Alice Ball was an African American chemist who developed the first successful treatment for Hansen’s disease (Leprosy). Ball was the first African American and the very first woman to graduate with a M.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Hawaii. She then became the institution’s very first woman chemistry instructor and laboratory researcher. Ball …
Ida Van Smith was an African-American pilot and flight instructor who founded a series of flight training clubs for children to encourage their involvement in aviation and aerospace sciences. Smith worked as a history and special education teacher until the age of 50 when she fulfilled her dream of learning to fly. After gaining her …
Flavia Agnes is an Indian women’s rights lawyer and pioneer of the women’s movement in India who focuses on issues of gender and law reforms. Agnes is a co-founder of MAJLIS, meaning ‘association’ in Arabic, “a legal and cultural resource centre that campaigns for and provides legal representation for women and children. So far MAJLIS …
Shulasmith Firestone was a Canadian-American radical feminist, writer and activist. Firestone was a founding member of the radical-feminist groups: New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and New York Radical Feminists. With these groups, Firesmith was a part of many feminist protests and political actions, She disrupted abortion legislation meetings and organised the first abortion speak out, …
Emma Goldman was an anarchist, ardent proponent of birth control and free speech, a feminist, a lecturer, and a writer. She was known as Red Emma both for her heritage and her political involvement. Goldman became one of the most outspoken and well-known American radicals. Her core beliefs were informed in part from a Jewish tradition …
Annie Besant was a trade unionist, socialist, theosophist, women’s rights activist and philanthropist. Besant was a leading socialist and successful public speaker, filling halls across Britain for the National Secular Society. She was a prominent member of the Fabian society and the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). In 1877, she was prosecuted for publishing a …
Waris Dirie is a Somali model, author, actress and human rights activist in the fight against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). At 18, Dirie began her career as a model, in 1987 she graced the cover of the Pirelli Calendar and appeared in the James Bond film The Living Daylights. She became one of the first …
For #LGBThistorymonth I will be posting an #lgbtq #womaninhistory every day. Today is Alexya Salvador who calls herself the “first transgender shepherd of Latin America” Salvador made history when she held Cuba’s first ever LGBTQ friendly mass in May 2017. She and other trans pastors preached about God’s love and acceptance of the very community …
For #LGBThistorymonth I will be posting an #lgbtq #womaninhistory every day. Today is Chelsea Manning, a former US soldier, activist and whistleblower. In 2010, Manning began leaking documents to Wikileaks which became known as “the Iraq War logs”. Around the same time, she disclosed to her supervisor her wish to transition. Three years later, she …
For #LGBThistorymonth I will be posting an #lgbtq #womaninhistory every day. Today is Josephine Ho, one of the most known feminist scholars in Taiwan. She is called “the godmother of the Taiwanese queer movement.” Ho has been a women’s rights activist since the 1990s when she led Taiwan’s first demonstration against sexual harassment, and devised …