Womens Rights Activists 7 Women Who Changed the World

Womens Rights Activists 7 Women Who Changed the World Every year, people around the world honor courageous and intelligent women on International Womens Day. But the celebration of womens empowerment shouldnt be limited to a single day. During Womens History Month and throughout the year, we should remember that womens rights are human rights.Throughout history, womens rights activists have changed history and made the world a better place. Not only have they promoted equal rights for their women everywzu siche, but theyve also untersttzunged and improved circumstances for all people. Who fought for womens rights? Tzu siche are thousands of womens empowerment advocates today and throughout history who deserve our thanks. zu siche are seven brave voices who have changed history.7 Womens Rights Activists1. Malala YousafzaiAs a young girl, Malala Yousafzai became an activist for girls education in zu sichbei homeland, Afghanistan. The Taliban issued a death threat against zu sich, and a gunman shot her in 2012 as she welches traveling home from school. Malala survived, continuing to speak out on education and gender equality. The year after she was attacked, Malala gave a speech to the United Nations and published her first book, I Am Malala. In 2014, at the age of 17, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.2. Betty FriedanWho were the leaders of the feminist movement? Betty Friedan is at the top of the list. Feeling restless as a homemaker, Friedan surveyed fellow alumnae of Smith College to learn about their personal ambitions and lives. She wrote about her findings in The Feminine Mystique, a book that dispelled the notion that women were content to stay at home. Her book was crucial to igniting second-wave feminism in the 1960s.Friedans work in the womens movement didnt end there. She became the co-founder of the National Organization of Women (NOW) and served as its first president. A crucial advocate of the pro-choice movement, she also established the Nation al Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (now NARAL Pro-Choice America) in 1969. Along with other key figures of womens leadership, Friedan created the National Womens Political Caucus.3. Kate SheppardKate Sheppard fought for equality as a leader of the womens suffrage movement in New Zealand. Promoting womens participation in numerous arenas, her leadership in these social movements resulted in New Zealand becoming the first country to grant women voting rights in 1893. Her commitment to womens suffrage impacted the feminist movements around the world.4. Emmeline PankhurstA key leader in the womens suffrage movement in Britain, Emmeline Parkhurst established groups including the Womens Franchise League and the more radical political organization the Womens Social and Political Union (WSPU). Her work is the WSPU is thought to have led to the coining of the term the womens suffragette movement. Members took radical measures such as tying themselves to railings, smashing windows , and holding large-scale demonstrations, resulting in many of their arrests.Pankhurst died in 1928, the same year women were granted equal voting rights with men in Britain.5. Lucretia MottOne of the most prominent voices who fought for womens rights in 1800s America, Quaker Lucretia Mott was a strong proponent of civil rights and made speeches in favor of abolition.What were womens rights in the 1800s?Anti-slavery organizations did not allow women to be members, so Mott organized womens abolitionist societies and was selected as a delegate at the Worlds Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Motivated in part by the organizations refusal to support female speakers and equal rights, she helped facilitate the first womens rights convention at Seneca Falls (later known as the Seneca Falls Convention), where her contemporaries presented the Declaration of Sentiments. Additionally, Mott was widely regarded as one of the key figures in the suffrage movement.Motts was deeply committed to hum an rights first and foremost and remained an advocate for abolition as a prominent member of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, as well as a pacifist.6. Sojourner TruthOne of the most noted African-American women advocates of civil rights and abolition, Sojourner Truth was born into slavery and escaped with her infant daughter as a young woman. After learning that her son, Peter, had been sold to Alabama from New York, which had become a free state, Truth took her former slave owner to court, arguing that he had made the sale illegally and won. This was the first time a black woman won a court case against a white man.Propelled by her faith and commitment to civil rights, Truth spoke about her beliefs around the country. She joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, where she met other members of the American anti-slavery movement, including William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. Garrison later helped her write and publish her memoir, The Narra tive of Sojourner Truth A Northern Slave.At the Ohio Womens Rights Convention, Truth delivered her famed Aint I a Woman speech, an example of her commitment to causes in addition to abolition, including womens rights, religious tolerance, pacifism, and prison reform.7. Mary WollstonecraftAn early pioneer of the feminist movement, Mary Wollstonecraft wrote perhaps the first published feminist manifesto, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792. Wollstonecraft argued that womans lack of education was the only cause behind womans supposed intellectual inferiority.Wollstonecraft is widely considered the first feminist philosopher.Honoring All Womens Rights ActivistsThese are just some of the women whose courage propelled the gender equality movement. Through historical efforts such as fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment and other causes, weve seen how tirelessly women and men alike have advocated for female equality. Today, we see people around the world championing t he cause through efforts like the MeToo movement, reproductive rights support, and battles against sexual harassment and violence against women.Happy Womens History Month, and keep up the good fightDont miss out on articles like these. Sign up