Dame Ethel Mary Reader Shakespear DBE (née Wood; 17 July 1871 – 17 January 1946) was an English geologist, public servant and philanthropist. She was born in Biddenham, Bedfordshire, the daughter of a clergyman. She was educated at Bedford High School and Newnham College, Cambridge (1891–95), graduating in natural sciences. In 1896 she became assistant to Charles Lapworth at Mason College (which later became the University of Birmingham), and began the preparation of her best-known work, British Graptolites, with her college friend Gertrude Elles. She died of cancer in 1946, aged 74.