Research reveals who are the most important women in world history

Scientists, activists, programmers… The magazine’s readers BBC World History got together and voted to choose who were and still are the most important women in world history.

Get to know who they are and what their contributions to society were:

1. Marie Curie

If machismo is still present in the 21st century, can you imagine what it was like at the end of the 19th century, when Marie lived? The scientist not only managed to overcome the circumstances, but left a deep mark on history.

With an academic life that began at home, with the help of parents who were teachers, Curie was responsible for the discovery of two chemical elements: Polonium and Uranium. In addition, she was the only person, to date, to win two Nobel Prizes in science and the first woman to do a doctorate in France. You weren’t kidding, were you, Marie?

Because she was constantly in contact with radioactive elements, such as radium, and manipulated them without the protection of specific clothes, Curie ended up developing plastic anemia, which led to her death in 1934, aged 66.

2. Rosa Parks

Who knew that denying a seat on the bus seat could be the trigger for a revolution, right?

In 1955, in Alabama, Rosa was driving home sitting in the first seat restricted to people “with color”. According to the law in force at the time, when the buses filled up, blacks had to give up their seats to whites. And that’s what happened to the vehicle Parks was in. Three people got up, but not her. The result of this? In addition to losing her job, the activist was arrested.

However, this problematic situation did not end there. The city’s blacks began to boycott the buses, walking on foot, and, in this same scenario, martin luther king, who coordinated the demonstrations against Rosa’s arrest. Almost a year after that event, the segregated seating law was overturned by the Supreme Court.

3. Emmeline Pankhurst

Even though Emmeline has been arrested five times, she has not given up on her biggest goal: ensuring that women have the right to vote. Known as one of the greatest suffragettes – a feminist movement that fought for the rights of female figures -, Pankhurst founded the League for Women’s Suffrage together with her husband Richard Marsden Pankhurstwho wrote the first bill on female suffrage.

Later, Emmeline along with her first daughter, christabel Harriette, created the Political and Social Union of Women, another essential organization for winning the female vote. A few months before he died, in 1928, Pankhurst could see British legislation being transformed and women finally getting the right to vote like men.

4. Ada Lovelace

Even though Ada died at just 36 years old, it is not possible to talk about programming without mentioning her. She is known for being the world’s first programmer who produced an algorithm that could be processed by a machine. The result of this? Nothing more, nothing less than the creation of the first computers.

Take advantage and write it down: on October 15th, the Ada Lovelace Dayso that other women of science are encouraged to continue doing incredible work like the British programmer.

5. Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind is an example of what many women go through today. British biophysics captured the exact image that demonstrated, for the first time, that DNA is formed by a double helix, but it was scientists James Watson🇧🇷 Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery. Franklin’s research was also important in understanding RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite.