Rosalind Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer who made contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Franklin attended one of the few girls’ schools in London that taught physics and chemistry, she excelled at science and at 15 decided she would become a scientist. …
Valentina Tereshkova is a Russian cosmonaut and the first woman to have flown in space. Tereshkova was born in Maslennikovo, a small town in the Yaroslavl Region. She began school late, when she was eight years old and had to leave at 17 to help to support her family. She continued her education while working …
Clara Barton was a pioneer in the field of nursing and one of the founders of the American Red Cross. Barton realised that she was destined to become a nurse when her brother David became seriously ill after a barn-raising accident, 11 year old Barton nursed him for two years. After David recovered Barton was …
Marie Stopes was a British author, palaeobotanist, academic, campaigner for women’s rights and pioneer in the field of birth control. Stopes was born in Edinburgh to an archaeologist father and scholarly, suffragist mother. Her parents had met through the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Stopes attended University College London (UCL) where she studied …
Dr. Marie Maynard Daly was the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Chemistry. Daly was brought up in a family that valued education, her father had emigrated from the West Indies and enrolled at Cornell University to study chemistry, unfortunately he had to drop out due to a lack of money. Daly attended …
Virginia E. Johnson was an American sexologist, she pioneered research into the human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual dysfunction as part of a sexuality research team with William H. Masters. Johnson was risking a lot to be part of the research into sex, ladies of her generation were brought up with …
Marie Skłodowska-Curie was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research into radioactivity. Marie Skłodowska was a top student in her her secondary school, but was unable to attend Warsaw University as it was men-only. She attended the “floating university,” a set of underground, informal classes held in secret. She could not …
Florence Nightingale is known as ‘the founder of modern nursing’ and is famously thought of as ‘The Lady with the Lamp’. She is named after Florence, Italy, her place of birth. Nightingale was active in helping those less fortunate than herself early in her life, helping those who were ill or poor in the village …