Women: Did you mean...?

This collection presents biographies of 21 famous women from world history but those included represent only a small fraction of the many women, from ancient times to the present, who have made a lasting impression on the people of their...

In this gallery, we showcase images of 30 influential women from the Middle Ages. Usually dated from c. 500 to c. 1500, this was a complex and transformative period in European history filled with political turmoil and dynamic social and...

The high status of women in ancient Egypt was reflected in many aspects of the culture but, notably, in the number of female deities who embodied the concept of the Divine Feminine and were honored by both women and men. Women were regarded...

The women of ancient Egypt were highly regarded. Although the man was the head of the household, the woman made sure that household functioned as it was supposed to. Female deities were among the most popular in ancient Egypt and so it is...

Family planning was a topic of vital importance in the ancient Mediterranean. Some of the earliest medical literature from ancient Greece and Rome deals with fertility and reproductive health. Among the numerous treatments and procedures...

Christianity began as a sect of Judaism in Judea in the 1st century CE and spread to the cities of the Eastern Roman Empire and beyond. In these cities, non-Jews, Gentiles, wanted to join the movement, and these Gentile-Christians soon outnumbered...

Illustration of what life may have looked like in ancient Pompeii. "Women at the Well" by Luigi Bazzani (1836-1927), oil on woodpanel.

Amazon warriors frequently appeared in the art, literature, and mythology of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The idea of a female warrior society existing on the fringes of civilization continues to capture the imagination of modern generations...

Jamestown brides (also known as tobacco brides) were young, single women transported from England to the Jamestown Colony of Virginia between 1620-1624 to be married to male colonists already established there. The women themselves had their...

Prostitution in ancient Athens was legal and regulated by the state. During the Greek Archaic Period (c. 800-479 BCE) brothels were instituted and taxed by the lawgiver Solon (l. c. 630 - c. 560 BCE), and this policy continued into the Classical...