A marine biologist and nature writer, Rachel Carson catalyzed the global environmental movement with her 1962 book Silent Spring. Outlining the dangers of chemical pesticides, the book led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides and sparked the movement that ultimately led to the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In a 1912 New York Times article, Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was regarded as “the symbol of the new era, when all women will be free and unhampered.” At the time, sixteen year old Lee was already a recognized suffragist and activist that would help to lead almost 10,000 people in the New York suffrage parade.
Dame Nellie Robinson, DC, MBE was a pioneer of education in Antigua who broke down class and colour barriers to help provide all children with access to education. She was the first woman to receive Antigua and Barbuda’s Order of the National Hero.
Hajjah Rangkayo Rasuna Said was a major figure in Indonesia’s struggle for independence against the country’s Dutch colonisers.
Said was politically active from a very young age, and founded a political party – the Indonesian Muslim Association (PERMI) – in her early 20s.
An electrifying speaker who delivered speeches “like lightning during the day” according to one biography, her challenge to Dutch colonial authorities earned her the nickname Lioness. The Dutch often halted her speeches, and even imprisoned her in 1932 for 14 months.
When the Japanese invaded Indonesia during World War II in 1942, Said joined a pro-Japanese organisation, but used it to continue her independence activities.
After the Japanese were defeated, the Dutch returned to try to reimpose their control, initially with British help, and a brutal four-year conflict began, until the Dutch finally recognised Indonesian sovereignty in 1949.
Said was declared a National Hero of Indonesia by president Suharto in 1974. One of Jakarta’s main arteries is named for her (Jalan H.R. Rasuna Said) and Padang, West Sumatra.
Gwendolyn Margaret Lizarraga, MBE was a Belizean businesswoman, women’s rights activist and politician who was the first woman elected to the British Honduras Legislative Assembly (now the Belize House of Representatives) and the first woman to serve as a government minister in British Honduras (now Belize).
Nwanyeruwa was an Igbo woman living in colonial Nigeria known for her role in the Women’s War against taxation from November 1929 to January 1930.
Pálné Veres was a Hungarian teacher and feminist who opened the first secondary school for women in Hungary in 1869 and founded the Hungarian National Association for Women’s Education.
Her school’s philosophy was that girls should be taught to be self-sufficient, and to learn to appreciate arts and culture while avoiding a tendency towards self-indulgence in luxury. Girls were to be taught to be direct representatives of God in their future married lives, and to embody Christian ideals in their behaviour. The school itself was divided into 11 grades: four in the elementary level, four at the intermediary level, and three in the superior level. The curriculum for the superior classes included Religious instruction; Hungarian Language; Hungarian Literature; Aesthetics; Pedagogy; Anthropology and Psychology; Logic; History of Civilization (partiularly as it related to women); Algebra and Geometry; German language; French language; Manual arts; Vocal and Instrumental Music; Gymnastics; Mathematics and Stereometry; Drawing.
Veres was disappointed at the high rate of departure of the students before the superior level, as the upper bourgeoisie and aristocratic parents of her students did not see a practical use for their daughters to advance beyond a certain age. The superior-level classes were seen as useful only for young women who intended to become school teachers themselves. Veres did succeed in influencing the upper bougeoisie and aristocracy attitudes, in acknowledging the benefits of education in general for children of both sexes.
Dr Alanoud Alsharekh is a Kuwaiti women’s rights activist and founding director of Abolish 153 (short for Abolish Article 153), a campaign calling to end honour killings in Kuwait.
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.
Gertrud Johanna Woker was a Swiss suffragist, biochemist, toxicologist and peace activist.