Huda Shaarawi was a pioneering Egyptian feminist leader and founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union. Shaarawi was born in 1879 in Al-Minya, Egypt, and was the daughter of Muhammad Sultan, the first president of the Egyptian Representative Council. When she was 5, her father died and she realised that her status as his oldest child …
Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa was a self described Chicana/Tejana/lesbian/dyke/feminist/writer/poet/cultural theorist. She is best known for her book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza about growing up on the U.S./Mexican border. Anzaldúa was born in 1942 in Rio Grande Valley, Texas. At a young age, she developed an extremely rare hormonal imbalance, and was menstruating from the age …
Raichō Hiratsuka was a writer, journalist, political activist, anarchist and pioneering Japanese feminist who founded Seitō (Bluestocking) magazine. Hiratsuka was born in 1886 in Tokyo. She attended Japan Women’s University where she became interested in European philosophy, Zen buddhism and the Swedish feminist writer Ellen Key. After graduating, she continued her education at the Narumi …
Vilma Espín was a Cuban revolutionary, feminist, and chemical engineer. She was known as “Cuba’s First Lady” and was the most politically powerful woman in the country. Espín was born in 1930 in Santiago, Cuba to Margarita Guillois and Jose Espín, the chief accountant and executive assistant to the CEO of the Bacardi rum company. …
Shahla Sherkat is a journalist, prominent Persian feminist author, and one of the pioneers of the Women’s rights movement in Iran. Sherkat was born in 1956 in Isfahan, Iran. When she was 11, her family moved to Tehran. After finishing school, Sherkat continued her education at Tehran University where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in …
Concepción Arenal was a Spanish feminist writer and activist who founded the feminist movement in Spain. Arenal was born in 1820 in Ferrol, Galicia. In 1829, she and her family moved to Armaño following the death of her father. Arenal witnesses the social inequalities of the time, including the gender inequality imposed by the patriarchal …
Jenny Holzer is an American installation and conceptual feminist artist who is best known for her use of original or borrowed text to create public works of art using LED signs and light projections. Holler was born in 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio. She intended to become an abstract painter, and studied art at Duke University …
Jane Elliott is an American former third-grade schoolteacher, anti-racism, feminist and LGBT activist and educator. She is best known for her “Blue eyes-Brown eyes” exercise initially devised to teach third graders about racial prejudice. Elliott was born in 1933 in Riceville, Iowa on her family’s farm. She attended a one-room rural schoolhouse before continuing her …
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 …
Georgia Douglas Johnson was an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance and the first modern African-American female poet and playwright to gain widespread recognition. Johnson was born in 1877 in Atlanta, Georgia to parents of mixed ancestry including african and native american on her mother, Laura Jackson Camp’s side, and african-american and english heritage on …