Women have largely been excluded from conventional versions of science's history, but they often played important roles. This series of five lectures features examples drawn from the last quarter of a millennium to illustrate how some women successfully negotiated the obstacles confronting them. Through examining the contextualised lives and careers of particular individuals, these talks - which stand independently but are inter-related - explore the concealed prejudices and unstated assumptions that still pervade modern society. For me, one of the main purposes of studying the past is to understand how we have reached the present - and the whole point of doing that is to improve the future.