women who were rishis

Of the 407 sages of the Rig Veda, 21 are women.
“Many rishis were women. Indeed several of them authored many of the slokas in the Vedas. For instance in the Rigveda there is a list of women rishis. Some of these names are: Ghoshsha, Godha, Vishwawra, Apala, Upanishad, Brahmjaya, Aditi, Indrani, Sarma, Romsha, Urvashi, Lopamudra, Yami, Shashwati, Sri, Laksha and many others. In the Vedic period women were free to enter into brahmacharya just as men and become sannyasins. There is mention in the Mahabharata of many such sannyasins. For example, Shrutavati, a daughter of Rishi Bhardwaj remained a brahmacharini all her life and entered into deep study of the Vedas. Shrimati, a daughter of Mahatma Shandilya, led a similar life. This was not confined to sannyasins. Sulabha was an authority on the Vedas and entered into Vedic arguments with King Janaka (Janaka is like a title and there are known to be 19 such with the father of Goddess Sita being one of them). Even married women were known to be acknowledged authorities on the Vedas. There are many such examples and it is not possible to mention all of them. My only intention here is to indicate that men and women were granted equal rights in such matters. God provided the knowledge of the Vedas in the hearts of women just as He did in the case of men. How can God who is the embodiment of kindness, just and fair discriminate between man and woman among his own children?”*“Every Veda manthram has a Rishi or RishikA , Chandas and DevathA . We invoke them prior to the recitaion of the individual mathrAs of the different VedAs . Each of these Rishis have a distinguished wife well versed in scholarship , AchAram and anushtAnam . These rishikAs or Lady Seers took an important part in SamaadhikaraNam . YajnavalkyA's wife and her tight questioning of her husband gave birth to a great Upanishad . There are abundant reference to the RishikAs in the Tenth Canto of Rg Vedam besides the other Cantos . LopamudhrA is one such RishikA as the wife of AgasthyA , known for his command over Sanskrit and Tamil. The meaning of the word "LopamudhrA " is one , who is totaly absorbed in herself (i-e)., she is one of the BrahmavAdhini RshikAs.Two manthrAs of the Rg Vedam ( Canto I.179.1-2) are attributed to her .
RoamasA the wife of SvanyA , VisvavArA belonging to the Athri family , AangirasI Sarasvathi of Angirasa family , ApAlA of the Athri family , YamI Vaivasvathi , SraddhA , Vasukra pathni , GhOshA , SooryA , IndrANi , Urvasi , Sarama , Joohu , VagAmbhruNi and PoulOmi Sachi are well known RshikAs , who are revered and are associated with individual Rg Veda ManthrAs .” Sri Vaishnavite households have had such exemplary Women , who quietly served as the living examples of these Vedic Values and cherished them as their kula dhanams .”**

*Raghbendra Jha - Women and the Vedas - http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_070503.htm
** SriPedia - http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia/cgi-bin/kbase/Vedas/Women’