100 Influential Women Who Helped Write World History
March 14, 2026
In honor of Women’s History Month, one of our writers recently shared a fascinating list from BBC History Magazine’s companion site HistoryExtra that asks a deceptively simple question:
Which women have had the biggest impact on world history?
To find out, historians asked experts in ten different fields to nominate influential women, then invited readers to vote on the final list of 100. The result is a remarkable collection of world-changers — some household names, others figures many of us may be meeting for the first time.
The list spans centuries and disciplines, highlighting women who reshaped science, politics, culture, and social movements.
Scientists like Marie Curie, who pioneered research on radioactivity and won two Nobel Prizes, sit alongside activists such as Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat helped ignite the U.S. civil rights movement.
Visionaries like Ada Lovelace — often considered the world’s first computer programmer—appear alongside reformers such as Emmeline Pankhurst, who led Britain’s suffrage movement with the rallying cry “Deeds, not words.”
What makes the list especially compelling is its mix of famous figures and lesser-known pioneers. Alongside names many of us recognize are women like Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray research helped reveal the structure of DNA, and philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, who devoted her wealth to improving living conditions for the poor.
History, it turns out, is full of women whose contributions shaped the modern world — even if their stories haven’t always been front and center in textbooks.
Lists like this are inevitably subjective (and probably spark lively debate), but that’s part of the fun. They remind us that history isn’t just made by a handful of famous names — it’s shaped by countless people whose ideas, courage, and determination ripple across generations.
And if this list does anything well, it’s encouraging us to keep discovering the stories of the women who helped build the world we live in today.
Happy Women’s History Month!
