Being a woman at the top has never been easy. Mentors are few and far between, and detractors are everywhere. You have to work twice as hard to get half as far, and even then, there's always someone trying to stab you in the back, claim you don't deserve what you earned, or undervaluing your contributions - and all of that's in today's corporate world.

Things were twice as rough back in the days of yore, whether the more recent battles such as Civil Rights or the rise of the technological age, or older fights such as the Tudor and Medieval periods. Women weren't legally considered full people in their own right, and even once that fight was won, it was followed by winning the vote, the right to own property and have credit in one's own name, and as recently as the 1990's, full bodily autonomy within marriage. So it's fair to say there have been obstacles for female achievers that their male counterparts often didn't face.

Even so, some women rose above it all to stand astride history like a colossus - and a role model for all of us today, male or female. Whether you dream of demanding equality before the law, saving their kingdom, achieving sainthood, or becoming a pioneer in a dangerous field, there's a heroine you can look up. Let's find out who she is!