This book, companion to When They Were Boys, describes the childhood of fourteen women who became famous in many different walks of life. They are Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Fanny Burney, Elizabeth Fry, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the Bronte Sisters, Jenny Lind, Florence Nightingale, Elizabeth Blackwell, Louisa May Alcott, Sarah Bernhardt, Marie Curie and Helen Keller.

All these women were born before the 20th-century, which means that they had few opportunities of making their own way in the world. They were nearly all curious, quicker to doubt than to believe, and more or less disobedient and rebellious. In spite of their contrasting lives, all did something to make the world a better place for women.

From the dust jacket