Don't want to be disrespectful, but every time I seem an article about honoring women in something, I begin to wonder if I'm reliving the 50s. Women in the arts shouldn't be a separate sub-phylum: too often, "Women artists, 1980-1990" and so on are actually code words for "Artists who aren't quite good enough to stand on their own."
Couldn't agree more. Any article picking randomly just a handful of woman photographers does disservice to millions of ladies practicing fine art photography or specializing in a distinctive area. And going back to the history, already in the 19th century there were many accomplished female photographers.
Here is another random international group of not-so-well-known ladies known for their particular expertise:
Shao Hua (1938–2008), daughter-in-law of Mao Zedong photographed party celebrities, factories and army units in the 1950s
Mary Willumsen (1884–1961), who produced postcards of women in scanty clothing
Geneviève Cadieux (born 1955), captured women's facial expressions
Irina Ionesco (born 1935), erotic images of lavishly dressed women posing provocatively
Bettina Rheims (born 1952), specializing in strip-tease artists and acrobats, and stuffed animals
Astrid Kirchherr (born 1938), photographed the Beatles before they became famous
Shirin Neshat (born 1957), photos of women confronted by Islamic fundamentalism
Dianora Niccolini (born 1936), pioneer of male nude photography
Toyoko Tokiwa (born 1930), known for her depiction of the red-light district of post-occupation Yokohama, for a clientele of US servicemen
Teresa Margolles (born 1963), portraying death
Isabel Muñoz (born 1951), black-and-white pictures of the human body, toreros and dancers
Madame Yevonde (1893–1975), pioneered colour in portrait photography, including a series of guests at a party dressed as Roman and Greek gods and goddesses
Carol Beckwith (born 1945), photographer of the indigenous tribal cultures of Africa
Joan E. Biren (born 1946), with focus on lesbians and feminism (many more in this category)
Louise Arner Boyd (1887–1972), explorer who took hundreds of photographs of the Arctic
Sherrie Levine (born 1947) with a knack for appropriation photography
Anne Noggle (1922–2005), a photographer after a career as an aviator, depicted the ageing process of women
Rachel Sussman (born 1975), hunting for living organisms at least 2,000 years old
I'm not aware of any female Inuit photographers, but Michelle Valberg from Ottawa is well known for her photographs of Canada's Arctic and Inuit people