A Professor of Classics at Cambridge, classics editor of The Times Literary Supplement, and author of the "A Don's Life” column, also in The Times, Britain’s best known classicist is an inspiration for women in academia, and has made ancient history accessible with her TV programme Meet the Romans with Mary Beard.

She has recently spoken out about online misogyny, having attracted a torrent of abuse from internet trolls after appearing on Question Time.

"I'm outing this because I have a thick skin and, in the end, speculation on the size of my vagina doesn't move me half as much as worrying about the next chapter of my book I'm supposed to write. But then I'm lucky," she wrote.

Greatest Women On TV