She has been called “a small lady with a large I.Q.” She has been mocked for wearing the same outfit to both her official White House nomination and her confirmation hearing. (“At least we know her mind won’t be preoccupied with haute couture,” a Washington gossip columnist wrote.) And when President Barack Obama once referred to Janet L. Yellen as “Mr. Yellen,” she didn’t bother correcting him.

Ms. Yellen, the first woman to serve as the head of the Federal Reserve Board, didn’t ask to become a feminist icon, and she almost never talks about gender in the abstract or her historic role as the agency’s chairman (she bristles at being called “chairwoman”). And yet, during a tenure characterized by a plummeting unemployment rate and consistently low inflation, Ms. Yellen became a pop culture phenomenon.

Last month, President Trump nominated Jerome H. Powell to replace her. The move broke with a long-held tradition of new presidents (even those of opposing parties) extending the terms of the Federal Reserve chairman they have inherited. Ms. Yellen said she would step down from the Fed’s board, a position that doesn’t expire until 2024, when her four-year term as chairman ends in February. Her impending departure has reminded women of how much it meant to them, to see one of their own making decisions that have reverberated throughout the global economy.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, she is scheduled to preside over the Federal Reserve’s last meeting of the year — and her last major decision as the Fed’s leader. The central bank is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate in acknowledgment of the steady decline of the unemployment rate and the general strengthening of the economy.