Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, Harriett Tubman… these are just three examples of some of the beautiful and strong woman of history. But there are some women who go largely unnoticed, lost in the pages of history books. The unsung scientists, warriors, writers and rulers of the past. Here are seven women of history who are seriously underrated.

Sappho

Sappho was a poet born around 615 B.C. on the island of Lesbos. Sappho’s poetry was so well respected that Plato called her the “10th muse” and she even has “Sapphic” meter named after her as it is unclear whether she invented it or refined it in her writing. Her work made it as far as Egypt, where archaeologists found more work attributed to her. She was a teacher as well as a poet, and she ran an academy for young, unmarried woman. Many scholars have labeled her as a lesbian, and the name for her birthplace of Lesbos even came from such accusations. These allegations are hard to prove because of the social difference between Greece customs at the time she was alive and western civilization today. Whether or not she was attracted to men, women or both, Sappho is known for being more than a female poet, but one of the best lyricist to ever live.

Empress Jingu and The Onna-Bugeisha

The Onn-bugeisha was a type of female warrior and often joined male samurai warriors in battle. Empress Jinga was one of the most famous of these warriors. She is often recognized as the Onna-bugeisha that led Japanese forces against Korea in A.D. 200, after her husband, Emperor Chuai, the 14th emperor of Japan, was killed in battle. The legend says that Empress Jingu was able to defeat the Korean forces without shedding a drop of blood. Although scholars disagree on whether or not she existed, she is considered to be the 15th emperor of Japan. In 1881 Empress Jingu was the first woman to appear on Japanese bank notes, transcending Japanese socioeconomic norms.

Christina of Sweden

Christina was born on December 8, 1628, to King Gustav II Adolf and Marie Eleonora of Brandonburg. When she was born, the midwives originally thought she was a boy, and it was only when Sweden started celebrating the birth heir that it was found out that she was a girl. Growing up, she enjoyed past-times such as hunting and sport and found little satisfaction in female-identified activities. Christina becomes queen-elect at 6-years-old when her father died, and when she came of age and was crowned in 1644, she began pushing for the end of the Thirty Years' War and was a major part of the Peace of Westphalia that ended the war in 1648. After naming Charles Gustavas her successor, as she never married, Christina began focusing on the sciences and arts. She called for men from across the globe to come to Sweden to form the Court of Learning, and because so many scholars in so many fields traveled to Stockholm, Sweden was dubbed the “Athens of the North.” Christina was described by the director of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm as "one of history’s greatest rebels and one of Sweden’s first modern minds.”

Catherine the Great

Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst arrived in Russia in 1744 as a German princess, prepared to marry Peter the Great’s grandson, also called Peter. She spent most of her time before the wedding immersing herself in Russian culture. She changed her name to Catherine Alekseyevna and married Peter, the heir to the Russian throne. The marriage was an unhappy one, as Peter was very immature and spent most of his time playing with toy soldiers. After czarina Elizabeth died, Peter inherited Russia, but his rule only lasted three months as Catherine had captured the hearts of the Russian people and military. The latter quite literally, as it was Catherine’s lover who assassinated Peter. On July 9, 1767, Catherine became czarina of Russia. During her time on the throne, Catherine reduced the clergy’s power and negotiated borders with Poland. She tried to end serfdom, and even though she was unable to do so, she maintained that the practice was inhumane. She was considered to be a patron of the arts, education and culture and corresponded with French intellectuals such as Voltaire. She wrote an educational guide for young noble woman in 1764 and founded the Smolny Institute for young women. While in Russia, she had many lovers and her sexual prowess was known throughout Europe. People have tried to discredit her achievements as czarina by bringing up her illustrious sexual history, but the fact remains that she was the longest reigning female monarch of Russia, and the most renowned. She brought the country into what is now referred to as the Golden Age of Russia, and that is why she is called Catherine the Great.

Marie Curie

Marie Curie was born on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. Even though she was the top student in secondary school, Marie was not able to attend the male-only Warsaw University. Instead, she attended an underground school in Warsaw where classes were held in secret and worked as a tutor to raise money. She eventually made it to Paris, France, where she attended to Sorbonne. Because of her financial difficulties, Marie often had very little food and suffered some health issues because of this. Nevertheless, she graduated with a masters degree in physics and a year later with another degree in mathematics. In 1903, Marie Curie became the first woman to ever win a Nobel prize in physics when she, Henri Becquerel and her husband Pierre Curie were honored for their work with radioactivity. After the death of her husband, Marie began teaching and became the first female professor at the Sorbonne. She also won a second Nobel prize and became the only scientist, man or woman, to ever win it twice. When World War II broke out, Marie made the use of X-Rays possible on the front lines. On July 4, 1936, Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia caused by exposure to radiation, her life’s work. In 1995, she and her husband’s remains were laid to rest in the Pantheon in Paris, the resting place of the greatest minds of France. She is the first and only woman laid to rest there.

Rosalind Franklin

Rosalind Franklin was born in London on July 25, 1920, and from a young age it was obvious that she was exceptionally intelligent. After attending some of England’s finest schools and graduating with a degree in chemistry, she began working at King’s College London in the biophysics unit. While working with her student, Raymond Gosling, she took x-ray photographs of DNA. Here they made a revolutionary discovery: there are two forms of DNA. Unfortunately, Rosalind did not have a good relationship with one of her coworkers, Maurice Wilkins, and in January 1953, Wilkins, without Rosalind’s permission or knowledge, showed Photograph 51 to a competing scientist, James Watson. Watson was working with Francis Crick at Cambridge University to discover the structure of DNA, just as Franklin was. Watson and Crick used Photograph 51 at the base of their DNA model and won a Nobel prize for their efforts. They took nearly all of the credit, allowing a small footnote saying that Franklin and Wilkins merely stimulated their work. Most sources report that Rosalind never knew that her work had been the breakthrough Watson and Crick had needed to figure out the structure of DNA.

Valentina Tereshkova

In 1937, Valentina was born in Russia to a peasant family. At the age of 22, she became active in an aviation club and her enthusiasm eventually caught the eye of the Soviet space program. On June 16, 1963, Valentina Terashkova became the first woman in space aboard the Vostok 6. On her first trip, she spent 48 hours and 71 orbits in space, more than all the US astronauts combined at that time. In 1966, Valentina became a member of the Supreme Soviet, the USSR’s national parliament. She served as a representative for Russia in a number of women’s events and organizations.