Over time, as the National Geographic Image Collection grew—to more than 64 million physical and digital assets today—another record unwittingly was formed: a global chronicle of the lives of women, up to the present day. These pictures, taken largely over the past century, are snapshots of their times, showing how women were perceived, how they were treated, how much power they had—or didn’t have. The images illuminate what used to be called, quaintly, “a woman’s place”—a concept that’s changing before our eyes.

You’ll see many images from the archive in this special issue on women—our first in which all the contributing writers, photographers, and artists are female. With this issue, we kick off a year of coverage