Radha Poonoosamy

Radha Poonoosamy was a Mauritian politician who served as the country’s first female cabinet minister and was a member of the executive committee of the African National Congress (ANC). She was also an activist, campaigning for women’s rights and against apartheid and anti-Indian discrimination in her home country of South Africa. She continued her activism after moving to Mauritius in 1952, and was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1975. She was appointed the inaugural minister in charge of the newly formed Ministry of Women’s Affairs, a role in which she helped passed laws against gender discrimination.

Continue reading

Teresa Hsu

Teresa Hsu Chih was a Singaporean charity worker, nicknamed “Singapore’s Mother Teresa” for her lifelong dedication to helping the elderly sick and impoverished. A retired nurse, she founded non-profit charities Heart to Heart Service and the Home for the Aged Sick, one of the first of its kind in Singapore.

Continue reading

Waris Dirie

Model, author, actor and activist Waris Dirie worked for the United Nations from 1997 to 2003 as a Special Ambassador for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation. She had written several books on the subject, and in 2002 launched her own non-profit, the Desert Flower Foundation, which raises money to increase awareness about FGM and to help those affected.

Continue reading

Wided Bouchamaoui

Wided Bouchamaoui is a Tunisian businesswoman who has been the leader of the employers union Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA) since 2011. UTICA was one of the four organisations to form the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, whose aim was to secure a transition to democracy. The Quartet won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.

Continue reading

Zdeňka Wiedermannová-Motyčková

Zdeňka Wiedermannová-Motyčková was a Moravian teacher, editor and women’s rights activist. After teaching for several years, she began to recognize the disparities between male and female teachers, as well as between their students. By 1898, she was publicly calling for women to receive equal pay for equal work and campaigning for equal education for boys and girls. In 1902, Wiedermannová founded and became chair of the Moravian Teachers Union, whose goal was to professionalize teaching standards. In 1903, she opened a Girls’ Academy in Brno, hoping to later expand to include secondary education. Because the Austro-Hungarian Empire provided little funding for girls’ education, she held lectures to help pay the academy’s operating costs of the academy. It was five years before she successfully established the first girls’ secondary school in Moravia, in 1908.
That same year, Wiedermannová founded and became the editor of Ženská revue (Women’s Review), a magazine featuring articles on developments in the international women’s movement. In 1909, she retired from teaching to focus on activism and became one of the most prominent Czech feminists, presenting more than a hundred lectures during her career. She founded several women’s associations and in 1910 was instrumental in creating a regional umbrella organization, the Progressive Organization of Women in Moravia, which was actively committed to women’s suffrage and the integration of women into all segments of public life.
Wiedermannová-Motyčková was an active demonstrator at rallies and participated in petition drives to secure the vote for women. She participated in international conferences and sought connections with feminists in other parts of her country. From the onset of World War I, her activism shifted to humanitarian aid for the poor and for soldiers’ families.She died in 1915, only a few years before Czech women secured the right to vote in 1918.

Continue reading

Hanan Ashrawi

Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi is a Palestinian politician, activist and scholar who served as a member of the Leadership Committee and as an official spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace process, starting with the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991.

Continue reading

Dr Yvonne Sylvain

Dr Yvonne Sylvain was the first female doctor from Haiti and the first woman accepted into the University of Haiti Medical School, earning her medical degree in 1940. She played a vital role in providing improved medical access and tools for Haitian citizens and was a leading advocate for the physical, economical, social and political equality of Haitian women.

Continue reading