The accompanying video introduces this special issue on women in reproduction that acknowledges some of today’s female trailblazers in the field of reproduction. Reproduction is a fundamental science that affects all of us, male and female and this issue highlights the innovation and advances made by this representative group of women reproductive scientists. The video (http://movie-usa.glencoesoftware.com/video/10.1530/REP-19-0482/video-1) from the online version of the article is available at https://doi.org/10.1530/REP-19-0482.