List of female scientists before the 20th century

Portrait of Émilie du Châtelet by Maurice Quentin de La Tour.

See also: List of female scientists in the 20th century and List of 21st-century women scientists

This is a historical list, intended to deal with the time period when women working in science were rare. For this reason, this list ends with the 20th century.

Antiquity

• Aemilia (c. 300-363), Gallo-Roman physician
• Agamede (12th century BCE), (possibly mythical) physician in Ancient Greece
• Aglaonike (2nd century BCE), the first woman astronomer in Ancient Greece
• Agnodike (4th century BCE), the first woman physician to practice legally in Athens
• Arete of Cyrene (5th–4th centuries BCE), natural and moral philosopher, North Africa
• Artemisia of Caria (c. 300 BCE), botanist
• Aspasia (4th century BCE), philosopher and scientist
• Aspasia the Physician (fl. 1st century CE), Greek physician
• Cleopatra the Alchemist - wrote the alchemical book, Chrysopoeia, or "gold-making".
• Diotima of Mantinea (4th century BCE), philosopher and scientist, ancient Greece (sources vary as to her historicity; possibly a fictionalized character based on Aspasia of Miletus)
• Enheduanna (c. 2285–2250 BCE), Sumerian/Akkadian astronomer and poet
• Hypatia (370–415), mathematician and astronomer, Egypt

• Lastheneia of Mantinea, (5th century BCE), student of Plato
• Mary the Jewess (1st or 2nd century CE), alchemist
• Merit Ptah (c. 2700 BCE), Egyptian physician
• Peseshet Egyptian physician (Fourth Dynasty)
• Pythias of Assos (4th century BCE), marine zoologist
• Tapputi-Belatekallim (First mentioned in a clay tablet dating to 2000 BCE), Babylonian perfumer, the first person in history recorded as using a chemical process.
• Theano (6th century BCE), philosopher, mathematician and physician

Middle Ages

• Abella (14th century), Italian physician
• Adelle of the Saracens (12th-century), Italian physician.
• Adelmota of Carrara (14th-century), Italian physician.
• Hildegard of Bingen (1099–1179), German natural philosopher
• Dorotea Bucca (fl. 1390), Italian professor of medicine
• Calrice di Durisio (15th century), Italian physician
• Constance Calenda (15th century), Italian surgeon specialising in diseases of the eye
• Constanza, Italian physician
• Jacobina Félicie (fl. 1322), Italian physician
• Alessandra Giliani (fl. 1318), Italian anatomist
• Rebecca de Guarna (14th century), Italian physician
• Heloise (12th century), French mathematician and physician
• Herrad of Landsberg (c.1130–1195), German/French author of the encyclopedia and technological compendium Garden of Delight
• Magistra Hersend (floruit 1249–1259) French surgeon
• Maria Incarnata, Italian surgeon
• Anna Komnene (1083-1153), Greek physician
• Lilavati (c. 12th century), daughter featured in Bhāskara II's treatise on mathematics, who solves mathematical exercises
• Margarita (14th century), Italian physician
• Thomasia de Mattio, Italian physician
• Mercuriade (14th century), Italian physician and surgeon
• Dame Péronelle (1292-1319), French herbalist
• Empress Theodora (500–545), Byzantine philosopher and mathematician
• Trota of Salerno (12th century), Italian physician
• Walborg and Karin Jota (c. 1350), Swedish officials of the court

Herrad of Landsbert

16th century

• Sophia Brahe (1556–1643), Danish astronomer and chemist
• Isabella Cortese, (fl. 1561), Italian alchemist
• Loredana Marcello (d. 1572), Venetian botanist
• Tarquinia Molza (1542–1617), Italian natural philosopher
• Catherine de Parthenay (1554-1631) French mathematician
• Elinor Sneshell (fl. 1593), surgeon

17th century

• Anna Åkerhjelm (1647–1693), Swedish traveller and amateur archeologist.
• Ann Baynard (1672-1697) British Natural philosopher
• Aphra Behn (1640–1689), British translator of an astronomical work
• Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Palatine (1618–1680), German natural philosopher
• Celia Grillo Borromeo (1684–1777), Italian natural philosopher
• Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), natural philosopher
• Marie Crous (fl. 1640), French mathematician
• Maria Cunitz (1610–1664), Silesian astronomer
• Jeanne Dumée (fl. 1680), French astronomer
• Maria Clara Eimmart (1676 - 1707), German astronomer
• Eleanor Glanville (1654 – 1709), English entomologist
• Elisabeth Hevelius (1647–1693), astronomer, wife of Johannes Hevelius
• Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), naturalist
• Marie Meurdrac (c. 1610–1680), French chemist and alchemist
• Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646–1684), Italian mathematician and the first female PhD
• Marguerite de la Sablière (1640?-1693), French natural philosopher
• Jane Sharp (fl. 1671), British midwife
• Titia Brongersma (1650–1700), Frisian archaeologist, poet
• Elizabeth Walker (1623 - 1690), British pharmacist

Margaret Cavendish

18th century

• Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718–1799), Italian mathematician
• Geneviève Charlotte d'Arconville (1720-1805) French anatomist
• Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen (1751-1827), German astronomer
• Maria Angela Ardinghelli (1728–1825), Italian mathematician and physicist
• Sarah Sophia Banks (1744-1818), British natural history collector
• Giuseppa Barbapiccola (c. 1702–1740), natural philosopher, translator
• Laura Bassi (1711–1778), Italian physicist
• Marie Marguerite Bihéron (1719-1795), French anatomist
• Jacoba van den Brande (1735-1794), Dutch founder of first all-female science academy
• Maria Christina Bruhn (1732–1802), Swedish inventor
• Margaret Bryan (c. 1760–1815), British natural philosopher
• Elsa Beata Bunge (1734–1819), Swedish botanist
• María Andrea Casamayor (1700-1780), Spanish mathematician
• Émilie du Châtelet (1706–1749), French mathematician and physicist
• Maria Medina Coeli (1764–1846), Italian physician.
• Jane Colden (1724–1766), American biologist
• Maria Dalle Donne (1778–1842), Italian physician
• Eva Ekeblad (1724–1786), Swedish agronomist
• Dorothea Erxleben (1715–1762), German physician
• Charlotta Frölich (1698–1770), Swedish agronomist and historian
• Elizabeth Fulhame (fl. 1794), British chemist
• Lucia Galeazzi Galvani (1743–1788), Italian physician
• Sophie Germain (1776–1831), elasticity theory, number theory
• Clelia Durazzo Grimaldi (1760–1830), Italian botanist
• Catherine Littlefield Greene (1755–1814), American inventor
• Caroline Herschel (1750–1848), German-British astronomer
• Josephine Kablick (1787–1863), Botanist
• Christine Kirch (1696–1782), German astronomer
• Margaretha Kirch (1703-1744), German astronomer
• Maria Margarethe Kirch, (1670–1720), German astronomer
• Marie Lachapelle (1769-1821), French midwife
• Marie-Jeanne de Lalande (1760–1832), French astronomer
• Marie Paulze Lavoisier (1758–1836), French chemist and illustrator
• Nicole-Reine Lepaute (1723–1792), French astronomer
• Elisabeth Christina von Linné (1743–1782), Swedish botanist
• Martha Daniell Logan (1704-1779), American horticulturalist
• Eliza Lucas (1722–1793), American agronomist
• Maria Lullin (1750-1831), Swiss entomologist.
• Catharine Macaulay (1731-1791), British social scientist
• Anna Morandi Manzolini (1716–1774), Italian physician and anatomist
• Sybilla Masters (1675-1720) patent for a corn mill
• Maria Petraccini (1759–1791), Italian anatomist and physician
• Louise du Pierry (1746– fl. 1807), French astronomer
• Marie Anne Victoire Pigeon (1724-1767) French mathematician
• Faustina Pignatelli (d. 1785), Italian physicist
• Eliza Luca Pinckney (1723–1766) indigo dye pioneer
• Cristina Roccati (1732–1797) Italian physics teacher
• Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839) British archaeologist
• Clotilde Tambroni (1758–1817), Italian philologist and linguistic
• Geneviève Thiroux d'Arconville (1720-1805), French chemist
• Petronella Johanna de Timmerman (1723–1786), Dutch scientist
• Wang Zhenyi (astronomer) (1768–1797), Chinese astronomer

19th century

Anthropology

• Maria Czaplicka (1884-1921), Polish cultural anthropologist
• Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838–1923), American ethnologist
• Johanna Mestorf (1828–1909), German prehistoric archaeologist
• Margaret Murray (1863-1963) British anthropologist
• Clémence Royer (1830–1902), French anthropologist
• Ellen Churchill Semple (1863–1932), American geographer
• Praskovja Uvarova (1840–1924), Russian archaeologist

Archeology

• Cornelia Horsford (1861–1941?), American archaeologist
• Zsófia Torma (1832–1899), Hungarian archeologist, paleologist, anthropologist

Astronomy

• Mary Albertson (1838-1914), American botanist and astronomer
• Annie Jump Cannon (1863–1941), American astronomer
• Agnes Mary Clerke (1842–1907), British astronomer
• Florence Cushman (1860-1940) American astronomer
• Williamina Fleming (1857–1911), Scottish/American astronomer
• Margaret Lindsay Murray Huggins (1848–1915), British astronomer
• Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868–1921), American astronomer
• Annie Russell Maunder (1868–1947), Irish astronomer
• Antonia Caetana Maury (1866–1952), American astronomer
• Maria Mitchell (1818–1889), American astronomer
• Isis Pogson (1852-1945), British astronomer
• Caterina Scarpellini (1808–1873), Italian astronomer
• Sarah Frances Whiting (1846–1927), American astronomer and physicist
• Mary Watson Whitney (1847–1921), American astronomer
• Anna Winlock (1857–1904), American astronomer

Biology or natural history

Mary Anning

• Frances Acton (1793–1881) British botanist
• Elizabeth Cary Agassiz (1822–1907), American natural historian
• Mary Albertson (1838-1914), American botanist and astronomer
• Mary Anning (1799–1847), British natural historian
• Emily Arnesen (1876-1928), Norwegian zoologist
• Anna Atkins (1799–1871), British botanist
• Harriet Henrietta Beaufort (1778-1865), British botanist
• Isabella Bird Bishop (1831–1904), British natural historian
• Mary Agnes Meara Chase (1869–1963), American biologist
• Cornelia Clapp (1849–1934), American zoologist
• Anna Botsford Comstock (1854–1930), American natural historian
• Clara Eaton Cummings (1855-1906), American botanist
• Lydia Maria Adams DeWitt (1859–1928) American pathologist
• Mary Cynthia Dickerson (1866–1923), American herpetologist, museum curator and writer
• Amalie Dietrich (1821–1891), German natural historian
• Alice Eastwood (1859–1953), American biologist
• Rosa Smith Eigenmann (1858–1947), American biologist
• Olga Fedtschenko (1845–1921), Russian botanist
• Maria Elizabeth Fernald (1839–1919), American entomologist
• Susanna Phelps Gage (1857–1915), American embryologist and comparative anatomist
• Amelia Griffiths (1768–1858), British phycologist
• Susan Hallowell (1835-1911), American botanist
• Gabrielle Howard (1876-1930), British plant physiologist
• Ellen Hutchins (1785-1815), Irish botanist
• Ida Henrietta Hyde (1857–1945), American biologist
• Alice Johnson (zoologist) (1860–1940), English zoologist
• Helen Dean King (1869–1955), American biologist
• Marie-Anne Libert (1782-1865), Belgian botanist and mycologist
• Friederike Lienig (1790-1855), German-Baltic entomologyst
• Katharine Murray Lyell (1817–1915), British botanist
• Olive Thorne Miller (1831–1918), American natural historian
• Maria Gugelberg von Moos (1836–1918), Swiss botanist
• Margaretta Morris (1797–1867), American entomologist
• Mary Murtfeldt (1848–1913), American biologist
• Eleanor Anne Ormerod (1828–1901), British biologist
• Edith Marion Patch (1876–1954), American biologist
• Beatrix Potter (1866–1943), British mycologist
• Mary Jane Rathbun (1860–1943), American marine biologist
• Ethel Sargant (1863–1918), British biologist
• Hazel Schmoll (1890–1990), American botanist working on plant life in Colorado
• Lilian Sheldon (1862–1942), English zoologist
• Alexandra Smirnoff (1838-1913) Finnish pomologist
• Annie Lorrain Smith (1854–1937), British lichenologist and mycologist
• Emilie Snethlage (1868-1929), German-Brazilian naturalist and ornithologist
• Nettie Stevens (1861–1912), American geneticist
• Jantina Tammes (1871 - 1947), Dutch botanist and geneticist
• Charlotte De Bernier Taylor (1806–1863), American entomologist
• Mary Treat (1830–1923), American naturalist
• Jeanne Villepreux-Power (1794–1871), French marine biologist
• Anna Maria Walker (c. 1778–1852), Scottish botanist
• Mary Anne Whitby (1784-1850), English breeder of silkworms

Chemistry

• Vera Bogdanovskaia (1868-1897), Russian chemist
• Ida Freund (1863-1914), first woman to be a university chemistry lecturer in the United Kingdom
• Louise Hammarström (1849–1917), Swedish chemist
• Edith Humphrey (1875–1978), probably the first British woman to gain a doctorate in chemistry
• Julia Lermontova (1846-1919), Russian chemist
• Laura Linton (1853-1915), American chemist
• Rachel Lloyd (1839-1900)
• Muriel Wheldale Onslow (1880–1932), British biochemist
• Marie Pasteur (1826–1910), French chemist and bacteriologist
• Mary Engle Pennington (1872–1952), American chemist
• Agnes Pockels (1862-1935), German chemist
• Vera Popova (1867–1896), Russian chemist
• Anna Sundström (1785–1871), Swedish chemist
• Ellen Swallow Richards (1842–1911), American industrial and environmental chemist
• Anna Volkova (1800–1876), Russian chemist
• Nadezhda Olimpievna Ziber-Shumova (d. 1914), Russian chemist

Engineers

• Emily Roebling (1844–1903), American civil engineer
• Lanying Lin (1918-2003), Chinese materials science

Geology

• Florence Bascom (1862–1945), American geologist
• Etheldred Benett (1776–1845), British geologist
• Mary Buckland (1797-1857), British paleontologist and marine biologist
• Margaret Crosfield (1859-1952), British paleontologist and geologist
• Maria Gordon (1896-1939), Scottish geologist
• Mary Emilie Holmes (1850–1906), American geologist and educator
• Charlotte Murchison (1788 - 1869), Scottish geologist
• Elizabeth Philpot (1780-1857), British paleontologist

Inventors

• Mary Brush (19th century), American inventor
• Ellen Eglui (19th century) inventor
• Hanna Hammarström (1829–1909), Swedish inventor
• Mary Kies (1752 – 1837), American inventor

Mathematics

• Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850–1891), Russian mathematician (partial differential equations, rotating solids, Abelian functions)
• Augusta Ada Byron Lovelace (1815–1851), British mathematician
• Emilie Martin (1869- 1936), American mathematician
• Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), British statistician and nurse
• Emmy Noether(1882-1935), German mathematician

Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (Ada Lovelace)

• Dorothy Vaughan (1910–2008), American mathematician, worked at NACA's Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory

Microbiology

• Alice Catherine Evans (1881–1975), American microbiologist

Medicine

• Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836–1917), British physician
• Hedda Andersson (1861-1950), Swedish physician
• Lovisa Årberg (1801–1881), first woman doctor and surgeon in Sweden
• Amalia Assur (1803–1889), Swedish dentist
• Sara Josephine Baker (1873–1945), American doctor (child hygiene pioneer)
• Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910), American physician
• Emily Blackwell (1826–1910 ), American physician
• Marie Boivin (1773–1841), French writer on obstetrics
• Maria Dalle Donne (1778–1842), Italian physician
• Marie Durocher (1809–1893), Brazilian obstetrician, midwife and physician
• Rosalie Fougelberg (1841–1911), Swedish dentist
• Johanna Hedén (1837–1912), Swedish midwife, feldsher and barber
• Maria Jansson (1788–1842), known as Kisamor, Swedish physician
• Sophia Jex-Blake (1840–1912), British physician
• Varvara Kashevarova Rudneva (1844–1899), Russian physician
• Emmy Rappe (1835–1896), Swedish nurse
• Martha Ripley (1843–1912), American physician and suffragist
• Florence R. Sabin (1871-1953), American medical scientist
• Regina von Siebold (1771-1849), German physician and obstetrician
• Charlotte von Siebold (1788-1859) German physician and gynecologist
• Anna Stecksén (1870-1904), Swedish pathologist
• Lucy Hobbs Taylor (1833–1910), American dentist
• Isala Van Diest (1842–1916), first female medical doctor and female university graduate in Belgium
• Mary Walker (1832–1919), American surgeon
• Karolina Widerström (1856–1949), Swedish physician
• Rachel Alcock (1862-1939), British physiologist

Nuclear physics

• Lise Meitner (1878–1968), Austrian, Swedish, nuclear physicist

Physics

• Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854–1923), British physicist
• Mileva Einstein-Maric (1875–1948), Serbian/Swiss physicist
• Margaret Eliza Maltby (1860–1944), American physicist
• Mary Somerville (1780–1872), British physicist, Polymath

Psychology

• Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930), American psychologist
• Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847–1930), American psychologist
• Margaret Floy Washburn (1871–1939), American psychologist

Science education

• Jane Webb Loudon (1807–1858), Writer of introductory gardening books
• Jane Marcet (1769–1858), Writer of introductory science books
• Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps (1793–1884), American science educator
• Josephine Silone Yates (?-1912), American chemistry professor

Sociology

• Jane Addams (1860-1935), American sociologist
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), American sociologist
• Beatrice Webb (1858-1943), English sociologist and economist

External links

• 4000 Years of Women in Science
• Most influential British women in the history of science (selected by Royal Society panel)

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.