There have been numerous women throughout history who have excelled in all fields. The poet Sappho for instance was the most highly esteemed poet in ancient Greece next to Homer. Marusaki Shikibu, one of many esteemed Japanese woman writers of the 10th century wrote what is often refered too as the world's first full novel 'The Tale of Genjii'. Marie de France was a well-known and greatly admired French poet of the 12th century. The 14th century writer Christine de Pisan was the first professional woman writer that we know of. Aphra Behn was the first professional woman playwright in England. In more modern times, Jane Austen,t he Brontes, George Eliot, and many others have been notable. Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slaverly novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' was the most influential novel of the 19th century.
There have been highly influential churchwomen throughout history. Hilda of Whitby, Hildegarde of Bingen, Catherine of Sienna, and Teresa of Avila come to mind.
Women who have been famous as military leaders include Boudicca, Aethelflaed (the Lady of the Mercians) Matilda of Tuscany, Joan of Arc, among many others.
Powerful rulers who were women include the female Pharoah Hatshepsut, Cleopatra of Egypt, Empress Wu of China, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Catherine di Medici, who was regent of France during the reigns of two of her sons, Queen Zinga Mbandi of Ndongo, Catherine the Great of Russia. In more modern times, Indira Ghandi, Mrs Golda Meyer and Margaret Thatcher have all made their mark on the world.
In civil rights, you could hardly get anyone more influential than Rosa Parks, who set the whole civil rights movement going. When the story got around that the reason she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man was that she was tired, she observed "The only tired I was, was tired of giving in." The notable abolitionists of the 19th century include the Grimke sisters (the first female anti-slavery lecturers in the USA). Other female abolitionists, who went on to found the women's suffrage movement include Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott and Lucy Stone. In the 20th century, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Paul, and (in the UK) mrs Pankhurst were all notable women's suffrage leaders.
Harriet Tubman, the remarkable ex-slave who returned to the south again and again to help other slaves escape, and was active as a spy and scout for the Union Army during the Civil War, is another great woman.
Ida Wells-Barnett, the black women's suffrage leader and courageous campaigner against lynching, is another notable woman.
Notable women in medicine have included Louise Bourgeois Boursier, the 16th century obstetrician, whose text on obstetrics was used in all French medical schools, editions of her work continued to appear until the 18th century. Florence Nightingale, who revolutionised the nursing profession and made it both respectable and respected, was a figure of major importance in the history of medicine. elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to graduate as a doctor from a US medical school. Clara Barton, who delivered vital supplies to Union troops during the Civil War, nursed wounded soliders, and was the founder of the American Red Cross is another significant woman. Another influential woman of the Civil War was Mary Ann (Mother) Bickerdyke, who nursed the wounded and cleaned up the filthy conditions in the hospital tents. She was famous for ordering everyone around, and her reputation gave her the clout to get away with it. An army surgeon who challenged one of her orders was told "Mother Bickerdyke outranks everybody, even Lincoln."
In the world of business, you couldn't get anyone more succesful and powerful than Madame c. J. Walker, America's first self-made female millionaire. She started a company selling beauty products for African American women, and ended up employing a network of over 250,000 black women as commissioned agents in her business. She said in a speech "I want to say to every black woman present, don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come ....Get up and and make them!"
Notable women aviators include Amelia Earhart, Amy Johnson, and Bessie Coleman (the first black woman to obtain a pilot's license in the USA).
Women singers of note include Bessie Smith, Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker, Edith Piaf, Shirely Bassey, and in classical music Maria Callas, Dame Nellie Melba, Dame Clara Butt, Joan Sutherland. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Swedish singer Jenny Lind (the Swedish nightingale) was a superstar of her day.