International Women's Day: Best Alternate Women Historical Figures

Lady Jane Grey was a renaissance humanist and quite well educated. She may have been quite a good queen if she had enough support over Mary, or potentially been restored if Wyatt's rebellion had succeeded
 
What if Mary Woolstonecroft Godwin had actually survived bearing the future Mary Shelley and lived to raise her? Would the younger Mary Godwin have been so inclined to run off with Percy Shelley or would she have wanted to stay in England to help carry out her mother's pioneering inroads to give women some legal rights?
 
Rosalind Franklin has slightly better lab politicking skills and luck and secures recognition, and the Nobel prize, for her discovery of the DNA, and to hell with Watson and Crick. She's also a bit more careful with the X-ray work and lives to a ripe age of 85, making additional scientific advances along the way.
 
Come on, guys, we can do this :)
Lets see Cleopatra wins at Actium, Clytemestra gets away with killing Agamemnon, Artemesia has a much more successful battle of Salamis, Cartamagua of the Brigantes establishes a long lasting successful client state, Zeonbia wins her war against Rome, One of the Great French Female Regents overthrows the Salic Law in France, Anne Of Bretagne keeps the Bretons out of France. Theodora Of Constantinople does not die of Ovarian Cancer, but has the child she thought she was going to have and instead Justinian dies leaving her as Regent. ,just a few to go on with and thinking of alternative history (lest Darkness Fall by De Camp) perhaps the jewel of the Amalings will escape being strangled (in her bath I believe) and instead kill the weak Gothic King on the eve of the eastern roman invasion.
 
What if Vera Rubin had been, years ago, more recognized and stimulated for had been awarded with the Nobel prize. An award that (in my opinion) she had deserved so much for hers pioneered and fundamentals works...

She could have become an 'example' and / or source of inspiration for more scientific vocations.
Perhaps it would have helped in its conversion towards, an officially and publicly recognized, scientific figure at national (US) and / or international level like some of its so famous masculine colleagues of the same or similar generation?
 
For a darker scenario, what about a PRC ruled by Jiang Qing? A female totalitarian dictator ruling over about a billion people would be interesting. Alternatively, what about a scenario where Uncle Joe decided to pull a "Kim il-Sung" by grooming his daughter as his heir?
 
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What If:

Christina of Sweden doesn't abdicate?

And

What if her plot to conquer Naples had worked?

The second is a pet story of me, but I am a bit skeptical that she would have the necessary capacity for statecraft to do something useful in xvii century Naples, given that I recall her gofying a lot of estates yo courtiers, damaging the Swedish royal demesne and budget.

A way to achieve it would be slightly delaying peace between France and Spain.

Then there is the problem of her not wanting to marry for Sweden, why would she do it for Naples? (And at a time when she is in love with Cardinal Decio Azzolini)
France would press for a French prince as an husband, because Naples would obviously need French protection, at least initially. At the same time a French consort for Christina would not be liked by the locals and adoption seems a stretch and the best way to cause an ugly succession war.

It is not an easy TL to make realistic...
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
What if Mary Woolstonecroft Godwin had actually survived bearing the future Mary Shelley and lived to raise her? Would the younger Mary Godwin have been so inclined to run off with Percy Shelley or would she have wanted to stay in England to help carry out her mother's pioneering inroads to give women some legal rights?

Butterfly away Frankenstein? Now how wicked is that?
 
Very unlikely idea, but what if cannons are introduced to Europe as a weapon meant to be used by women soldiers, on account of their 'better communication skills'? Then a few centuries later an artillery officer climbs the chaos of revolution to become Empress of France? :biggrin:
 
Very unlikely idea, but what if cannons are introduced to Europe as a weapon meant to be used by women soldiers, on account of their 'better communication skills'? Then a few centuries later an artillery officer climbs the chaos of revolution to become Empress of France? :biggrin:
It is not like handling cannons doesn't require a lot of physical effort, to say nothing about the cultural barriers to female officers...
 
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