In 1998-99, Time Magazine has been featuring one hundred pioneers of the 20th century, twenty in each of five categories.
Here's a list of the named pioneers who happen to be of the female sex -- notable women, listed here by category, with links to the Time articles. (Look for the Search option near the bottom of this page to find more links on some of these women pioneers in human history.)
And no, these don't add up to 100 -- the rest named by Time Magazine were men.
Leaders and Revolutionaries
Margaret Sanger
Birth control legalization
Eleanor Roosevelt
Influential First Lady and social reformer
Margaret Thatcher
Britain's first female Prime Minister; advocate of free markets
Artists and Entertainers
Builders and Titans
Scientists and Thinkers
Anthropologists: The Leakey Family
Includes profile of
Mary Leakey
Environmentalist: Rachel Carson
Her Silent Spring raised the issue to public consciousness.
In a side category called "Unsung Heroes", Time recognizes Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, author of 1969's Death and Dying
Heroes and Inspirations
Emmeline Pankhurst
Militant suffragist, her tactics inspired both the British and American woman suffrage activists.
Helen Keller
Her triumphant mastery of human communication, despite blindness and deafness.
Anne Frank
Her diary, chronicling life in hiding among Jews fleeing Nazi oppression, is a classic on the possibilities of human goodness even in the face of overwhelming evil.
Rosa Parks
Her refusal to move further back on the bus, to accommodate white riders, helped ignite not only the Montgomery bus boycott, but the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
Marilyn Monroe
Already the subject of over 300 biographies, the story of Norma Jeane Baker continues to fascinate.
The Kennedys
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy Shriver,
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, more.
Mother Teresa
Roman Catholic nun, of Albanian heritage, Mother Teresa worked primarily among the poor in Calcutta, India.
Diana, Princess of Wales
Troubled young woman, divorced from Prince Charles of England, and dead too early in a car crash in a Paris tunnel, but her work for various causes and charities and her own personal strength in adversity have made her an idol for many.
More women's history biographies, by name:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P/Q | R | S | T | U/V | W | X/Y/Z
