Photo of Mabel Capper and Patricia Woodlock advertising a meeting, Manchester, Lancashire, July 1908

Women's history

The time travelling Tudor: Anne Boleyn’s most surprising representations in film, TV and literature

Anthonis Mor's portrait of Mary I from 1554

Mary Tudor: brutal but brilliant

Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth II: what was their relationship like?

A portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft: reclaiming the reputation of a feminist icon

Women in black: the surprising history of widows. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Katherine Willoughby in an 18th-century engraving after a Hans Holbein the Younger portrait. In 1546 the prospect of her marrying England's ageing King Henry VIII was causing tongues to wag in diplomatic circles. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

A seventh wife for Henry VIII? The story of Katherine Willoughby

Chemist Marie Curie (1867–1934) in her laboratory. She shared a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre for their work in radioactivity. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Marie Curie: the woman who stirred up science. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Anne Boleyn. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Anne Boleyn: a 16th-century feminist?

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn’s final battle: Tracy Borman reveals Henry VIII's final 'kindness'

An illustration of a group of supposed witches

A very brief history of witches by Suzannah Lipscomb

Adventure and opportunity: female transatlantic travellers. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Tudor queens on screen. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Enslaved women & resistance. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Famous Victorians: Emily Bronte and Isambard Kingdom Brunel

7 famous Victorians: from Brontë to Brunel

In profile: Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl Marx

Your guide to Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn

How should history remember Margaret Thatcher?

Princess Anne and Queen Elizabeth II

In profile: Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II

Vivid experiences: a self-portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian Baroque artist whose brilliant renderings of biblical and classical scenes earned her commissions from some of the most powerful figures in 17th century Europe. (Photo by Araldo de Luca/Corbis via Getty Images)

Artemisia Gentileschi: how pain powered the great 17th-century artist

Enola Holmes (left to right): Henry Cavill as Sherlock Holmes, Millie Bobby Brown as Enola Holmes, Sam Caflin as Mycroft Holmes. (Photo by Robert Viglaski/Legendary)

From Enola Holmes to Fanny Dickens: recognising 5 historical women ‘overshadowed’ by their more famous brothers

Ada Blackjack: how the 'female Robinson Crusoe' escaped death in the Arctic

Krystyna Skarbeck, also called Christine Granville

History heroMichael Morpurgo chooses Krystyna Skarbek (1908–1952). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A suffragette march

The Suffragettes: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Elizabeth I knights Francis Drake on his ship Golden Hind after his round-the-world voyage. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

How did Elizabeth I feel about being queen in a 'man's world'? | Tracy Borman explains

Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I: a queen in a king’s world

It was the need for witnesses in divorce courts – ones who wouldn’t mind their names being linked to scandals, no less – that partly gave rise to female detectives. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

Women detectives: meet the Victorian female super sleuths

Mary Seacole as seen in a contemporary photo. Although she became famous for her nursing work in the Crimean War, her story subsequently became largely forgotten. (Photo by Alamy)

History heroBernardine Evaristo chooses Mary Seacole (1805–1881). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Mary Toft, perpetrator of the 1726 hoax – in which she appeared to give birth to rabbits

The woman who gave birth to rabbits? How Mary Toft's hoax captured Georgian society

Old Norse sages describe Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir as 'the loveliest of women and nobel in every trait'. But this far-travelled Icelandic woman was eulogised largely not for her beauty and charm but as a strong-willed survivor who married three times and bore a son, Snorri, in Vinland (North America) during on of her intrepid voyages (Illustration by Lynn Hatzius)

The amazing life of a great female Viking explorer

The real Harlots: Hallie Rubenhold on Covent Garden's courtesans