English, 1882 – 1960

Sylvia Pankhurst (daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst) began working for the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906, and contributed articles to its newspaper; Votes for Women. As a talented artist, she contributed to the suffrage cause with her art and created the visual identity of the organization. In 1911, she published a propagandist history of the WSPU’s campaign, entitled The Suffragette: The History of the Women’s Militant Suffrage Movement. However, Pankhurst was expelled from the WSPU in 1913, which led to her founding of the East London Federation of Suffragettes (ELFS).

English, 1858 – 1944

Dame Ethel Mary Smyth, an English composer, wrote the song The March of the Women; which became the anthem of the women’s suffrage movement. In 1910, she also joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), and in 1912, Smyth was one of 100 other women that answered the call to break a window in the house of any politician who opposed votes for women. This action led to two months in Holloway Prison, where she rejoiced in conducting her battle song with a toothbrush inside Holloway Prison.

English, 1858 – 1928

Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1903 after being disenchanted with the methods used by the suffragist National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). The WSPU became known for the radical physical confrontations that established henceforth the distinction between suffragists and suffragettes. Prior to creating the WSPU, however, she co-founded the Women’s Franchise League with her husband 1889, which advocated suffrage for both married and unmarried women. By 1917, she transformed the WSPU into the Women’s Party, which was dedicated to promoting women’s equality in public life.

English, 1880 – 1958

A lawyer and co-founder of the WSPU, Christabel Pankhurst (daughter of Emmeline) was known for being a leader of the organization, as well as for the militant tactics that gave the suffragettes their name. She was jailed in 1907 in Parliament Square, and given the name Queen of the Mob by the Press. She was arrested and imprisoned several times again. She moved to Paris in 1913, to avoid imprisonment, and directed the organization’s militant actions from abroad. After some British women were granted the right to vote at the end of World War I, Pankhurst stood in the 1918 general election as a Women’s Party candidate, but ultimately lost to Labour Party candidate John Davison.

English, 1879 – 1953

Annie Kenney was a radical suffragette who became a leading lieutenant in the militant organization Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). She became actively involved in the WSPU in 1905, and, after being named deputy in 1912, was the only working class woman to become part of the senior hierarchy of the WSPU. She and Christabel Pankhurst, together, were the first two suffragettes to be imprisoned. Many more followed.

English, 1872 – 1913

As a militant fighter for suffrage and women’s rights, suffragette Emily Wilding Davison was arrested on nine different occasions, went on hunger strike seven times, and was force-fed on 49 occasions. She joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in November 1906, and by 1909 she had left her job teaching, to dedicate herself full time to the union’s activities. Her motto: Deeds not Words. One final act of radical activism claimed her life in 1913.

American, 1856 – 1940

Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of pioneering women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, worked closely with her mother and Susan B. Anthony on the History of Woman Suffrage. In 1902, she set out to energize the American women’s suffrage movement, which seemed to have lost its way. After joining the leadership of the Women’s Trade Union League, she founded the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women in 1907, which sought to rally working class women into the suffrage movement. The Equality League became the Women’s Political Union in 1910. In 1915, her organization merged with the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, which, in 1916, became the National Woman’s Party.

American, 1815 – 1902

At the 1848 the Seneca Falls Convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton read her Declaration of Sentiments; a document outlining the rights that American women should be entitled to as citizens and proposing women be granted the right to vote. Signed by 68 women and 32 men, the document and the Convention are often credited with launching the first organized women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements in the U.S. She also co-authored The Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United Sates; which Susan B. Anthony presented, at the 1876 Centennial celebration in Washington.

American, 1793 – 1880

A strong opponent of slavery, and a women’s rights activist, Lucretia Mott became interested in reforming the position of women in society, after she was excluded from the World Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 in London, because she was a woman. She founded and presided over the Northern Association for the Relief and Employment of Poor Women in Philadelphia in 1846, and helped establish the American Equal Rights Association in 1866.

American, 1851 – 1931

Ida Husted Harper was an American journalist, author and suffragist who began her career writing in many Indianapolis newspapers under a male pseudonym. In 1887, she helped to organize a woman suffrage society in Indiana and served as secretary, and in 1896, she joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association as a reporter. Working in close collaboration with Susan B. Anthony, she became her biographer and an historian of the movement.

American, 1820 – 1906

Susan B. Anthony is, perhaps, history’s most famous Suffragist. She campaigned across the nation for the abolition of slavery, the right for women to own their own property and retain their earnings, and she was an advocate for women’s labor organizations. Anthony attended her first Women’s Rights convention in 1852, and, together with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, led the fight for the enfranchisement of women for the next 50 years. By the 1890s had raised $50,000 in pledges to ensure the admittance of women to the University of Rochester and presided over the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) from 1890 to 1900.

American, 1881 – 1928

Crystal Eastman was an American labor lawyer, feminist, socialist, and journalist. She is perhaps most well known for cofounding the National Civil Liberties Bureau in 1917, which later became the ACLU, as ell as for her part in writing the Equal Rights Amendment. Eastman was also one of the few socialists to endorse the ERA when it was introduced in 1923.

American, 1862 – 1931

A brilliant investigative journalist, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was also a woman’s rights, and early civil rights activist. She reported extensively on lynchings in her newspaper, The Free Speech; which led to her launching an anti-lynching campaign that she took to Europe. A strong advocate of woman’s suffrage and equal rights for all, she co-founded the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago in 1913. At the suffrage procession of 1913 in Washington, D.C., Ida B. Wells was advised to march in the back, so as to not to upset the Southern delegates. She refused and joined her own Illinois delegation as they marched. Although her name was excluded from the original list of founders of the NAACP, she is also credited with being one of the co-founders of the organization.

American, 1885 – 1977

Alice Paul was one of the most formidable suffrage leaders in American History and played a pivotal role in the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment during the 1910’s. She led the more militant faction of the suffrage movement, forming first the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and, later, the National Woman’s Party (NWP) in 1916. In 1913, Paul was instrumental in organizing the Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C., the day before President Wilson’s inauguration. She is also the original author with Crystal Eastman of the Equal Rights Amendment to the constitution (ERA); which was introduced to Congress for the first time in 1923.

American, 1879 – 1966

In the U.S. alone, Lucy Burns was arrested six times during her fight for women’s rights, and reportedly spent more time in prison than any other suffrage crusader. In 1913, Burns and Alice Paul cofounded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (CU), which later became the National Woman’s Party. Until 1920, Burns worked tirelessly to bring attention to the plight of imprisoned suffragists, including serving as the manager of the “Prison Special” speaking tour in 1919.

American, 1859 – 1947

Carrie Chapman Catt was a teacher, and later, became superintendent of schools in Iowa before joining the cause of women’s suffrage. She served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) from 1900 to 1904, and again from 1915 to 1920. A skilled strategist, she devised the Winning Plan in 1916, which would help secure the vote. Catt also founded the League of Women Voters in 1920, shortly before the 19th Amendment was passed.

American, 1880 – 1973

Jeannette Pickering Rankin was a committed pacifist, a feminist and a politician who became the first woman to hold national office in the United States as a member of Congress in 1916. Prior to holding office, she spoke before the Montana legislature in 1911, the first woman to do so, to make the case for women’s suffrage. Throughout her public life, she advocated for gender equality and civil rights.

English, 1827 – 1890

Lydia Ernestine Becker was a women’s rights activist and a leader of the British suffrage movement. She also was a natural scientist. From 1870 until her death, she published and edited the newspaper she founded with her friend, Jessie Boucherett, the Women’s Suffrage Journal. She toured the country giving lectures advocating for the enfranchisement of women and published her speeches in her Journal. In 1881, Becker joined the Central Society for Women’s Suffrage and, later, served as president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) in 1887.

English, 1847 – 1929

Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett was an English feminist, and a leader of the constitutional suffrage movement in England. She was an advocate for improving women’s opportunities for higher education, and in 1875, she cofounded Newnham College. In 1897, she became the president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). By 1905, Fawcett’s NUWSS had reached 305 constituent organizations, and nearly 50,000 members.

Irish, 1877 – 1946

Hannah Sheehy Skeffington was an Irish patriot, a pacifist and a suffragette. She began her career as a teacher, but lost her position at the Rathmines School of Commerce in 1913, due to her involvement in feminist militancy. In 1908, she co-founded the Irish Women’s Franchise League, as well as the publication The Irish Citizen. Her participation in rallies and marches led her to be arrested in 1912 and again in 1913 as a result of the militant tactics used by the suffrage society. Because of her anti-war views, the British government also prevented her from attending the International Congress of Women held in The Hague in April 1915. However, the following year she traveled to the U.S. to talk about the fight for Irish independence and to raise awareness on behalf of Sinn Féin—a left-wing Irish republican political party.

English, 1869 – 1923

Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton joined the the militant organization, Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1909, and was imprisoned four times from 1909 to 1911. She wrote about her experiences for The Times and Votes for Women; the monthly journal of the WSPU.

English, 1872 – 1946

Eleanor Florence Rathbone was a British reformer, suffragist and politician. From 1897, she gave speeches for the Women’s Suffrage Society. She was an elected independent member of Liverpool City Council from 1909 to 1935. In 1913, she co-founded the Liverpool Women Citizen’s Association to support women’s participation in political affairs, and she presided over the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship in 1919. Rathbone also created the Liverpool Personal Service Society; a charity that still operates today, and provides community based social and health care services.

Irish, 1822 – 1904

Frances Power Cobbe, an Irish writer and women’s suffrage supporter, was a member of the executive council of the London National Society for Women’s Suffrage in 1889, and wrote editorial columns for London newspapers on suffrage, property rights for women, and opposition to vivisection. In particular, her activism for women’s rights included advocating that women be allowed to take university examinations, and earn a degree at Oxford and Cambridge.

American, 1894 – 1961

Dorothy Celene Thompson was a political journalist and a leading feminist. Early on, she worked for the suffrage movement and went on to be dubbed the First Lady of American Journalism. Later, she opposed Hitler’s regime and was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany in 1934. She also was among the few women radio newscasters during the 1930s.

American, 1830 – 1917

Belva Ann Lockwood was an American lawyer, feminist, and pacifist. She was also one of the first women to run for president; first in 1884, and again in 1888. As a member of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1867, she drafted resolutions and bills, circulated petitions, and campaigned successfully for the 1872 equal pay act for female government employees.

American, 1839 – 1898

A social reformer and a suffragist, Frances Willard became the national president of Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879, a position she held until her death in 1898. Her work for the temperance cause included a 50-day speaking tour in 1874, and for over a decade, she gave an average of 400 lectures a year. Willard also founded the World WCTU in 1888 and became its president in 1893.

American, 1838 – 1927

Victoria Woodhull was a feminist, journalist and a financier. In 1871, she testified before the House Judiciary Committee, claiming that women already had the right to vote, since the 14th and 15th Amendments guaranteed the protection of that right for all citizens. In 1872, Woodhull ran for President of the United States for the Equal Rights Party. A staunch advocate for women’s rights, she joined the Pankhurst suffrage campaigns in the late 1870’s.

American, 1853 – 1933

An affluent, influential socialite, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont used her wealth to fight for women’s rights in the early 1900s. She founded and presided over the Political Equality Association in New York City in 1909, which was affiliated with the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1914, Belmont left the NAWSA to join the more militant Alice Paul, and focus her efforts on the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, which later became known as the National Women’s Party. Named for its benefactor, the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument in Washington, D.C., is home to the NWP.

English, 1844 – 1939

Charlotte Despard was an Irish novelist who turned suffragette, and pacifist in the late-19^th century. In 1906, she joined the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies and was imprisoned twice in Holloway Prison. However, Despard later joined the more radical Women’s Social and Political Union (WPSU). In 1907, Despard helped form the Women’s Freedom League, after disagreements over the way the WSPU was run.

English, 1877 – 1964

An English suffragist and teacher, Teresa Billington-Greig founded the Equal Pay Movement in 1904. She was also a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), for which she acted as a national organizer from 1905 to 1906. Breaking away from the WSPU, she co-founded the Women’s Freedom League with Charlotte Despard and Edith How, in 1907.

English, 1864 – 1917

Elsie Inglis was a Scottish doctor, suffragist, and founder of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals. From 1906 to 1914, she acted as honorable secretary of the Scottish Federation of Women’s Suffrage Societies. Inglis was also instrumental in setting up the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service Committee, an organization that was active in sending teams to Belgium, France, Serbia, and Russia during World War I. The organization was funded by the women’s suffrage movement, with the express aim of providing all female-staffed relief hospitals for the Allied war effort.

Scottish, 1871 – 1937

Jessie Chrystal Macmillan was the first female science graduate from the University of Edinburgh, as well as its first female honors graduate in Mathematics. She was active in the Edinburgh National Society for Women’s Suffrage, and in 1887 she served as an executive committee member for the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). She also co-authored the book Woman Suffrage in Practice; which described current women’s voting practices in 35 countries and empires.

English, 1861 – 1944

Margaret Llewelyn Davies was the general secretary of the Co-operative Women’s Guild from 1899 until 1921. During her tenure, the organization became much more politically active; advocating suffrage, minimum wage, and especially the rights of working women, wives, and mothers.

Russian, 1872 – 1952

Alexandra Kollontai was a Russian communist revolutionary, and political figure. She rose to prominence after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. First, she became People’s Commissar for Social Welfare, and by 1919, Kollontai was the most visible woman in the Soviet administration. She was best known for founding the Women’s Department, an organization that fought to improve the conditions of women’s lives in the Soviet Union. In 1923, she was appointed Soviet Ambassador to Norway.

French, 1893 – 1983

Louise Weiss was a leading women’s rights activist, pacifist, a journalist and a politician. She campaigned actively for woman’s suffrage and co-founded the association, La femme nouvelle (The New Woman) in 1934. The following year she unsuccessfully sued against the “inability of women to vote” before the French Conseil d’État. At the age of 86, in 1979, she became a Member of the European Parliament, sitting with the European People’s Party.

German, 1867 – 1943

Lida Gustava Heymann was a German feminist, pacifist, and a leading women’s rights advocate. She is credited with cofounding a movement to abolish prostitution in Germany, and with her inheritance, established a women’s center offering meals and counseling. In 1902, Heymann also cofounded the first German Society for Women’s Suffrage with her friend and partner, Anita Augspurg.

German, 1870 – 1919

In 1916, the revolutionary and Marxist theorist Rosa Luxemburg officially co-founded the Spartacus League; an organization that evolved into the Communist Party of Germany. In 1919, Luxemburg was executed in an uprising, during the German Revolution.

German, 1857 – 1943

In 1902, Anita Augspurg co-founded the first German women’s suffrage organization, the Deutscher Verein für Frauenstimmrecht, which was seen as the emergence of the radical wing of the women’s movement in Germany. She also co-organized the International Women’s Congress for Peace and Freedom, held in The Hague, in 1915.

American, 1820 – 1913

Born into slavery, Harriet Tubman was a heroic abolitionist who, after escape, returned to the South on 13 missions to rescue dozens of enslaved people and bring them to freedom, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Tubman also led an armed expedition for the Union Army during the Civil War, and guided the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated more than 700 slaves.

American, 1860 – 1935

Jane Addams was the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. During her career as a civil rights activist and pacifist she co-founded Hull-House, held the chairmanship of the Women’s Peace Party, was the president of the International Congress of Women, served as vice-president of the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and was a founding member of the NAACP.

American, 1818 – 1894

Along with her work as an American feminist and suffragist, Amelia Bloomer was also a journalist, a fervent social reformer who embraced the temperance movement, and opposed slavery. She published and edited the first newspaper for women, The Lily, which was issued from 1849 until 1853 in Seneca Falls, NY, and gave a voice to women’s issues. In 1871, she presided over the Iowa Woman Suffrage Society and campaigned for equal rights. She also advocated for dress reform, suggesting that women wear a knee-length dress with pants, an outfit that later became known as the “Bloomer costume.”

American, 1848 – 1927

After moving to Tacoma, Washington in 1905, Emma Smith DeVoe revived the collapsing Washington Equal Suffrage Association and led a campaign that resulted in the approval of a constitutional amendment enfranchising Washington State women. However, DeVoe did not advocate changing the women’s traditional role of homemaker, and published a cookbook that she distributed throughout the state, the back of which had the words “Votes for Women.”

American, 1871 – 1955

Maud Wood Park founded the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government (BESAGG), which later became the League of Women Voters of Boston, when the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. She also became the first president of the League of Women Voters; a position she held until resigning in 1924. In 1943, Park founded the Schlesinger Library; a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, to which she donated her collection of books, papers, and memorabilia on female reformers.

English, 1825 – 1905

Jessie Boucherett’s activism for women’s rights was sparked by writings of the English Woman’s Journal. In 1859, she cofounded the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women, which in 1926 became the Society for Promoting the Training of Women. Today, the same organization operates as the registered charity: Futures for Women.

English, 1827 – 1891

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon was an English feminist, dedicated to the expansion of higher education for women. In 1866, along with Emily Davies, she proposed a plan for the extension of university education to women, through which Girton College was founded in Cambridge. Also in 1866, she supported the first suffrage petition, and became secretary of the Suffrage Committee in 1867.

English, 1830 – 1921

Emily Davies was an English feminist and suffragist. She is perhaps most well known for her role as co-founder and an early Mistress of Girton College in Cambridge; the first college in England to educate women. She was also involved in organizing John Stuart Mill’s 1866 petition to the British Parliament—the first to ask for women’s suffrage—and wrote the book The Higher Education of Women.

French, 1855 – 1929

Caroline Rémy de Guebhard was a French libertarian and feminist who, under the pen name Séverine, promoted women’s emancipation and denounced social injustices through her writing. She first became involved with the socialist publication, Cri du Peuple around 1880, but left the paper in 1888. In 1897, she began writing for Marguerite Durand’s feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde. A portrait of her, painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1885 hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

French, 1864 – 1936

Marguerite Durand was a French actress, writer, and suffragette. In 1897, she founded a feminist daily newspaper called La Fronde, which was run exclusively by women, and advocated for women’s rights. At the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, she organized the Congress For The Rights of Women, and in 1931 the Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand opened in Paris, which even today, is one of the best sources in the world for research into feminism and women’s history.

German, 1841 – 1922

Minna Cauer was a German educator, journalist, and leading activist within the bourgeois women’s movement. She founded the Women’s Welfare Association (Verein Frauenwohl) in Berlin in 1888, which campaigned for women’s and abortion rights. Cauer also helped open the first educational establishment to prepare women for university study in Berlin, founded the Commercial Union of Female Salaried Employees, and co-founded the Girls’ and Women’s Groups for Social Assistance Work, among other efforts in her fight for women’s rights.

German, 1857 – 1933

Clara Zetkin was a German politician, Marxist theorist, and an early feminist. She was particularly interested in the legal rights of women and believed that women’s participation in the workforce and legal equality would bring them political and social emancipation. From 1891 to 1917, Zetkin edited the women’s newspaper; Die Gleichheit (Equality) of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In 1907, she became the leader of the newly founded “Women’s Office” at the SPD, and also contributed to International Women’s Day (IWD); a day that now commemorates the movement for women’s rights.

American, 1867 – 1961

Emily Greene Balch was an American feminist and staunch pacifist. In 1915 she served as a delegate to the International Congress of Women at The Hague, where she co-founded the Women’s International Committee for Permanent Peace, which was later named the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. For her efforts, Balch was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946, at the age of 79.

Japanese, 1887 – 1980

Komako Kimura was a Japanese suffragist, actress, and editor. A founder of The Real New Women’s Association in 1913, she was also the editor of its journal, Shin shin fujin. In 1917, Kimura came to New York City to participate in the suffrage march of twenty-thousand campaigners on Fifth Avenue, demanding the right to vote. While in the U.S., she also studied English and the strategies of American suffragists, and raised funds for continuing Japanese suffrage efforts.

American, 1847 – 1919

As a leader of women’s suffrage movement in the U.S., Anna Howard Shaw served as the chair of the Franchise Department of Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1886, and following Susan B. Anthony’s recommendation, Shaw later joined the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). She was instrumental in helping create unity within the suffrage movement by convincing the American Women’s Suffrage Association (AWSA) to merge with NWSA, thus forming NAWSA. Shaw presided over NAWSA from 1904 until 1915.

American, 1886 – 1916

A fervent human rights activist and eloquent speaker Inez Milholland Boissevain was credited with greatly influencing the women’s movement in the U.S. In many ways, she became the public face of the movement, due in part, to her participation in staged public events. She led her first suffrage parade on May 7, 1911, and by March of 1913, she helped organize and led the stunning Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington D.C.; which took place the day before President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration.

Italian, 1837 – 1920

Anna Maria Mozzoni presented a petition to parliament for woman suffrage in 1877, and the following year she represented Italy at the International Congress on Women’s Rights in Paris. She also founded the League for the Promotion of the Interests of Women in Milan, and is referred to as the founder of the women’s movement in Italy.

South African, 1855 – 1920

Olive Schreiner was a South African novelist, political essayist, and a feminist who championed suffrage, racial justice and peace. She is the author of a massive and influential study; Women and Labour.

Brazilian, 1899 – 1976

Bertha Maria Júlia Lutz was a Brazilian zoologist, politician, and a leader in the Pan American feminist and human rights movements. In 1919, she founded the League for Intellectual Emancipation of Women and was appointed to represent the Brazilian government in the Female International Council of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Two years later, Lutz founded the Brazilian Federation for Women’s Progress, a political group that advocated for Brazilian women’s rights, with a focus on their right to vote. She also was elected president of the Inter-American Union of Women in 1925, and ran for Congress in 1935.

Swiss, 1879 – 1946

Emilie Gourd was a Swiss feminist, journalist, and president of one of the two leading Swiss suffrage unions; the Swiss Women’s Association, from 1914 to 1928. Before leading the association, in 1912, she founded Le Mouvement Féministe, a newspaper that promoted women’s suffrage, education and legal rights. In 2001, the newspaper took the name L’émiliE as a tribute to Gourd. The paper, which still operates today, is the oldest feminist publication in Europe.

Czech, 1875 – 1942

An early feminist and suffrage activist, Františka Plamínková was the founder of the Women’s National Council (ŽNR) in Czechoslovakia. Together with the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) and the International Council of Women (ICW), it became an influential lobbying group. Plamínková‘s actively sought to turn existing paid maternity leave into an effective entitlement for women and fought for gender equality laws for married women.

French, 1848 – 1914

Hubertine Auclert was a leading French feminist and journalist who founded the woman’s suffrage movement in France. She published and edited her own newspaper La Citoyenne to advocate the cause of women’s rights. In 1880, she led a tax revolt, which held that women should not be subjected to taxation without representation. During her years in Algeria (1888-1892), Auclert also pursued legal action to acknowledge the rights of Arab women, such as petitions for improved education, and the abolition of polygamy.

German, 1833 – 1919

Hedwig Dohm was a German feminist and author. She wrote extensively about women’s suffrage and was one of first women writers in Germany to challenge openly heteronormativity and to view gender roles as being a result of socialization and not biological determinism. She began writing in 1872, and was considered a radical feminist at that time.

German, 1819 – 1895

A German pioneer in feminism, Louise Otto-Peters is considered to be the founder of the early women’s movement in Germany. In 1848, she co-founded the newspaper, Frauen-Zeitung (Women’s Journal) with the masthead motto: Dem Reich der Freiheit werb ich Bürgerinnen! (“I am recruiting female citizens for the realm of freedom!”) She also co-founded, the “Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein” (General Union of German Women) in 1865 during the first German women’s conference.

American, 1819 – 1910

Julia Ward Howe was an American social reformer and a published poet, perhaps best known today for writing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” In 1868, she helped found the New England Women’s Club, and the New England Woman Suffrage Association; for which she served as president for 9 years. From 1876 to 1897, Howe served as president of the Association of American Women, which advocated for women’s education.

American, 1818 – 1893

Lucy Stone was a gifted orator who advocated effectively for antislavery and women’s rights. She gave her first public speeches on women’s rights in the fall of 1847, and was subsequently invited to lecture for the women who organized the Seneca Falls women’s rights convention of 1848. In 1866, Stone served on the executive committee of the newly formed American Equal Rights Association (AERA), which sought equal rights for all, especially the right of suffrage. After the collapse of the AERA, Stone helped to form the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). In 1870, together with her husband, she founded and published Woman’s Journal, a weekly newspaper dedicated to the cause of women’s rights.

American, 1863 – 1954

An early civil rights and suffrage advocate, Mary Church Terrell was also one of the first African-American women to receive a college degree, and the first black woman to be appointed to the District of constituted National Association of Colored Women (NACW). That same year, Terrell founded the National Association of College Women; which would become the National Association of University Women (NAUW).

Swedish, 1849 – 1926

Ellen Karolina Sofia Key began her career as a feminist writer in 1874, and focused her work on education and personal freedom. She believed motherhood to be crucial to society. Later in her career, Key wrote The Woman Movement and other biographical works on influential women in Sweden.

Finnish, 1859 – 1913

In 1884, Alexandra Gripenberg founded the Finnish Women’s Association (Suomen Naisyhdistys; which was the first official women’s rights organization in Finland. From 1887 to 1888, she widely travelled to England and the U.S. to study the women’s movements there, and in 1889, she published a memoir; A Half Year in the New World, inspired by her travels. She also served as the treasurer of the International Council of Women from 1893–1899.

Swedish, 1851 – 1925

Frigga (Fredrika) Carlberg was a Swedish-born advocate for women’s rights, author, and playwright. After the Swedish Society for Woman Suffrage was established in 1902, she founded the more radical Gothenburg section and was elected as its chairman for its entire duration, until 1921. Through her writing, she addressed both women’s issues and the living conditions of the poor.

Danish, 1823 – 1891

Line Luplau was a Danish feminist and suffrage campaigner. In 1872, she joined the local branch of the women’s organization, Dansk Kvindesamfund, and in 1885, she became a member of the newly founded women’s organization—Kvindelig Fremskridtsforening—which she represented at the first Nordic women’s conference in Copenhagen. In 1889, Luplau co-founded The United Danish Suffrage Movement For Women, which she headed until 1891.

Dutch, 1881 – 1942

Rosa Manus was a Dutch peace activist and a feminist. She joined the suffrage movement in 1908 at the Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. She also organized peace conferences, and a major exhibition of women’s work in Amsterdam, entitled Woman 1813-1913. She was a co-founder of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and a founding president of the International Archives for the Women’s Movement (IAV) in Amsterdam.

Dutch, 1851 – 1929

Aletta Jacobs was a Dutch doctor and women’s rights activist who supported the reproductive rights of women. After attending the meeting of the International Council of Women in London in 1899, Jacobs left medicine in order to focus her efforts on women’s suffrage. In 1903, she became leader of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, and in 1915, she helped promote the International Women’s Congress in The Hague, shortly after the start of the World War I.

Danish, 1840 – 1934

In 1871, pacifist Matilde Bajer helped found, and for a time was chairperson of, the Danish Women’s Society. Believing reform pertaining to women’s issues could only be achieved through the enfranchisement of women, she also founded the Danish Women’s Progress Association in 1886, which was a precursor of the later suffrage movement.

French, 1828 – 1894

Maria Deraismes was a founder and leading figure of the women’s rights movement in France. She was an author, a journalist, and a staunch advocate for women’s issues, particularly in regards to improving education for women. In 1869, she cofounded the newspaper, le Droit des Femmes, and in 1870, the Association For the Future of Women. In 1882, she was initiated into Freemasonry, which at the time was rare for a woman to be admitted into the fraternity.

French, 1877 – 1964

As a pacifist and feminist, Jeanne Mélin campaigned tirelessly for peace, universal suffrage and birth control. She fought for peace between France and Germany. In 1906, she joined the French Section of the Workers’ International (SFIO), and became a member of the French Union for Women’s Suffrage (UFSF). During the Great War, Mélin created a cooperative canteen, to feed and house refugees from the Ardennes. In 1947, In the name of sex parity, she also stood as a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic.

French, 1830 – 1905

A passionate anarchist and revolutionary, Louise Michel was a major figure in the Paris Commune; a radical socialist and working class insurgent government that ruled Paris for a short period in 1871. After the Commune was defeated, Michel was brought before the 6th council of war, was jailed, and then deported from France to New Caledonia from 1873 until 1880.

Austrian, 1839 – 1936

Marianne Hainisch was a co-founder and leader of the Austrian women’s movement. A strong advocate for women’s education, she founded the Austrian Association of Female Teachers and Educators in 1869. In 1870, she wrote an article on the education of women, which, no newspaper would publish initially. However, the article eventually was printed and resulted in the First Austrian Savings Bank donating 40,000 gulden for the foundation of a girls’ school. In 1902, She founded the National Council of Women in Austria and became a member of the International Council of Women in Austria when the two organizations merged in 1905.

Austrian, 1864 – 1944

Luise Kautsky was a Socialist and journalist who advocated for woman’s rights. She was married to the Marxist theorist Karl Kautsky and a close friend of the revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg.

American, 1792 – 1873

Sarah Moore Grimké (sister of Angelina Emily Grimké) was an American abolitionist, writer, and a vocal supporter of women’s suffrage. In 1836, she joined her younger sister in the American Anti-Slavery Society. Also in 1836, Grimké published Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States, and the next year Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women was published serially in a Massachusetts newspaper, The Spectator, and immediately reprinted in The Liberator; a newspaper published by radical abolitionist and women’s rights leader William Lloyd Garrison. The letters were published in book form in 1838.

American, 1805 – 1879

Angelina Emily Grimké (Sister of Sarah Moore Grimké) was a fervent abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, supporter of the women’s suffrage movement and a political activist. After attending anti-slavery meetings and lectures, she joined the newly organized Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. In 1837, Grimké and her sister joined women abolitionists from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia in holding the first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, held to expand women’s anti-slavery actions to other states. The following year, she addressed a legislative committee of the Massachusetts State Legislature, becoming the first woman in the United States to address a legislative body. She spoke against slavery, and defended women’s right to petition.

American, 1797 – 1883

Born into slavery and against all odds, Sojourner Truth had the courage and strength to escape to freedom with her infant daughter in 1826. In 1828, she went to court to regain her son and won; the first black woman to win such a case against a white man. In 1851, she attended the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, where she delivered her famous speech “Ain’t I a Woman”, demanding equal rights for all women as well as for all blacks. From 1850, she travelled around the country, selling her biography and, in 1853, she spoke at a suffragist convention in New York City. Drawing large crowds, she went on speaking out against slavery and for women’s rights, suffrage, and equal rights for all.

American, 1825 – 1911

Frances Harper was an African-American abolitionist, poet, and author who campaigned not only for racial and sexual equality, but also for the protection of women’s rights, the regulation of morality, and social welfare. In 1866, she gave a speech before the National Women’s Rights Convention, demanding equal rights for all, including Black women. From 1883 to 1890, she also helped organize events and programs for the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

New Zealander, 1820 – 1902

Mary Ann Müller began her work for women’s rights by writing articles for the Nelson Examiner under the pseudonym Femmina because her husband did not approve of her views. In 1869, her pamphlet An Appeal to the Men of New Zealand, was the first on women’s suffrage to be published in New Zealand.

English, 1885 – 1961

Adela Pankhurst belonged to the militant organization WSPU founded by her mother, Emmeline Pankhurst, in 1903, before emigrating to Australia in 1914. There, she was recruited as an organizer for the Women’s Peace Army in Melbourne. In 1920, Pankhurst co-founded the Communist Party of Australia, became disillusioned by the movement and drifted increasingly to the right.

Australian, 1825 – 1910

Catherine Helen Spence was an Australian novelist, journalist and human rights activist. She campaigned tirelessly on behalf of children’s rights and female suffrage. In 1891, she served as vice-president of the Women’s Suffrage League of South Australia. After women were granted the vote in South Australia, she kept working for both the national and international women’s suffrage movement. She became Australia’s first female political candidate in 1897, when she ran unsuccessfully for the Federal Convention held in Adelaide. She was commemorated on the Australian five-dollar note, issued for the Centenary of Federation of Australia in 2001.

Australian, 1869 – 1949

Vida Goldstein was an Australian politician who campaigned for women’s suffrage and social reform, and was the first woman in the British Empire to stand for election to a national parliament. In 1902, she traveled to the U.S. where she spoke at the International Women’s Suffrage Conference, spoke in favor of female suffrage before a committee of the United States Congress, and attended the International Council of Women Conference. An ardent pacifist, Goldstein also formed the Women’s Peace Army in 1915.

Australian, 1847 – 1925

Rose Scott championed both women’s rights and universal suffrage. She contributed to founding the Women’s Literary Society in Australia, which became the Womanhood Suffrage League by 1891. In 1902, Scott founded, and became the first President of, the Women’s Political Education League, and became President of the Sydney Branch of the Peace Society in 1908.

New Zealander, 1848 – 1934

Kate Sheppard was a leader of the suffrage movement and New Zealand’s most famous suffragette. She is even represented on the New Zealand ten-dollar note. In 1887, she led the New Zealand branch of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), and in 1888, Sheppard published her own pamphlet entitled Ten Reasons Why the Women of New Zealand Should Vote, followed by another Should Women Vote? Three years after women’s suffrage was achieved in 1893, the National Council of Women of New Zealand was established at a women’s convention in Christchurch; Sheppard was then elected the first president.

Australian, 1857 – 1943

Alice Henry was an Australian suffragist and women’s rights exponent who rose to prominence in the American trade union movement, as a member of the Women’s Trade Union League, established in 1903. From 1907 to 1925, she worked as an editor, publicist, and lecturer for the WTUL. She authored two books: The Trade Union Woman, and Women and the Labor Movement.

Australian, 1848 – 1902

Louisa Lawson was an Australian poet, writer, publisher, and suffragist. In 1888, Lawson founded The Dawn—a feminist journal for women and by women—and in1889, she opened The Dawn Club, which became the epicenter of the suffrage movement in Sydney. After women won the vote in 1902, Lawson was considered the Mother of Suffrage in New South Wales.

Māori, 1868 – 1920

Meri Te Tai Mangakahia was a human’s rights and suffrage campaigner. In 1793, she addressed New Zealand’s Māori parliament to ask them to give indigenous Māori women the right to vote and to stand for election in that body.

Australian, 1836 – 1912

Lady Mary Windeyer was an Australian philanthropist, an advocate of children’s welfare and women’s suffrage. In 1891, she founded and presided over the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales until 1893. She also was active in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) where she concentrated her efforts on the franchise issue.

Canadian, 1831 – 1903

Emily Howard Stowe was a suffragist and the first female physician to practice in Canada. In 1876, she founded the Toronto Women’s Literary Club, which was transformed into the Canadian Women’s Suffrage Association in 1883. The Club campaigned for women’s working rights and to exert influence on schools to give women access to higher education. In 1889, she became the first president of the Dominion Women’s Enfranchisement Association, a position she held until her death in 1903.

Canadian, 1868 – 1933

Louise McKinney was one of the “The Famous Five”; a group of Canadian women’s rights activists who challenged legally and won the Persons Case. She was the first woman sworn into the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, and the first woman to be elected to a legislature in Canada and in the British Empire. During her career, McKinney spoke out in favor of temperance, education, stronger liquor control, women’s property rights and adoption of, and reform to, the Dower Act.

Canadian, 1890 – 1954

Agnes Campbell Macphail was the first woman to be elected to Canadian parliament; first from 1943 to 1945, and again from 1948 to 1951. She was also a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario representing the Toronto’s East York district. She fought for workers’ rights, gender equity and prison reform.

Canadian, 1868 – 1933

Equal rights activist, Emily Murphy became the first woman magistrate in Canada, and in the British Empire in 1916. She was also one of the “The Famous Five”; a group of Canadian women’s rights activists who challenged legally and won the Persons Case. In 1917, she fought the right to have women serve in the Senate, and in 1919 Murphy presided over the conference of the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada; which passed a resolution calling for a female senator to be appointed.

American, 1744 – 1818

It is well established that Abigail Adams, the second First Lady of the United States was a strong advocate of women’s rights, particularly in the field of education. As John Adams’ most trusted confidant and advisor, her views were eloquently recorded in their correspondence. In addition to opposing slavery, she advocated for married women’s property rights, better opportunities for women, particularly in education, and intellectual equality. She believed that women should not submit to laws not made in their interest, nor should they be satisfied with the single role of being their husbands’ companions, but rather they should educate themselves and strive to be recognized for their intellectual capabilities.

English, 1759 – 1797

Mary Wollstonecraft was an English philosopher and although the term feminism had not yet been coined, it can be said that she was also an early feminist and radical. Her seminal feminist book ”The Vindication of the Rights of Women” challenged philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau‘s prevailing notions of female inferiority in the 18th century, arguing for equality of education, employment for single women, and companionship with men. Today, Wollstonecraft is considered one of the founding mothers of feminist philosophy.

English, 1808 – 1858

Philosopher Harriet Taylor Mill’s essay, The Enfranchisement of Women, published under John Taylor Mill’s name in 1851 is a seminal work advocating women’s rights and equal rights early on in the movement. Married to the philosopher John Taylor Mill, she influenced his thought and collaborated on another essay; The Subjection of Women. She would author several others, on subjects such as the intuitive nature of women, gender equality, domestic violence, and women’s political and legal emancipation.

French, 1748 – 1793

Olympe de Gouges was an advocate for women’s rights during the time of the French Revolution. She detailed her political views in pamphlets, and although many living in Paris at the time viewed Marie-Antoinette as the cause of their problem, Gouges defended her and dedicated the preface of the Declaration of the Rights of Women and of the Female Citizen, written in 1791 to the Queen. She was guillotined in 1793.

American, 1857 – 1950

Alice Stone Blackwell, daughter of Lucy Stone, was an American suffragist and the editor of the Woman’s Journal, the weekly newspaper her mother founded as the organ of the American Woman Suffrage Association. Blackwell also advocated for human rights and against oppression. She joined the American Peace Association and was a founding member of the Massachussetts League of Women Voters. In 1930, she published a biography of her mother Lucy Stone, Pioneer of Woman’s Rights.