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 …
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi is a transgender rights activist, Hindi film actress and Bharatanatyam dancer in Mumbai, India. She became the first transgender person to represent Asia Pacific in the UN in 2008. Laxmi was born in 1979 in Thane to an orthodox Brahmin family. She had a difficult childhood, both due to her health – …
Begum Rokeya was a leading Muslim feminist writer and social worker in undivided Bengal during the early 20th century. She fought for gender equality and established the first school for Muslim girls, which still exists today. Rokeya was born in 1880 in Bangladesh during British colonial rule. Her family were orthodox Muslims, and so women …
Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer and human-rights activist who founded the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. She was the first female judge in Iran, and the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Ebadi was born in 1947 in Hamadan, Iran. A year later, her family …
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 …
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. …
Thanks to anyone who has attended my exhibition of Illustrated Women in History this weekend, and thanks to @fanclubzine for coming to play #riotgrrrl and sell zines (many of which contain Illustrated Women in History) which are available online here Selected framed prints of illustrations are currently up at HOURS Space in Bristol until the …
Zelda Fitzgerald was an American novelist and socialite known as “the first American Flapper”. She was a huge influence on the work of her husband, author F. Scott Fitzgerald, who plagiarised her letters and diary to use in his own work and based many of his literary characters on her and her personal experiences. Fitzgerald …
Annie Turnbo Malone was an American businesswoman, inventor and philanthropist. She was the first female African-American millionaire, and made her fortune founding and developing a cosmetics business to provide products for, and educate and enable African-American women to become financially independent. Malone was born in 1869 in Metropolis, Illinois. She briefly attended public school in …