List of women's rights activists

This article is a list of notable women's rights activists.

List

Albanian

• Enver Hoxha
• Parashqevi Qiriazi
• Sevasti Qiriazi
• Urani Rumbo

American (United states)

• Jane Addams (1860–1935) – major social activist, president Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
• Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) – prominent civil rights leader, played a pivotal role in the 19th-century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States
• Alice Stone Blackwell (1857–1950) – feminist and journalist, editor of the Woman's Journal, a major women's rights publication
• Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921) – founded American Woman Suffrage Association with Lucy Stone in 1869
• Henry Browne Blackwell (1825–1909) – businessman, abolitionist, journalist, suffrage leader and campaigner
• Amelia Bloomer (1818–1894) – suffragist, publisher and editor of The Lily, advocated for many women's issues
• Helen Gurley Brown (1922–2012) – Author of Sex and the Single Girl, longtime editor of Cosmopolitan; advocated for women's self-fulfillment through personal achievement
• Lucy Burns (1879–1966) – suffragist and women's rights activist
• Jacqueline Ceballos – feminist and founder of Veteran Feminists of America
• Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947) – suffrage leader, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, founder of League of Women Voters and the International Alliance of Women
• William Henry Channing (1810–1884) – minister, author
• Carol Downer (1933) – founder of women's self-help movement, feminist, author, health activist, attorney
• Elisabeth Freeman (1876–1942) – suffragist and civil rights activist, participated in the Suffrage Hikes.
• Betty Friedan (1921–2006) – writer, activist, feminist
• Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) – Transcendentalist, critic, advocate for women's education, author of Woman in the Nineteenth Century
• Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826–1898) – suffragist, editor, writer, organizer.
• William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) – abolitionist, journalist, organizer, advocate
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg (born 1933) – academic and lawyer who argued several key women's rights cases before the United States Supreme Court
• Emma Goldman (1869–1940) – Russian-American campaigner for birth control and other rights
• Judy Goldsmith (born 1938) – feminist activist, President of the National Organization for Women (NOW) from 1982 to 1985.
• Grace Greenwood (1823–1904) – first woman reporter on the New York Times payroll, advocate for social reform and women's rights
• Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1828–1911) – abolitionist, minister, author
• Isabella Beecher Hooker (1822–1907) – leader, lecturer and activist in the American Suffragist movement
• Julia Ward Howe (1818–1910) – suffragist, writer, organizer
• Rosalie Gardiner Jones (1883–1978) – suffragist and organizer of the Suffrage Hikes
• Mary Livermore (1820–1905) – women's rights journalist, suffragist
• Abby Kelley (1811–1887) – suffragist and activist
• Inez Milholland (1886–1916) – suffragist, key participant in the National Woman's Party and the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913
• Robin Morgan (born 1941) – poet, author, political theorist and activist, journalist and lecturer
• Pauli Murray (1910–1985) – civil rights activist, women's rights activist, lawyer, and Episcopal priest.^[1]
• Diane Nash (born 1938) – Civil Rights Movement leader and organizer, voting rights proponent
• Zelda Kingoff Nordlinger (b. 1932) – Responsible for catalyzing the first rape reform laws
• Maud Wood Park (1871–1955) – founder College Equal Suffrage League, first president League of Women Voters
• Alice Paul (1885 – 1977) – Leader, main strategist, and inspiration for the 1910s Women's Voting Rights Movement for the 19th Amendment. Founder National Woman's Party, initiator of the Silent Sentinels and the 1913 Women's Suffrage Parade, author of the Equal Rights Amendment.
• Wendell Phillips (1811–1884) – abolitionist, orator, lawyer
• Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) – founder American Birth Control League, co-founder and long-time president Planned Parenthood, writer, nurse
• May Wright Sewall (1844 – 1920) – educator, feminist, president of National Council of Women for the United States (1897-1899), president of the International Council of Women (1899–1904)
• Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919) – president of National Women's Suffrage Association 1904–1915
• Eleanor Smeal (born 1939) – organizer, initiator, president of NOW, founder and president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) – social activist, abolitionist, suffragist, organizer of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention, co-founder of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the International Council of Women
• Gloria Steinem (born 1934) – writer, activist, feminist, women's rights journalist
• Doris Stevens (1892–1963) – organizer for National American Women Suffrage Association and the National Woman's Party, prominent Silent Sentinels participant, author Jailed for Freedom
• Pauline Agassiz Shaw (1841 – 1917) – co-founder and first president of Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government
• Lucy Stone (1818–1893) – orator, organizer of the first National Women's Rights Convention, founder of the Woman's Journal, and first recorded American woman to retain her surname after marriage
• Roshini Thinakaran – filmmaker, focussing on the lives of women living in post-conflict zones
• Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) – Buffalo and New York suffragist, later an influential journalist and radio broadcaster
• Sojourner Truth (c. 1797–1883) – abolitionist, women's rights activist, speaker, women's rights speech "Ain't I a Woman?".
• Mabel Vernon (1883–1975) – suffragist, principal member of the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage, major organizer for the Silent Sentinels
• Harry S. Weeks – suffragist,civil rights activist, notable political activist and founder of the Wheeling, West-Virginia, Democratic-Socialist Union
• Ida B. Wells (1862–1931) – civil rights and anti-lynching activist, suffragist noted for her refusal to avoid media attention because she was African American
• Frances Willard (1839–1898) – suffragist and organizer
• Victoria Woodhull (1838–1927) – suffragist, organizer, innovator, first woman to run for U.S. presidency

Australian

• Thelma Bate (1904–1984) – community leader, advocate for inclusion of Aboriginal women in Country Women's Association
• Sandra Bloodworth – labour historian, socialist activist, co-founder of the Trotskyist organisation Socialist Alternative, editor of Marxist Left Review.
• Eva Cox (born 1938) – sociologist and feminist active in both the political and social services sectors. Long-time member of the Women's Electoral Lobby and social commentator on women in power, women and work and social justice.
• Zelda D'Aprano (1928–present) - trade unionist, feminist, in 1969 chained herself to the doors of the Commonwealth Building in protest for equal pay.
• Louisa Margaret Dunkley (1866–1927) – telegraphist, labor organizer.
• Elizabeth Evatt (born 1933) – legal reformist and juror; outspoken on inadequacy of Australia's Sex Discrimination Act in relation to CEDAW. Evatt was the first Australian to be elected to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
• Miles Franklin (1879–1954) – writer and feminist of national significance.
• Vida Goldstein (1869–1949) – early Australian feminist politician who campaigned for women's suffrage and social reform. First woman in the British Empire to stand for election to a national parliament.
• Germaine Greer (born 1939) – Author of The Female Eunuch, academic and social commentator.
• Bella Guerin (1858–1923) – first woman to graduate from an Australian university, Guerin was a socialist feminist prominent (although with periods of public dispute) within the Australian Labor Party.
• Louisa Lawson (1848–1920)) – feminist, suffragist, author and publisher. Founder of The Dawn, Lawson was a radical pro-republican federalist.
• Eileen Powell (1913–1997) – trade unionist, women's activist and important contributor to the Equal Pay for Equal Work decision.
• Millicent Preston-Stanley (1883–1955) – first female member of the NSW Legislative Assembly. Campaigned for the custodial rights of mothers in divorce and women's healthcare.
• Elizabeth Anne Reid – world's first advisor on women's affairs to a head of state (Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam) and active on women's development for the UN. Also prominent in HIV activism.
• Bessie Rischbieth (1874–1967)) – earliest female appointed to any court (honorary position to the Perth Children's Court in 1915); early activist against the Australian Government's practice of taking Aboriginal children from their mothers (Stolen Generation; leading founding member of many women's organisations and editor of The Dawn.
• Jessie Street (1889–1970) – Australian suffragette, feminist and human rights campaigner. Influential in labor rights and early days of UN.
• Anne Summers (born 1945)- women's rights activist, prominent in political and media spheres. Women's advisor to Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating and editor of Ms. magazine (New York).
• Rosie Batty (born 1962) - 2015 Australian of the year and family violence campaigner.
• Fiona Patten (born 1964) - Leader of the Australian sex party, lobbyist for personal freedoms and the progressive lifestyle.
• Michelle Payne (born 1985) - First female winner of the Melbourne Cup and an advocate for increased presence of women in sport.
• Margot Fink (born 1994) - Prominent LGBTIQ activist and nominee for Young Australian of the Year (2016).

Austrian

• Marianne Hainisch (1839–1936) – Austrian activist, proponent of women’s right to work and to receive education

Belgian

• Marguerite Coppin (1867–1931) – woman poet laureate of Belgium and advocate of women's rights
• Frédérique Petrides (1903–1983) – Belgian-American pioneering orchestral conductor, activist and editor from of Women in Music, a series of periodicals chronicling the activities of women in music

Bulgaria

• Dimitrana Ivanova
• Ekaterina Karavelova
• Lyuben Karavelov
• Anna Karima
• Eugenia Kisimova
• Kina Konova
• Julia Malinova

Brazilian

• Ana Paula Maciel - One of the arrested people of the Greenspace.
• Luisa Mell
• Luma Costa
• Jurema Werneck
• Diná da Silva
• Laina Crisóstomo
• Julia Malinova
• Luisa Mell
• Luma Costa
• Jurema Werneck
• Lucia Nader
• Magda Renner
• Vera Roberto
• Fezinha
• Albertina de Oliveira Costa
• Cida Bento
• Alzira Rufino
• Sueli Carneiro
• Clara Ant
• Jaqueline Jesus
• Iara lee
• Lily Marinho
• Yara Yavelberg
• Viviane Senna
• Miêtta Santiago
• Heleieth Saffioti
• Matilde Ribeiro
• Míriam Martinho

British

• Ida Craft – suffragist, one of the main organizers of the Suffrage Hikes
• Millicent Fawcett (1847–1929) – suffragist and feminist, long-time president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
• Christabel Pankhurst (1880–1958) – suffragette, co-founder and leader of the Women's Social and Political Union
• Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) – one of the founders and the leader of the British suffragette movement
• Dora Russell (1894–1986) – progressive campaigner, advocate of marriage reform, birth control and female emancipation
• Edith Margaret Garrud (1872–1971) – trained the "Bodyguard" unit of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in jujutsu self-defence techniques.
• Alice Vickery (1844–1929) – physician, supporter of birth control as means of emancipation of women
• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873]] – philosopher, political economist, civil servant author of The Subjection of Women
• Mary Fildes (1789–1876) – political activist and founder of the Manchester Female Reform Society

Canadian

• Nellie McClung (1873–1951) – feminist and suffragist, part of The Famous Five
• Jamie McIntosh (21st century) – lawyer and women's rights activist
• Emily Howard Stowe (1831–1903) – physician, advocate for women's inclusion in the medical professional community, founder of the Canadian Women's Suffrage Association
• Edith Archibald (1854–1936) – suffragist, writer, led the Maritime Women's Christian Temperance Union, the National Council of Women of Canada and the Local Council of Women of Halifax.
• Anna Leonowens (1831–1915) – travel writer, educator, social activist.
• Eliza Ritchie (1856–1933) – prominent suffragist, executive member of the Local Council of Women of Halifax.
• Laura Borden (1861–1940) – president of the Local Council of Women of Halifax.
• Marie Lacoste-Gérin-Lajoie (1867–1945) – suffragette, self-taught jurist.
• Idola Saint-Jean (1880–1945) – suffragette, journalist.
• Thérèse Casgrain (1896 – 1981) – suffragette, reformer, feminist, politician and senator, mostly active in Quebec.
• Léa Roback (1903–2000) – feminist and workers' union activist tied with the communist party.
• Françoise David (born 1948) – politician, feminist activist.

Chilean

• María Rivera Urquieta

Danish

• Annestine Beyer (1795–1884) – pioneer of women's education
• Widad Akrawi (born 1969) – writer and doctor, advocate for gender equality and women's empowerment and participation in peace building and post-conflict governance.
• Astrid Stampe Feddersen (1852–1930) – chaired the first Scandinavian meeting on women's rights
• Caroline Testman (1839–1919) – feminist, co-founder of the Dansk Kvindesamfund.
• Natalie Zahle (1827–1913) – pioneer of women's education

Dutch

• Charlotte Jacobs
• Wilhelmina Drucker
• Mariane van Hogendorp
• Mietje Hoitsema
• Cornélie Huygens
• Aletta Jacobs
• Jeltje Kemper
• Anette Poelman

Egyptian

• Qasim Amin (1863–1908) – jurist, early advocate of women’s rights in Egyptian society
• Nawal el-Saadawi (born 1931) – writer and doctor, advocate for women’s health and equality
• Hoda Shaarawi (1879–1947) – feminist, organizer for the Mubarrat Muhammad Ali (women’s social service organization), the Union of Educated Egyptian Women and the Wafdist Women’s Central Committee, founder and first president of the Egyptian Feminist Union
• Engy Ghozlan (born 1985) – coordinator of campaigns against sexual harassment in Egypt
• Soraya Bahgat (born 1983) – Finnish-Egyptian women's rights advocate, social entrepreneur and founder of Tahrir Bodyguard in Egypt

Finnish

• Hanna Andersin
• Alexandra Gripenberg
• Soraya Bahgat (born 1983) – Finnish-Egyptian women's rights advocate, social entrepreneur and founder of Tahrir Bodyguard in Egypt
• Adelaïde Ehrnrooth
• Elisabeth Blomqvist
• Rosina Heikel
• Alma Hjelt
• Lucina Hagman

French

• Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793) – playwright and political activist who wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in 1791
• Anne-Josèphe Théroigne de Méricourt (1762–1817) – politician.
• Charles Fourier (1772–1837) – philosopher.
• Hubertine Auclert (1848–1914) – feminist activist, suffragette.
• Louise Weiss (1893–1983) – journalist, writer, politician.
• Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) – philosopher, writer.
• Françoise Giroud (1916–2003) – journalist, writer, politician.

German

• Ruth Bré (c. 1862-67–1911), writer, advocate for matrilineality and women's rights, founder of the Bund für Mutterschutz (League for Maternity Leave).^[2]
• Alice Schwarzer (born 1942) – journalist and publisher of the magazine "Emma".

Ghanaian

• Annie Jiagge (1918–1996), lawyer, judge and women's rights activist. Drafted the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and co-founded Women's World Banking^[3]

Greek

• Kalliroi Parren (1861–1940), founder of the Greek women's movement

Hungarian

• Teréz Karacs
• Vilma Glücklich
• Blanka Teleki
• Rosika Schwimmer

Indian

• Mamatha Raghuveer Achanta – a women and child rights activist and has served as Chairperson, Child Welfare Committee, Warangal District, Member, A.P. State Commission for Protection Child Rights, and Founder and Executive Director, Tharuni, a non-government organization (NGO) that focuses on girl child and women empowerment. She has participated in rescues and adjudicated on issues such as exploitation, violence, child sexual abuse, child marriages, and neglect.
• Manasi Pradhan (born 1962) – Founder of the Honour for Women National Campaign, a nationwide campaign to end violence against women in India.
• Idrees Ul Haq (born 1988- ) – Founder of the Social Royal Voluntary Environmental Service,An ardent Human Rights Activist,who campaigns to end violence against women in State of Jammu and Kashmir.^[4]
• Margaret "Gretta" Cousins (1878–1954) – Irish-Indian suffragist, established All India Women's Conference, co-founded Irish Women's Franchise League
• Jyotiba Phule (1827–1890) – social reformer, critic of the caste system, founded a school for girls, a widow-remarriage initiative, a home for upper caste widows, and a home for infant girls to discourage female infanticide
• Sunitha Krishnan (born 1972) – Indian social activist and chief functionary and co-founder of Prajwala, an institution that assists trafficked women, girls and transgender people in finding shelter, giving education and employment.
• Subodh Markandeya – well known senior advocate .

Iranian

• Parvin Ardalan (born 1967) – women's rights activist
• Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh (born 1958) – women's rights activist, founder of ZananTV and NGO Training Center (ZTNTC)
• Bibi Khanoom Astarabadi (1859–1921) – writer
• Sediqeh Dowlatabadi (1882–1962) – journalist and women's rights activist
• Shirin Ebadi (born 1947) – activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner for her efforts for the rights of women and children.
• Mohtaram Eskandari (1895–1924) – woman's rights activist, founder of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah" (Society of Patriotic Women)
• Sheema Kalbasi (born 1972) – writer and advocate for human rights and gender equality
• Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani (born 1970) – women's rights activist
• Shadi Sadr (born 1975) – women's rights activist
• Shahla Sherkat (born 1956) – journalist
• Táhirih (died 1852) – Bábí poet, theologian, and proponent of women's rights in 19th-century Iran.
• Roya Toloui (born 1966) – women's rights activist

Irish

• Margaret "Gretta" Cousins (1878–1954) – Irish-Indian suffragist, established All India Women's Conference, co-founded Irish Women's Franchise League
• Anna Haslam (1829–1922) – major figure in the early women’s movement in Ireland, founded the Dublin Women's Suffrage Association
• Francis Hutcheson (8 August 1694 – 8 August 1746) was an Irish philosopher born in Ireland to a family of Scottish Presbyterians who became one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment. He was an opponent of slavery and an advocate for women's rights who challenged Locke for ignoring those two issues.

Italian

• Alma Dolens
• Anna Maria Mozzoni

Lebanese

• Lydia Canaan

Libyan

• Alaa Murabit (born 1989) – physician, advocate for inclusive security, peace building and post-conflict governance.

Luxembourgian

• Catherine Schleimer-Kill
• Netty Probst
• Marguerite Mongenast-Servais
• Marguerite Thomas-Clement

New Zealand

• Kate Sheppard (1847–1934) – suffragette, influential in winning voting rights for women in 1893 (the first country and national election in which women were allowed to vote)

Norwegian

• Aasta Hansteen
• Anniken Huitfeldt
• Mimi Sverdrup Lunden
• Amalie Øvergaard
• Clara Tschudi
• Margrethe Vullum

Pakistani

• Fatima Lodhi (born 1989) – Pakistani women's rights activist who addressed colorism.
• Malala Yousafzai (born 1997) – Pakistani women's rights activist shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by the Taliban for advocating for girls' education

Peruvian

• María Jesús Alvarado Rivera

Philippines

• Liza Maza

Polish

• Maria Konopnicka

Portuguese

• Carolina Beatriz Ângelo
• Adelaide Cabete
• Ana de Castro Osório

Puerto Rican

• Luisa Capetillo (1879–1922) – Puerto Rican labor union suffragette; jailed for wearing pants in public

Romania

• Maria Baiulescu
• Calypso Botez
• Alexandrina Cantacuzino
• Maria Cuțarida-Crătunescu
• Clara Maniu
• Elena Meissner
• Sofia Nădejde
• Ella Negruzzi
• Elena Pop-Hossu-Longin
• Ilona Stetina
• Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan

Russian

• Anna Filosofova (1837–1912) – early woman's rights activist

Serbian

• Ksenija Atanasijević (1894–1981) – philosopher, suffragette, first PhD Doctor in Serbian universities
• Helen of Anjou (1236–1314) – Serbian queen, feminist, establisher of women schools
• Jefimija (1349–1405) – Serbian politician, poet, diplomat, feminist
• Draga Ljočić
• Milica of Serbia (1335–1405) – Serbian empress, feminist, poet
• Katarina Milovuk
• Milunka Savić (1888–1973) – first European combatant, soldier, feminist
• Stasa Zajovic (born 1953) – co-founder and coordinator of Women in Black

Spanish

• Concepción Arenal

Swedish

• Sophie Adlersparre (1823–1895) – publisher, women's rights activist and one of three (Fredrika Bremer and Rosalie Roos) most notable pioneers of women's rights movement in Sweden.
• Gertrud Adelborg (1853–1942) – teacher, active in the women's rights movement and struggle for woman suffrage
• Ellen Anckarsvärd (1833–1898) – women's rights activists, co-founded Föreningen för gift kvinnas äganderätt (The Married Woman's Property Rights Association)
• Fredrika Bremer (1801–1865) – writer, feminist activist and pioneer of the organized women's rights movement in Sweden.
• Josefina Deland (1814–1890) – feminist, writer, teacher, founded Svenska lärarinnors pensionsförening (The Society for Retired Female Teachers)
• Anna Hierta-Retzius (1841–1924) – women's rights activist and philanthropist.
• Lotten von Kræmer (1828–1912) – baroness, writer, poet, philatrophist, founder of the literary society Samfundet De Nio.
• Agda Montelius (1850–1920) – philanthropist feminist, chairman of the Fredrika-Bremer-förbundet.
• Rosalie Roos (1823–1898) – feminist activist, writer and pioneer of the organized women's rights movement in Sweden.
• Hilda Sachs (1857–1935) – journalist, writer and feminist.
• Sophie Sager, (1825 – 1902) – women's rights activist and writer.
• Anna Sandström (1854–1931) – educational reformer.
• Kajsa Wahlberg – Sweden's national rapporteur on human trafficking opposition activities.
• Anna Whitlock (1852–1930) – school pioneer, journalist and feminist.

Swiss

• Marianne Ehrmann (1755–1795) – one of the first women novelists and publicists in the German-speaking countries
• Margarethe Faas-Hardegger

Uruguayan

• María Abella de Ramírez

Others

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali (born 1969) – Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer and politician
• Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel – Filipina women's right activist Philippines
• Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900–1978) – Foremost Nigerian women's rights activist
• Unity Dow (born 1959) – judge and writer from Botswana, plaintiff in a case that allowed children of Motswana women and foreign men to be considered Batswana.
• Raden Adjeng Kartini (1879–1904) – Javanese advocate for native Indonesian women, critic of polygamous marriages and lack of education opportunities for women
• Laure Moghaizel (1929–1997) – Lebanese lawyer and women's rights advocate
• Shamima Shaikh (1960–1998) – South African activist, member of the Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa, proponent of Islamic gender equality

Images

• 

  Susan B. Anthony

• 

  Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah" (Society of Patriotic Women) – a radical women's rights association in Tehran (1923–33)

See also

• History of Feminism
• List of civil rights leaders
• List of feminists
• List of suffragists and suffragettes
• List of women's rights organizations
• Timeline of first women's suffrage in majority-Muslim countries
• Timeline of women's rights (other than voting)
• Timeline of women's suffrage
• Women's suffrage organizations

References

1. , additional text.
2. Richard J. Evans: The feminist movement in Germany. London, Beverly Hills 1976 (SAGE Studies in 20th Century History, Vol. 6). ISBN 0-8039-9951-8, S. 120
3. Prah, Mansah (2002). "Jiagge, Annie (1918–1996)". In Commire, Anne. Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Waterford, Connecticut: Yorkin Publications. ISBN 0-7876-4074-3. (subscription required (help)).
4. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/393915/jampk-witnesses-steady-increase-crimes.html