List of Female Scientists Before the 21th Century

From Wikipedia
Note: 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
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[citation needed]
Aspasia of Miletus (4th century BCE), philosopher and scientist
Cleopatra the Alchemist - identity is unclear, but her book, The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra, is first recorded as existing in the 2nd century A.D./C.E. in Alexandria.
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 of Alexandria (370-415), mathematician and astronomer, Egypt
Lastheneia of Mantinea, (5th century BCE), one of Plato's only female students
Mary the Jewess (1st or 2nd century CE), alchemist
Merit Ptah (c.2700 BCE), Egyptian physician
Pythias of Assos (4th century BCE), marine zoologist[citation needed]
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
Bettina d'Andrea (d. 1335), Italian lawyer and philosopher
Novella d'Andrea (d. 1333), Italian lawyer
Hildegard von Bingen (1099–1179), German natural philosopher
Dorotea Bocchi (fl. 1390), Italian professor of medicine
Constance Calenda (15th century), Italian surgeon specialising in diseases of the eye
Constanza, Italian physician
Calrice di Durisio (15th century), Italian physician
Jacobina Félicie (fl. 1322), Italian physician
Alessandra Giliani (fl. 1318), Italian anatomist
Rebecca de Guarna (14th century), Italian physician[2][3]
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
Maria Incarnata, Italian surgeon[3]
Margarita (14th century), Italian physician[3]
Thomasia de Mattio, Italian physician[3]
Mercuriade (14th century), Italian physician and surgeon[2]
Empress Theodora (500-545), Byzantine philosopher and mathematician
Trotula of Salerno (c. 1090), Italian physician
Walborg and Karin Jota (c. 1350), Swedish officials of the court

15th to 17th centuries
Anna Åkerhjelm (1647–1693), Swedish traveller and amateur archeologist.
Aphra Behn (1640–1689), British astronomer
Juliana (fl. 1460), British natural historian
Celia Grillo Borromeo (1684–1777), Italian natural philosopher
Sophia Brahe (1556–1643), Danish astronomer and chemist
Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), natural philosopher
Laura Cereta (1469–1499), humanist
Isabella Cortese, (fl. 1561), Italian alchemist
Maria Cunitz (1610–1664), Silesian astronomer
Jeanne Dumée (fl. 1680), French astronomer
Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Palatine (1618–1680), German natural philosopher
Beatriz Galindo (1465–1534), Spanish physician
Elisabetha Koopman Hevelius (c.1646), astronomer, wife of Johannes Hevelius
Hedvig Eleonora Klingenstierna, (17th century) Swedish lecturer in Latin at Linköping University
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), naturalist
Tarquinia Molza (1542–1617), Italian natural philosopher
Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646–1684), Italian mathematician and the first female PhD
Jane Sharp (fl. 1671), British midwife

18th Century
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718–1799), Italian mathematician
Maria Ardinghelli (1728–1825), Italian mathematician and physicist
Anna Atkins (1799–1871), British botanist
Giuseppa Eleonora Barbapiccola (c. 1702-1740), natural philosopher, translator
Laura Bassi (1711–1778), Italian physicist
Margaret Bryan (c. 1760-1815), British natural philosopher
Maria Christina Bruhn (1732–1802), Swedish inventor
Elsa Beata Bunge (1734–1819), Swedish botanist
Maria Medina Coeli (1764-1846), Italian physician.
Émilie du Châtelet (1706–1749), French mathematician and physicist
Jane Colden (1724–1766), American biologist
Maria Dalle Donne (1778–1842), Italian physician
Eva Ekeblad (1724–1786), Swedish agronomist
Nicole-Reine Lepaute (1723–1792), French astronomer.
Dorothea Leporin Erxleben (1715–1762), German physician
Elizabeth Fulhame (fl. 1794), British chemist
Sophie Germain (1776–1831), elasticity theory, number theory
Lucia Galeazzi Galvani (1743–1788), Italian physician
Catherine Littlefield Greene (1755–1814), American inventor
Caroline Herschel (1750–1848), German-British astronomer
Josephine Kablick (1787-1863), Botanist
Maria Margarethe Kirch, (1670–1720), German astronomer
Marie Paulze Lavoisier (1758–1836), French chemist and illustrator
Anna Morandi Manzolini (1716–1774), Italian physician and anatomist
Maria Pettracini (1759-1791), Italian anatomist and physician
Louise du Pierry (1746- fl 1807), French astronomer
Faustina Pignatelli (d. 1785), Italian physicist
Christina Roccati (1732–1797)
Clotilde Tambroni (1758–1817), Italian philologist and linguistic
Petronella Johanna de Timmerman (1723–1786), Dutch scentist

19th century
Lovisa Årberg (1801–1881) first woman doctor and surgeon in Sweden.
Elizabeth Cary Agassiz (1822–1907), American natural historian
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836–1917), British physician
Mary Anning (1799–1847), British natural historian
Amalia Assur (1803), Swedish dentist
Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854–1923), British physicist
Sara Josephine Baker (1873–1945), American doctor (child hygiene pioneer)
Florence Bascom (1862–1945), American geologist
Etheldred Benett (1776–1845), British geologist
Isabella Bird Bishop (1831–1904), British natural historian
Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910), American physician
Emily Blackwell (1826–1910 ), American physician
Marie Gillain Boivin (1773–1841), French midwife
Elizabeth Brown (d. 1899), British astronomer
Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930), American psychologist
Annie Jump Cannon (1863–1941), American astronomer
Mary Agnes Meara Chase (1869–1963), American biologist
Cornelia Clapp (1849–1934), American zoologist
Agnes Mary Clerke (1842–1907), British astronomer
Anna Botsford Comstock (1854–1930), American natural historian
Florence Cushman American astronomer
Lydia Maria Adams DeWitt (1859–1928) American pathologist
Amalie Dietrich (1821–1891), German natural historian
Maria Dalle Donne (19th century)
Marie Durocher (1809–1893), Brazilian obstetrician, midwife and physician
Alice Eastwood (1859–1953), American biologist
Rosa Smith Eigenmann (1858–1947), American biologist
Mileva Einstein-Maric (1875–1948), Serbian/Swiss physicist
Ellen Eglui (19th century)
Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838–1923), American ethnologist
Williamina Fleming (1857–1911), Scottish/American astronomer
Rosalie Fougelberg (1841) , Swedish dentist
Melanie Hahnemann (1800-1878), French homeopath
Margaret Lindsay Murray Huggins (1848–1915), British astronomer
Ida Henrietta Hyde (1857–1945), American biologist
Maria Jansson (1788–1842), known as Kisamor, Swedish physician
Sophia Jex-Blake (1840–1912), British physician
Mary Kies (19th century), American inventor
Helen Dean King (1869–1955), American biologist
Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850–1891), Russian mathematician (partial differential equations, rotating solids, Abelian functions)
Christine Ladd-Franklin (1847–1930), American psychologist
Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868–1921), American astronomer
Jane Webb Loudon (1807–1858), British botanist
Augusta Ada Byron Lovelace (1815–1851), British mathematician
Margaret Eliza Maltby (1860–1944), American physicist
Jane Haldimand Marcet (1769–1858), British natural philosopher
Annie Russell Maunder (1868–1947), Irish astronomer
Antonia Caetana Maury (1866–1952), American astronomer.
Olive Thorne Miller (1831–1918), American natural historian
Maria Mitchell (1818–1889), American astronomer
Johanna Mestorf (1828-1909), German prehistoric archaeologist
Mary Murtfeldt (1848–1913), American biologist
Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), British nurse and statistician
Eleanor Anne Ormerod (1828–1901), British biologist
Edith Marion Patch (1876–1954), American biologist
Mary Engle Pennington (1872–1952), American chemist
Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps (1793–1884), American science educator
Beatrix Potter (1866–1943), British mycologist (study of mushrooms)
Emmy Rappe (1835-1896), Swedish nurse
Mary Jane Rathbun (1860–1943), American marine biologist
Ellen Swallow Richards (1842–1911), American industrial and environmental chemist
Emily Roebling (1844–1903), American civil engineer
Clémence Royer (1830–1902)fr:Clémence Royer
Ethel Sargant (1863–1918), British biologist
Ellen Churchill Semple (1863–1932), American geographer
Annie Lorrain Smith (1854–1937), British lichenologist and mycologist
Mary Somerville (1780–1872), British physicist
Mary Treat (1830-1923) - American naturalist
Nettie Stevens (1861–1912), American geneticist
Lucy Hobbs Taylor (1833–1910), American dentist
Jeanne Villepreux-Power (1794–1871), French marine biologist
Mary Walker (1832–1919), American surgeon
Margaret Floy Washburn (1871–1939), American psychologist
Sarah Frances Whiting (1846–1927), American astronomer and physicist
Mary Watson Whitney (1847–1921), American astronomer
Karolina Widerström (1856–1949), Swedish physician
Anna Winlock (1857–1904), American astronomer

20th century
Faye Ajzenberg-Selove (1926- ), American nuclear physicist, (2007 US National Medal of Science)
Claudia Alexander, American planetary scientist
Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956), French chemist and nuclear physicist
Lorella M. Jones (1943-1995), American particle physicist
Carole Jordan (1941- ), British solar physicist
Renata Kallosh (1943- )
Berta Karlik (1904–1990)
Bruria Kaufman (1918–2010 )
Marcia Keith (1859–1950)
Ann Kiessling (1942- )
Margaret Kivelson (1928- )
Dorothea Klumpke (1861–1942), American-born astronomer
Noemie Benczer Koller (1933- )
Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf (1922–2010)
Stephanie Kwolek (1923- ), American chemist, inventor of Kevlar
Elizabeth Laird (1874–1969)
Henrietta Leavitt, (1868–1921), American astronomer (periodicity of variable stars)
Juliet Lee-Franzini (1933- )
Inge Lehmann (1888–1993)
Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909- ), Italian neurologist (Nobel prize for growth factors)
Kathleen Lonsdale (1903–1971)
Misha Mahowald (1963–1996), American neuroscientist
Margaret Eliza Maltby (1860–1944), American physicist
Louisa Martindale (1872–1966), British surgeon
Lynn Margulis (1938- ), American biologist
Barbara McClintock (1902–1992), American geneticist
Anne McLaren (1927–2007), British developmental biologist
Helen Megaw (1907- )
Lise Meitner (1878–1968), Austrian nuclear physicist (pioneering nuclear physics, discovery of nuclear fission, protactinum, and the Auger effect)
Maud Menten (1879–1960), Canadian biochemist
Kirstine Meyer (1861–1941)
Luise Meyer-Schutzmeister (1915–1981)
Ann Haven Morgan (1882–1966), American zoologist
Anna Nagurney Canadian-born, US operations researcher/management scientist focusing on networks
Chiara Nappi, Italian American physicist
Ann Nelson (1958- ), American physicist
Marcia Neugebauer,
Gertrude Neumark (1927- )
Ida Tacke Noddack (1896–1979)
Emmy Noether (1882–1935), German mathematician and theoretical physicist (symmetries and conservation laws) [73]
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (1942- ), German geneticist and developmental biologist (Nobel prize for homeobox genes)
Daphne Osborne (1930–2006), British plant physiologist (plant hormones)
Donna Osif (20th century), meteorologist
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900–1978), British-American astronomer
Marguerite Perey (1909–1975)
Melba Phillips (1907–2004)
Agnes Pockels (1862–1935)
P. Ya. Polubarinova-Kochina (1899- )
Edith Quimby (1891–1982)
Helen Quinn (1943- )
Lisa Randall (1962- ), American physicist
F. Gwendolen Rees (1906–1994), British parasitologist
Anita Roberts (1942–2006), American molecular biologist, "mother of TGF-Beta"
Vera Rubin (1928- )
Myriam Sarachik (1933- )
Bice Sechi-Zorn (1928–1984)
Johanna Levelt Sengers
Patsy Sherman (20th century)
Charlotte Moore Sitterly (1898–1990), American astronomer
Hertha Sponer (1895–1968)
Margaret A. Stanley, British virologist and epithelial biologist
Phyllis Starkey (1947- ) British biochemist and medical researcher
Isabelle Stone (1868–1944) , American thin-film physicist and educator
Ida Noddack Tacke (1896–1978), German chemist and physicist
Maria Telkes (1900–1995), Hungarian-American biophysicist
Jean Thomas, British biochemist (chromatin)
Karen Vousden, British cancer researcher
Katharine Way (1903–1995)
Mary Olliden Weaver (20th century), inventor
Elsie Widdowson (1908–2000), British nutritionist
Margo Wilson (1945- ), Canadian evolutionary psychologist
Fiona Wood, (1958- ), British-Australian plastic surgeon
Leona Woods (1919–1986), American nuclear physicist
Dorothy Wrinch (1894–1976), British mathematician and theoretical biochemist
Chien-Shiung Wu (1912–1997), Chinese-American physicist (nuclear physics, (non) conservation of parity) [
Sau Lan Wu [90], Chinese-American particle physicist
Xide Xie (Hsi-teh Hsieh) (1921–2000)
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (1921- ), American medical physicist (Nobel prize for radioimmunoassay)

E.K. Janaki Ammal (1897-1984) Indian botanist
Asha Kolte, Indian Biologist (1941-)[5][6]
Betsy Ancker-Johnson (1929- ) [7], American plasma physicist
Caroline Austin, British molecular biologist [8]
Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854–1923), British mathematician and electrical engineer (electric arcs, sand ripples, invention of several devices, geometry) [9]
Zonia Baber (1862-1955), American geographer and geologist
Milla Baldo-Ceolin [10], Italian particle physicist
Yvonne Barr (1932- ), British virologist (co-discovery of Epstein-Barr virus)
Gillian Bates, British geneticist (Huntingdon's disease)
Ruth Benedict (1887–1948), American anthropologist
Val Beral (1946- ), British–Australian epidemiologist
Susan Blackmore (1951- ), British science writer (memetics, evolutionary theory, consciousness, parapsychology)
Mary Adela Blagg (1858–1944), British astronomer
Marietta Blau (1894–1970) [11], German experimental particle physicist
Katharine Blodgett (1898–1979) [12], American thin-film physicist
Christiane Bonnelle [13], French spectroscopist
Alice Middleton Boring (1883–1955), American biologist
Lera Boroditsky, American psychologist
Jenny Rosenthal Bramley (1909–1997), Lithuanian-American physicist [14], [15]
Harriet Brooks (1876–1933) [16], American radiation physicist
Dorothy Lavinia Brown (1919–2004), American surgeon
A. Catrina Bryce (1956-), Scottish laser scientist
Linda B. Buck (1947- ), American neuroscientist (Nobel prize for olfactory receptors)
Margaret Burbidge (1919- ), British astrophysicist [17]
Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943- ), British astrophysicist (discovery of radio pulsars) [18]
Nina Byers (1930- ) [19], American physicist
Annie Jump Cannon (1863–1941), American astronomer
Mary L. Cartwright (1900–1998) [20]
Yvette Cauchois (1908–1999) [21]
Margaret Chan (1947- ), Chinese-Canadian health administrator; director of the World Health Organization
Martha Chase (1927–2003), American molecular biologist
Amanda Chessell computer scientist
Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat (1923- ) [22], French theoretical physicist
Patricia Cladis (1937- ) [23]
Janine Connes [24]
Esther Conwell (1922- ) [25]
Ursula M. Cowgill, American biologist and anthropologist
Suzanne Cory (1942- ), Australian immunologist/cancer researcher
Heather Couper (1949- ), British astronomer (astronomy popularisation, science education)
Gerty Theresa Cori (1896–1957), American biochemist (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1947)
Maria Skłodowska-Curie (1867–1934), Polish-French chemist (pioneer in radiology, discovery of polonium and radium) [26]
Janet Darbyshire, British epidemiologist
Ingrid Daubechies, (1954- ) Belgian mathematician (Wavelets - first woman to receive the National Academy of Sciences Award in Mathematics)
Eleanor Davies-Colley (1874–1934), British surgeon (first female FRCS)
Cécile DeWitt-Morette (1922- ) [27]
Louise Dolan [28]
Nancy M. Dowdy (1938- ) [29]
Mildred Dresselhaus (1930- ) [30]
Helen Flanders Dunbar (1902–1959) important early figure in U.S. psychosomatic medicine.[31]
Helen T. Edwards (1936- ) [32]
Tatjana Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa (1876–1964) [33]
Gertrude B. Elion (1918–1999), American biochemist (Nobel prize for drug development)
Magda Ericson (1929- ) [34]
Sandra Faber (1944- ) [35]
Claire Fagin, American health-care researcher
Dian Fossey (1932–1985), American zoologist [36]
Rosalind Franklin (1920–1957), British physical chemist and crystallographer
Ursula Franklin (1921-), Canadian metallurgist, research physicist, author and educator
Judy Franz (1938- ) [37]
Phyllis S. Freier (1921–1992) [38]
Mary K. Gaillard (1939- ) [39]
Birutė Galdikas (1946- ), German primatologist and conservationist
Fanny Gates (1872–1931) [40]
Kate Gleason (1865–1933), American engineer
Ellen Gleditsch (1879–1968) [41]
Claire F. Gmachl, American physicist
Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906–1972), German-American physicist [42]
Jane Goodall (1934 - ), British biologist, primatologist [43]
Gertrude Scharff Goldhaber (1911–1998) [44]
Sulamith Goldhaber (1923–1965) [45]
Evelyn Boyd Granville (1924- )
Susan Greenfield (1951- ), British neurophysiologist (neurophysiology of the brain, popularisation of science)
Gail Hanson (1947- ) [46]
Anna J. Harrison (1912–1998), American organic chemist
Evans Hayward (1922- ) [47]
Caroline Herzenberg (1932- ) [48]
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910–1994), British X-ray crystallographer [49]
Grace Hopper (1906–1992), American computer scientist
Clara Immerwahr (1870–1915), German chemist
Shirley Jackson (physicist) (1946- ) [50]
Bertha Swirles Jeffreys (1903–1999) [51]