Woman

Wu Zetian (624–705 AD) is the only woman in Chinese history to assume the title of Empress Regnant, ruling China in her own name from 690 to 705. She rose from court concubine to empress consort under Emperor Taizong, then effectively ruled through her husband Emperor Gaozong, and finally seized power outright. Under her reign, Tang China expanded its territory, and she reformed the civil service examination to favor talent over aristocratic birth, recruiting brilliant officials regardless of background.

In 1949, French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir published 'The Second Sex' (Le Deuxième Sexe), a landmark work of feminist philosophy that argued women are not born inferior but are made so by society. Her famous opening phrase — 'One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman' — challenged the idea that femininity is natural or inevitable. The book sold 22,000 copies in its first week, was banned by the Vatican, and became a foundational text of second-wave feminism worldwide.

Katherine Johnson, an African American mathematician at NASA, computed the orbital mechanics for multiple critical missions including the first American crewed spaceflight (Alan Shepard, 1961), John Glenn's orbital mission (1962), and the Apollo 11 Moon landing (1969). Glenn famously refused to fly unless Johnson personally verified the computer's trajectory calculations. She worked at NASA for 33 years and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Her story was told in the film Hidden Figures (2016).

Despite comprising roughly half the world's population, women account for approximately 70% of those living in extreme poverty (under $2.15/day). This disparity stems from multiple interconnected causes: unequal access to education and land ownership, discriminatory inheritance laws, higher rates of unpaid care work, and exclusion from financial services. The COVID-19 pandemic set back women's economic progress by years, pushing millions back into poverty.

Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace. She founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, which mobilized poor rural women to plant trees, restore degraded land, and improve local livelihoods. Under her leadership, the movement planted over 51 million trees across Kenya. She was also the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctoral degree.

For the first time in history, women now outnumber men among university graduates in most developed countries and globally. In the United States, women earn about 57% of all bachelor's degrees. In the OECD, 56% of new graduates are women. This trend is driven by higher female educational attainment rates and greater ambition in academic achievement. However, gender gaps remain in STEM fields — particularly engineering, computing, and physics.

Globally, women earn approximately 80% of what men earn for comparable work — a gap that persists across nearly all countries and industries. The World Economic Forum estimates that at the current rate of progress, it will take over 130 years to close the global gender pay gap completely. Factors include occupational segregation, the motherhood penalty, unconscious bias in hiring, and under-representation in senior roles. Countries like Iceland, Finland, and Norway have the smallest gaps.

Hedy Lamarr, one of Hollywood's biggest stars in the 1930s–40s, was also a self-taught inventor. During World War II, she co-invented (with composer George Antheil) a radio guidance system for torpedoes using frequency-hopping spread spectrum — a technique that changes radio frequencies rapidly to avoid jamming. The US Navy initially ignored the patent. Decades later, this technology became the foundation for Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth. Lamarr received the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award in 1997.

A landmark 2013 study from the University of Pennsylvania found that, on average, female brains have stronger connections between the left and right hemispheres, while male brains tend to have stronger connections within each hemisphere. This may explain observed differences in performance: women consistently outperform men in memory and social cognition tests, while men tend to perform better on spatial perception tasks. However, most neuroscientists caution that individual variation is far greater than group differences.

Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) was a peasant girl from Domrémy, France, who claimed to receive divine visions directing her to lead France against English occupation. At 17, she convinced the future King Charles VII to grant her command of the French army. In 1429 she lifted the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the Hundred Years' War. Captured by the English, she was burned at the stake aged just 19 in 1431. She was canonized as a saint in 1920.