History has always appeared to be about men-only deeds and achievements that were worth recording for posterity. Yet, interwoven in the very fabric of history are myriads of women whose contributions have often gone unrecognized. These women have had a profound impact on the course of events. These women shaped the world through their quiet resilience, intelligence, and determination often from behind the scenes. Though most of such women’s accounts are probably not written in books, one cannot deny their impact.

From the rise of mighty empires to scientific breakthroughs, women played their role in shaping how the world is. However, most of these contributions went unheralded, with their roles relegated to the background. This paper explores some great feats that women throughout history have accomplished. These feats, though not usually recognized, are crucial in shaping the world.

1. Hedy Lamarr: The Inventor Who Helped Win a War

People often remember Hedy Lamarr for her beauty. She is also known for her Hollywood career, acting in films like Algiers, 1938, and Samson and Delilah, 1949. Few people really know that she was a brilliant inventor whose work contributed to technology in use today. During World War II, Lamarr and composer George Antheil developed a radio frequency-hopping system. They aimed to prevent the Nazis from jamming torpedo guidance systems. In fact, they developed this communication system to significantly reduce or practically prevent an enemy from intercepting it. They wanted to stop the enemy from blocking it.

While their invention was never deployed during the war, the technologies developed would later go on to underpin modern Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Much of the contribution Lamarr made to science and technology really went unrecognized throughout her lifetime until years later. That poignancy is a serious reminder of just how history sometimes overlooks, if not utterly suppresses, the brilliant accomplishments of females, even when they change the paradigm.

2. Claudette Colvin: The Original Rosa Parks of the Civil Rights Movement

We all know that Rosa Parks is a name associated with igniting the spark to start the American Civil Rights Movement for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, back in 1955. Not too many know about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old African American girl who was to take an almost identical stand some nine months previously. Ms. Colvin had been arrested in March 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man.

She was too young and “feisty” to be the face at that time, and that is why Rosa Parks, much later on, would come to symbolize resistance. But this courageous act prepared the very field for the famous bus boycott, and too often, her early leadership and bravery get eclipsed in iconic images of Parks’ story.

3. Mariam Mukhtar: The Unknown Hero of the Somali Resistance

A woman who is an example to be taken as a role model for bravery and leadership qualities in the Somali resistance against colonial powers is Mariam Mukhtar. At the advent of the 20th century, Italy had colonized Somalia, and one of the strongest leaders in the struggle for her people’s independence was Mariam Mukhtar. She became known as the “Lioness of the Desert,” leading her troops against the Italians in one of the biggest Somali uprisings ever.

History has overlooked the life of Mukhtar in a large part for her time’s gender biases. Her voice was drowned by the male voices of her leaders; however, her place can hardly be denied as it sets up Somalia’s resistance against colonialism. The legend of Mukhtar lives to this very date for her courage and resilience.

4. Ada Lovelace: The First Computer Programmer

Immediately coming to mind are names of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Alan Turing. However, as significant this may be to the common mindset, the development of the scientific principle of computers were Ada Lovelace – mathematician/writer colleague of 19th-century Charles Babbage, who is also popularly known as the father of computing. Indeed, while the so-called “father of the computer,” Babbage, designed a mechanical computing machine, the Analytical Engine, it was Lovelace who actually wrote the first algorithm intended to be processed by the machine.

Even though most of Lovelace’s work was overlooked in her lifetime, her contribution was brilliant: She was the first to realize that computers could be made to do a lot more than just arithmetic, and therefore came up with the concept for a general-purpose device. Ada Lovelace is celebrated as the world’s first computer programmer nowadays, though this fame was gained quite at variance with her contemporaries.

5. Vera Atkins: Unsung Heroine of the British Secret Service

That era was during the Second World War. The British were involved with the Special Operations Executive. They engaged with European operations and were concerned for resistance movements. One of the names that shone bright in those actions was Vera Atkins. She controlled her own network in spy group operations. She infiltrated female spies through enemy lines. This depends entirely on Atkins’s choices, training, and deployment. The contributions of those women agents themselves, for the most part, remain absent from this paradigm shift.

Personally, Atkins commanded dozens of women. Most of them were spies, couriers, and radio operators. They put their lives daily in the line of fire in generally hostile and dangerous areas—most without acknowledgment. History largely overlooked the courage displayed by Atkins. Her leadership and firmness against danger were essential tools in the entire British warfare.

6. Dr. Virginia Apgar: Shaking the World of Newborn Health

Dr. Virginia Apgar, an American physician developed revolutionary advances in neonatal care upon the development of the “Apgar Score” in 1952. The Apgar Score is a quick and easy method for reviewing all newborn infants for heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflexes, and color of skin. Her scoring system is now a standard procedure worldwide and has saved countless lives.

Her burning examples and contributions had to bear all kinds of discriminations due to her female gender. While women were excluded from the leading positions in academic and medical spheres, Dr. Apgar had to work her way through a system that often shelved her talents and achievements. Yet, through her work she saved the lives of millions of babies and contributed much to the field of medicine.

7. Henrietta Lacks: The Woman Behind the HeLa Cells

Henrietta Lacks was an African American Virginian, whose cells, being cancerous and having uncontrollable proliferation ability, became an unwitting and passive donor for one of the most vital cell lines among all human cells ever cultured – the HeLa cell line. Because of economic circumstances and living in Baltimore, she developed cervical cancer and was diagnosed in 1951. Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took cells from her tumor and cultured them, unknowingly creating a line of cells that would be integral to many future medical breakthroughs, from the development of the polio vaccine to research into cancer and gene mapping.

She never consented to her cells being used or to acknowledge herself when alive. A story symbolic of the exploitation of African Americans in medical research and at the same time exemplifying deep impacts those cells had on science, HeLa cells remain central in modern-day medical research, while who Henrietta Lacks was has been forgotten until decades later.

8. Catherine the Great: The Empress Who Shaped Russian History

While remembered as one of the most powerful rulers in Russian history, few know just how Catherine the Great, from behind closed doors, worked to mold a Russia policy and influence often roundly confined by being a female within a completely male-dominated monarchy. Upon her husband’s death, Emperor Peter III, Catherine took to the throne from which she would eventually rule Russia for upwards of 30 years.

She did very much to enlarge Russia’s limits, both territorial and spiritual ones. This lady revitalized the Russian Empire: expanded the empire’s border to date; patron of arts and enrichment ideas. Public achievements are, of course, more attractive to notice. In reality, behind the curtain, great work was taken up in political and legal and financial mechanisms reforms for shaping the policy and fate of Russia.

9. Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson: The Fight for the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement

Though widely regarded as sparking the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, key individuals such as Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson extended the riots to 1969 at Stonewall. Rivera and Johnson were transgender activists fighting not only for colored people’s rights, low-income classes, and the most underprivileged in the LGBTQ+ struggle. The original founding members of the Gay Liberation Front, Rivera and Johnson later co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries-an organization called STAR-targeted at reaching homeless LGBTQ+ youth.

Their work in service to the rights of transgender individuals, and intersectionality of the LGBTQ+ movement, lives on. Perhaps both leading roles, but the role of Rivera and Johnson in the mainstream history of LGBTQ+ activism continued to be perpetually marginalized.

10. Boudica: The Celtic Queen Who Led a Revolt Against the Romans

Boudica, a queen of the Iceni tribe of ancient Britain, along with her huge following, revolted against the Roman occupation in 60 CE. It was a very personal rebellion-her land had been usurped and she had been publicly humiliated by them-but it rapidly became a rallying cry for the oppressed Celtic people. It was one of the amazing acts of resistance against overwhelming odds as Boudica’s forces then proceeded to destroy the Roman settlements that included the town of Camulodunum, now modern-day Colchester.

Though defeated and counted as having committed suicide, even in defeat, Boudica lived in memory as a warrior queen and a symbol of resistance. Though her feats were not in their time accorded due recognition, her acts of defiance and leadership serve to inspire the movements of justice and self-determination up to these days.

History stands choc-full of contributions made by the woman whose influence on this world has changed in ways so profound. In many cases, these are the women who often worked behind the scenes or their labors went unrewarded; thus, their acts and achievements set into motion social and cultural changes, and the discoveries of science. Their stories remind us to cherish the numberless unsung heroines who made an impact on history that should be remembered.