Costumes

Rita Hayworth

Rita Hayworth (1918-1987) was born Margarita Carmen Cansino, the daughter of a professional flamenco dancer from Spain. Trained as a dancer herself, she started out in Hollywood doing bit parts. ...

Rosalind Franklin

In May 1952, Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) made a photograph. It wasn't just any photograph: it was an X-ray diffraction image of the DNA molecule. Labeled "Photo 51," it would prove to be the ...

Sappho

Sappho (ca. 620-570 BCE) was the world's first great love poet, composing lyrics of astonishing power and immediacy. The Greeks considered her the greatest of all the lyric poets; it's a tragedy ...

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) was one of America's greatest heroines. Born into slavery in New York, she became a powerful voice for abolition and women's rights. Her most famous ...

Sor Juana

In the relentlessly patriarchal society of New Spain, there was no place for a girl genius. Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648–1695) was a prodigy: she could read and write by the age of three, was ...

Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) devoted her life to the cause of women's suffrage, toiling for over 50 years in the face of incredible opposition (not to mention ridicule). As the de facto "Napoleon" ...

Themistoclea

The Greeks considered Pythagoras the "father of philosophy." He taught a system of natural science, mathematics, and ethics that profoundly influenced the Western canon. Ah, but who taught ...

Tin Hinan

Tin Hinan (4th century) was the legendary queen of the Tuareg people, the matrilineal desert-dwelling Berbers who are famous for their blue clothing---and for the fact that it's their men, rather ...

Tomyris

Tomyris (6th century BCE), the warrior queen of the Massagetae, was the woman who defeated and killed Cyrus the Great. In revenge for Cyrus's trickery and the death of her son, Tomyris led her ...

Trung Sisters

In ancient Vietnam, before the Chinese came, women were clan rulers and queens. Society was built on what seems to have been a gender-equal footing, and women routinely wielded political power, went ...

Vestal Virgin

The Vestal Virgins were the six priestesses who tended the sacred flame of Vesta, goddess of the hearth, in ancient Rome. They were far and away the most privileged women in Roman society, and in ...

Victoria

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) was the second longest-ruling female monarch in history, exceeded only by the late Queen Elizabeth II. People often think of her as the elderly widow of her later years, ...