:focal(4112x3172:4113x3173)/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/92/3d/923db0bf-a3a0-4b35-84ec-71afc2bc2190/vulva.jpg)
Judy Chicago’s 1985 painting The Creation shows a woman birthing the world.
The Trustees of the British Museum
In ancient Rome, a group of young women known as the Vestal Virgins maintained the everlasting flame that burned in the Forum’s Temple of Vesta—a potent symbol