List of female scientists before the 20th century

Antiquity

• Gargi Vachaknavi, Indian philosopher
• Abrotelia, philosopher in Ancient Greece
• Aemilia, Gallo-Roman physician
• Aesara of Lucania, philosopher in Ancient Greece
• Agamede, physician in Ancient Greece
• Aglaonike, first woman astronomer in Ancient Greece
• Agnodike, first woman physician to practice legally in Athens
• Andromache, Egyptian physician
• Amyte, Greek physician and poet
• Arete of Cyrene, natural and moral philosopher, North Africa
• Artemisia of Caria, botanist
• Asclepigenia, Greek Neoplatonist
• Aspasia, philosopher and scientist
• Aspasia the Physician, Greek physician
• Axiothea of Phlius, Greek philosopher
• Aurelia Alexandria Zosime, Ancient Roman physician
• Beronice, Roman philosopher
• Caerellia, Roman academician
• Clea, philosopher
• Cleachma, Greek philosopher
• Cleopatra the Alchemist - wrote the alchemical book, Chrysopoeia, or "gold-making"
• Damo, Greek natural philosopher
• Diotima of Mantinea, philosopher and scientist, ancient Greece
• Eccello of Lucania, Greek/Italian mathematician and natural philosopher
• Echecratia the Philiasian, Greek/Italian mathematician and natural philosopher
• Elephantis, Greek physician
• Enheduanna, Sumerian/Akkadian astronomer and poet
• Fabiola, Roman physician
• Fang, Chinese chemist
• Favilla, Roman physician
• Hypatia, mathematician and astronomer, Egypt
• Laïs, midwife
• Lais of Corinth, Ancient Greek physician
• Lastheneia of Mantinea, student of Plato
• Leontium, Greek philosopher
• Leoparda, gynecologist
• Macrina, Greek physician and nun
• Marcella, Roman healer
• Mary the Jewess, alchemist
• Melissa, Greek philosopher
• Merit Ptah, Egyptian physician
• Metrodora, Greek physician and author
• Minucia Asste, Ancient Roman physician
• Myia, Greek philosopher
• Nicerata, physician and healer
• Occello of Lucania, Greek natural philosopher and mathematician
• Olympias of Thebes, Greek midwife
• Origenia, Greek healer
• Pao Ku Ko, Chinese chemist
• Paphnutia the Virgin, Egyptian alchemist
• Paula, Roman healer
• Perictione, Greek philosopher, mother of Plato
• Panthea, Ancient Greek physician, wife and colleague of Glycon.
• Philinna of Thessaly, Ancient Greek physician
• Peseshet Egyptian physician
• Pulcheria, healer
• Pythias of Assos, marine zoologist
• Restituta, Ancient Roman physician
• Salpe of Lesbos, Ancient Greek physician
• Salpe, Greek midwife
• Sotira, Greek physician
• Tapputi-Belatekallim, Babylonian perfumer, the first person in history recorded as using a chemical process
• Terentia Prima, Ancient Roman physician
• Theano, philosopher, mathematician and physician
• Thelka, Iranian
• Theosebeia, healer

  Middle Ages

• Abella, Italian physician
• Adelle of the Saracens, Italian physician
• Adelmota of Carrara, Italian physician
• Rufaida Al-Aslamia, Muslim nurse
• Maesta Antonia, Florentine physician
• Ameline la Miresse, French physician
• Jeanne d'Ausshure, French surgeon
• Zulema L'Astròloga, Moorish astronomer
• Brunetta de Siena, Italian-Jewish physician
• Hildegard of Bingen, German natural philosopher
• Sibyl of Benevento, Napolitan physician specializing in the plague buboes
• Denice, French barber-surgeon
• Demud, German physician
• Dobrodeia of Kiev , Byzantine physician
• Dorotea Bucca, Italian professor of medicine
• Constance Calenda, Italian surgeon specializing in diseases of the eye
• Virdimura of Catania, Jewish-Sicilian physician
• Caterina of Florence, Florentine physician
• Jeanne de Cusey, French barber-surgeon
• Antonia Daniello, Florentine-Jewish physician
• Clarice di Durisio, Italian physician
• Fava of Manosque, French-Jewish physician
• Fatima al-Fihri, born in Tunesia, founder of world's first university in Fez
• Jacobina Félicie, Italian physician
• Francesca, muller de Berenguer Satorra, Catalan physician
• Maria Gallicia, licensed surgeon
• Bellayne Gallipapa, Zaragoza, Spanish-Jewish physician
• Dolcich Gallipapa, Leyda, Spanish-Jewish physician
• Na Pla Gallipapa, Zaragoza, Spanish-Jewish physician
• Sarah de St Giles, French-Jewish physician and medical teacher
• Alessandra Giliani, Italian anatomist
• Rebecca de Guarna, Italian physician
• Magistra Hersend, French surgeon
• Maria Incarnata, Italian surgeon
• Isabiau la Mergesse, French-Jewish physician
• Floreta La-Noga, Aragonese physician
• Helvidis, French physician
• Keng Hsien-Seng, Chinese chemist
• Li Shao Yun, Chinese chemist
• Stephanie de Lyon, French physician
• Guillemette du Luys , French royal surgeon
• Thomasia de Mattio, Italian physician
• Margherita di Napoli, Napolitan oculist active in Frankfurt-am-Main
• Mercuriade, Italian physician and surgeon
• Gilette de Narbonne, French physician
• Isabella da Ocre, Napolitan surgeon
• Francisca da Romana, Napolitan physician
• Dame Péronelle, French herbalist
• Peretta Peronne, also called Perretta Petone, French surgeon
• Lauretta Ponte da Saracena Calabria, Napolitan physician
• Trota of Salerno, Italian physician
• Marguerite Saluzzi, Napolitan licensed herbalist physician
• Sara de Sancto Aegidio, French physician
• Juana Sarrovia, Barcelona, Spanish physician
• Shen Yu Hsiu, Chinese chemist
• Sun Pu-Eh, Chinese chemist
• Raymunda da Taberna, licensed Napolitan surgeon
• Théophanie, French barber surgeon
• Trotta da Toya, Napolitan physician
• Polisena da Troya, licensed Napolitan surgeon
• Margarita da Venosa, licensed Napolitan surgeon
• Francisca di Vestis, Napolian physician

  16th century

• Sophia Brahe, Danish astronomer and chemist
• Isabella Cortese, Italian alchemist
• Loredana Marcello, Venetian botanist
• Tarquinia Molza, Italian natural philosopher
• Catherine de Parthenay, French mathematician
• Elinor Sneshell, English surgeon
• Agatha Streicher, German phycisian
• Caterina Vitale, Maltese pharmacist and chemist
• Tan Yunxian, Chinese physician

  17th century

• Anna Åkerhjelm, Swedish traveler and archaeologist
• Ann Baynard, British Natural philosopher
• Aphra Behn, British translator of an astronomical work
• Martine Bertereau, French mineralogist
• Agnes Block, Dutch horticulturalist
• Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Palatine, German natural philosopher
• Louise Bourgeois Boursier, French obstetrician
• Titia Brongersma, Frisian archaeologist, poet
• Margaret Cavendish, natural philosopher
• Marie Crous, French mathematician
• Maria Cunitz, Silesian astronomer
• Jeanne Dumée, French astronomer
• Maria Clara Eimmart, German astronomer
• Marie Fouquet, French medical writer
• Eleanor Glanville, English entomologist
• Elisabeth Hevelius, Polish astronomer
• Maria Sibylla Merian, naturalist
• Marie Meurdrac, French chemist and alchemist
• Elena Cornaro Piscopia, Italian mathematician and the first female PhD
• Marguerite de la Sablière, French natural philosopher
• Jane Sharp, British obstetrician
• Justine Siegemund, German obstetrician
• Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, English botanist
• Elizabeth Walker, British pharmacist

  18th century

• Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician
• Geneviève Charlotte d'Arconville, French anatomist
• Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen, German astronomer
• Maria Angela Ardinghelli, Italian mathematician and physicist
• Sarah Sophia Banks, British natural history collector
• Giuseppa Barbapiccola, natural philosopher, translator
• Jeanne Baret, French circumnavigator and botanist
• Laura Bassi, Italian physicist
• Marie Marguerite Bihéron, French anatomist
• Celia Grillo Borromeo, Italian natural philosopher
• Jacoba van den Brande, Dutch founder of first all-female science academy
• Maria Christina Bruhn, Swedish inventor
• Margaret Bryan, British natural philosopher
• Elsa Beata Bunge, Swedish botanist
• Lydia Byam, naturalist
• María Andrea Casamayor, Spanish mathematician
• Émilie du Châtelet, French mathematician and physicist
• Maria Medina Coeli, Italian physician
• Jane Colden, American biologist
• Rosalie de Constant, Swiss naturalist
• Angélique du Coudray, French midwife
• Maria Dalle Donne, Italian physician
• Eva Ekeblad, Swedish agronomist
• Dorothea Erxleben, German physician
• Charlotta Frölich, Swedish agronomist and historian
• Elizabeth Fulhame, British chemist
• Lucia Galeazzi Galvani, Italian physician
• Sophie Germain, elasticity theory, number theory
• Clelia Durazzo Grimaldi, Italian botanist
• Catherine Littlefield Greene, American inventor
• Salomée Halpir, Lithuanian oculist
• Caroline Herschel, German-British astronomer
• Catherine Jérémie, French-Canadian botanist
• Christine Kirch, German astronomer
• Margaretha Kirch, German astronomer
• Maria Margarethe Kirch, German astronomer
• Marie Lachapelle, French midwife
• Marie-Jeanne de Lalande, French astronomer
• Marie Paulze Lavoisier, French chemist and illustrator
• Nicole-Reine Lepaute, French astronomer
• Elisabeth Christina von Linné, Swedish botanist
• Martha Daniell Logan, American horticulturalist
• Eliza Lucas, American agronomist and indigo dye pioneer
• Maria Lullin, Swiss entomologist
• Catharine Macaulay, British social scientist
• Anna Morandi Manzolini, Italian physician and anatomist
• Marie Le Masson Le Golft, French naturalist
• Sybilla Masters, patent for a corn mill
• Lady Anne Monson, English botanist
• Maria Petraccini, Italian anatomist and physician
• Zaffira Peretti, Italian anatomist and physician
• Claudine Picardet French chemist, mineralogist and meteorologist
• Louise du Pierry, French astronomer
• Marie Anne Victoire Pigeon, French mathematician
• Faustina Pignatelli, Italian physicist
• Anna Barbara Reinhart, Swiss mathematician
• Cristina Roccati, Italian physics teacher
• Clotilde Tambroni, Italian philologist and linguistic
• Petronella Johanna de Timmerman, Dutch scientist
• Wang Zhenyi, Chinese astronomer

  19th century

Anthropology

• Maria Czaplicka, Polish cultural anthropologist
• Alice Cunningham Fletcher, American ethnologist
• Johanna Mestorf, German prehistoric archaeologist
• Margaret Murray, British anthropologist
• Clémence Royer, French anthropologist
• Ellen Churchill Semple, American geographer
• Praskovja Uvarova, Russian archaeologist

  Archeology

• Cornelia Horsford, American archaeologist
• Lady Hester Stanhope, British archaeologist
• Zsófia Torma, Hungarian archaeologist, paleologist, anthropologist

  Astronomy

• Mary Albertson, American botanist and astronomer
• Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer
• Agnes Mary Clerke, British astronomer
• Florence Cushman, American astronomer
• Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, American astronomer and astrophysicist
• Williamina Fleming, Scottish/American astronomer
• Margaret Lindsay Murray Huggins, British astronomer
• Henrietta Swan Leavitt, American astronomer
• Annie Russell Maunder, Irish astronomer
• Antonia Caetana Maury, American astronomer
• Maria Mitchell, American astronomer
• Isis Pogson, British astronomer
• Caterina Scarpellini, Italian astronomer
• Sarah Frances Whiting, American astronomer and physicist
• Mary Watson Whitney, American astronomer
• Anna Winlock, American astronomer

  Biology or natural history

• Frances Acton, British botanist
• Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, American natural historian
• Mary Albertson, American botanist and astronomer
• Mary Anning, British natural historian
• Emily Arnesen, Norwegian zoologist
• Anna Atkins, British botanist
• Harriet Henrietta Beaufort, British botanist
• Isabella Bird Bishop, British natural historian
• Priscilla Susan Bury, English botanist
• Albertina Carlsson, Swedish zoologist
• Mary Agnes Meara Chase, American biologist
• Cornelia Clapp, American zoologist
• Anna Botsford Comstock, American natural historian
• Clara Eaton Cummings, American botanist
• Lydia Maria Adams DeWitt, American pathologist
• Mary Cynthia Dickerson, American herpetologist, museum curator and writer
• Amalie Dietrich, German natural historian
• Alice Eastwood, American biologist
• Rosa Smith Eigenmann, American biologist
• Olga Fedtschenko, Russian botanist
• Maria Elizabeth Fernald, American entomologist
• Elisabetta Fiorini Mazzanti, Italian botanist
• Susanna Phelps Gage, American embryologist and comparative anatomist
• Lilian Jane Gould, British biologist
• Amelia Griffiths, British phycologist
• Marian E. Hubbard, American zoologist
• Agnes Ibbetson, English vegetable physiologist
• Susan Hallowell, American botanist
• Gabrielle Howard, British plant physiologist
• Ellen Hutchins, Irish botanist
• Ida Henrietta Hyde, American biologist
• Maria Elizabetha Jacson, English botanist
• Alice Johnson, English zoologist
• Józefa Joteyko, physiologist, psychologist, pedagogist
• Josephine Kablick, botanist
• Helen Dean King, American biologist
• Phoebe Lankester, British botanist
• Marie-Anne Libert, Belgian botanist and mycologist
• Friederike Lienig, German-Baltic entomologist
• Katharine Murray Lyell, British botanist
• Helen Abbott Michael, American botanist and chemist
• Olive Thorne Miller, American natural historian
• Maria Gugelberg von Moos, Swiss botanist
• Margaretta Morris, American entomologist
• Mary Murtfeldt, American biologist
• Eleanor Anne Ormerod, British biologist
• Edith Marion Patch, American biologist
• Beatrix Potter, British mycologist
• Mary Jane Rathbun, American marine biologist
• Margaretta Riley, British botanic
• Caroline Rosenberg, Danish botanist
• Ethel Sargant, British biologist
• Hazel Schmoll, American botanist working on plant life in Colorado
• Lilian Sheldon, English zoologist
• Alexandra Smirnoff, Finnish pomologist
• Annie Lorrain Smith, British lichenologist and mycologist
• Emilie Snethlage, German-Brazilian naturalist and ornithologist
• Nettie Stevens, American geneticist
• Jantina Tammes, Dutch botanist and geneticist
• Charlotte De Bernier Taylor, American entomologist
• Mary Treat, American naturalist
• Anna Vickers, marine algologist
• Jeanne Villepreux-Power, French marine biologist
• Anna Maria Walker, Scottish botanist
• Elizabeth Andrew Warren, Cornish botanist
• Mary Anne Whitby, English breeder of silkworms

  Chemistry

• Vera Bogdanovskaia, Russian chemist
• Ida Freund, first woman to be a university chemistry lecturer in the United Kingdom
• Louise Hammarström, Swedish chemist
• Edith Humphrey, probably the first British woman to gain a doctorate in chemistry
• Julia Lermontova, Russian chemist
• Laura Linton, American chemist
• Rachel Lloyd, American chemist
• Adelaida Lukanina, Russian physician and chemist
• Helen Abbott Michael, American botanist and chemist
• Frances Micklethwait, British research chemist
• Muriel Wheldale Onslow, British biochemist
• Marie Pasteur, French chemist and bacteriologist
• Mary Engle Pennington, American chemist
• Agnes Pockels, German chemist
• Vera Popova, Russian chemist
• Anna Sundström, Swedish chemist
• Ellen Swallow Richards, American industrial and environmental chemist
• Anna Volkova, Russian chemist
• Martha Annie Whiteley, English chemist and mathematician
• Nadezhda Olimpievna Ziber-Shumova, Russian chemist

  Engineers

• Emily Roebling, American civil engineer
• Lanying Lin, Chinese materials science

  Geology

• Florence Bascom, American geologist
• Etheldred Benett, British geologist
• Mary Buckland, British paleontologist and marine biologist
• Margaret Crosfield, British paleontologist and geologist
• Maria Gordon, Scottish geologist
• Mary Emilie Holmes, American geologist and educator
• Charlotte Murchison, Scottish geologist
• Elizabeth Philpot, British paleontologist

  Inventors

• Tabitha Babbitt, American inventor and tool maker
• Mary Brush, American inventor
• Martha Coston, American inventor
• Ellen Eglin, American inventor
• Hanna Hammarström, Swedish inventor
• Mary Kies, American inventor
• Margaret E. Knight, American inventor, first woman awarded a U.S. patent
• Huang Lü, Chinese optic inventor

  Mathematics

• Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician
• Augusta Ada Byron Lovelace, British mathematician
• Emilie Martin, American mathematician
• Florence Nightingale , British statistician and nurse
• Emmy Noether, German mathematician

  Microbiology

• Alice Catherine Evans, American microbiologist

  Medicine

• Rachel Alcock, British physiologist
• Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, British physician
• Hedda Andersson, Swedish physician
• Lovisa Årberg, first woman doctor and surgeon in Sweden
• Amalia Assur, Swedish dentist
• Sara Josephine Baker, American doctor
• Chandramukhi Basu, Indian physician
• Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician
• Emily Blackwell, American physician
• Marie Boivin, French writer on obstetrics
• Elizabeth D. A. Cohen, American physician, first female physician in the state of Louisiana
• Rebecca Cole American physician, by 1867 she was the second African-American woman to become a doctor in the United States
• Rebecca Lee Crumpler American physician, by 1864 she was the first African-American woman to become a doctor in the United States
• Maria Dalle Donne, Italian physician
• Marie Durocher, Brazilian obstetrician, midwife and physician
• Enriqueta Favez, Swiss physician and surgeon
• Rosalie Fougelberg, Swedish dentist
• Rupa Bai Furdoonji, Indian physician who was the world's first female anesthetist
• Kadambini Ganguly, Indian physician
• Johanna Hedén, Swedish midwife, feldsher and barber
• Aletta Jacobs, Dutch physician
• Maria Jansson, known as Kisamor, Swedish physician
• Sophia Jex-Blake, British physician
• Anandi Gopal Joshi, Indian physician
• Mary Poonen Lukose, Indian gynecologist
• Emmy Rappe, Swedish nurse
• Martha Ripley, American physician and suffragist
• Varvara Kashevarova Rudneva, Russian physician
• Florence R. Sabin, American medical scientist
• Regina von Siebold, German physician and obstetrician
• Charlotte von Siebold, German physician and gynecologist
• Anna Stecksén, Swedish pathologist
• Lucy Hobbs Taylor, American dentist
• Isala Van Diest, first female medical doctor and female university graduate in Belgium
• Catharine van Tussenbroek, Dutch gynecologist
• Mary Walker, American surgeon
• Karolina Widerström, Swedish physician

  Nuclear physics

• Lise Meitner, Austrian, Swedish, nuclear physicist

  Physics

• Hertha Marks Ayrton, British physicist
• Mileva Einstein-Maric, Serbian/Swiss physicist
• Margaret Eliza Maltby, American physicist
• Mary Somerville, British physicist, polymath

  Psychology

• Mary Whiton Calkins, American psychologist
• Christine Ladd-Franklin, American psychologist
• Margaret Floy Washburn, American psychologist
• Anna Freud, Austrian-British psychoanalyst

  Science education

• Jane Webb Loudon, Writer of introductory gardening books
• Jane Marcet, Writer of introductory science books
• Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, American science educator
• Josephine Silone Yates, American chemistry professor

  Sociology

• Jane Addams, American sociologist
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American sociologist
• Beatrice Webb, English sociologist and economist