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The last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, Cleopatra was a brilliant leader and diplomat. She was highly educated, speaking nine languages, and skillfully managed her kingdom during tumultuous times. Her strategic alliances with Roman leaders helped maintain Egypt's independence for many years.

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This young French heroine led armies to victory during the Hundred Years' War. Her military success and unwavering faith inspired a nation. Though she was tragically executed at age 19, she was later canonized as a Roman Catholic saint and remains a symbol of French unity and courage.

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was an African American abolitionist and women’s rights activist best known for her powerful speech, "Ain’t I a Woman?" Born into slavery in New York, she escaped in 1826 and later became one of the first Black women to win a court case against a white man when she sued for her son’s freedom. In 1843, she changed her name and dedicated her life to advocating for justice, publishing her autobiography in 1850. During the Civil War, she recruited Black soldiers for the Union Army and fought for land rights for freed African Americans. She remained a fierce advocate for equality until her death in 1883.

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Marie Curie was a brilliant scientist who was born in Poland in 1867. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person to ever win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences—Physics and Chemistry!

She studied radioactivity, a new science at the time, and discovered two important elements: polonium and radium. Her work helped doctors learn how to use radiation to treat diseases like cancer.

Marie Curie faced many challenges because she was a woman in a male-dominated field. She wasn’t always treated fairly, but she never gave up. Her hard work and discoveries changed the world and opened doors for other women in science.

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Portraits of Madam CJ Walker c. 1914, c. 1910s. c. 1927

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Madam CJ Walker is the first woman self-made millionaire in the Guinness Book of World Records. She created and marketed hair care and cosmetics for African American women, going door to door to sell and promote her product. She used her wealth to contribute to the NAACP and to promote the arts. She also trained thousands of Black women to sell her products, giving them more economic freedom and business opportunities than they would have had otherwise.

Her legacy lives on, with a cosmetics line launched in 2022 in her name, as well as a Barbie doll of her likeness.

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Zitkála-Šá was a Native American activist. She was forced into an Indian boarding school while growing up. She was a musician and a music teacher. Zitkála-Šá wrote and advocated for citizenship and the rights of Native Americans. She created the Indian Welfare Committee in 1924. She encouraged Native people to vote once the federal Indian Citizenship Act passed the same year. Until she died, she continued to work for improvements in education, health care, and legal recognition of Native Americans as well as to preserve their culture.

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The first person to win Nobel Prizes in two scientific fields (Physics and Chemistry), Marie Curie pioneered research on radioactivity. Her discoveries led to major advances in medical treatment and our understanding of atomic physics. She opened doors for women in science and remains the most famous female scientist in history.

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Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, and lost her sight and hearing at 19 months old due to illness. At the age of seven, her life changed when Anne Sullivan became her teacher and helped her connect with the world through language. Despite her disabilities, Helen became the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating from Radcliffe College in 1904. She was a passionate advocate for disability rights, women's suffrage, and social equality, dedicating her life to these causes. Helen Keller's remarkable achievements and determination continue to inspire people around the world.

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Amelia Earhart was an American piolet, born in 1897. She was the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, alone and without stopping. She formed The Ninety-Nines, a group for female pilots. In 1937, she set out to be the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. Unfortunately, she disappeared during this trop, and was declared dead in 1939. She has since been inducted to the National Aviation Hall of Fame (1968) and the National Women's Hall of Fame (1973).

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Anne Frank was a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary documenting her life in hiding amid Nazi persecution during the German occupation of the Netherlands.

https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/who-was-anne-frank/

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Anne's first years

Anne Frank was born in the German city of Frankfurt am Main in 1929. Anne's sister Margot was three years her senior. Unemployment was high and poverty was severe in Germany, and it was the period in which Adolf Hitler and his party were gaining more and more supporters. Hitler hated the Jews and blamed them for the problems in the country. He took advantage of the rampant antisemitic sentiments in Germany. The hatred of Jews and the poor economic situation made Anne's parents, Otto and Edith Frank, decide to move to Amsterdam. There, Otto founded a company that traded in pectin, a gelling agent for making jam.

Nazi Germany invades the Netherlands

Before long, Anne felt right at home in the Netherlands. She learned the language, made new friends and went to a Dutch school near her home. Her father worked hard to get his business off the ground, but it was not easy. Otto also tried to set up a company in England, but the plan fell through. Things looked up when he started selling herbs and spices in addition to the pectin.

On 1 September 1939, when Anne was 10 years old, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and so the Second World War began. Not long after, on 10 May 1940, the Nazis also invaded the Netherlands. Five days later, the Dutch army surrendered. Slowly but surely, the Nazis introduced more and more laws and regulations that made the lives of Jews more difficult. For instance, Jews could no longer visit parks, cinemas, or non-Jewish shops. The rules meant that more and more places became off-limits to Anne. Her father lost his company, since Jews were no longer allowed to run their own businesses. All Jewish children, including Anne, had to go to separate Jewish schools.

Anne has to go into hiding in the Secret Annex

The Nazis took things further, one step at the time. Jews had to start wearing a Star of David on their clothes and there were rumours that all Jews would have to leave the Netherlands. When Margot received a call-up to report for a so-called 'labour camp' in Nazi Germany on 5 July 1942, her parents were suspicious. They did not believe the call-up was about work and decided to go into hiding the next day in order to escape persecution.

In the spring of 1942, Anne's father had started furnishing a hiding place in the annex of his business premises at Prinsengracht 263. He received help from his former colleagues. Before long, they were joined by four more people. The hiding place was cramped. Anne had to keep very quiet and was often afraid.

Anne keeps a diary

On her thirteenth birthday, just before they went into hiding, Anne was presented with a diary. During the two years in hiding, Anne wrote about events in the Secret Annex, but also about her feelings and thoughts. In addition, she wrote short stories, started on a novel and copied passages from the books she read in her Book of Beautiful Sentences. Writing helped her pass the time.

When the Minister of Education of the Dutch government in England made an appeal on Radio Orange to hold on to war diaries and documents, Anne was inspired to rewrite her individual diaries into one running story, titled Het Achterhuis ( The Secret Annex).

The hiding place is discovered

Anne started rewriting her diary, but before she was done, she and the other people in hiding were discovered and arrested by police officers on 4 August 1944. The police also arrested two of the helpers. To this day, we do not know the reason for the police raid.

Despite the raid, part of Anne's writing was preserved: two other helpers took the documents before the Secret Annex was emptied by order of the Nazis.

Anne is deported to Auschwitz

Via the offices of the Sicherheitsdienst (the German security police), a prison in Amsterdam, and the Westerbork transit camp, the people from the Secret Annex were put on transport to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. The train journey took three days, during which Anne and over a thousand others were packed closely together in cattle wagons. There was little food and water and only a barrel for a toilet.

Upon arrival at Auschwitz, Nazi doctors checked to see who would and who would not be able to do heavy forced labour. Around 350 people from Anne's transport were immediately taken to the gas chambers and murdered. Anne, Margot and their mother were sent to the labour camp for women. Otto ended up in a camp for men.

Anne dies from exhaustion in Bergen-Belsen

In early November 1944, Anne was put on transport again. She was deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp with Margot. Their parents stayed behind in Auschwitz. The conditions in Bergen-Belsen were horrible too. There was a lack of food, it was cold, wet and there were contagious diseases. Anne and Margot contracted typhus. In February 1945 they both died owing to its effects, Margot first, Anne shortly afterwards.

Anne's father Otto was the only one of the people from the Secret Annex to survive the war. He was liberated from Auschwitz by the Russians and during his long journey back to the Netherlands he learned that his wife Edith had died. Once in the Netherlands, he heard that Anne and Margot were no longer alive either.

Anne's diary becomes world famous

Anne's writing made a deep impression on Otto. He read that Anne had wanted to become a writer or a journalist and that she had intended to publish her stories about life in the Secret Annex. Friends convinced Otto to publish the diary and in June 1947, 3,000 copies of Het Achterhuis ( The Secret Annex) were printed.

And that was not all: the book was later translated into around 70 languages and adapted for stage and screen. People all over the world were introduced to Anne's story and in 1960 the hiding place became a museum: the Anne Frank House. Until his death in 1980, Otto remained closely involved with the Anne Frank House and the museum: he hoped that readers of the diary would become aware of the dangers of discrimination, racism, and hatred of Jews.

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The life of Anne Frank in brief. Watch the video and read more about her diary and her life in hiding in the Secret Annex.

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Dedicating her life to helping the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity. Her humanitarian work earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She became a global symbol of charity, selfless service, and compassion.

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Rosalind Franklin discovered the double helix structure, with her famous photo 51. This led to the creation of a DNA model. She is often not given credit for this, as her male counterparts who studied with her are given accreditation for this discovery.

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Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist known for her bold and colorful self-portraits. She painted about her pain, feelings, and culture using strong images and bright colors. Frida had many health problems, including a bad accident when she was young, but she kept creating art. She often showed herself with flowers, animals, and symbols from Mexican culture. Today, Frida is remembered not only for her unique art but also for being strong, different, and proud of who she was.

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Known as the 'Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,' Rosa Parks sparked a nationwide movement when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. Her brave act of civil disobedience became a catalyst for the American Civil Rights Movement.

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Katherine Johnson was a woman who worked at NASA as a calculator, and was responsible for calculations for shuttles' orbits and trajectory analysis. When they were about to launch one of their first successful flights into space, she was the one that did the calculations that determined the flight would be safe for the astronaut. She authored or coauthored 26 research reports after this.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/langley/katherine-johnson-biography/

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The first woman in space, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova broke the ultimate glass ceiling. During her three-day mission aboard Vostok 6, she orbited Earth 48 times, spending more time in space than all previous American astronauts combined.

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Dorothy Hodgkin was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving the atomic structure of molecules such as penicillin and insulin, using X-ray crystallography. Generous, humble and hard-working throughout her half-century long career, she was undeterred by the rheumatoid arthritis that affected her from her late twenties.

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Britannica Presents 100 Women Trailblazers

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Dorothy Hodgkin - Britannica Presents 100 Women Trailblazers

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Dorothy Hodgkin, in full Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, née Dorothy Mary Crowfoot, (born May 12, 1910, Cairo, Egypt—died July 29, 1994,…

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Patsy Matsu Mink was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. State of Hawaii. She was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1964, and served in the House of Representatives for 24 years as a member of the Democratic Party, initially from 1965 to 1977, and again from 1990 until her death in 2002. She was the first woman of color and the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress, and is known for her work on legislation advancing women's rights and education.

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Becoming Britain's first female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher served for 11 years, the longest tenure of any British PM in the 20th century. Known as the 'Iron Lady,' she implemented major economic reforms and strengthened Britain's global influence.

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She was an American physicist, astronaut, author and advocate. She joined NASA in 1978, and then she paved the way in 1983 as the third woman to go into space and the first American woman. She was also the youngest woman to fly into space, being 32 at the time.

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Lt. Hultgreen was selected in May 1993 to be among the first female pilots to undergo F-14 Tomcat training at NAS Miramar, California. She was an American naval aviator in the United States Navy and was the first female carrier-based fighter pilot in the U.S. Navy. She was also the first female fighter pilot in the U.S. military to die in a crash. She died just months after she was certified for combat, when the F-14 Tomcat she was piloting crashed into the sea on final approach to the USS Abraham Lincoln.

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Mae Jemison was the first African-American women to travel into space when she was aboard Endeavour in 1992. During her time on Endeavour she orbited Earth for almost eight days, September 12-20, 1992. After leaving NASA in 1993, she founded a technology research company and created a non-profit educational foundation. She also wrote several books for children, has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, the International Space Hall of Fame, and holds several honorary doctorates.

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A champion of democracy in Myanmar (Burma), Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest for her political activism. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.

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She was a princess but also did many things for charity. She did a lot of work with Centrepoint (homeless charity), English National Ballet, Leprosy Mission and National Aids Trust, and as President of the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street and of the Royal Marsden Hospital.

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The first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, which has planted over 51 million trees in Kenya. She championed environmental conservation, women's rights, and democratic governance.

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The youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala became a global advocate for girls' education after surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban. Her courage and activism have inspired millions worldwide and brought attention to the importance of education for all.

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Sara Mardini is a former competitive swimmer, life guard, and human rights activist. Sara and her younger sister fled from Syria in 2015. The boat they were using to escape had began to sink, the two girls swam the boat to safety. Following that, Sara became an activist and took part in many missions to save refugees crossing from Turkey to Greece. In 2018 she was charged for "migrant smuggling". In 2023 her and many other activists went for trial and the decision was made to host a second trial, which has yet to happen.

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Japanese climber, mountaineer and teacher, Junko Tabei, was the first women to successfully climb mount Everest and was the first to ever reach the Seven Peaks (which is the highest point on Earth) in 1992.

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American Novelist, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Nobel Prize winner. First Black female editor for fiction in New York City. Developed a reputation as an author in the 70s and 80s. Her work is praised for its direct commentary on the harsh consequences of racism in the United States and the Black American experience.

As a result of her work, she received a Presidential Medal of Freedom and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame this past decade. Her commentary still leads many discussions about Women's Rights and Black American Rights today.

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court from 1993 until 2020. She attended Cornell where she earned her degree, then moved on to become the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court. She was popular for her liberal views on women's rights, particularly those that are health related. She was also a member of the ACLU. Ruth was a strong advocate for women's rights, and her accomplishments will continue to live on.

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Making history as the first woman, first Black person, and first person of South Asian descent to become U.S. Vice President, Kamala Harris broke multiple barriers. Her achievement represents a significant milestone in American politics and women's leadership.

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