By Ruth Styles
From Boadicea of the Iceni to Queen Victoria, there is no shortage of women who have made their mark on history.
But for every Eleanor of Aquitaine or Elizabeth I, there have been many more whose efforts have gone unrecognised, largely because of their sex.
Now a new BBC series, the Ascent of Women, aims to change all that and shed light on the forgotten heroines of the past.
From the start, says presenter and historian Amanda Foreman, men have ‘conspired’ to control speech while women, lacking the educational opportunities of their male peers, have failed to realise that ‘speech is power’.
But not everyone has been content to remain silent. From the Celtic warrior queen who kept the Romans from her door to the Sumerian priestess who invented literature, meet the women who deserve to be remembered.