. She was the first writer to win two Academy Awards.

Ella Fitzgerald was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "Queen of Jazz". Her accolades included fourteen Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Julie Taymor is an American director and writer of theater, opera and film. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King also received 11 Tony Award nominations, and was honored with more than 70 major arts awards worldwide.

Shirley Dinsdale was an American ventriloquist and television and radio personality of the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1949, she received the first Emmy award for Outstanding Television Personality when she was a student at UCLA.

Sara Teasdale as an American lyric poet. In 1918 she won a Pulitzer Prize for her 1917 poetry collection Love Songs.

Aretha Louise Franklin was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the "Queen of Soul". With global sales of over 75 million records, Franklin is one of the world’s best-selling music artists.

Barbara Jill Walters is a retired American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. In 1974, she became co-host of The Today Show, the first woman to hold such a title on an American news program.

Anna Wintour is a British-American journalist, who has served as Editor-in-Chief of Vogue since 1988 and Global Chief Content Officer for Condé Nast since 2020; she is also the Artistic Director of Condé Nast and the Global Editorial Director of Vogue.

Stella McCartney is an English fashion designer. In 2009, she was honored by the NRDC, featured in the Time 100 and recognized as Glamour Woman of the Year.

Dame Vivienne Westwood is an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.

Donatella Francesca Versace is an Italian fashion designer, businesswoman, socialite, and model. In 2018, she was the first woman to be named as the Designer of the Year at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in the UK and in China.

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post-World War I era with popularizing a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style.

Vera Ellen Wang is an American fashion designer. Wang was hired to be an editor at Vogue immediately upon graduation from Sarah Lawrence College, making her the youngest editor at that magazine.

 Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognized as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Hollywood cinema and was inducted into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963. During her lifetime, she was regarded as an international fashion icon.

Princess Diana was a member of the British royal family. Diana's activism and glamor made her an international icon and earned her enduring popularity. She was celebrated in the media for her unconventional approach to charity work.

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, model and singer. She was a top-billed actress for a decade. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her sixth on their list of the greatest female screen legends from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Katherine Ann Moss is a British supermodel and businesswoman. Arriving at the end of the "supermodel era", Moss rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of the heroin chic fashion trend. Her collaborations with Calvin Klein brought her to fashion icon status.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is the wife of former President Barack Obama.

Beyoncé Knowles is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is one of the world's best-selling recording artists, having sold 120 million records worldwide. She is the first solo artist to have their first six studio albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200.

Josephine Baker was an American-born French entertainer, French Resistance agent, and civil rights activist. She was the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture, the 1927 silent film Siren of the Tropics.

Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga is a Filipina singer and actress, best known for her roles in musical theater. At age 18, she won the Olivier and Theater World Awards, and became the first Asian woman to win a Tony Award.

Serena Jameka Williams is an American professional tennis player. She has been ranked singles world No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association for 319 weeks, including a joint-record 186 consecutive weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 five times.

Lady Gaga is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Having sold 124 million records as of 2014, Gaga is one of the world's best-selling music artists and the only female artist to achieve four singles that sold at least 10 million copies globally.

Dame Julie Andrews DBE is an English actress, singer, and author. Throughout her career of over 75 years, she has received an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards.

Naomi Osaka is a Japanese professional tennis player. She has been ranked No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles. She is a four-time Grand Slam singles champion.

Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards and a total of fifty Grammy Award nominations, the second-most nominations of any female artist in the history of the prestigious awards.

Billie Jean King is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. She often represented the United States in the Federation Cup and the Wightman Cup.

Adele is an English singer and songwriter. She is one of the world's best-selling music artists, with sales of over 120 million records. Her album 21 has been listed in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2020).

Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress. Often described as "the best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accent adaptability.

Lindsey Caroline Vonn is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer on the US Ski Team. She won four World Cup overall championships, second only amongst female skiers to Annemarie Moser-Pröll, with three consecutive titles in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012.

Celia Cruz was a Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz was inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame in 1994. 

Lucille Désirée Ball was an American actress, comedian, and producer. She has won 5 Primetime Emmy Awards, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky is an American competitive swimmer. Having won 7 Olympic gold medals and 15 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer, she is considered one of the greatest swimmers of all time.

Taylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Having sold over 200 million records worldwide, Swift is one of the best-selling musicians of all time.

Viola Davis is an American actress and producer. The recipient of an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, she is the first African-American to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting.

Candace Nicole Parker is an American professional basketball player. In 2016, Parker helped the Sparks to win their first WNBA Finals title since 2002. In 2021, Parker helped the Sky win their first WNBA Championship. Parker has won two Olympic gold medals.

Loretta Lynn is an American singer-songwriter. Lynn is the most awarded female country recording artist and the only female ACM Artist of the Decade (1970s).

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is an English actress and activist. In 2014, she was appointed a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and helped launch the UN Women campaign HeForShe, which advocates for gender equality.

Mariel Hamm is an American retired professional soccer player, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion. Hailed as a soccer icon, she played as a forward for the United States women's national soccer team from 1987 to 2004.

Kelly Clarkson is an American singer, songwriter, actress, author, and television personality. She became the first artist in history to top each of Billboard's pop, adult contemporary, adult pop, country, and dance charts.

Simone Arianne Biles is an American artistic gymnast. With a combined total of 32 Olympic and World Championship medals, Biles is tied as the most decorated gymnast of all time.

Danica Sue Patrick is an American former professional racing driver. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel car racing—her victory in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only win by a woman in an IndyCar Series race.

Billie Holiday was an American jazz and swing music singer. Her vocal style pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.

Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is a retired American track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon as well as long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals in those two events at four different Olympic Games

Michelle Wingshan Kwan is an American retired figure skater. She is a two-time Olympic medalist, a five-time World champion and a nine-time U.S. champion. She is tied with Maribel Vinson for the all-time National Championship record.

Oprah Gail Winfrey is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. Winfrey was called arguably the world's most powerful woman by CNN and TIME and one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th Century.

Sheryl Kara Sandberg is an American business executive, billionaire, and philanthropist. Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Meta Platforms. In June 2012, she was elected to Facebook's board of directors, becoming the first woman to serve on its board.

Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington is a co-founder of The Huffington Post, the founder and CEO of Thrive Global, and the author of fifteen books. Huffington was selected for the inaugural 2021 Forbes 50 Over 50.

Susan Diane Wojcicki is an American business executive who is the CEO of YouTube. She has been in the tech industry for over 20 years. Wojcicki was involved in the founding of Google and became Google's first marketing manager in 1999.

Sara Treleaven Blakely is an American businesswoman and philanthropist. She is the founder of Spanx, an American intimate apparel company with pants and leggings. In 2012, she was one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favorable social standing and economic security.

Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays and several books of poetry. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees.

Born in Torquay in 1890, Agatha Christie became, and remains, the best-selling novelist of all time. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation.

Nelle Harper Lee was an American novelist best known for her 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird. It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry.

Sofia Coppola is an American filmmaker and actress. Coppola's Academy Award nomination for Best Director made her the first American woman in history to be nominated in that category, and the third woman overall.

Ava Marie DuVernay is an American filmmaker. She won the directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere, becoming the first Black woman to win the award.

Greta Gerwig is an American actress, writer, and director. In 2018, her nomination for Best Director at the 90th Academy Awards for Lady Bird made her the first woman in eight years to have been nominated in that category.

Chloé Zhao is a Chinese-born filmmaker. Zhao's debut feature film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, premiered at Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

Regina King is an American actress and director. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards, the most for an African-American performer.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ginsburg spent much of her legal career as an advocate for gender equality and women's rights, winning many arguments before the Supreme Court.

Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German retired politician and scientist who served as the chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. Merkel was the first female chancellor of Germany and was frequently referred to as the most powerful woman in the world.

Susan B. Anthony was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17.

Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist journalist and social political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Nancy Patricia Pelosi is an American politician serving as speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019, and previously from 2007 to 2011. Pelosi is the only woman in U.S. history to serve as speaker of the House.

Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern is a New Zealand politician who has been the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labor Party since 2017. She became the world's youngest female head of government at age 37.

Kamala Harris is an American politician and attorney. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well as the first African American and first Asian American vice president.

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist for female education and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She is also the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and second Pakistani to ever receive a Nobel Prize.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an American Democratic Socialist who made headlines in 2018 by beating a 10-term New York Democrat incumbent in a congressional primary, before becoming the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

Bobbi Brown is an American professional makeup artist, author, and the founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. Brown created ten natural-shade lipsticks which according to Entrepreneur "revolutionized the beauty industry".

Charlotte Tilbury is a British make-up artist. She was awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honors List 2018 for services to the beauty and cosmetics industry.

Anastasia Soare is a Romanian billionaire businesswoman, and the CEO and founder of Anastasia Beverly Hills, known as the "Eyebrow Queen". As of December 3, 2020, Soare was listed as Romania's 4th richest on Forbes.

Dame Patricia Ann McGrath is a British make-up artist. She has been called the most influential make-up artist in the world by Vogue magazine. She is the first make-up artist to be made a British dame.

Huda Kattan is an Iraqi-American makeup artist, beauty blogger, and entrepreneur. She is the founder of the cosmetics line Huda Beauty and was declared one of the "ten most powerful influencers in the world of beauty" by Forbes magazine.

Emily Weiss is an American businesswoman. She is the founder and CEO of the cosmetics company Glossier and the blog Into the Gloss. She was featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2015. In 2019, she was included in Time magazine's "Next 100".

Marie Curie is known as the mother of modern physics. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person and only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice.

Margaret Hamilton is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. She was director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program.

Jane Goodall is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 60-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees.

Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Rosalind Elsie Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite.

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine.