List of women's rights activists

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Notable women's rights activists are as follows, arranged alphabetically by modern country names and by the names of the persons listed:

Afghanistan

Albania

Algeria

Argentina

  • Virginia Bolten (1870–1960) – Argentine journalist as well as an anarchist and feminist activist of German descent
  • Raymunda Torres y Quiroga – 19th-century Argentine writer and women's rights activist
  • Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

Australia

Austria

  • Auguste Fickert (1855–1910) – feminist and social reformer
  • Marianne Hainisch (1839–1936) – activist, exponent of women's right to work and education
  • Bertha Pappenheim (1859–1936) – Austrian-Jewish feminist, founder of the German Jewish Women's Association

Belgium

  • Marguerite Coppin (1867–1931) – female Poet Laureate of Belgium and advocate of women's rights
  • Joséphine Nyssens Keelhoff (1833-1917) – Belgian temperance and women's rights activist, feminist, editor
  • Christine Loudes (1972–2016) – proponent of gender equality and women's rights
  • Women in Music
  • Marie Popelin (1846–1913) – lawyer, feminist campaigner, leader of the Belgian League for Women's Rights

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Botswana

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

Brazil

Bulgaria

Burkina Faso

Canada


Cape Verde

Chad

Chile

China

Colombia

Croatia

Democratic Republic of Congo

  • Julienne Lusenge – women's activist recognized for advocating for survivors of wartime sexual violence

Denmark

  • Sophie Alberti (1846–1947) – pioneering women's rights activist and a leading member of Kvindelig Læseforening (Women Readers' Association)
  • Widad Akrawi (born 1969) – writer and doctor, advocate for gender equality, women's empowerment and participation in peace-building and post-conflict governance
  • Johanne Andersen (1862–1925), active in Funen and in the Danish Women's Society
  • Ragnhild Nikoline Andersen (1907–1990) – trade unionist, Communist party politician and Stutthof prisoner
  • Signe Arnfred (born 1944), sociologist specializing in gender studies
  • Matilde Bajer (1840–1934) – women's rights activist and pacifist
  • Annestine Beyer (1795–1884) – pioneer of women's education
  • Anne Bruun (1853–1934) – schoolteacher and women's rights activist
  • Esther Carstensen (1873–1955) – women right's activist, journal editor, active in the Danish Women's Society
  • Severine Casse (1805–1898) – women's rights activist, successful in fighting for a wife's right to dispose of her earnings
  • Karen Dahlerup (1920–2018), women's rights activist and politician
  • Ulla Dahlerup (born 1942) – writer, women's rights activist, member of the Danish Red Stocking Movement
  • Thora Daugaard (1874–1951) – women's rights activist, pacifist, editor
  • Henni Forchhammer (1863–1955) – educator, feminist, peace activist
  • Inger Gamburg (1892–1979) – trades unionist, Communist politician
  • Suzanne Giese (1946–2012) – writer, women's rights activist, prominent member of the Red Stocking Movement
  • Bente Hansen (born 1940) – writer, supporter of the Red Stocking Movement
  • Eline Hansen (1859–1919) – feminist and peace activist
  • Eva Hemmer Hansen (1913–1983) – writer and feminist
  • Estrid Hein (1873–1956) – ophthalmologist, women's rights activist, pacifist
  • Dagmar Hjort (1860–1902) – schoolteacher, writer, women's rights activist
  • Thora Ingemann Drøhse (1867–1948) – temperance campaigner and women's rights activist in Randers
  • Katja Iversen (born 1969) – author, advisor, women's rights advocate, President of Women Deliver 2014-2020
  • Thyra Jensen (1865–1949) – writer and women's rights activist in southern Schleswig
  • Erna Juel-Hansen (1845–1922) – novelist, early women's rights activist
  • Lene Koch (born 1947), gender studies researcher
  • Anna Laursen (1845–1911) – educator, head of the Aarhus branch of the Danish Women's Society
  • Anna Lohse (1866–1942), Odense schoolteacher and women's rights activist
  • Line Luplau (1823–1891) – feminist, suffragist, founder of the Danish Women's Suffrage Society
  • Kvinfo
    from 1990 to 2014
  • Thora Knudsen (1861–1950), nurse, women's rights activist and philanthropist
  • Nynne Koch (1915–2001), pioneering women's studies researcher
  • Else Moltke (1888–1986), writer and leader of women's discussion group in Copenhagen
  • Elna Munch (1871–1845) – feminist, politician, co-founder of the Danish Association for Women's Suffrage
  • Louise Nørlund (1854–1919) – feminist, pacifist, founder of the Danish Women's Suffrage Society
  • Birgitte Berg Nielsen (1861–1951) – equal rights activist, educator
  • Charlotte Norrie (1855–1940) – nurse, women's rights activist, voting rights campaigner
  • Voldborg Ølsgaard (1877–1939) – women's rights and peace activist
  • Tania Ørum (born 1945), women's research activist, literary historian
  • Thora Pedersen (1875–1954) – educator, school inspector, women's rights activist who fought for equal pay for men and women
  • Johanne Rambusch (1865–1944) – feminist, politician, co-founder of the radical suffrage association Landsforbundet for Kvinders Valgret
  • Caja Rude (1884–1949), novelist, journalist and women's rights activist
  • Vibeke Salicath (1861–1921) – philanthropist, feminist, editor, politician
  • Astrid Stampe Feddersen (1852–1930) – chaired first Scandinavian meeting on women's rights
  • Karen Syberg (born 1945) – writer, feminist, co-founder of the Red Stocking Movement
  • Dansk Kvindesamfund
  • Ingeborg Tolderlund (1848–1935) – women's rights activist and suffragist
  • Clara Tybjerg (1864–1941) – women's rights activist, pacifist
  • Anna Westergaard (1882–1964) – railway official, trade unionist, women's rights activist, politician
  • Louise Wright (1861–1935) – philanthropist, feminist, peace activist
  • Natalie Zahle (1827–1913) – pioneer of women's education
  • Else Zeuthen (1897–1975) – Danish pacifist, women's rights activist and politician

East Timor

Ecuador

Egypt

  • Qasim Amin (1863–1908) – jurist, early advocate of women's rights in society
  • Soraya Bahgat (born 1983) – Egyptian-Finnish women's rights advocate, social entrepreneur and founder of Tahrir Bodyguard
  • Ihsan El-Kousy (born 1900) – headmistress, writer and rights activist
  • Nawal el-Saadawi
    (1931–2021) – writer and doctor, advocate of women's health and equality
  • Entisar Elsaeed (fl. 2000s) – activist fighting female genital mutilation and domestic abuse
  • Engy Ghozlan (born 1985) – coordinator of campaigns against sexual harassment
  • 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

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

  • Jenny Apolant (1874–1925) – Jewish feminist, suffragist
  • Ruth Bré (c. 1862/67–1911) – writer, advocate of matrilineality and women's rights, founder of Bund für Mutterschutz (League for Maternity Leave)[1]
  • Johanna Elberskirchen (1864–1943) - feminist and activist for women's rights, gays and lesbians
  • Johanna von Evreinov
    (1844–1919) – Russian-born German feminist writer, pioneering female lawyer and editor
  • Lida Gustava Heymann
    (1868–1943) – feminist, pacifist and women's rights activist
  • Luise Koch (1860–1934) – educator, women's rights activist, suffragist, politician
  • Helene Lange (1848–1930) – educator, pioneering women's rights activist, suffragist
  • Sigrid Metz-Göckel (born 1940) – sociologist, gender studies academic
  • Ursula G. T. Müller (born 1940) – sociologist, gender studies academic
  • Louise Otto-Peters (1819–1895) – suffragist, women's rights activist, writer
  • Alice Salomon (1872–1948) – social reformer, women's rights activist, educator, writer
  • Käthe Schirmacher (1865–1930) – early women's rights activist, writer
  • Auguste Schmidt (1833–1902) – pioneering women's rights activist, educator, journalist
  • Alice Schwarzer (born 1942) – journalist and publisher of the magazine Emma
  • Gesine Spieß (1945–2016), educationalist specializing in gender studies
  • Marie Stritt (1855–1928) – women's rights activist, suffragist, co-founder of the International Alliance of Women
  • Johanna Vogt (1862–1944) – suffragist, first woman on the city council of Kassel starting in 1919.
  • Marianne Weber (1870–1954) – sociologist, women's rights activist, writer
  • Clara Zetkin (1857–1933) – Marxist theorist, women's rights activist, suffragist, politician

Ghana

Greece

  • Kalliroi Parren (1861–1940) – founder of the Greek women's movement
  • Avra Theodoropoulou (1880–1963) – music critic, pianist, suffragist, women's rights activist, nurse

Greenland

Haiti

Hungary

Iceland

India

  • Angellica Aribam (born 1992) – political activist, founder of Femme First Foundation
  • Annie Basil (1911–1995) – Iranian-Indian activist for Armenian women
  • Yogita Bhayana – Indian anti-sexual violence activist and head of People Against Rape in India
  • Madhusree Dutta (born 1959) – co-founder of Majlis, Mumbai, author, cultural activist, filmmaker, curator
  • Rehana Fathima (born 1986) – women's rights activist
  • Ruchira Gupta (born 1964) – journalist and activist. She is the founder of Apne Aap, a non-governmental organization that works for women's rights and the eradication of sex trafficking
  • Nazli Gegum (1874–1968) – Indian girl education activist
  • 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 which assists trafficked women, girls and transgender people in finding shelter, education and employment
  • Subodh Markandeya – senior advocate
  • Swati Maliwal (born 1984) - Women's activist, had several demands, including the passage of an ordinance requiring the death penalty for individuals who rape children under age 12, recruiting police under United Nations standards and demanding accountability of the police
  • Manasi Pradhan (born 1962) – founder of nationwide Honour for Women National Campaign against violence to women
  • Mamatha Raghuveer Achanta (born 1967) – women's and child rights activist, chair of Child Welfare Committee, Warangal District, active in A.P. State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, founder director of Tharuni, focusing on girl-child and women empowerment

Indonesia

Iran

Ireland

  • Hilary Boyle (1899–1988) – journalist, broadcaster, and activist
  • 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 (1694–1746) – philosopher born to activist family of Scots Presbyterians, opponent of slavery and advocate of women's rights
  • suffragist

Israel

Italy

  • Alma Dolens (1869–1948) – pacifist, suffragist and journalist, founder of several women's organizations
  • Linda Malnati (1855–1921) – women's rights activist, trade unionist, suffragist, pacifist and writer
  • Anna Maria Mozzoni (1837–1920) – pioneering women's rights activist and suffragist
  • Eugenia Rasponi Murat
    (1873–1958) – women's rights activist and open lesbian who fought for civil protections.
  • Gabriella Rasponi Spalletti (1853–1931) – feminist, educator and philanthropist, founder of the National Council of Italian Women in 1903
  • Laura Terracina (1519–c.1577) – widely published poet, writer, protested violence against women and promoted women's writing

Japan

Jordan

Kazakhstan

Kenya

  • Nice Nailantei Leng'ete (born 1991) – advocate for alternative rite of passage (ARP) for girls in Africa and campaigning to stop female genital mutilation (FGM).
  • Wangari Maathai (1940–2011) – social, environmental and political activist, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize

Latvia

Lebanon

Libya

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

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Mali

Mauritania

Netherlands

Namibia

New Zealand

  • Kate Sheppard (1848–1934) – suffragette, influential in winning voting rights for women in 1893 (first country and national election in which women have vote)

Nigeria

Norway

Pakistan

Peru

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Puerto Rico

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

Romania

  • Maria Baiulescu (1860–1941) – Austro-Hungarian born Romanian writer, suffragist and women's rights activist
  • Calypso Botez (1880–1933) – writer, suffragist and women's rights activist
  • Alexandrina Cantacuzino (1876–1944) – political activist, feminist, philanthropist and diplomat
  • Maria Cuțarida-Crătunescu (1857–1919) – first female doctor in Romania, feminist supporter, founded the Maternal Society in 1897, and in 1899 organised the first crèche in Romania
  • Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck (1879–1969) – painter and feminist
  • Eugenia de Reuss Ianculescu (1866–1938) – teacher, writer, women's rights activist, suffragist
  • Clara Maniu (1842–1929) – feminist, suffragist
  • Elena Meissner (1867–1940) – feminist, suffragist, headed Asociația de Emancipare Civilă și Politică a Femeii Române
  • Sofia Nădejde (1856–1946) – writer, women's rights activist and socialist
  • Ella Negruzzi (1876–1948) – lawyer and women's rights activist
  • Elena Pop-Hossu-Longin (1862–1940) – Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian writer, journalist, suffragist and women's rights activist
  • Ilona Stetina (1855–1932) – pioneer educator and women's rights activist
  • Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan (1870–1941) – literary critic, educationist, journalist, poet and feminist militant

Russia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saudi Arabia

  • Loujain al-Hathloul (born 1989) – women's rights leader, social media influencer, political prisoner

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) – politician, poet, diplomat, feminist
  • Draga Ljočić (1855–1926) – physician, socialist, and feminist
  • Milica of Serbia
    (1335–1405) – empress, feminist, poet
  • Katarina Milovuk (1844–1913) – educator and women's rights activist
  • Milunka Savić (1888–1973) – first female combatant, soldier, feminist
  • Stasa Zajovic
    (born 1953) – co-founder and coordinator of Women in Black

Slovenia

  • Alojzija Štebi (1883–1956) – suffragist, who saw socialism as a means of equalizing society for both men and women.

Somalia

  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali (born 1969) – Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer and politician
  • Halima Ali Adan – Somali gender rights activist and an expert on female genital mutilation (FGM).

South Africa

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

Spain

Sri-Lanka

Sweden

Switzerland

Tunisia

  • Néziha Zarrouk (born 1946) – minister who contributed to improvements in women's rights and women's health

Turkey

  • Nezihe Muhiddin – feminist, founded a women's party
  • Sebahat Tuncel – women's rights activist, former nurse and member of Parliament in Turkey

Uganda

United Kingdom

United States

Uruguay

  • María Abella de Ramírez
    (1863–1926) – feminist noted for her role in establishing Uruguayan and Argentine women's groups in the early 1900s

Venezuela

  • Sheyene Gerardi – human rights advocate, peace activist, founder of the SPACE movement

Yemen

  • Muna Luqman – activist, peace builder, founder of the organization Food4Humanity and co-founder of Women in Solidarity Network

Zambia

  • Lily Monze (born 1936) – teacher, politician and women's rights activist

Zimbabwe

  • Nyaradzo Mashayamombe (born 1980) – women's and human rights advocate, founder of Tag A Life International Trust (TaLI)
  • Talent Jumo (born 1980/1981) – teacher, co-founder and director of the Katswe Sistahood

See also

References