More of This Feature • Introduction • 91-100 • 81-90 • 71-80 • 61-70 • 51-60 • 41-50 • More of the top 100 coming soon! • About the List

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#51 through #60 of the top 100 women in world history, measured by how popular they are on the Net. Each is linked to a biography which includes links to related resources on this site and on the Net.

#60. Willa Cather: novelist who documented many periods of American culture, including the settling of the pioneer west.

#59. Josephine Baker: exotic dancer who found fame in Paris, helped with the Nazi resistance, was accused of communist sympathies, worked for racial equality and died shortly after her 1970s comeback.

#58. Janet Reno: first woman to hold the office of U.S. Attorney General, she's remembered for her toughness and for several controversies during her tenure

#57. Emily Post: she first published her Etiquette book in 1922, and her family has continued her legacy of flexible, common sense advice on good manners.

#56. Queen Isabella: but which Queen Isabella? Perhaps Net searchers were looking for Isabella of Castile, the erudite ruler who helped unite Spain, supported Columbus' voyage, drove the Jews from Spain and instituted the Spanish Inquisition? Were some looking for Isabella of France, queen consort of Edward II of England, who helped arrange his abdication and murder, then ruled with her lover as regent for her son? Or Isabella II of Spain, whose marriage and behavior helped stir up Europe's 19th century political turmoil? Or another Queen Isabella ...?

#55. Maria Montessori: the first woman to earn a medical degree from the University of Rome, she applied learning methods she developed for mentally retarded children to children of normal intelligence. The Montessori method, still popular today, is child-centered and experience-centered.

#54. Katherine Hepburn: twentieth century film actress, she often played strong women at a time when conventional wisdom said that traditional roles were all that would sell movie tickets.

#53. Harriet Beecher Stowe: Abraham Lincoln suggested that she was the woman who started the Civil War. Her Uncle Tom's Cabin certainly stirred up a lot of anti-slavery sentiment! But she wrote on more subjects than abolitionism.

#52. Sappho: ancient Greece's best known poet, she's also known for the company she kept: mostly women. And for writing about her passionate relationships with women. She lived on the island of Lesbos - is it fair to call her a lesbian?

#51. Sojourner Truth: abolitionist who also spoke for women's rights, she was one of the most in-demand speakers of the mid-19th century in America.

Coming soon: more in the top 100 series. Can you guess who is in the top 100? The top 10? Join the discussion in the Forum.

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