Fatema Mernissi was a Moroccan sociologist and one of the founders of Islamic feminism. She is best known for her focus on reconciling traditional Islam with progressive feminism. Mernissi was born in 1940 in Fes, Morocco. As a child, she, unlike her mother and grandmother before her, was able to gain an education. She attended …
Caroline Norton was an English feminist, social reformer, and author of the early and mid-nineteenth century. She was a major Victorian campaigner for women’s rights and was instrumental in the passing of the Custody of Infants Act 1839 and the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857. Norton was born in 1808 in London. At the age of …
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was an English physician and feminist, she was the first female doctor to qualify in England. She opened a school of medicine for women, and paved the way for women’s medical education in Britain. Anderson was born in 1836 in Whitechapel, London to Newson and Louisa Dunnell Garrett. Her father had previously …
Audre Lorde described herself as “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”. She was a pioneer of intersectional feminism and her work focused on confronting and addressing the injustices of racism, sexism, and homophobia. Lorde was born in 1934 in New York City to West Indian parents. She grew up hearing her mother’s stories about the West …
Harriet Taylor (also known as Harriet Taylor Mill) was a philosopher and women’s rights advocate. Taylor was born in 1807 in Walworth, south London to Thomas Hardy, a London surgeon, and his wife Harriet Hurst. She was educated at home, and showed a keen interest in poetry. At the age of 18, Taylor married the …
Katherine Murray “Kate” Millett is an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She is an acknowledged leader of the modern women’s movement. Millett was born in 1934 in Saint Paul, Minnesota to James Albert and Helen Feely Millett. The family’s background was Irish Catholic, and Kate attended several parochial schools. Her father was an …
Dame Vivienne Westwood is an English fashion designer and businesswoman whose early designs helped shape the look of the punk rock movement. Westwood was born Vivienne Isabel Swire in 1941 in Tintwistle, England. Her parents, Gordon and Dora Swire had married two years previously, two weeks after the outbreak of World War II. Westwood attended …
Kelly Sue DeConnick is an American comic book writer and editor and English-language adapter of manga. She is best known for Captain Marvel, Avengers Assemble, PRETTY DEADLY, co-created with Emma Ríos, and BITCH PLANET, co-created with Valentine De Landro. DeConnick was born in Ohio in 1970. Her father served in the United States Air Force, …
Hannah Höch was an important member of the Berlin Dada movement, a pioneer of photomontage and a feminist icon. Höch was born in 1889, in Gotha, Germany. She was forced to leave school at 15 to take care of a sister, and was not able to resume her studies until she was 22 when she …
Roxane Gay is an American writer, professor, editor, blogger, and commentator. She is a 2015 winner of PEN USA’s Freedom to Write award for her demonstration of exceptional courage in the defence of free expression. Gay was born in Nebraska to Haitian parents. Her family moved several times during her childhood and as Gay was …