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

Women's history

Gentleman Jack, Suranne Jones as Anne Lister (Photo by BBC/Lookout Point/Jay Brooks)

Gentleman Jack. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Victorian lady washing in the nude

In pictures: erotic postcards of the early 20th century

Members of Preston Ladies' Football Club (formerly Dick, Kerr’s Ladies) pose while carrying out leg exercises during practice, March 1937. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

1921: the year when football banned women

A c1850 bronze statue by Thomas Thornycroft commemorating Boudica and her daughters. (Photo by Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Boudica: scourge of the Roman empire

Cathy Newman speaks to the History Extra podcast about 'Bloody Brilliant Women'. (Photo by Getty Images)

Women who made modern Britain. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Love before Prince Albert: Queen Victoria’s suitors

1949: Clementine with husband Winston Churchill at Epsom racecourse for the Derby. (Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Second World War

6 surprising facts about Clementine Churchill

Portrait of a young woman believed to be Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Did Catherine Howard commit adultery?

An ancient Roman relief shows a midwife delivering a baby. Many midwives had other occupations, and undertook the task as a contribution to their community. (Wellcome Images)

Call the (Roman) midwife

Queen Victoria with her children and grandchildren. Kaiser Wilhelm II is pictured left in the front row. (Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images)

Friends, family and rivals: Queen Victoria and the European empires

A rocky relationship: Eleanor of Woodstock with her husband, Reginald II of Guelders. (Photo by Alamy)

The medieval rebel princesses

Comedian Rhona Cameron and political activist Peter Tatchell help to hold a banner at an LGBT Pride event in London, 1998. (Photo by Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The historians’ view: is the world finally waking up to transgender issues?

English countrywoman (right) with a lady of the court. From ‘Civitates Orbis Terrarum’, 1572. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Tudor women: what was life like?

Woodcut of a woman who may be stoking a furnace or baking bread, printed in the 15th century. (SSPL/Getty Images)

What was life like for a medieval housewife?

Marble bust of Agrippina the Younger

Agrippina the Younger: the first true empress of Ancient Rome

Olivia Colman as Queen Anne in 'The Favourite'. (Photo by Twentieth Century Fox/Entertainment Pictures)

The Favourite: the real history behind the new Queen Anne film

Catherine Hanley tells the story of Empress Matilda, whose battle for the English throne became known as ‘the anarchy’. (Photo by Jeni Nott for BBC History Magazine)

Empress Matilda: Medieval warrior queen. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Catherine Hanley talks to Ellie Cawthorne about Matilda, the legitimate daughter of Henry I. (Photographed for BBC History Magazine by Jeni Nott).

Catherine Hanley on Matilda: "Honestly, if I were her, I'd have wanted to put my fist through a wall". This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Victoria’s pets and animals

The Italian-French poet and campaigner for women's rights, Christine de Pizan (1364–c1430). (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Not so silent: the unquiet women of history

Agrippina the Younger. (Photo by Alamy)

Agrippina the Younger: a Roman woman of great power. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A 19th-century portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. (Photo by Print Collector/Getty Images)

Elizabeth I’s love life: was she really a ‘Virgin Queen’?

Illustration of Isabella of France. From the book ‘Our Queen Mothers’ by Elizabeth Villiers. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Isabella of France: the rebel queen

English journalist and broadcaster Jenni Murray at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, 2017. (Photo by Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images)

World-changing women. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A maid polishes a silver dish. Female domestic servants were highly vulnerable to sexual exploitation, but in Reformation France they found some ways to fight back. (Photo by: Christophel Fine Art/UIG via Getty Images)

The women who wouldn’t be silenced in Reformation France

Petra Kelly. “Through sheer force of will, Petra Kelly put green politics on the map. Her success in Germany in the 1980s inspired green parties across the world to shake things up,” says Caroline Lucas. (Photo by Schulze-Vorberg/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

My history hero: Caroline Lucas chooses Petra Kelly (1947–92). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Sir Godfrey Kneller's portrait of Anne Stuart. Following the 1707 Acts of Union, she would be queen of Great Britain and Ireland. (Photo by Getty Images)

"A charming, popular monarch": Tracy Borman on Queen Anne

French writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and husband Willy, photographed c1902. (Photo by Apic/Getty Images)

Who was the real Colette?

Max Adams. (Photo by Kona Macphee/Royal Literary Fund)

Remarkable women through history. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

5 women who challenged the Westminster boys' club in the 18th century