Category: workers rights

activists contraceptive rights feminist human rights philanthropist politics social reform womens rights workers rights

Annie Besant

by Julie

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 …

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activists business human rights workers rights

Safia Minney

by Julie

Safia Minney is a British social entrepreneur and author who founded People Tree, a pioneering sustainable and Fair Trade fashion label.   She began her career in marketing, where she realised that she could use her skills for social good by raising awareness of social and environmental issues. After moving to Japan where she worked for Amnesty International, …

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politics social reform womens rights workers rights

Susan Lawrence

by Julie

Susan Lawrence was one of the first three Labour women MPs, and the first woman to represent a London constituency.   Lawrence began her political life as a Conservative member of London County Council. In 1912, she met trade unionist Mary Macarthur in 1912 and was converted to socialism. She rejoined the council as a member of the Labour …

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equal right to education politics social reform womens rights womens suffrage workers rights

Ellen Wilkinson

by Julie

Ellen Wilkinson was the first female Minister of Education and the second woman to become a Cabinet Minister.   Wilkinson was known by some as “Red Ellen”, as in the early 1920s before she entered Parliament she was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Before entering politics, Wilkinson worked for a women’s suffrage …

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activists black history human rights politics workers rights

Margaret Ekpo

by Julie

Margaret Ekpo was a Nigerian women’s rights activist, social mobiliser and pioneering female politician in Nigeria’s First Republic. Ekpo was born in 1914 in Creek Town, Cross River State Okoroafor Obiasulor, a native of Agulu-Uzo-Igbo near Awka in Anambra State and Inyang Eyo Aniemewue, who was from the family of King Eyo Honesty II, of …

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feminist medicine STEM womens suffrage workers rights

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

by Julie

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 …

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human rights workers rights

Syeda Ghulam Fatima

by Julie

Syeda Ghulam Fatima is a Pakistani human and labour rights activist, known for her work in ending bonded labour in brick kilns. She is General Secretary of Lahore-based Bonded Labour Liberation Front Pakistan (BLLF). Fatima is the daughter of a trade-unionist and small-scale railway employee Syed Deedar Hussain. She holds a Masters Degree in Political …

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