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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#41 through #50 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.

#50 Catherine the Great: ruler of Russia after she had her husband deposed, she's responsible for the expansion of Russia into Central Europe and to the shores of the Black Sea.

#49 Mary Shelley: daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, she eloped with the poet Percy Shelley, and later wrote the novel Frankenstein as part of a bet with Shelley and George, Lord Byron.

#48 Jane Goodall: she observed and documented the life of chimps in the wild from 1970 into the 1990s, and has tirelessly worked for the better treatment of chimpanzees.

#47 Coco Chanel: one of the 20th century's best-known fashion designers, her look helped define the 1920s and the 1950s.

#46 Anaïs Nin: her diaries, first published in the 1960s when she was more than 60 years old, frankly discuss her life, her many loves and lovers, and her self-discovery quest.

#45 Isabel Allende: a journalist who fled her country, Chile, when her uncle, the president, was assassinated, she turned to writing novels that look at life -- especially women's lives -- with both mythology and realism.

#44 Toni Morrison: winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature, Toni Morrison writes about the black woman's experience.

#43 Betsy Ross: even if she didn't make the first American flag, her life and work shed light on the experience of women in colonial and revolutionary America.

#42 Marie Antoinette: Queen Consort to Louis XVI of France, she was unpopular with the French people, and ultimately was executed during the French Revolution.

#41 Jackie Kennedy (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis): wife of John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States. She served as First Lady from 1961 until her husband's assassination in 1963, and later married Aristotle Onassis.

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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