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The science fiction genre, a subgenre of speculative fiction, is actually believed by many literary experts to have been officially born with the publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in 1818. Source: https://battlefieldearth.com/a-short-history-of-the-birth-of-sci-fi/ -
Over 300 women entered the science fiction community between 1926 and 1940. According to Lisa Yaszek, editor of The Future is Female, hundred more entered the genre in the following decades. Source: https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/1439-lisa-yaszek-we-get-the-history-of-women-in-science-fiction-thoroughly-wrong/
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"The queen of space opera" Leigh Brackett published her first short story in 1940. Brackett was known for her pulp stories in the golden age of sci-fi, is a Hugo award recipient, and contributed to the screenplay for the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back. Source: https://theportalist.com/impactful-female-science-fiction-and-fantasy-authors -
Published in 1962, A Wrinkle in Time is one of the most well-loved and notable works in science fiction. This novel was published after L'Engle had received 30 rejections from publishers and nearly given up writing altogether. The novel won a Newberry Medal in 1963. Source: https://theportalist.com/impactful-female-science-fiction-and-fantasy-authors -
In two consecutive years, Anne McCaffrey became the first woman to win 2 notable literary awards. She was the first woman recipient of the Hugo Award in 1968, and the first woman to receive a Nebula Award the following year in 1969. Source: https://theportalist.com/impactful-female-science-fiction-and-fantasy-authors -
One of the most awarded and influential authors in the genre, Ursula K. Le Guin won 5 Hugo and 5 Nebula awards, and was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2014. Although she wrote across multiple genres, Le Guin is best known primarily for her science fiction work. One of her most notable titles, The Left Hand of Darkness, was published in 1969. Source: https://www.loa.org/writers/655-ursula-k-le-guin/ -
Octavia Butler is a highly notable and influential author. She was the recipient of several Hugo and Nebula Awards, and was the first science fiction author to receive the "Genius Grant", officially known as the MacArthur Fellowship. Her first novel, Patternmaster, was published in 1976. Source: https://theportalist.com/impactful-female-science-fiction-and-fantasy-authors -
Anne McCaffrey's novel The White Dragon became the first ever science fiction novel to land of the New York Times bestseller list. Source: https://theportalist.com/impactful-female-science-fiction-and-fantasy-authors -
Andre Norton, the pen name of Alice Mary Norton, is one of the most acclaimed science fiction writers of the 20th century. Not only was Norton the first woman to be named a Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy, but she also was names a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America! Source: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2020/11/20/unexpected-women-early-science-fiction -
N.K. Jemison was the first ever author to not only win the Hugo Award for best novel three consecutive years in a row, but was also the first author to receive the award for every book in a series. Her Broken Earth trilogy was the series that received this acclaim, starting with the publication of The Fifth Season in 2015. Source: https://theportalist.com/impactful-female-science-fiction-and-fantasy-authors