‘To say this series is “empowering” doesn’t do it justice. Buy a copy for your daughters, sisters, mums, aunts and nieces – just make sure you buy a copy for your sons, brothers, dads, uncles and nephews, too.’ – indy100

‘Here’s to no more forgotten women.’ Evening Standard



The women who shaped and were erased from our history.

The Forgotten Women series will uncover the lost histories of the influential women who have refused over hundreds of years to accept the hand they’ve been dealt and, as a result, have formed, shaped and changed the course of our futures.

The Scientists celebrates 48* unsung scientific heroines whose hugely important, yet broadly unacknowledged or incorrectly attributed, discoveries have transformed our understanding of the scientific world.


  • Mary Anning, the amateur paleontologist whose fossil findings changed scientific thinking about prehistoric life
  • Emmy Noether, dubbed “The Mighty Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of”
  • Ynés Mexía, the Mexican-American botanist who discovered over 500 new plant species
  • Wangari Maathai, who started an environmental and ecological revolution in Kenya
  • Margaret Sanger, the maverick nurse who paved the way for the legalization of contraception


Chapters including Earth & Universe; Biology & Natural Sciences; Medicine & Psychology; Physics & Chemistry; Mathematics and Technology & Inventions profile the female scientists who have defied the odds, and the opposition, to change the world around us.

*The number of Nobel-prize-winning women.

Forgotten Women