Madam C.J Walker was a civil rights activist, philanthropist and entrepreneur. She was named “the first black woman millionaire in America” for her successful line of hair care products. Walker was the first free child born to her parents Owen and Minerva Anderson Breedlove (her birth name is Sarah Breedlove). She was born on a …
Edith New
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
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 …
Joan Jett
Joan Jett is an American musician. She became a female pioneer in the male-dominated world of rock music while frontwoman for The Runaways. Jett got her first guitar when she was 14 and quit lessons after her teacher would only teach her folk songs since that was all that was deemed appropriate for a girl. …
Anne-Marie Tussaud
Anne-Marie “Marie” Tussaud was a French artist who became known for her wax sculptures. She is the founder of Madame Tussauds, the wax museum in London. Tussaud was raised by her mother Anne in Bern, Switzerland. She worked as a housekeeper for Dr. Philippe Curtius, whom Tussaud referred to as ‘Uncle’. Curtius was a physician …
Angela Davis
Angela Davis is an American academic, Civil Rights Activist, scholar and Women’s Rights Activist who advocates for the oppressed. Davis’ political activism began when she was a child in Birmingham, Alabama. She lived in the “Dynamite Hill” neighbourhood, which was marked by racial conflict and experienced racial prejudice and discrimination. As a teenager she organised …
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was an American Academic, Author, Editor and Poet best known for her novel ‘The Bell Jar’, and for her poetry collections ‘The Colossus’ and ‘Ariel’. Plath showed an aptitude for writing from a young age and was writing complete poems from age 5. At age 8 she had a poem published in the …
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
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 …
Nina Simone
Nina Simone was an American singer, songwriter, pianist and civil rights activist. Simone started playing piano by ear when she was 3 years old. She played piano in her mother’s church and soon began to study classical music with an Englishwoman called Muriel Mazzanovich. She developed a love of Bach, Chopin, Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert. …
Susan B Anthony
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 …