Women's history

The 1921 Wrangel Island expedition team: Ada Blackjack, Allan Crawford, Lorne Knight, Fred Maurer, Milton Galle, and Victoria the cat. (Photo by Alamy)

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

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Krystyna Skarbeck, also called Christine Granville

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

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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

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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 hero Bernardine 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 Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies (Public Domain)

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

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Historian Janina Ramirez

Exclusive podcast Janina Ramirez on extraordinary medieval women . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Half-sisters and daughters of Henry VIII: Mary Tudor (left) and Elizabeth I, who both reigned as queen of England. (Photos by Getty Images)

Did Elizabeth I and her half-sister, Mary Tudor, have a good relationship? Historian Tracy Borman explains

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Victorian heroine Grace Darling (1815–1842) with her father, lighthouse keeper William Darling. They are rowing from the Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Islands off Northumberland, to rescue the passengers of the stricken ship 'SS Forfarshire'. (Photo by Nigel Dobinson/Getty Images)

History hero Miriam Stoppard chooses Grace Darling (1815–1842) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A portrait of Queen Anne of Great Britain and Ireland.

Your guide to Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart monarchs

A portrait of Elizabeth I, c1565

The 10 best English queens in history