Just one in eight of London's historical blue plaques mark the homes and workplaces of women, according to English Heritage.
The charity today pledged to address the imbalance with a call for more female nominations. It also revealed four in 10 people surveyed believed women had a lesser impact on history than men.
Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole and novelist Virginia Woolf are among the women who have been honoured with a blue plaque in the capital since the scheme began 150 years ago.
But just 13 per cent of the city’s 902 plaques are for notable female figures, something English Heritage says it wants to change.
The first blue plaque paid tribute to the colourful life of poet Lord Byron. It went up in Holles Street near Marylebone in 1867, a year after the scheme began.
But it was a decade before the first woman was honoured, with actress Sarah Siddons being remembered by a plaque in 1876.
The earliest surviving plaque to a woman, though, was put up in 1885 and is to novelist and playwright Fanny Burney.
Since English Heritage took over the scheme in 1986, more than 70 plaques to leading female figures have been added – 61 per cent of the total number honouring women.
They include memorials to computing pioneer Ada, Countess of Lovelace, aviator Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia, singer Gracie Fields and the co-discoverer of DNA, Rosalind Franklin.
The charity’s call comes as a survey for English Heritage found that four out of 10 people thought women had a lesser impact on history than men - although a greater proportion thought they had the same impact as men.
Anna Eavis, curatorial director for English Heritage, said: "We want to see more notable women from the past celebrated with blue plaques. Our scheme relies entirely on public nominations so we're calling on people to get in touch and tell us who they think deserves a plaque."
Find out more about English Heritage’s blue plaque scheme.
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