Polish-French physicist and chemist Madame Marie Curie, seated front, works in a laboratory, with her daughter Irene, in Paris France, April 20, 1927. Curie, along with her husband, Pierre, first isolated the two highly radioactive elements, radium and plutonium, from uranium ore 25 years before. Dorothy Levitt was the first female British racing driver and a trailblazer for women everywhere. She even taught Queen Alexandra and the Royal Princesses how to drive. Anne Frank didn’t hide herself. Hermine “Miep” Santruschitz Gies is the woman who helped protect her and her family from the Nazis for over two years during World War II. She is also the woman responsible for saving Anne’s diary after the Franks were arrested. British model and symbol of the swinging sixties, nobody quite summed up the era's fashion and musical evolution quite like Twiggy. She was named ‘The Face of 1966’ by the Daily Express and voted Woman of the Year that same year.

Today, Jo is regularly booked for corporate events to share her incredible insight into leadership and high-performance teamwork. She has even published two books, Energy – 52 ways to fire up your life and become an Energy Angel and Energize. 20. Christine Lagarde “To me, leadership is about encouraging people. It’s about stimulating them. It’s about enabling them to achieve what they can achieve - and to do that with a purpose.” As well as helping co-found Not on the High Street, Holly also runs a business consultancy and advice platform where she shares her tips on how to succeed in the demanding industry, something she can also share at her speaking events. Book a Female Inspiration Speaker The formula for success is simple: practice and concentration, then more practice and concentration.” — Babe Didrikson Zaharias 17. Margaret Bourke-White

3. Phoebe Schecter

It is through art that we will prevail and we will endure. It lives on after us and defines us as people.” — Rita Moreno 27. Miep Gies Once you’ve been in space, you appreciate how small and fragile the earth is.” — Valentina Tereshkova 48. Junko Tabei British national treasure and the world's first chimpanzee expert, Jane Goodall is a force of nature.

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” — Jane Austen 31. Malala Yousafzai Susan B. Anthony was raised in a Quaker family with deep roots in activism and social justice, inspiring her to become an advocate for women’s suffrage, women’s property rights, and the abolition of slavery. In 1872, to challenge suffrage, Anthony tried to vote in the 1872 presidential election and was arrested. While Anthony was never able to legally vote, the 19th amendment, ratified in 1920, was named the “Susan B. Anthony Amendment.” Wangari Muta Maathai Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, human rights activist, and the first female judge in Iran. After Khomeini’s revolution in 1979, she was dismissed as a judge, but then opened a legal practice to defend people being persecuted by the authorities. In 2000, she was imprisoned for criticizing her country’s hierocracy. She won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially those of women, children, and refugees. She is the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to win the prize. She is currently living in exile in the UK due to increased persecution of opponents of the current regime. Benazir Bhutto Her true-to-life, rebellious yet charming attitude may have made her a television star, but it is her work as a human rights activist, not least during the Gurkha Justice Campaign, that has earned her a place on this list, and more importantly a charming status as the 'Daughter of Nepal'. 10. Emma Gonzalez “We are going to be the kids you read about in textbooks. Not because we're going to be another statistic about mass shooting in America, but because, just as David said, we are going to be the last mass shooting.” There may be pleasure in being whirled around the country by your friends and relatives, or in a car driven by your chauffeur; but the real, the intense pleasure, the actual realisation of the pastime comes only when you drive your own car.” 45. Coco ChanelI ain’t afraid to love a man. I ain’t afraid to shoot him either.” — Annie Oakley 47. Valentina Tereshkova High-voltage history … (from left) Jade Kennedy, Christina Modestou, Kirstie Skivington and Renee Lamb in Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World. Photograph: Pamela Raith Founded in 2007 as a healthy alternative to normal crisps, the company has gone on to be commonplace on the shelves of some of the UK’s biggest supermarkets. The company now has over 40 different products in its range and at all of her events, Claire can discuss how she took her product from just a concept to a market leader. 30. Hillary Clinton “The worst thing that can happen in a democracy–as well as in an individual's life–is to become cynical about the future and lose hope: that is the end, and we cannot let that happen.” A story that was so nearly one of disappointment and failure to deliver on potential became one that summed up the power of never giving up. Florence Nightingale was a British nurse, social reformer, and statistician. She wrote over 150 books, pamphlets, and reports on health-related issues, and she is also credited with creating one of the first versions of the pie chart. However, Nightingale is best known for efforts to improve the qualities of hospitals. She established St. Thomas’ Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses in 1860. Her efforts to reform healthcare greatly improved the quality of care in the 19th and 20th centuries.