Scientist Marie Curie was voted the woman who has made the biggest impact in world history — beating Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher
Science historian Dr Patricia Fara said she nominated Marie because: 'The odds were always stacked against her'
MARIE Curie has been voted the woman who has made the biggest impact on world history.
The scientist topped a poll ahead of US race activist Rosa Parks.
She was the first person to win two Nobel prizes and her work led to effective treatments for cancer and the development of medical X-rays.
The Polish-born French scientist was chosen in a reader poll for BBC History Magazine.
Her nominator, science historian Dr Patricia Fara, said: “She was the first woman to win a Nobel prize in physics, first female professor at the University of Paris, and the first person - note the use of person there, not woman - to win a second Nobel prize.
"The odds were always stacked against her. In Poland her patriotic family suffered under a Russian regime.
"In France she was regarded with suspicion as a foreigner - and of course, wherever she went, she was discriminated against as a woman."
Emmeline Pankhurst was third, ahead of computer pioneer Ada Lovelace and crystallographer Rosalind Franklin.
Also in the top 20 were Margaret Thatcher, Diana, Princess of Wales, Boudicca and the Virgin Mary.
BBC History Magazine deputy editor Charlotte Hodgman said: "The poll has shone a light on some truly extraordinary women from history, many of whose achievements and talents were overlooked in their own lifetimes.
BBC History Magazine's 100 women who changed the world - top 20
- Marie Curie
- Rosa Parks
- Emmeline Pankhurst
- Ada Lovelace
- Rosalind Franklin
- Margaret Thatcher
- Angela Burdett-Coutts
- Mary Wollstonecraft
- Florence Nightingale
- Marie Stopes
- Eleanor of Aquitaine
- The Virgin Mary
- Jane Austen
- Boudicca
- Diana, Princess of Wales
- Amelia Earhart
- Queen Victoria
- Josephine Butler
- Mary Seacole
- Mother Teresa
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"It is fitting that, in a year that has seen the 100th anniversary of the parliamentary Act that gave the vote to many British women, suffrage campaigners Emmeline Pankhurst and Josephine Butler have been voted into the top 20.
"Whilst it is unsurprising to see queens such as Victoria and Eleanor of Aquitaine place high, it is refreshing to see some more unfamiliar names make the top 20, such as 19th-century philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts.
"I'm sure the full list will provoke conversation and debate."
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