A pioneer in social work, Jane Addams founded Hull-House in the 19th century and led it well into the 20th. She was also active in peace and feminist work.
The sultry singer began at Harlem's Cotton Club and worked her way into the world's heart as she struggled to overcome the limitations placed on her career by racism.
After seeing the suffering caused by unwanted and unplanned pregnancies among the poor women she served as a nurse,
Margaret Sanger took up a lifetime cause: the availability of birth control information and devices.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was the intellectual leader and strategist of the 19th century's women's rights movement, though her friend and lifelong partner in activism, Susan B. Anthony, was more of a public face to the movement.
Erma Bombeck's humor helped document the life of women in the 20th century as wives and mothers in suburban homes.
Calamity Jane was one of the best-known women of the American "Wild West." Scandalous enough as a woman who dressed as a man and was infamous for drinking and fighting, she embellished her life story considerably.
Charlotte Brontë was one of three brilliant sisters, writers of the 19th century, each of whom died early. Charlotte's best known work is the novel,
Jane Eyre, which drew from her own experience as a student in an inhumane school and as a governess.
Muckraking journalist Ida Tarbell was one of the few women to succeed in that circle. She exposed the predatory pricing practices of John D. Rockefeller and her articles about his company helped bring the downfall of Standard Oil of New Jersey.
Hypatia is known as the ancient world's most famous woman mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer. Her enemy, Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, may have called for her death. She was a pagan martyr, torn apart by a mob of Christian monks.
Sacagawea [or Sacajawea] guided the Lewis and Clark expedition, not completely of her own volition. In 1999 her image was selected for the United States dollar coin.
