This weeks Illustrated Women in History was submitted by Maria Karambatsakis for the Illustrated Women in History 2017 exhibition at Swindon Central Library. In a time where women were still fighting for their place in the world, especially in politics, Geraldine Ferraro emerged and ran as a running mate with Walter Mondale in 1984. This …
Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a Guatemalan Indigenous rights activist who became the first indigenous person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. Menchú was born in 1959 in Laj Chimel, Quiché, Guatemala Her family were of K’iche descent, and lived in poverty as a result of their Mayan heritage, as, like many other countries …
Funmilayo Ransome Kuti was a Nigerian teacher, feminist and political leader who was the leading advocate of women’s rights in her country during the first half of the 20th century. Ransome-Kuti was born Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas in 1900 in Abeokuta, Egbaland (now Nigeria). She became the first female student at the Abeokuta Grammar School, …
Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian-born French graphic novelist, illustrator, film director, and children’s book author. She is best known for her graphic novel Persepolis, which provide an insight into life in Iran during the Iranian Revolution of the early 80’s. Satrapi was born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran and grew up in Tehran. Her parents …
Nawal El Saadawi is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist. El Saadawi was born in 1931 in the small village of Kafr Tahla. Her family were a mix of traditional and progressive. At the age of six El Saadawi was pinned down by four women in her home in Egypt and was subjected …
Grace Lee Boggs was an American author, social activist, philosopher and feminist. She fought relentlessly for civil rights, feminism and labor for seven decades and was hugely influential in bringing about social change in Detroit. Boggs (born Grace Chin Lee or Yuk Ping (玉平) to use her Chinese name) was born in Providence, Rhode Island …
Lindiwe Mazibuko is the former Democratic Alliance Parliamentary Leader. She also served as the National Spokesperson of the Democratic Alliance. She is currently a resident fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics. Mazibuko was born in Manzini, Swaziland and raised in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She speaks isiZulu, French, English and Afrikaans. When she was 12 …
Barbara Brenner was a renowned American breast cancer activist and leader of the Breast Cancer Action organisation. Brenner’s activism started at a young age when her mother took her to a Civil Rights march when she was 10 where she heard Martin Luther King, Jr speak. While at Smith College she was active in the …
Eva Perón served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She used her position to fight for women’s suffrage and improving the lives of the poor, becoming a legendary figure in Argentine politics. She is commonly known as ‘Evita’. Perón was born María Eva Duarte on May 7, 1919, …
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She is the second female justice and the first Jewish female justice. Ginsburg graduated with a bachelor’s degree in government from Cornell University in 1954. In 1956 she enrolled at Harvard Law School, she was one of nine women in …