International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on 8 March. Founded in 1911, this year marks 115 years of celebrating incredible women from all over the world.
On this day, we acknowledge the cultural, social, political, technological and scientific advancements of just some of the women who have fought for gender equality and changed the world.
Women in science: brilliance in a world of men
Ada Lovelace 1815-1852
Ada Lovelace’s life may have been short but her impact was immense and is still being felt today. Lovelace was the only daughter of Lord Byron and educational reformer Anne Isabelle Milbanke. She was a gifted mathematician who worked alongside Charles Babbage and is considered to be the first computer programmer with her development of the first ever algorithm when she recognised that computers could do more than just calculate. In a time where women’s roles in society were largely domestic, that is quite the feat. She has a day dedicated to her which is celebrated annually on the second Tuesday in October.
Marie Curie 1867-1934
Marie Curie changed the world not just once but twice. Born in Warsaw, she studied Physics at The Sorbonne in Paris. She pioneered the new science of radioactivity, identifying two new elements, radium and polonium with her husband. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry and the only person in history to win Nobel Prizes in two different fields. Her contribution to science led to radiotherapy, a revolutionary way to treat cancer. She is immortalised in the cancer charity that bears her name.
Rosalind Franklin 1920-1958
Franklin was an English chemist and X-Ray crystallographer whose work was crucial to the understanding of coal, graphites and viruses, most notably her work on the polio virus. However, arguably her greatest achievement was the now infamous Photo 51 which led to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA by James Watson, Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick, who later received a Nobel Prize, while she did not. Although her work on DNA and the polio virus were groundbreaking, Franklin died before either of those discoveries were awarded Nobel Prizes. Franklin is immortalised in a number of institutions bearing her name, as well as an asteroid and a space rover.
Katherine Johnson 1918-2020
Katherine Johnson was an American mathematician whose calculations were crucial to the success of early US space missions. While working for NASA, her abilities played a key role in John Glenn’s 1962 orbital mission, with Glenn requesting that she personally verify the computer’s figures before the launch. Her work was also vital to the success of the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing. Johnson was one of the first African-American women to work at NASA at the height of segregation, overcoming both racial and gender barriers. Her life was told in her biography and film Hidden Figures. In 2015, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Women in Literature: raising awareness of inequalities
Jane Austen 1775-1817
Jane Austen was a 19th century English novelist. Her works are considered to have revolutionised literature through her style of writing which paved the way for the modern realistic novel. She also placed a strong emphasis on women’s narratives, challenging the status quo on how women were portrayed in literature as well as society as a whole. Her portrayal of strong women who married for love rather than convenience is found in most of her novels. In 2017, for the 200th anniversary of her death, her importance was commemorated on the £10 note.
Maya Angelou 1928-2014
Maya Angelou, poet, essayist and civil rights activist, gave a voice to the marginalised, especially to the Black female experience. Her autobiographies tackle themes of trauma, identity and racism, most notably in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Her life work defending and promoting Black culture has made her a cultural icon and a trailblazer in civil rights. She was the first Black woman to have a screenplay produced as a film (Georgia, Georgia) and later was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Harper Lee 1926-2016
Harper Lee was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. She is considered to have had a profound impact on the way we think about justice, race and inequality with her novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Published at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, this famous influential book challenged the attitudes of the time and exposed racial injustice. To Kill a Mockingbird was adapted with Lee’s help into an Oscar-winning film and she was later presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W Bush in 2007.
Margaret Atwood 1939-present
Margaret Atwood is a novelist, poet and inventor of the Long Pen device. Her large body of work ranges from poetry and short stories to children’s books and graphic novels. But she is most famous for her 18 novels, the best-known of which is the dystopian futurist The Handmaid’s Tale, mainly because of the Emmy-award-winning TV series. The theme concerns the risk to women’s rights in a world where fertility is endangered and the famous image used in the series has become a symbol for women world-wide.
Women in Activism: changing society
Helen Taylor 1831-1907
Helen Taylor, political activist, writer and actor, is not usually well-known when discussing politics. However, she was active in the early women’s suffrage movement and worked to alleviate poverty and injustice. In 1885 she became the first ever female parliamentary candidate standing for Southwark, with policies for women’s suffrage, the prevention of war and better conditions for the working classes. Ultimately, she wasn’t allowed to stand in the election but the fact she even tried at a time when women were considered less important than their male counterparts and certainly not thought of as suitable for public office, was an incredible feat.
Rosa Parks 1913-2005
Rosa Parks, the ‘mother of the civil rights movement’, is well-known as the woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus for a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. At the time, this action defied the Jim Crow racial segregation laws and prompted the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which in turn led to a change in the law and helped launch the American Civil Rights Movement. She had joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1943 and worked on cases of racial and sexual violence before being arrested on the bus. Her life was dedicated to her activism and she was the first Black person to be memorialised in the National Statuary Hall.
Malala Yousafzai 1997-present
Malala Yousafzai’s traumatic life story led eventually to her fame as the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, at the age of just 17. She had already achieved prominence for her activism under the Taliban, when she was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman going home from school on a bus in 2012. Remarkably, she survived. Living in Birmingham, she became an activist for the right to education for girls, gained a degree from Oxford university, published a book and became one of the most influential people of the century.
Gisèle Pelicot 1952-present
Our most recent woman of note is Gisèle Pelicot, who became a feminist icon in 2024. In a groundbreaking mass rape trial that would go on to change the law in France, she waived her right to anonymity; in doing so, she became an international symbol for courage. As a rape victim, she had the right to a private trial but instead she insisted that it be held publicly, showing immense courage and strength throughout. On Bastille Day 2025 she was appointed a knight of the Legion of Honour.
A cause for celebration
Ultimately International Women’s Day is about supporting each other, recognising women’s importance through their achievements and raising awareness of inequality. While women have come a long way, there is still some work to do.
Never is this truer than in the UK mainstream media which is largely dominated by men in terms of leadership. According to Reuters, the percentage of women in top editor roles in the media is 46%.
Bylines Network, however, is different: we are leading the way. Across our 10 publications we have 12 editors-in-chief of which 10 are women. Eight of our 10 publications are run exclusively by women.
Today more than ever, we salute the women who came before us, on whose shoulders we stand. Here’s to the future women who will continue to change the world.
Happy International Women’s Day!
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