Gallery of Inspiring Women Without Children

A compilation of over 150 women through history who had no children; some never married, some did, some were childless by circumstances, some were childfree by choice.

I have previously featured these women on social media and wanted to compile them on one page. Ranked by year of birth, from the latest-born in the 20th century to the earliest-born in the 16th century, these women all made their mark on history, although some are more remembered than others. Hopefully, this help will help demonstrate the presence of childless and childfree women throughout history.

TWENTIETH CENTURY

NINETEENTH CENTURY

Theda Bara
Emmy Noether
Virginia Woolf
Angelina Weld Grimké
Jeannette Rankin
Belle da Costa Greene
Eileen Gray
Renée Vivien
Sophia Duleep Singh
Gwen John
Harriet Quimby
Cléo de Mérode
Willa Cather
Mary Anderson
Edith Hamilton
Cornelia Sorabji
Beatrix Potter
Winnaretta Singer
Nellie Bly
Edith Wharton
Jane Addams
Annie Oakley
Isabel Cobb
Fannie Farmer
Ida Tarbell
Evelyn De Morgan
Emma Lazarus
Rebecca Cole
Mary Cassatt
Edmonia Lewis
Adelina Patti
Mary Jane Patterson
Lozen
OKUHARA Seiko
Fidelia Bridges
Mary Fields
Christina Rossetti
Emily Dickinson
Sarah Parker Remond
Julia A. J. Foote
Rosa Bonheur
Clara Barton
Anne Whitney
Susan B. Anthony
Louisa Twining
Florence Nightingale
Maria Mitchell
Harriet Martineau
Fredrika Bremer
Catherine Beecher

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Mary Anning
Anna Atkins
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff
Sophia Smith
Anne Lister
Elleanor Eldridge
Sophie Swetchine
Rebecca Gratz
Hester Stanhope
Jane Austen
Manuela Cañizares
Marianne Kirchgessner
Ann Radcliffe
Helen Maria Williams
Maria Theresia von Paradis
Anne Royall
Marie-Anne Lavoisier
Marie-Victoire Lemoine
Manuela de la Santa Cruz y Espejo
Louise of Stolberg-Gedern
Caroline Herschel
Ladies of Llangollen
Eleanor Coade
Elizabeth Murray
Sarah Scott
Maria Gaetana Agnesi
Louise de Ramezay

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AND PRIOR

Susanna Wright
Marguerite de Launay
Mary Astell
Catherine Bernard
Celia Fiennes
Elisabeth-Sophie Chéron
Elena Cornaro Piscopia
Zeb-un-Nissa
Justina Siegmundin
Duchess of Montpensier
Christina of Sweden
Empress Meishō
Anna Maria van Schurman
Madeleine de Scudéry
Jeanne Mance
Margaret Brent
Alice Barnham
Anna Vasa of Sweden
Marie de Gournay
Elizabeth I

Barbara of Brandenburg

*While most of the images are accurate representations of their subject, some of these women left no known portraits. In those cases, I have selected an image from the same time period to attempt to represent how they might have looked.

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