Great women in history.

Many of them were far from silent as they changed the world.

Thank you Didymos. I really do not expect this thread to go anywhere because thats just the way things are. I could not help but notice you did not mention any names specifically. I guess I'll be first, if any and name Marie Curie.

Rosalind Elsie Franklin. Her data was key to the hypothesis of the structure of DNA. Unfortunately for her, her work was published third--even though it was the pillar of the hypothesis--so she does not get the recognition for the discovery of the DNA structure that she deserves.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's writing was a great voice for early feminism.

Another woman I had to go look up, because I couldn't remember what she did was Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin. She is known as a founder of the science of protein crystallography. She and her mentor, J.D. Bernal, were the first to successfully apply X-ray diffraction to crystals of biological substances, beginning with pepsin in 1934. Hodgkin's contributions to crystallography included solutions of the structures of cholesterol, lactoglobulin, ferritin, tobacco mosaic virus, penicillin, vitamin B-12, and insulin (a solution on which she worked for 34 years), as well as the development of methods for indexing and processing X-ray intensities.

I minored in medieval and renaissance studies in college, and as part of that I took a course about women in renaissance culture. One writer who really stood out was Christine de Pizan, who lived from 1363-1436. She was a phenomenal writer, and campaigned against misogyny and the notion that women hadn't contributed to history. Her Book of the City of Ladies is one of the great works of the early Renaissance and of feminism.

Another towering medieval figure was Anna Komnene (pronounced commena) (1083-1153). She was a princess in the Byzantine Empire during the early Crusades. She was possibly the earliest true female historian in European history, and provides incomparable insight into the Byzantine culture, kingdom, and interactions with the crusaders.

For some reason, one of the best ways medieval women could become famous was for them to be mystics, like Hildegarde of Bingen and Margery Kemp. Joan of Arc was as well, of course.

And let's not forget some of the towering female leaders in history (not counting recent ones), like Catherine the Great of Russia and Elizabeth I of England.

By the way, I fully agree with Rosalind Franklin. Watson and Crick stole from her. And unfortunately she died before the Nobel Prize was given out, otherwise she would have no doubt received it.

I would like to include my mom here. She raised six children basically on her own. She worked menial jobs for minimum pay and never took any government assistance. We had food to eat, clothes to wear and a roof over our head.

One time, when I was very young, there was a house on fire. An old man named Charlie was in the house.My mom raced into the house while others watched, and carried Charlie out. All 5'3" and one hundred and fifteen pounds of her.She saved the old mans life.

She died last year of a broken heart after losing her dear Sam, my stepfather. When I think of Sam, I always remember his last word before he died, "mama".

There are a great many great women in history who will never get credit for the things they have done and the people they have helped.We live in a mans world.One of those women, was my mom.

I hope everyone can include their mother. I would not be the person I became without mine, and she did deal with a lot of BS to raise her children with an abusive husband around, but I would not consider her a great women in history--even if I became a great person in history. How could I compare what my mother did to what women like Rosalind Franklin, Dorthy Hodgkin, or Catherine the Great?

I am not saying your mother does not deserve the credit for what she did, but there are countless women that have faced adversity while raising their families.

I would be willing to bet a five spot that Rosalind Franklin cared very little about recognition.

I guess it all depends on how one defines greatness. If it is limited to recognized achievement, then yes. Your point is well taken. And, really, the point of this subject was in hopes of addressing that.

But, there is another greatness. One of self sacrifice. Devotion and compassion. I find this to be more prevalent in women than in men. That is just my opinion shaped by my circumstances.

I haven't heard of all of these women you fellas talked about. That says something in itself. The information was not well publicized. I thank you for providing it .

There was a time when women were not even allowed to vote. And, since the beginning of recorded history, women have taken a back seat. Century after century after century.

I thought it to be well to bring this to light. We all are aware of the bigotry African Americans have had to endure. Many are familiar with what the Jewish people had to go through for centuries. But when we address bigotry, and groups of people who have had to endure it, we forget the greatest and longest that has been endured. The idea that women were second class citizens. And quite frankly, just the opposite has always been true. Just my opinion.

Thank you Elmund for bringing up a good point. Women often sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others close to them in the name of compassion and self-sacrifice.

Hopefully no one does their work for recognition. Recognition is not something to seek, it is something that is bestowed upon an individual by others.

Reminds me of a John Lennon song....

And I'm not the only one.

That's not the one I had in mind....

"woman is the slave of the slave, oh yes she is, if you believe me you better scream about it"

Here's another one. Mary Magdalene.

Cleopatra.

Boudicca the queen of the Icinii.

Mary Queen of Scots.

Jane Austen (I think is terrifically important as an inspirational author).

Mary Shelly (the author of Frankenstein).

Emily Dickenson and the early suffragettes.

Florence Nightingale (prototype nurse).

Queen Victoria.

Anne Bonny.

Simone de Beauvoire.

The Byzantine Empress' Irene and Theodora, both of who were responsible at different points in Byzantine history for reversing Iconoclasm. Without them the vast majority of the truly astonishing Byzantine art produced in the middle ages might never have existed. Had that not existed then Russia might never had a great artistic tradition- it might even have prevented the artistic rennaissance in Italy. That this is not the case is entirely the responsibility of these two remarkable women.

You want a famous woman who influenced history, how about Margart Thatcher and for obvious reason im not mentioning if i have a political preference for her. It's the only one I can think of or rather the first ones that come to my head, her and an obvious one Emily Pankhurst. Cleopatra, Florence Nightingale.

I'm suprised that she hasn't been mentioned on here, but you'd have to include Joan of Arc on any list of influential women. She took an demoralized and beaten French army and turned the tide of the hundred years war. Without her, Britain would have likely conquered France. Oh and without the help of the French navy, the American colonists may have lost the Revolutionary war. So there's two major nations that may not exist today if she hadn't become the general of the French army.

I did mention her, though I didn't discuss her much. I'm not clear on how much tactical leadership she provided, but she was certainly a hugely inspiring leader.