Top 7 Inspirational & Successful Business Women in History

Here is a list of our favourite inspirational & successful business women in history. Do you agree with our selection? If you think we have missed any please add them in the comments below. Anita Roddick, founder of the Bodyshop Born in a bomb shelter in Littlehampton after her family emigrated from Italy, Roddick founded the Body Shop as a means to support her two children while her husband was out of the country. It quickly grew to become one of the world’s biggest brands, pioneering the sale of ethical products in the UK long before it was fashionable to be green. "I didn't go to business school, didn't care about financial stuff and the stock market" - Anita Roddick Martha Lane Fox, founder of Lastminute.com A digital entrepreneur and advocate and campaigner for various charities, Fox was appointed to the position of UK Digital Inclusion Champion, tasked with the role of  making the British public more 'tech savvy'. She recently told the BBC:  "I don't think you can be a proper citizen of our society in the future if you are not engaged online." - we couldn’t have put it better ourselves! “It’s still disappointing and depressing and I find shocking the number of people who have never been online once.” - Martha Lane Fox Cynthia Carroll, CEO of Anglo American PLC She was listed as Forbes’ top 5th most powerful woman in 2008 and the top 4th in 2009. She was the first female CEO of the company, and is known for increasing worker safety in the company. According to the FT, fatalities in the business dropped by 68 per cent since 2006 under her watch. She prides herself on proving people wrong when they tell her something can’t be done. "They'll know me pretty soon... I'm a person of action and won't sit still too long" - Cynthia Carroll Margaret Thatcher, UK prime minister 1979-1990 Controversial! Baroness Thatcher made our list because she was the only female PM in British history. She carved her political career from humble beginnings as a grocer’s daughter living above a shop and balancing her political campaign with motherhood and a career as a barrister. She was one of the few Conservatives who voted in favour of decriminalizing homosexuality and campaigned for council meetings to be held in public. During her time as Education Secretary she famously stopped free milk for school children, and when she began to appear on television, her voice was compared to a cat being dragged down a blackboard. "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't" - Margaret Thatcher Sarah Tremellen, founder of Bravissimo Soon after Tremellen started her lingerie mail order company, she was surprised when another, well established rival firm threatened all major suppliers not to do business with her. Determined to make a success of her attempts as an entrepreneur, she managed to build a relationship with one supplier after cunningly setting up a PO box in another town and pretending to have left the area. A few years later, her business had expanded rapidly into a high street chain, and she bought out the company that had tried to stop her trading. She was awarded an OBE in 2009 for her services to entrepreneurship, and this year Bravissimo was voted 8th best company to work for by the Sunday Times. "For me a lot of success in business is down to using common sense and following your heart as well. I know that sounds a bit cheesy maybe but I've done it because I've loved it" - Sarah Tremellen Frida Kahlo, painter Although not a businesswoman in the traditional sense, Kahlo is an inspiration to people who work in the creative industries, battling illness and injury to become recognised as the greatest female Mexican painter that ever lived. After contracting Polio as a child and being involved in a major bus crash, she underwent 35 operations and was bedridden for long periods of time throughout the rest of her life. Despite this, Kahlo continued to travel the world, paint and be a  prominent political activist during the 1930s. "Feet, why do I need them if I have wings to fly?" - Frida Kahlo Lydia E. Pinkham, inventor of 'Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound' Most people have heard the song 'Lily the Pink', but did you know that it is inspired by inventress Lydia Pinkham? Her Vegetable Compound was sold in the US as a health cure for women. Originally brewed as a gift for friends and neighbours, when her family's business went bust in 1873 she began to sell the tonic, developing a shrewd marketing strategy and writing the sales copy herself. Her tonic became especially popular during prohibition, possibly due to its high alcohol content. "There's a baby in every bottle" - Lydia Pinkham Do you agree with our list of female figures in business?