Women with pivotal roles in history
Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and so also half of its potential1. Amongst the milestones in human history, however, men feature much more prominently than women. Men have traditionally excluded women from positions of leadership and influence. Even where women have equal opportunities, deeper inequities still disadvantage them. In rural India, for example, girls are more likely than boys to drop out of school because they have additional responsibility for chores at home. The simple intervention of providing households with bicycles can benefit girls by shortening their journey to and from school2.
Gender equality is a fundamental human right, and a necessary foundation for peaceful, prosperous and sustainable societies1. Despite historical and continuing barriers, countless numbers of women have had pivotal roles in shaping human progress. Many milestones in history owe their existence or their influence to women, often in less visible capacities, for example in driving philanthropy and advocacy, and in leading diplomatic and research teams. Their contributions deserve greater recognition.
The list below names small samples of the women whose actions have influenced the course of history. Most of the listed events had men taking more conspicuous roles, or belonged to teams of people. You can see these dated entries highlighted within a full chronology of milestones, by going to the history timeline and using its ‘Find’ button (top-left) to search for ‘women’.
- UN Sustainable Development Goals #5: Gender Equality.
- Agrawal, S., Seth, A., Goel, R. (2024) A silent revolution: Rapid rise of cycling to school in rural India. Journal of Transport Geography.
Some of the women who have contributed to shaping human history (dated by timeline entry)
- 3100 BCE, association of love-making with war-mongering: goddess Inanna
- 2030 BCE, earliest recorded poetry: unnamed priestess of Inanna
- 2000 BCE, earliest poetic depictions of emotional weeping: goddess Ningal
- 1780 BCE, first female ruler of a royal dynasty: Pharaoh Nofrusobek
- 1350 CE, spread of the European Renaissance: Isabella d’Este (1474-1539)
- 1438, Inca expansion: the Coya, including Mama Anahuarque
- 1440, printed texts of criticism: Christine de Pizan (1364–c. 1430); forbidden texts: Sappho (c. 630-570 BCE)
- 1648, inspiration for homage: Queen Mumtaz Mahal (1593-1631)
- 1792, indictment of double standards in the treatment of women by men: Mary Wollstonecraft
- 1822, first empirical test of Earth’s greenhouse effect: Eunice Foote
- 1834, first computer program: Ada Lovelace
- 1859, first training manual for care of the sick regardless of their means: Florence Nightingale
- 1860, expansion of Western modern art from the 1860s: Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975), Lee Miller (1907-1977), Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Leanora Carrington (1917-2011)
- 1893, first self-governing democracy to grant women the vote: Mary Carpenter with 24,000 women petitioners of New Zealand, including suffrage leader Kate Sheppard
- 1896, recognition that radium exposure selectively kills tumour-forming cells: Marie Curie
- 1915, mass deployment of X-ray units: Marie Curie
- 1938, first trial of a nylon parachute, in 1942: Adeline Gray
- 1941, development of frequency-hopping radio communication: Hedy Markey [the film star Hedy Lamarr]
- 1942, DDT toxicity exposed in 1962 by Rachel Carson
- 1945, establishment of the United Nations: Virginia Gildersleeve (USA), Minerva Bernardino (Dominican Republic), Bertha Lutz (Brazil), Wu Yi-Fang (China)
- 1948, development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Eleanor Roosevelt (USA), Bodgil Begtrup (Denmark), Minerva Bernardino (Dominican Republic), Angela Jurdak (Lebanon), Fryderyka Kalinowski (Poland), Hansa Mehta (India)
- 1951, drafting of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: Eleanor Roosevelt (USA)
- 1953, discovery of the molecular structure of DNA: Rosalind Franklin
- 1956, emergence of pop art: Marjorie Strider, Rosalyn Drexler, Evelyn Axell, Pauline Boty, Jann Haworth
- 1960, first female head of a democratic government: Sirimavo Bandaranaike
- 1960, first government-approved oral contraceptives: Margaret Sanger, Katharine McCormick, Edris Rice-Wray
- 1965, drafting of the UN International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination: Renaude Lapointe (Canada)
- 1967, UN Outer Space Treaty: Eilene Galloway (USA)
- 1969, development of the Apollo 11 mission to land on the moon: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Margaret Hamilton
- 1972, UN Conference on the Human Environment: Aud Blegen Svindland (Norway), Inga Thorsson (Sweden), Barbara Ward (UK)
- 1977, indigenous Green Belt Movement: Wangari Maathai
- 1978, first human born on the Antarctic mainland, to María Silvia Morello
- 1979, completion of the Standard Model: Chien-Shiung Wu, Fay Ajzenberg-Selove, Sau Lan Wu, Helen Quinn
- 1980, global eradication of smallpox: Nicole Grasset
- 1981, identification of HIV in 1983: Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
- 1982, international moratorium on commercial whaling: Petra Deimer, Joan McIntyre
- 1982, development of the World Charter for Nature: Rachel Carson, Barbara Ward
- 1985, discovery of the enzyme telomerase: Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider
- 1986, design of the Mir Space Station living quarters: Galina Balaschova
- 1987, development of the Montreal Protocol: Susan Solomon, Bella Abzug
- 1987, production of the Brundtland Report: Gro Harlem Brundtland
- 1990, development and operation of the Voyager 1 spacecraft from 1977: Ann Druyan, Linda Morabito, Carolyn Porco, Suzanne Dodd
- 1990, development and operation of the Hubble Space Telescope: Nancy Roman, Jennifer Wiseman, Jennifer Lotz
- 1992, shaping the UN Rio Earth Summit: Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway), Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo (Portugal), Wangari Maathai (Kenya)
- 1992, development of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity: Shuqin Liu (China), Liqiang Wang (China), Setijati Sastrapradja (Indonesia) , Bente Herstad (Norway), Hedia Baccar (Tunisia), Cathleen Corken (USA), Cynthia Jensen (USA), Mireille Jardin (France), Mona Bjorklund (Kenya), Iwona Rummel-Bulska (Kenya), Judith Johnson (Germany), Francoise Burhenne-Guilmin (Germany)
- 1993, tuning of enzyme functions by directed evolution: Frances Arnold
- 1994, earliest legislation for medical aid in dying: Barbara Coombs Lee, Cheryl Smith
- 1995, first successful corporate litigation on climate change, decided 2022: Altaf Jabeen, Naseem Akhter, Walayat Bibi; first climate ruling from an international court of human rights 2024: Cordelia Bähr, Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti, and over 2,000 Swiss senior women
- 1997, development and operation of NASA’s Sojourner rover, the first spacecraft to be named after a woman, rights activist Sojourner Truth: Donna Shirley, Carol Stoker, Penelope Boston
- 1997, development of the Kyoto Protocol: Cynthia Rosenzweig, Angela Cropper, Sunita Narain
- 1998, creation of the International Criminal Court: Fatou Bensouda, Cherif Bassiouni, Philippa Webb, Patricia Wald, Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi
- 2000, first legal recognition of same-sex marriage: Hedy d’Ancona, Joke Swiebel
- 2001, first draft sequence of the human genome: Lauren Linton, Jane Rogers, Ladeana Hillier, Sarah Wenning, and some 60 other women amongst the c. 275 scientists of the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium
- 2003, development of the UN Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety: Angela Cropper (Trinidad and Tobago), Elsa Kelly (Argentina), Lynn Holowesko (Bahamas), Sandra Wint (Jamaica), Katarina Kummer (Switzerland), Lynn Holowesko (Bahamas)
- 2005, development of agreement on the Responsibility To Protect, R2P: Gisèle Côté-Harper
- 2007, development of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Françoise Hampson, Paola Amadei, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa
- 2008, first national constitution to recognise rights of nature: Nina Pacari, Blanca Chancoso, Maria Paula
- 2009, development of the UN resolution that humanity can and should live in harmony with nature: María Fernanda Espinosa (Ecuador), Linda Sheehan (US)
- 2009, creation of the first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell: Carole Lartigue, Gwynedd Benders, Radha Krishnakumar, Nacyra Assad-Garcia, Cynthia Andrews-Pfannkoch, Evgeniya Denisova
- 2010, development of global agreement to implement 20 biodiversity targets by 2020: Cristiana Paşca Palmer (Romania), Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger (Canada)
- 2011, development of the international resolution against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity: Dawn Cavanagh (South Africa), Navanethem Pillay (South Africa), Meghan Doherty (Canada), Rashida Manjoo (South Africa), María Ángela Holguín (Colombia)
- 2012, first observation of Higgs boson: Fabiola Gianotti, Tara Shears, Maria Spiropulu, Melissa Franklin, Mary Gaillard
- 2012, invention of CRISPR-Cas9 technology: Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer Doudna
- 2014, development of the UN Nagoya Protocol on benefits sharing: Yadir Salazar Mejia (Colombia), Somaly Chan of (Cambodia), Cosima Hufler (Austria), Tone Solhaug (Norway), Vanida Khumnirdpetch (Thailand)
- 2014, industry-wide momentum towards electric vehicles: Esther Takeuchi, Pamela Fletcher
- 2015, first detection of gravitational waves: Lisa Barsotti, Gabriela González, Laura Cadonati
- 2015, agreement on 17 Sustainable Development Goals: Paula Caballero (Colombia), Patti Londoño Jaramillo (Colombia), Michelle Bachelet Jeria (Chile), Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (South Africa)
- 2015, the UN Paris Agreement on Climate Change: Christiana Figueres (Costa Rica), Laurence Tubiana (France), Mary Robinson (Ireland), Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim (Chad), Hakima El Haité (Morocco)
- 2017, development of the first national legislation for a mid-century target of net-zero emissions: Isabella Lövin, Åsa Romson
- 2018, creation of the first commercial taxi service of fully self-driving vehicles: Tekedra Mawakana, Deborah Hersman
- 2019, recognition by US economic scientists of the need for a carbon dividend: Christina Romer, Janet Yellen, Laura Tyson, amongst many hundreds
- 2019, first image of a black hole: Katie Bouman, Feryal Özel, Lia Medeiros
- 2019, creation of the first global assessment of biodiversity: Sandra Díaz (Argentina), Patricia Balvanera (Mexico), Kate Brauman (United States), Patricia Miloslavich (Venezuela/Australia), Belinda Reyers (South Africa), Suneetha Subramanian (India), Elena Bennett (Canada), Victoria Reyes-García (Spain)
- 2019, creation of the first synthetic human embryos: Sajedeh Nasr Esfahani, Valerie Weaver, Deborah Gumucio
- 2019, first global climate strike: Greta Thunberg and thousands of women and girls
- 2019, first demonstration of quantum supremacy: Marissa Giustina, Kristel Michielsen, Eleanor Rieffel
- 2019, largest vaccination programme in history: Katalin Karikó, Sarah Gilbert, Kizzmekia Corbett, Lisa Jackson, Maria Elena Bottazzi
- 2020, first global enforcement of an upper limit to aerosol emissions by ships: Therese Bornemann Christensen
- 2020, creation of the One Trillion Trees Initiative: Nicole Schwab, Tiina Vahanen, Christie Burley, Jane Goodall
- 2020, launch of first commercial space taxi: Gwynne Shotwell, Kathy Lueders
- 2020, Leaders’ Pledge for Nature: Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand), Angela Merkel (Germany), Ursula von der Leyen (European Commission)
- 2020, creation of AlphaFold, for predicting protein structures: Kathryn Tunyasuvunakool, Anna Potapenko, Ellen Clancy, Michalina Pacholska
- 2020, first commercial sales of cultivated meat: Tan Lee Kim, Elaine Siu, Sandhya Sriram, Ka Yi Ling
- 2020, ingredients of life sampled from near-Earth asteroid Bennu: Allison Baczynski, Jessica Barnes, Eve Berger, Nicole Lunning
- 2021, first powered, controlled flight on another planet: MiMi Aung, Amiee Quon, Sara Langberg
- 2021, spacecraft Parker Solar Probe touches the Sun’s corona: Nicola Fox, Betsy Congdon, Yanping Guo, Annette Dolbow
- 2021, pledge to end deforestation by 2030: Roselyn Fosuah Adjei (Ghana), Marleine Saira Flora (Democratic Republic of Congo), Rachel Jetel (United States)
- 2021, Global Methane Pledge: Cynthia Ehmes (Federal States of Micronesia), Cristina Lobillo Borrero (European Commission), Catherine Stewart (Canada), Nkiruka Maduekwe (Nigeria)
- 2021, Global Climate Pact: Patricia Espinosa (Mexico), Mia Mottley (Barbados), Nicola Sturgeon (Scotland
- 2021, launch of the James Webb Space Telescope: Jane Rigby, Amy Lo, Amber Straughn, Heidi Hammel, Stefanie Milam, Marcia Rieke
- 2022, the DART spacecraft alters the course of an asteroid: Elena Adams, Lori Glaze, Elisabetta Dotto
- 2022, development of the first publicly accessible dialogue bot, AI language model ChatGPT: Mira Murati, Daniela Amodei
- 2022, achievement of nuclear-fusion ignition: Kim Budil, Annie Kritcher, Tammy Ma, Debbie Callahan
- 2022, global agreement to protect biodiversity: Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Mrinalini Rai, Amelia Arreguin Prado, Verona Collantes-Lebale
- 2023, global agreement on the High Seas Treaty: Rena Lee, Ilana Seid (Palau), Olai Uludong (Palau), Alice Revell (New Zealand), Janine Coye-Felson (Belize)
- 2023, publication of a survival guide for climate-resilient development: Debra Roberts (South Africa), Friederike Otto (Germany/UK), Aditi Mukherji (India), Adelle Thomas (Bahamas)
- 2023, achievement of the UN UAE Consensus for a global transition away from fossil fuels: Hana Alhashimi, Shamma Al Mazrui, Nawal Al-Hosany, María Mendiluce
- 2024, commitment by rich nations to increase climate finance to poor nations: Jemimah Njuki, Annalena Baerbock, Ayshka Najib, Mary Robinson, Anacláudia Rossbach
- 2025, statement of intent to develop open, inclusive, ethical and sustainable artificial intelligence: Anne Bouverot (France), Christy Hoffman (United States), Ursula von der Leyen (Germany)
- 2025, development of the UN International Maritime Organization Net-Zero Framework: Sarah Bailey, Heike Deggim
Patrick Doncaster would welcome suggestions for additions or subtractions (email: cpd@soton.ac.uk)
Timeline of the Human Condition, 1792