Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Women's History

Remembering Nancy Grace Roman, Trailblazing Astronomer Known as ‘Mother of the Hubble’

She worked on and advocated for the space telescope, which changed our view of the universe

Susan Hiller, "Belshazzar's Feast, the Writing on Your Wall," 1983-4

Tate Britain’s Female-Led Exhibition Is a Hopeful Sign of What’s to Come

Will 2019 be the year more women artists get shown in art museums?

Felicity Jones, playing future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, makes the oral argument for Moritz in a scene from On the Basis of Sex.

Based on a True Story

The True Story of the Case Ruth Bader Ginsburg Argues in ‘On the Basis of Sex’

Moritz v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue was the first gender-discrimination suit Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued in court

Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1615-17

All Hail the Renaissance of Artemisia Gentileschi

The London National Gallery unveiled a restored portrait of the Baroque painter and announced a 2020 retrospective dedicated to the artist

“Nellie Bly: The Virtual Reality Experience” tracks Bly’s travels from Egypt to Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, San Francisco and beyond

VR Experience Lets You Join Nellie Bly on Her 72-Day Trip Around the World

The Newseum, Vive collaboration catalogues the intrepid reporter’s record-breaking journey

The Ten Best Children’s Books of 2018

Our picks deliver feminist history, folklore reimagined and an adventurous romp through awe-inspiring destinations

New Butterfly Species Named After 17th-Century Female Naturalist

Maria Sibylla Merian documented the lifecycles of moths and butterflies with unprecedented accuracy

Shirley Chisholm in 1972

New York Honors Shirley Chisholm, First Black Congresswoman in U.S. History, With New Statue

The firebrand politician once quipped that she would like to be remembered as a woman who ‘had guts’

Ida O’Keeffe created seven abstract paintings of Cape Cod’s Highland Light (pictured: Variation on a Lighthouse Theme V). The first in the acclaimed series has been lost.

Who Was Ida O’Keeffe, Georgia’s Lesser-Known, But Perhaps More-Talented, Sister?

The painter who toiled in the shadow of her celebrated sibling is the subject of a new, major exhibition

Pulter's poems offer an intimate glimpse into the private life of a 17th-century noblewoman

Critically Explore 17th-Century Noblewoman’s Little-Known Poems Online

Hester Pulter’s works detail chaotic political landscape of the English Civil War, scientific discoveries, theological queries, personal struggles

The co-founders of the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Mily Treviño-Sauceda and Mónica Ramírez (foreground), stand with members of Líderes Campesinas on a farm in Oxnard, California.

2018 Smithsonian Ingenuity Awards

The Time’s Up Initiative Built Upon the Work Done by These Labor Activists

How the leaders of a farmworkers’ alliance reached across cultural divides to fight sexual harassment

The Best History Books of 2018

From the political violence of 19th-century America to the untold stories of African-American pioneers, these books help shape our understanding of today

Detail of a copy of the Declaration printed by Goddard

Women Who Shaped History

Mary Katharine Goddard, the Woman Whose Name Appears on the Declaration of Independence

Likely the United States’ first woman employee, this newspaper publisher was a key figure in promoting the ideas that fomented the Revolution

Cellucotton, the material used to make Kotex sanitary pads, was used in World War 1 hospitals as a bandage. Nurses quickly found another use for it.

The Surprising Origins of Kotex Pads

Before the first disposable sanitary napkin hit the mass market, periods were thought of in a much different way

Jane Fortune photographed in 2009.

Legacy of Jane Fortune, Champion of Forgotten Women Artists, Lives on in New Initiative

‘A Space of Their Own’ aims to build comprehensive digital database of 15th- to 19th-century women artists

Madeline Pollard as she appeared during the five-week trial in the spring of 1894. Her entanglement with Col. Breckenridge made national headlines.

The Court Case That Inspired the Gilded Age’s #MeToo Moment

A turn-of-the-century trial, the focus of a new book, took aim at the Victorian double standard

Navy Chief Petty Officers are pictured with retired Navy engineer Raye Montague after her keynote speech at a Women's History Month Observance held at Naval Support Activity South Potomac on April 4, 2017.

Raye Montague, a Barrier-Breaking Naval Ship Designer, Has Died at 83

Despite facing racism and sexism at nearly every turn, Montague produced the first computer-made Navy warship design

Untitled (Wash Day: Scrubbing the Clothes) by Clementine Hunter, ca. 1965

Self-Taught Artist Clementine Hunter Painted the Bold Hues of Southern Life

On view at NMAAHC, Hunter’s colorful artworks depict work in the field, church on Sundays, and laundry on the line

Af Klint saw herself as a “holy transcriptionist, a technician of the unknown” whose work was simply a stepping stone in the pursuit of knowledge

From Obscurity, Hilma af Klint Is Finally Being Recognized as a Pioneer of Abstract Art

Before the modernists, the Swedish painter’s monumental canvases featured free-wheeling swirls, mysterious symbols, pastel palette

The upcoming installation will feature a choral work inspired by Mary Borden's wartime love sonnets

Mary Borden’s Forgotten World War I Ballad to Mark Centenary of Armistice Day

The heiress, poet and activist funded and oversaw military field hospitals during both world wars, penned series of sonnets inspired by wartime experiences

Page 33 of 52