List of women's rights activists

Updated on Oct 10, 2024

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This article is a list of notable women's rights activists, arranged alphabetically by modern country names and by the names of the persons listed.

Albania

Enver Hoxha

Parashqevi Qiriazi

Sevasti Qiriazi

Urani Rumbo

Argentina

Azucena Villaflor

Australia

Thelma Bate (1904–1984) – community leader, advocate for inclusion of Aboriginals in Country Women's Association

Sandra Bloodworth – labour historian, socialist activist, co-founder of Trotskyist Socialist Alternative, editor of Marxist Left Review

Eva Cox (born 1938) – sociologist and feminist active in politics and social services, member of Women's Electoral Lobby, social commentator on women in power and at work, and social justice

Zelda D'Aprano (born 1928) – trade unionist, feminist, in 1969 chained herself to doors of Commonwealth Building over equal pay.

Louisa Margaret Dunkley (1866–1927) – telegraphist and labour organizer

Elizabeth Evatt (born 1933) – legal reformist, jurist, critic of Australia's Sex Discrimination Act, first Australian in United Nations Commission on Human Rights

Miles Franklin (1879–1954) – writer and feminist

Vida Goldstein (1869–1949) – early Australian feminist campaigning for women's suffrage and social reform, first woman in British Empire to stand for national election

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, founder of The Dawn, and pro-republican federalist

Eileen Powell (1913–1997) – trade unionist, women's activist and contributor to the Equal Pay for Equal Work decision

Millicent Preston-Stanley (1883–1955) – first female member of New South Wales Legislative Assembly, campaigner for custodial rights of mothers in divorce and for women's health care

Elizabeth Anne Reid (born 1942) – world's first women's affairs adviser to head of government (Gough Whitlam), active in UN and on HIV

Bessie Rischbieth (1874–1967)) – earliest female appointee to any court (honorary, Perth Children's Court, 1915), active against Australian government practice of taking Aboriginal children from their mothers (Stolen Generation

Jessie Street (1889–1970) – Australian suffragette, feminist and human rights campaigner influential in labour rights and early days of UN

Anne Summers (born 1945)- women's rights activist in politics and media, women's advisor to Labor premier Paul Keating, editor of Ms. magazine (NY)

Rosie Batty (born 1962) – 2015 Australian of the Year and family violence campaigner

Fiona Patten (born 1964) – leader of Australian Sex Party, lobbyist for personal freedoms and progressive lifestyles

Michelle Payne (born 1985) – first female winner of Melbourne Cup and an advocate of increased presence of women in sport

Margot Fink (born 1994) – Prominent LGBTIQ activist and nominee for Young Australian of the Year (2016)

Austria

Marianne Hainisch (1839–1936) – activist, exponent of women’s right to work and education

Auguste Fickert (1855 – 1910), feminist and social reformer.

Belgium

Marguerite Coppin (1867–1931) – female Poet Laureate of Belgium and advocate of women's rights

Frédérique Petrides (1903–1983) – Belgian-American pioneer female orchestral conductor, activist and editor of Women in Music

Botswana

Unity Dow (born 1959) – judge and writer, plaintiff in case allowing children of mixed parentage to be deemed nationals

Bulgaria

Dimitrana Ivanova (1881–1960), educational reformer and suffragist

Ekaterina Karavelova (1860–1947), suffragist and women's rights activist

Anna Karima (1871–1949), suffragist and women's rights activist

Eugenia Kisimova (1831–1885), feminist, philanthropist and women's rights activist

Kina Konova (1872–1952), publicist and suffragist

Julia Malinova (1869–1953), suffragist and founder of the Bulgarian Women's Union

Brazil

Clara Ant

Albertina de Oliveira Costa

Viviane Senna

Canada

Nellie McClung (1873–1951) – feminist and suffragist, part of The Famous Five (Canada)

Jamie McIntosh (21st century) – lawyer and women's rights activist

Emily Howard Stowe (1831–1903) – physician, advocate of women's inclusion in medical profession, founder of Canadian Women's Suffrage Association

Edith Archibald (1854–1936) – suffragist, writer, promoter of Maritime Women's Christian Temperance Union, National Council of Women of Canada and Local Council of Women of Halifax

Anna Leonowens (1831–1915) – travel writer, educator, social activist

Eliza Ritchie (1856–1933) – prominent suffragist, executive member of 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, mainly active in Quebec

Léa Roback (1903–2000) – feminist and workers' union activist tied with communist party

Françoise David (born 1948) – politician, feminist activist

Cape Verde

Isaura Gomes

Chile

María Rivera Urquieta

Chinese

Chen Xiefen

Qiu Yufang

Croatia

Jelica Belović-Bernardzikowska

Denmark

Annestine Beyer (1795–1884) – pioneer of women's education

Widad Akrawi (born 1969) – writer and doctor, advocate for gender equality, women's empowerment and participation in peace-building and post-conflict governance

Astrid Stampe Feddersen (1852–1930) – chaired first Scandinavian meeting on women's rights

Caroline Testman (1839–1919) – feminist, co-founder of Dansk Kvindesamfund

Natalie Zahle (1827–1913) – pioneer of women's education

Egypt

Qasim Amin (1863–1908) – jurist, early advocate of women’s rights in society

Nawal el-Saadawi (born 1931) – writer and doctor, advocate of women’s health and equality

Hoda Shaarawi (1879–1947) – feminist organizer of Mubarrat Muhammad Ali (women’s social service organization), Union of Educated Egyptian Women, and Wafdist Women’s Central Committee, founder president of Egyptian Feminist Union

Engy Ghozlan (born 1985) – coordinator of campaigns against sexual harassment

Soraya Bahgat (born 1983) – Egyptian-Finnish women's rights advocate, social entrepreneur and founder of Tahrir Bodyguard

Estonia

Elisabeth Howen (1834-1923), women's educational pioneer

Finland

Hanna Andersin

Soraya Bahgat (born 1983) – see Egypt.

France

Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793) – playwright and political activist who wrote Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, 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

Jane Vialle (1906-1953) – journalist, politician

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) – philosopher, writer

Françoise Giroud (1916–2003) – journalist, writer, politician

Germany

Ruth Bré (c. 1862/67–1911), writer, advocate of matrilineality and women's rights, founder of Bund für Mutterschutz (League for Maternity Leave)

Alice Schwarzer (born 1942) – journalist and publisher of the magazine Emma

Ghana

Annie Jiagge (1918–1996), lawyer, judge and women's rights activist, drafted Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, co-founded Women's World Banking

Greece

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

Hungary

Clotilde Apponyi (1867–1942), suffragist

Enikő Bollobás (born 1952), academic specializing in women's studies

Teréz Karacs (1808–1892), writer and women's rights activist

Vilma Glücklich (1872–1927), educational reformer and women's rights activist

Éva Takács (1780–1845), writer and feminist

Blanka Teleki (1806–1862), feminist and advocate of female education

Rosika Schwimmer (1877–1948), feminist and suffragist, World Peace Prize (1937)

Pálné Veres (1815–1895), founder of Hungarian National Association for Women's Education

India

Margaret "Gretta" Cousins (1878–1954) – Irish-Indian suffragist, established All India Women's Conference, co-founded Irish Women's Franchise League

Madhusree Dutta (born 1959) – co-founder of Majlis, Mumbai, author, cultural activist, filmmaker and curator

Kirthi Jayakumar (born 1987) – founder of The Red Elephant Foundation, rights activist, campaigner against violence against women.

Shruti Kapoor – women's rights activist, economist, social entrepreneur

Sunitha Krishnan (born 1972) – Indian social activist, co-founder of Prajwala, to assist trafficked women, girls and transgender people in finding shelter, education and employment

Subodh Markandeya – senior advocate

Jyotirao Phule (1827–1890) – social reformer, critic of caste system, founded school for girls, widow-remarriage initiative, home for upper-caste widows, and home for infant girls to curb female infanticide

Manasi Pradhan (born 1962) – founder of nationwide Honour for Women National Campaign against violence to women

Mamatha Raghuveer Achanta – women's and child rights activist, chair of Child Welfare Committee, Warangal District, active in A.P. State Commission for Protection Child Rights, founder director of Tharuni, focusing on girl-child and women empowerment

Idrees Ul Haq (born 1988) – founder of Social Royal Voluntary Environmental Service, rights activist, campaigner against violence to women in Jammu and Kashmir

Indonesia

Raden Adjeng Kartini (1879–1904) – Javanese advocate for native Indonesian women, critic of polygamy and lack of women's education

Iran

Parvin Ardalan (born 1967) – women's rights activist

Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh (born 1958) – women's rights activist, founder of ZananTV and NGO Training Center

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 efforts for 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 exponent of women's rights in 19th century

Roya Toloui (born 1966) – women's rights activist

Ireland

Margaret "Gretta" Cousins (1878–1954): see India.

Anna Haslam (1829–1922) – early women’s movement figure, founded the Dublin Women's Suffrage Association

Francis Hutcheson (8 August 1694 – 8 August 1746) – philosopher born to activist family of Scots Presbyterians, opponent of slavery and advocate of women's rights

Israel

Marcia Freedman (born 1938) – founder of Israel's feminist movement (1971); politician, social activist and writer

Anat Hoffman (born 1954) – executive director, Israel Religious Action Center; director and founding member, Women of the Wall

Italy

Alma Dolens

Anna Maria Mozzoni

Japan

Yajima Kajiko

Lebanon

Lydia Canaan

Laure Moghaizel (1929–1997) – lawyer and women's rights advocate

Libya

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

Luxembourg

Catherine Schleimer-Kill

Netty Probst

Marguerite Mongenast-Servais

Marguerite Thomas-Clement

Netherlands

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (born 1969) – see Somalia.

Wilhelmina Drucker

Mariane van Hogendorp

Jeltje Kemper

Namibia

Rosa Namises

Gwen Lister

Monica Geingos

New Zealand

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

Nigeria

Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900–1978) – women's rights activist

Norway

Pakistan

Fatima Lodhi (born 1989) – Pakistani women's rights activist who addressed colorism

Malala Yousafzai (born 1997) – Pakistani women's rights activist shot in assassination attempt by Taliban for advocating for girls' education, now in UK

Zubeida Habib Rahimtoola (1917–2015) – member of All Pakistan Women's Association

Peru

María Jesús Alvarado Rivera

Philippines

Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel – women's right activities

Liza Maza

Poland

Maria Konopnicka

Portugal

Carolina Beatriz Ângelo

Adelaide Cabete

Ana de Castro Osório

Puerto Rico

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

Romania

Maria Baiulescu

Calypso Botez

Alexandrina Cantacuzino

Maria Cuțarida-Crătunescu

Elena Pop-Hossu-Longin

Ilona Stetina

Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan

Russia

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

Maria Trubnikova (1835-1897) – early women's rights activist

Nadezhda Stasova (1822-1895) – early women's rights activist

Tatiana Mamonova (born 1943) – founder of modern Russian women's movement

Serbia

Ksenija Atanasijević (1894–1981) – philosopher, suffragette, first PhD Doctor in Serbian universities

Helen of Anjou (1236–1314) – queen, feminist, establisher of women schools

Jefimija (1349–1405) – Serbian politician, poet, diplomat, feminist

Draga Ljočić

Milica of Serbia (1335–1405) – empress, feminist, poet

Katarina Milovuk

Milunka Savić (1888–1973) – first female combatant, soldier, feminist

Stasa Zajovic (born 1953) – co-founder and coordinator of Women in Black

Somalia

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (born 1969) – Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer and politician

South Africa

Shamima Shaikh (1960–1998) – member of the Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa, exponent of Islamic gender equality

Spain

Concepción Arenal (1820–1893), feminist and activist

Clara Campoamor (1888–1972), politician and feminist

Sweden

Sophie Adlersparre (1823–1895) – publisher, women's rights activist and pioneer

Gertrud Adelborg (1853–1942) – teacher, active in women's rights movement and women's suffrage

Ellen Anckarsvärd (1833–1898) – women's rights activist, co-founded Föreningen för gift kvinnas äganderätt (Married Woman's Property Rights Association)

Fredrika Bremer (1801–1865) – writer, feminist activist and pioneer

Josefina Deland (1814–1890) – feminist, writer, teacher, founded Svenska lärarinnors pensionsförening (Society for Retired Female Teachers)

Anna Hierta-Retzius (1841–1924) – women's rights activist and philanthropist

Lotten von Kræmer (1828–1912) – writer, poet, philanthropist, founder of 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

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

Switzerland

Marianne Ehrmann (1755–1795) – among first women novelists and publicists in German-speaking countries

Margarethe Faas-Hardegger

Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin (1826-1899), founder of the Swiss women's movement

United Kingdom

Clementina Black (1853–1922) – writer prominent in the Women's Trade Union League and the forerunner of the Women's Industrial Council

Helen Blackburn (1842–1903) – suffragist and campaigner for women's employment rights

Barbara Bodichon (1827–1891) – active in the Langham Place Circle, promoter of first journal to press for women's rights, the English Woman's Journal (1858–64)

Jessie Boucherett (1825–1905) – co-founder of Society for Promoting the Employment of Women in 1859, editor of Englishwoman's Review (1866–70), co-founder of Women's Employment Defence League in 1891

Ida Craft (fl. 1910s) – suffragist, among main organizers of Suffrage Hikes

June Eric-Udorie, Anti-FGM campaigner

Millicent Fawcett (1847–1929) – suffragist and feminist, president of National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies

Mary Fildes (1789–1876) – political activist and founder of Manchester Female Reform Society

Edith Margaret Garrud (1872–1971) – trained "Bodyguard" unit of Women's Social and Political Union in jujutsu techniques

Diana Reader Harris (1912–1996) – educator and advocate of female ordination in the Church of England

Matilda Hays (1820–1897) – co-founder of first journal to press for women's rights, the English Woman's Journal (1858–64)

Anna Mary Howitt (1824–1884) – feminist prominent in the campaign that led to the Married Women's Property Act 1870

Anne Knight (1786–1862) – feminist and social reformer

Priscilla Bright McLaren (1815–1906) – women's rights campaigner

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) – philosopher, political economist, author of The Subjection of Women

Elizabeth Montagu (1718–1800) – social reformer and Bluestocking

Olive Morris (1952–1979) feminist, black nationalist, and squatters' rights activist

Caroline Norton (1808–1877) – social campaigner influencing the Custody of Infants Act 1839, Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 and Married Women's Property Act 1870

Christabel Pankhurst (1880–1958) – suffragette, co-founder and leader of Women's Social and Political Union

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) – founder leader of suffragette movement

Bessie Rayner Parkes (1829–1925) – editor of first journal to press for women's rights, the English Woman's Journal (1858–64)

Dora Russell (1894–1986) – campaigner, advocate of marriage reform, birth control and female emancipation

Charlotte Carmichael Stopes (1840–1929) – author and campaigner for women's rights, mother of Marie Stopes

Marie Stopes (1880–1958) – advocate of birth control and equality in marriage

Alice Vickery (1844–1929) – physician, supporter of birth control as means of women's emancipation

Catherine Winkworth (1827–1878) – translator and women's rights activist, secretary of the Clifton Association for Higher Education for Women

Malala Yousafzai (born 1997) – see Pakistan.

Alice Zimmern (1855–1939) – writer and suffragist

United States

Jane Addams (1860–1935) – major social activist, president Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) – prominent opponent of slavery, played a pivotal role in the 19th-century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States

Helen Valeska Bary (1888–1973) – suffragist, researcher, and social reformer

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) – advocate of women's issues, suffragist, publisher and editor of The Lily

Helen Gurley Brown (1922–2012) – author of Sex and the Single Girl, long-time editor of Cosmopolitan, advocate of women's self-fulfillment

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) – suffragist leader, president of National American Woman Suffrage Association, founder of League of Women Voters and International Alliance of Women

William Henry Channing (1810–1884) – minister, author

Grace Julian Clarke (1865–1938) – suffragist, journalist, author

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) – abolitionist, writer, speaker

Carol Downer (born 1933) – founder of women's self-help movement, feminist, and attorney

Elisabeth Freeman (1876–1942) – suffragist, civil rights activist, participated in Suffrage Hikes

Nancy Friday (born 1933) – writer and activist

Betty Friedan (1921–2006) – writer, activist, feminist

Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) – Transcendentalist, advocate of 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 for several women's rights cases before the United States Supreme Court. She herself became a Supreme Court Justice in 1993.

Emma Goldman (1869–1940) – campaigner for birth control and other rights

Judy Goldsmith (born 1938) – feminist activist, President of National Organization for Women (NOW)

Helen M. Gougar (1843–1907) – lawyer, temperance and women's rights advocate

Grace Greenwood (1823–1904) – first woman reporter on New York Times, advocate of 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

Jane Hunt (1812–1889) – philanthropist

Rosalie Gardiner Jones (1883–1978) – suffragist and organizer of the Suffrage Hikes

Mary Livermore (1820–1905) – women's rights journalist, suffragist

Kate Kelly (1980)- feminist and human rights lawyer, founder of Ordain Women, works for Planned Parenthood.

Abby Kelley (1811–1887) – opponent of slavery, women's rights activist, one of the first women to voice views in public speeches

Inez Milholland (1886–1916) – suffragist, key participant in National Woman's Party and Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913

Robin Morgan (born 1941) – poet, political theorist, journalist and lecturer

Lucretia Mott (1793–1880) – abolitionist, women's rights activist, and social reformer, who helped write Declaration of Sentiments during 1848 Seneca Falls Convention

Pauli Murray (1910–1985) – civil and women's rights activist, lawyer, and Episcopal priest

Diane Nash (born 1938) – Civil Rights Movement leader and organizer, voting rights exponent

Zelda Kingoff Nordlinger (born 1932) – instigator of first rape-reform laws

Maud Wood Park (1871–1955) – founder College Equal Suffrage League, first president League of Women Voters

Alice Paul (1885–1977) – One of the leaders of the 1910s Women's Voting Rights Movement for 19th Amendment, founder of National Woman's Party, initiator of Silent Sentinels and 1913 Women's Suffrage Parade, author of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment

Frédérique Petrides (1903–1983) – see Belgium.

Wendell Phillips (1811–1884) – abolitionist, orator, lawyer

Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) – writer, nurse, founder American Birth Control League, founder president of Planned Parenthood

May Wright Sewall (1844–1920) – educator, feminist, president of National Council of Women for the United States, president of the International Council of Women

Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919) – president of National Women's Suffrage Association

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 1848 Women's Rights Convention, co-founder of National Woman Suffrage Association and 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 National Woman's Party, Silent Sentinels participant, author of Jailed for Freedom

Pauline Agassiz Shaw (1841–1917) – founder president of Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government

Lucy Stone (1818–1893) – orator, one of the initiators of the first National Women's Rights Convention, founder of Woman's Journal, force behind the American Woman Suffrage Association, noted for retaining her surname after marriage

Roshini Thinakaran – film-maker focussing on lives of women in post-conflict zones

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) – Buffalo and New York suffragist, later influential journalist and radio broadcaster

Sojourner Truth (c. 1797 – 1883) – abolitionist and women's rights activist and speaker

Mabel Vernon (1883–1975) – suffragist, member of Congressional Union for Women Suffrage, organizer for Silent Sentinels

Harry S. Weeks – suffragist, civil rights activist, founder of Wheeling, WV's Democratic-Socialist Union

Ida B. Wells (1862–1931) – civil rights and anti-lynching activist, suffragist noted for refusal to avoid media attention as an African American

Frances Willard (1839–1898) – long-time president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which, under her leadership, supported women's suffrage

Victoria Woodhull (1838–1927) – suffragist, organizer, first woman to run for U.S. presidency

Rose O'Neill (1874-1944) famous illustrator (Kewpie creator) who worked for women's right to vote by creating posters and advertising material to promoting the women's movement. Worked with Eleanor Roosevelt.

Uruguay

María Abella de Ramírez

References

List of women's rights activists Wikipedia

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