Margaret Bondfield was a British Labour politician, trade unionist and women’s rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a privy counsellor in the UK Bondfield began work as a shop assistant, after completing her apprenticeship she began work as a living-in assistant where she was shocked by …
Gwendolyn Ann Smith is a transgender woman who founded Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day to memorialise people who have been killed as a result of anti-transgender prejudice. In 1992, Smith lobbied America Online, getting the company to change its policies and allow discussions on gender issues on their service. A year later, she created the Transgender Community …
The biography for this weeks Illustrated Woman in History was submitted by Catherine Haustein A Passion for Science: Mary Somerville Mary Somerville was born in Scotland on Dec. 26, 1780, and had four supreme passions in her life: her family, equality for women, science, and birds. Described as feminine in manner and appearance, as a girl …
Ntozake Shange was an American playwright and poet best known for the Obie Award-winning play for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf. She was a self-proclaimed black feminist, and her work frequently addressed race and feminism. Shange was born Paulette L. Williams in 1948 in Trenton, New Jersey, where …
It’s Black History Month 2018 in the UK & to celebrate I’ve got a Black History Month zine out with illustrations & biographies of 20 amazing women in black history! Get yours on Etsy https://etsy.me/2zyRCka Audre Lorde Octavia E Butler Kimberlé Crenshaw Angela Davis Sister Rosetta Tharpe Claudette Colvin Shirley Chisholm Katherine G Johnson Mabel …
Tarana Burke is a civil rights activist who was the original founder of the “Me Too” movement, which she started in 2006. It later became a global phenomenon that raised awareness about sexual harassment, abuse, and assault in society in 2017. Burke became involved in civil rights activism while at University, where she organised press conferences …
Sharmadean Reid is a British Jamaican entrepreneur who founded Beautystack and WAH Nails. Her mission is to use technology to empower women, economically, socially and culturally. Reid started WAH (We Ain’t Hoes) while studying Fashion Communication and Promotion at Central Saint Martins. It began life as a hip hop zine focusing on the new wave of street smart …
Megan Lloyd George was the first female MP to represent a Welsh constituency. Lloyd George grew up in No. 11 and then No. 10 Downing Street while her father, David Lloyd George, was Chancellor of the Exchequer and later Prime Minister. Her first language was Welsh, and it wasn’t until she was four that she …
Lucy Stone was a leading US suffragist and abolitionist who dedicated her life to battling inequality on all fronts. Stone began to fight against sexism from a young age, she was determined to go to college, even though this was not at all common at the time. She learnt Hebrew and Greek so that she …
Anna Lee Rain Yellowhammer is an activist who, along with her friends, started the petition to prevent the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and came up with its slogan, “Mni wiconi” (Water is Life). In 2016, 13 year old Anna Lee Rain Yellowhammer, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux band Hunkpapa, along with 30 …