collage image of women

Ancient

  • Gargi of India (5th century BC) – important figure in the Upanishads
  • Themistoclea of Delphi (6th century BC) – teacher of Pythagoras
  • Diotima of Mantinea (5th century BC) – teacher of Socrates (see Plato’s Symposium)
  • Arete of Cyrene (4th century BC) – Cyrenaic School
  • Aesara of Lucania (4th or 3rd century BC) – late Pythagorean
  • Julia Domna (“The Philosopher Julia”) (3rd century AD) – dialectician
  • Hypatia of Alexandria (370-415 AD) (mathematics, science, philosophy) –
  • Neo-Platonist
  • Makrina (4th century AD) – Christian Neo-Platonist
  • Asclepigenia of Athens (4th century AD) – Neo-Platonist

Medieval

  • Radegund of the Franks (6th century AD)
  • Saint Hilda of Whitby (7th century AD)
  • Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179 AD)
  • Heloise of Paris (12th century AD).

Early Modern

  • Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617) – important writer during Italian Renaissance
  • Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618-1680) – important critic of Descartes
  • Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673)
  • Anne Viscountess Conway (1631-1678)
  • Damaris Cudworth, Lady Masham (1659-1708)
  • Mary Astell (1666-1731)
  • Catherine Trotter Cockburn (1679-1749)
  • Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) – key figure in the history
  • of feminist thought
  • Lady Mary Shepherd (1777-1847)

20th Century – Major Figures

  • Emma Goldman (1869-1940)
  • Simone Weil (1909-1943)
  • Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)
  • Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
  • Suzanne K. Langer (1895-1985)
  • Simone De Beauvoir (1908-1986)
  • Iris Murdoch (1919-1999)
  • Elizabeth Anscombe (1919-2001)

Contemporary (alphabetical order)

  • Patricia Churchland
  • Jane English
  • Philippa Foot
  • Nancy Fraser
  • Marilyn Frye
  • Trudy Govier
  • Marjorie Grene
  • Donna Haraway
  • Luce Irigaray
  • Julia Kristeva
  • Helen Longino
  • Mary Midgeley
  • Martha Nussbaum
  • Susan Sherwin
  • Judith Jarvis Thomson
  • Nancy Tuana
  • Karen Warren
  • Mary Anne Warren
  • Robin West
  • Gloria Yamoto
  • Iris Young