Mathematics as a field of science or philosophy was largely closed to women throughout most of history. However, from ancient times through the 19th century and into the early 20th century, some women were able to achieve notability in mathematics.

Hypatia of Alexandria (355 or 370 - 415) Hypatia. Ann Ronan Pictures/Getty Images Hypatia of Alexandria was a Greek philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician. She was the salaried head of the Neoplatonic School in Alexandria, Egypt, from the year 400. Her students were pagan and Christian young men from around the empire. She was killed by a mob of Christians in 415, probably inflamed by the bishop of Alexandria, Cyril.

Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646-1684) Elena Lucezia Cornaro Piscopia, from a fresco in Padua, Bo Palace. Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images Elena Cornaro Piscopia was an Italian mathematician and theologian. She was a child prodigy who studied many languages, composed music, sang and played many instruments, and learned philosophy, mathematics, and theology. Her doctorate, a first, was from the University of Padua, where she studied theology. She became a lecturer there in mathematics.

Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749) Émilie du Châtelet. IBL Bildbyra/Getty Images A writer and mathematician of the French Enlightenment, Émilie du Châtelet translated Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica. She was also a lover of Voltaire and was married to the Marquis Florent-Claude du Chastellet-Lomont. She died of a pulmonary embolism after giving birth at age 42 to a daughter, who did not survive childhood.

Maria Agnesi (1718-1799) Maria Agnesi. Wikimedia Commons Oldest of 21 children and a child prodigy who studied languages and math, Maria Agnesi wrote a textbook to explain math to her brothers, which became a noted textbook on mathematics. She was the first woman appointed as a university professor of mathematics, though there's doubt she took up the chair.

Sophie Germain (1776-1830) Sculpture of Sophie Germain. Stock Montage/Getty Images The French mathematician Sophie Germain studied geometry to escape boredom during the French Revolution, when she was confined to her family's home, and went on to do important work in mathematics, especially her work on Fermat's Last Theorem.

Mary Fairfax Somerville (1780-1872) Mary Somerville. Stock Montage/Getty Images Known as the "Queen of Nineteenth-Century Science," Mary Fairfax Somerville fought family opposition to her study of math, and not only produced her own writings on theoretical and mathematical science, she produced the first geography text in England.

Ada Lovelace (Augusta Byron, Countess of Lovelace) (1815-1852) Ada Lovelace from a portrait by Margaret Carpenter. Ann Ronan Pictures/Getty Images Ada Lovelace was the only legitimate daughter of the poet Byron. Ada Lovelace's translation of an article on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine includes notations (three-fourths of the translation) that describe what later became known as a computer and as software. In 1980, the Ada computer language was named for her.

Charlotte Angas Scott (1848-1931) Bryn Mawr Faculty & Students 1886. Hulton Archive/Getty Images Raised in a supportive family that encouraged her education, Charlotte Angas Scott became the first head of the math department at Bryn Mawr College. Her work to standardize testing for college entrance resulted in the formation of the College Entrance Examination Board.

Sofia Kovalevskaya (1850-1891) Sofya Kovalevskaya. Stock Montage/Getty Images Sofia (or Sofya) Kovalevskaya escaped her parents' opposition to her advanced study by entering into a marriage of convenience, moving from Russia to Germany and, eventually, to Sweden, where her research in mathematics included the Koalevskaya Top and the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya Theorem.

Alicia Stott (1860-1940) Polyhedra. Digital Vision Vectors/Getty Images Alicia Stott translated Platonic and Archimedean solids into higher dimensions while taking years at a time away from her career to be a homemaker. She later collaborated with H.S.M. Coxeter on the geometry of kaleidoscopes.