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

Women's history

A contemporary portrait of scientist Ada Lovelace

History heroKonnie Huq chooses Ada Lovelace (1815–52)

Queen of hearts: When Catherine's husband Tsar Peter III alienated his people, they instead turned to his wife, and she was proclaimed the rightful ruler.

General Early Modern

Catherine the Great: your guide to the famed Empress of Russia

Catherine the Great: fact and fiction

Suzannah Lipscomb on women’s lives in Reformation France

The daughter and great-niece of Henry VIII respectively, Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots didn't feel strong family ties when it came to their relationship. (Photo by Getty Images)

Queens at war: Elizabeth I vs Mary, Queen of Scots

The portrait of Queen Elizabeth I known as the Ditchley portrait

What did Queen Elizabeth I really look like at 60?

History heroJulia Bradbury chooses Amelia Earhart (1897–1937)

A young girl in an ancient Roman fresco

Q&AWere girls educated in ancient Rome?

A 16th-century portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Mary, Queen of Scots: the real history behind the film

Statue of Lady Godiva

Q&ADid Lady Godiva ride naked in Coventry?

Ladies-in-waiting

General History

Q&AWhat did a lady-in-waiting actually do?

Mary, Queen of Scots and her ladies-in-waiting. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Mary, Queen of Scots: what happened to her ladies-in-waiting?

In 1358, women finally gained full knightly acceptance in England when they began to be admitted to chivalric orders. (Photo by Eugene Antonov/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Q&ACould a woman become a knight in medieval times?

Da Vinci's Mona Lisa portrait

Q&AWho was the Mona Lisa?

A late 19th or early 20th-century painting entitled 'Mother and Child'. As fertility rates fell, sentimental idealisations of mothers and babies developed. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

The motherhood revolution: how the great fertility decline affected the lives of women

Literary women through the ages: Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Charlotte Brontë all enjoyed female friendships which enriched their writing, say Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney. (Getty Images)

From Austen & Brontë to Woolf: literature’s forgotten female friendships

England Women's World Cup squad, Mexico, 1971

The 1971 Women's World Cup: game changers?

The women of Bletchley Park

A history of women’s football in Scotland

Lucrezia Borgia with her father Pope Alexander VI

Lucrezia Borgia: is her bad reputation deserved?

Rachel Reeves on women who changed politics

1960s model. (Photo by Alamy)

Women in the 1960s

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

Gentleman Jack

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

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?