What you didn't know about famous and infamous women in history. History is not something that counts to men's credit alone, though they have often claimed it as their exclusive achievement. This book deals with the part that women have played in history, and acknowledges their role, although at the time they may have received little acknowledgment for it. For women of all stations and in all walks of life have made their contribution to human history, whether they have been queens or rulers, scientists or doctors, entertainers or artists, radicals or conservatives, or simply wives and mothers. Whether, too, they have made that contribution openly and on their own account, or whether they have used their sometimes subordinate position in society to engineer it by more subtle means. This book serves to stress this contribution, sometimes merely to remind the reader of it and to restate it, but sometimes, where necessary, to re-evaluate its true importance. Where myths or legends or simple forgetfulness have obscured the value of women's contributions to government, scientific research, artistic achievement, pioneering progress or radical reform, the writers have sought to remedy the defect and restore women to their rightful importance, and through that to award them the esteem that they properly deserve.

Table of Contents:
Preface Helen of Troy PART I - ARTISTS Dante & Beatrice Aphra Behn Jane Austen Elizabeth Barrett Browning Helen Bradley Coco Chanel Enid Blyton PART II - ENTERTAINERS AND STARS Greta Garbo Joyce Grenfell Marilyn Monroe Gracie Fields Margot Fonteyn PART III - BATTLEAXES Laura Ormiston Chant Mary Whitehouse PART IV - SCIENTISTS Margaret Ann Bulkley Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Marie Curie PART V - MISTRESSES AND FAVOURITES Roxelana Nell Gwynn Abigail Masham Sarah Churchill Francoise d'Abigne, Marquise de Maintenon Jeanne-Antoinette d'Aetoiles, Marquise de Pompadour Jeanne Becu, Comtesse du Barry Peggy Eaton Lillie Langtry Eva Braun Clara Petacci PART VI - WIVES Anne Hathaway Elizabeth Pepys Mary Anne Disraeli Jane Carlyle Lady Emily Tennyson Alice Liddell Magda Goebbels Ruth Bell Graham PART VII - HEROINES Lady Godiva Joan of Arc Grace Darling Mary Seacole Edith Cavell Eva Peron Phyllis Thom Anne Frank Sophie Scholl Princess Diana PART VIII - TROLLOPS Skittles Ruth Ellis Christine Keeler PART IX - MONSTERS Lady Macbeth Lady Rochford Ulrike Meinhof Rosemary West PART X - POLITICAL LEADERS Madame Roland Margaret Thatcher Benazir Bhutto Aung San Suu Kyi Shirley Williams PART XI - EARLIER FAMOUS QUEENS AND RULERS Queen of Sheba Livia Boudica The Two Matildas Queen Isabella Diane de Poitiers Catherine de Medici Elizabeth of York Elizabeth I PART XII - LATER FAMOUS QUEENS AND RULERS Queen Christina Henrietta Maria Bess of Hardwick Anne of Denmark Catherina of Braganza Queen Caroline Princess Mathilde Queen Victoria Liliuokalani PART XIII - INFAMOUS QUEENS AND RULERS Aelfthryth Emma Judith Lucrezia Borgia Mary Tudor Tz'u Hsi PART XIV - RADICALS AND PIONEERS Mary Astell Mary Wollstonecraft Madame de StaA"l Harriet Martineau Isabella Beeton Annie Besant Emily Hobhouse Fanny Lee Chaney Maria Boulding PART XV - SOCIAL REFORMERS Selena Hastings Frances Buss Josephine Butler Octavia Hill Catherine Booth Harriet Beecher Stowe Matilda Ashurst Briggs Helen Suzman Maya Angelou Notes Select Bibliography Index