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She Was There

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In 1938, Elzada Clover (first row, second from left) and Lois Jotter (first row, second from right) were the first non-Indigenous women to raft the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
science

The Historic Grand Canyon Adventure Two Women Had For Science

Botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter braved rapids and steep cliffs to catalog numerous plant species.
Sarah Durn May 29, 2023
Chemist and physicist Marie Curie works in the lab with her husband Pierre in 1896. Curie would go on to win two Nobel prizes for her groundbreaking research on radioactivity.
radioactive

Marie Curie As You’ve Never Met Her Before

The world’s first two-time Nobel Laureate was a nerd’s nerd who broke the law for knowledge.
Sarah Durn April 20, 2023
Before joining the Central Luzon Huks as Commander Liwayway, Remedios Gomez-Paraiso was known in her rural town for her poise and beauty.
military history

Commander Liwayway and Other Filipino Women Who Fought During World War II

The “Huk Amazons” were military commanders, leaders, soldiers, spies, and more.
Sarah Durn March 29, 2023
science

8 Stories of Women Making History Right Now

This Women's History Month, we celebrate women doing extraordinary things all over the world.
April White March 17, 2023
This colossal freedom statue stands in front of Nigeria's Badagry Heritage Museum in Lagos State. Badgery, a small town near Nigeria's border with Benin, was the site of a large slave port.
ships

The Untold Stories of the Women Who Led Slave Revolts

Their inspiring acts of resistance were ignored or erased for centuries—until now.
Sarah Durn March 9, 2023
At a South Pacific hospital, Eleanor speaks with a sailor from Fort Worth, Texas, who was injured while unloading a ship. US Admiral William F. Halsey recalled being awed by the expressions on the men’s faces as the First Lady leaned over them in hospital beds.
presidents

That Time Eleanor Roosevelt Disappeared for 10 Days

She reappeared in World War II's Pacific theater where, for five weeks in 1943, she inspired troops and faced down air raids.
Sarah Durn February 16, 2023
Queen Njinga Mbandi rides into battle against the Portuguese, as illustrated by Pat Masioni for UNESCO's series on women in African history.
military history

Meet Caterina Sforza and Other Warrior Queens History Forgot

From Italy’s fortress-seizing countess to Angola’s battle-hardened Queen Njinga, these women didn’t back down from a fight.
Sarah Durn January 26, 2023
Archaeologists believe this head belonged to a figurine representing a high priestess of Ur.
relics

History’s First Named Author Was a Mesopotamian Priestess

Her name was Enheduanna.
Sarah Durn December 22, 2022
Queen Henrietta Maria of England was shot at, won battles, and raised an army on behalf of her husband, King Charles I. But history has remembered her only as a villain. Portrait circa 1639 by Anthony van Dyck.
kickass women

The Untold Story of Henrietta Maria, England’s Warrior Queen

The “she generalissimo” nearly won the English Civil War for her husband, King Charles I.
Sarah Durn November 17, 2022
Medium Eusapia Palladino performs a séance at the French home of astronomer Camille Flammarion on November 24, 1898.
witchcraft

The Secret History of Female and Nonbinary Occultists

A new book examines how supernatural beliefs have often offered a voice, visibility, and vulnerabilities.
Sarah Durn October 25, 2022
exploration

Remembering the 'Ice Widows' of a Doomed Antarctic Expedition

For more than a century, their stories were ignored—until now.
Sarah Durn September 15, 2022
royalty

The Mughal Women Who Wouldn’t Stay in the Harem

From musket-wielding empress Nur Jahan to writer Gulbadan Begum, meet the influential women of the early-modern Muslim empire.
Sarah Durn August 31, 2022
Benazir Bhutto was Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1888 to 1990 and 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. This photo was taken in 1988, when she was elected the world's youngest prime minister at the age of 35.
books

Meet History’s Trailblazing ‘Only Women’

A new book features 100 striking photographs of lone women who broke barriers.
Line Sidonie Talla Mafotsing August 26, 2022
women

Who Were the Warrior Women of Dahomey?

The only documented all-female army in history inspired the Dora Milaje.
Line Sidonie Talla Mafotsing August 3, 2022
On March 3, 1913, thousands of women marched along Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the earliest protest marches in the nation's capital.
politics

Mary Edwards Walker and the Queer Suffragists Who Changed History

They wore pants, advocated for free love, and refused to back down.
Sarah Durn July 20, 2022
Grand Empress Börte (left) and Genghis Khan, more accurately called Chinggis Khan, from a 16th-century book commissioned by Mughal emperor Akbar the Great, who claimed descent from the khan.
medieval

The Women Who Ran Genghis Khan’s Empire

From fighting in the army to managing the kingdom, women were key players in every aspect of the Mongol Empire.
Sarah Durn May 26, 2022
Elizabeth Siddall posed for hours in freezing water for Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais's "Ophelia."
paintings

The Real Women Behind Art’s Masterpieces

History’s best-known muses were artists in their own right.
Sarah Durn April 29, 2022
Many women joined the French resistance, making up 15 to 20% of the army that secretly battled the Nazis from within. Some of those women would go on to become English spies with the SOE.
nazis

The Female Spies Who Helped Win World War II

The women of England’s SOE fought on the beaches of Normandy, sabotaged the Nazis within France, and turned the tides of the war.
Sarah Durn April 5, 2022