Christabel Pankhurst was one of the driving forces of the Suffragette movement, she was a co-founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Pankhurst was born in Manchester in 1880. She was the daughter of radical socialist Dr. Richard Pankhurst and women’s suffrage movement leader Emmeline Pankhurst. Her father had been responsible for drafting …
Ida B Wells was an American journalist, suffragist, sociologist and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Wells was born a slave in Mississipi in 1862. Six months after her birth slaves were decreed free by the Union thanks to the Emancipation Proclamation. Wells faced racial prejudice and discriminatory rules because of her race. …
Clara Barton was a pioneer in the field of nursing and one of the founders of the American Red Cross. Barton realised that she was destined to become a nurse when her brother David became seriously ill after a barn-raising accident, 11 year old Barton nursed him for two years. After David recovered Barton was …
Marie Stopes was a British author, palaeobotanist, academic, campaigner for women’s rights and pioneer in the field of birth control. Stopes was born in Edinburgh to an archaeologist father and scholarly, suffragist mother. Her parents had met through the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Stopes attended University College London (UCL) where she studied …
Edith New was an English suffragette. She was one of the first to smash windows in an attempt to bring attention to women’s suffrage. New had been an assistant mistress at Queenstown Infant School from 1899-1901 before leaving Swindon to teach in deprived areas of Deptford and Lewisham. After hearing Emmeline Pankhurst speak at a …
Annie Kenney was an English working class suffragette who became a leading figure in the Women’s Social and Political Union. Kenney started work at the age of 10 in a local cotton mill in Yorkshire. She was a cotton frame tenter and her duties were to crawl on her hands and knees under the machine …
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American suffragist, social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early women’s rights movement. Cady Stanton was introduced to the abolitionist, temperance, and women’s rights movements through her cousin, the reformer Gerrit Smith. In 1840 she married the reformer Henry B. Stanton, she insisted that ‘obey’ be dropped from the …
Susan B. Anthony was a suffragist, abolitionist, author and speaker She was the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Anthony grew up in a Quaker family, where she developed a strong commitment to social equality. Her father taught all of his children to be independent, teaching them about business and giving them responsibilities …
Gloria Steinem is is a writer, lecturer, political activist, and feminist organiser who became nationally recognised as a leader and spokeswoman for the feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 70s. Steinem was given her first serious assignment as a freelance writer by Esquire magazine features editor Clay Felker. Her first draft on the …
Amelia Earhart was a writer and an American aviation pioneer, she was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Earhart had no interest in flying until a short 10 minute trip on a plane at a Long Beach air show in 1920. As soon as Earhart was two or three hundred …