This is a historical list, intended to deal with the time period where it is believed that women working in science were rare. For this reason, this list ends with the 20th century.
Sotira (1st century BCE), Greek physician[2]: 1217–18
Tapputi-Belatekallim (First mentioned in a clay tablet dating to 2000 BCE), Babylonian perfumer, the first person in history recorded as using a chemical process[7]
Polisena da Troya (fl. 1335), licensed Napolitan surgeon[8]
Margarita da Venosa (fl. 1333), licensed Napolitan surgeon,[8] who studied at the University of Salerno[14] She was considered a noteworthy practitioner and counted Ladislaus, king of Naples, as a patient.[10]
Francisca di Vestis (fl. 1308), Napolian physician[8]
^Brown, James Campbell (1920). A History of Chemistry from the Earliest Times. P. Blakiston's Son & Company. pp. 19–24.
^Pliny the Elder, Natural History 28.81–84. Irby-Massie, 'Women in Ancient Science', in Woman's power, man's game: essays on classical antiquity in honor of Joy K. King, Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1993. p.366
Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey (2003). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Routledge. ISBN9781135963422.