Activism > Feminism Archives - Page 11 of 11

Ada Wells

In 1892 Ada Wells, with Professor Alexander Bickerton, founded the Canterbury Women’s Institute, of which she was president for many years. This was one of many offices she was to hold. In 1896 she became the first national secretary of the National Council of Women of New Zealand, and in 1898 she helped to spearhead the campaign for the formation of the Canterbury Children’s Aid Society. In 1899 she became one of the first two women to be elected to the Ashburton and North Canterbury United Charitable Aid Board, serving as a member until 1906 in spite of the antagonism of male members of the board to her presence. In addition to this she was associated with the Prison-gate Mission, an organisation engaged in the rehabilitation of prisoners. She was a member of the National Peace Council of New Zealand and worked with groups providing aid to conscientious objectors during the First World War.

Eleanor Roosevelt

A shy, insecure child, Eleanor Roosevelt would grow up to become one of the most important and beloved First Ladies, authors, reformers, and female leaders of the 20th century.

Betty Friedan

Journalist, activist, and co-founder of the National Organization for Women, Betty Friedan was one of the early leaders of the women’s rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Her 1963 best-selling book, The Feminine Mystique, gave voice to millions of American women’s frustrations with their limited gender roles and helped spark widespread public activism for gender equality.

Charlotta Spears Bass

Charlotta Spears Bass, longtime editor of the African American newspaper The California Eagle, was a journalist, activist, and politician who fought for the civil rights of African Americans in the early and mid-twentieth century. The first Black woman to run for vice president of the United States (1952), she worked to combat what she called, “The two-headed monster, Segregation and Discrimination.”

Anissa Rawda Najjar

Anissa Rawda Najjar was a Lebanese feminist and women’s rights activist, who co-founded the Village Welfare Society (Jam`iyat In`ash Al-Qarya) with Evelyne Bustros in 1953, to advance literacy and economic opportunities for rural women in Lebanon.

Sediqeh Dowlatabadi

Feminist activist and journalist Sediqeh Dowlatabadi was a pioneering figures in the Persian women’s movement who believed in the advancement of women through education.

Aasta Hansteen

In her younger days, Norwegian feminist Aasta Hansteen earned her living as a portrait painter in Kristiania (modern-day Oslo)’ she was in demand as the city’s only portrait artist. Her most famous painting is possibly her portrait of her father, which is on permanent exhibit at the National Gallery of Norway. Associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting, she exhibited her work at the 1855 World’s Fair in Paris. Well known in the Oslo’s intellectual circles, Hansteen inspired characters in dramas by Ibsen and Gunnar Heiberg. Her writings advocating for the rights of women, her opposition to religious authority, and her provocative behavior—she often appeared fpr public speaking engagements wearing men’s boots and brandishing a whip in a symbolic performance of the oppressor—led to such harassment that in 1880 she emigrated to the United States. Together with her foster daughter Theodora Nielsen, she sailed from Christiania on April 9, 1880. In Boston, she met leading feminists of the day, including Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and Mary Livermore, and was deeply affected by the relative freedom of women in America. By 1889, when she returned to Norway, the feminist movement there was firmly established, and Hansteen was embraced as one of its pioneers. In 1889, she returned to Norway, joined the Norwegian Association for Women’s Rights (Norsk Kvinnesaksforening) and became an active contributor in the press on women’s rights
She also studied linguistics, with an interest in Norwegian dialects. In 1862 she published anonymously a small book written in Nynorsk, becoming the first woman to publish in the language.

Andrea Villarreal

Andrea Villarreal was a teacher, poet, feminist, labor organizer, and revolutionary. Along with her sister Teresa, Andrea published the feminist newspaper La Mujer Moderna (The Modern Woman, 1910) supporting the liberal-radical activities of the Partido Liberal Mexicano (opposing the Mexican dictatorship of President Porfirio Díaz (1876–1911)) in San Antonio and the Mexican Revolution (1910–17). She publicly opposed the imprisonment of Mexican men during the Revolution and was referred to by members of the press as the Mexican Joan of Arc.

Urani Rumbo

Urani Rumbo was an Albanian feminist, playwright and teacher who founded several associations promoting Albanian women’s rights, including the Lidhja e Gruas (English: Woman’s Union), one of the country’s first major feminist organizations. In 1919, while teaching at the De Rada school of Gjirokastër, she started an initiative against female illiteracy and the tradition of restricting women to certain parts of the household. In 1920 she opened the Koto Hoxhi school, a five-year primary school for girls from all parts of Gjirokastër and of all religions. There is an elementary school in Gjirokastër named after her. On March 1, 1961, she posthumously recieved the Mësuese e Popullit (Teacher of the People) medal.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer whose works range from novels to short stories to nonfiction. Her best-known works include Purple Hibiscus (2003), Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) – which was adapted into a 2013 film – short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck (2009), Americanah (2013), We Should All Be Feminists (2014) and Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions (2017).
She was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2008.