List of women's rights activists
This article is a list of notable women's rights activists, arranged alphabetically by modern country names and by the names of the persons listed.
Albania
- Parashqevi Qiriazi
- Sevasti Qiriazi
- Urani Rumbo
Algeria
- Aïcha Lemsine, French-language writer and women's rights activist.
- Ahlam Mosteghanemi – Writer and sociologist.
Argentina
- Azucena Villaflor
- Virginia Bolten - Argentine journalist as well as an anarchist and feminist activist of German descent.
Australia
- Anne Summers – women's rights activist in politics and media, women's advisor to Labor premier Paul Keating, editor of Ms. magazine
- Bella Guerin – first woman to graduate from an Australian university, Guerin was a socialist feminist prominent within the Australian Labor Party.
- Bessie Rischbieth ) – earliest female appointee to any court, active against Australian government practice of taking Aboriginal children from their mothers – trade unionist, women's activist and contributor to the Equal Pay for Equal Work decision
- Elizabeth Anne Reid – world's first women's affairs adviser to head of government, active in UN and on HIV
- Elizabeth Evatt – legal reformist, jurist, critic of Australia's Sex Discrimination Act, first Australian in United Nations Commission on Human Rights
- Eva Cox – sociologist and feminist active in politics and social services, member of Women's Electoral Lobby, social commentator on women in power and at work, and social justice
- Fiona Patten – leader of Australian Sex Party, lobbyist for personal freedoms and progressive lifestyles
- Germaine Greer – author of The Female Eunuch, academic and social commentator
- Jessie Street – Australian suffragette, feminist and human rights campaigner influential in labour rights and early days of UN
- Louisa Lawson ) – feminist, suffragist, author, founder of The Dawn, and pro-republican federalist
- Louisa Margaret Dunkley – telegraphist and labour organizer
- Mary Hynes Swanton Australian women's rights and trade unionist
- Michelle Payne – first female winner of Melbourne Cup and an advocate of increased presence of women in sport
- Miles Franklin – writer and feminist
- Millicent Preston-Stanley – first female member of New South Wales Legislative Assembly, campaigner for custodial rights of mothers in divorce and for women's health care
- Rosie Batty – 2015 Australian of the Year and family violence campaigner
- Sandra Bloodworth – labour historian, socialist activist, co-founder of Trotskyist Socialist Alternative, editor of Marxist Left Review
- Thelma Bate – community leader, advocate for inclusion of Aboriginals in Country Women's Association
- Vida Goldstein – early Australian feminist campaigning for women's suffrage and social reform, first woman in British Empire to stand for national election
- Zelda D'Aprano – trade unionist, feminist, in 1969 chained herself to doors of Commonwealth Building over equal pay.
- – Prominent LGBTIQ activist and nominee for Young Australian of the Year
Austria
- Marianne Hainisch – activist, exponent of women's right to work and education
- Auguste Fickert – feminist and social reformer
- Bertha Pappenheim – Austrian-Jewish feminist, founder of the German Jewish Women's Association
Belgium
- Marguerite Coppin – female Poet Laureate of Belgium and advocate of women's rights
- Christine Loudes – proponent of gender equality and women's rights
- Frédérique Petrides – Belgian-American pioneer female orchestral conductor, activist and editor of Women in Music
- Marie Popelin – lawyer, feminist campaigner, leader of the Belgian League for Women's Rights
Botswana
- Unity Dow – judge and writer, plaintiff in case allowing children of mixed parentage to be deemed nationals
Brazil
- Clara Ant
- Albertina de Oliveira Costa
- Jaqueline Jesus
- Lily Marinho
- Míriam Martinho
- Laudelina de Campos Melo, created the first trade association for domestic workers in Brazil.
- Lucia Nader
- Matilde Ribeiro
- Alzira Rufino
- Heleieth Saffioti
- Miêtta Santiago
- Viviane Senna
- Yara Yavelberg
Bulgaria
- Dimitrana Ivanova, educational reformer and suffragist
- Ekaterina Karavelova, suffragist and women's rights activist
- Anna Karima, suffragist and women's rights activist
- Eugenia Kisimova, feminist, philanthropist and women's rights activist
- Kina Konova, publicist and suffragist
- Julia Malinova, suffragist and founder of the Bulgarian Women's Union
Canada
- Edith Archibald – suffragist, writer, promoter of Maritime Women's Christian Temperance Union, National Council of Women of Canada and Local Council of Women of Halifax
- Eliza Ritchie – prominent suffragist, executive member of Local Council of Women of Halifax
- Emily Howard Stowe – physician, advocate of women's inclusion in medical profession, founder of Canadian Women's Suffrage Association
- Françoise David – politician, feminist activist
- Idola Saint-Jean – suffragette, journalist
- Jamie McIntosh – lawyer and women's rights activist
- Laura Borden – president of the Local Council of Women of Halifax
- Léa Roback – feminist and workers' union activist tied with communist party
- Marie Lacoste-Gérin-Lajoie – suffragette, self-taught jurist
- Micheal John O'Brien – CEO of The RINJ Foundation
- Nellie McClung – feminist and suffragist, part of The Famous Five
- Thérèse Casgrain – suffragette, reformer, feminist, politician and senator, mainly active in Quebec
Cape Verde
- Isaura Gomes
Chile
- María Rivera Urquieta
China
- Cai Chang
- Chen Xiefen
- Fok Hing-tong
- He Xiangning
- Huixing
- Jiang Shufang
- Li Maizi
- Lin Zongsu
- Liu-Wang Liming
- Lü Jinghua
- Mao Hengfeng
- Miao Boying
- Nurungul Tohti
- Qiu Yufang
- Wan Shaofen
- Wang Huiwu
- Wei Tingting
- Xiang Jingyu
- Xie Xuehong
- Ye Haiyan
- Zheng Churan
Croatia
- Jelica Belović-Bernardzikowska
Denmark
- Sophie Alberti - pioneering women's rights activist and a leading member of Kvindelig Læseforening
- Widad Akrawi – writer and doctor, advocate for gender equality, women's empowerment and participation in peace-building and post-conflict governance
- Matilde Bajer - women's rights activist and pacifist
- Annestine Beyer – pioneer of women's education
- Anne Bruun, schoolteacher and women's rights activist
- Esther Carstensen - women right's activist, journal editor, active in the Danish Women's Society
- Severine Casse, women's rights activist, successful in fighting for a wife's right to dispose of her earnings
- Ulla Dahlerup - writer, women's rights activist, member of the Danish Red Stocking Movement
- Thora Daugaard - women's rights activist, pacifist, editor
- Henni Forchhammer - educator, feminist and peace activist
- Suzanne Giese - writer, women's rights activist, prominent member of the Red Stocking Movement
- Bente Hansen - writer, supporter of the Red Stocking Movement
- Eline Hansen - feminist and peace activist
- Estrid Hein - ophthalmologist, women's rights activist and pacifist
- Dagmar Hjort, schoolteacher, writer and women's rights activist
- Erna Juel-Hansen - novelist, early women's rights activist
- Anna Laursen, educator, head of the Aarhus branch of the Danish Women's Society
- Line Luplau - feminist, suffragist, founder of the Danish Women's Suffrage Society
- Elisabeth Møller Jensen - historian, feminist, director of Kvinfo from 1990 to 2014
- Elna Munch - feminist, politician, co-founder of the Danish Association for Women's Suffrage
- Louise Nørlund - feminist, pacifist, founder of the Danish Women's Suffrage Society
- Charlotte Norrie - nurse, women's rights activist, voting rights campaigner
- Thora Pedersen - educator, school inspector, women's rights activist who fought for equal pay for men and women
- Johanne Rambusch - feminist, politician, co-founder of the radical suffrage association Landsforbundet for Kvinders Valgret
- Vibeke Salicath – philanthropist, feminist, editor, politician
- Astrid Stampe Feddersen – chaired first Scandinavian meeting on women's rights
- Karen Syberg, writer, feminist, co-founder of the Red Stocking Movement
- Caroline Testman – feminist, co-founder of Dansk Kvindesamfund
- Ingeborg Tolderlund – women's rights activist and suffragist
- Clara Tybjerg - women's rights activist, pacifist
- Anna Westergaard - railway official, trade unionist, women's rights activist and politician
- Louise Wright - philanthropist, feminist and peace activist
- Natalie Zahle – pioneer of women's education
Egypt
- Engy Ghozlan – coordinator of campaigns against sexual harassment
- Fatima el Naouut – Egyptian writer and journalist.
- Hoda Shaarawi – feminist organizer of Mubarrat Muhammad Ali, Union of Educated Egyptian Women, and Wafdist Women's Central Committee, founder president of Egyptian Feminist Union
- Houda Darwish – Arabic writer and pediatrician and neonatalogist doctor.
- Nawal el-Saadawi – writer and doctor, advocate of women's health and equality
- Qasim Amin – jurist, early advocate of women's rights in society
- Soraya Bahgat – Egyptian-Finnish women's rights advocate, social entrepreneur and founder of Tahrir Bodyguard
Estonia
- Elisabeth Howen, women's educational pioneer
Finland
- Hanna Andersin – educator, feminist
- Elisabeth Blomqvist - pioneering female educator
- Soraya Bahgat – see Egypt
- Minna Canth – writer, women's rights proponent
- Adelaïde Ehrnrooth – feminist, writer, early fighter for voting rights
- Alexandra Gripenberg – writer, women's rights activist, treasurer of the International Council of Women
- Lucina Hagman – feminist, politician, pacifist, president of the League of Finnish Feminists
- Rosina Heikel – feminist, first medical doctor in Finland
- Alma Hjelt – gymnast, women's rights activist, chair of the Finnish women's association Suomen Naisyhdistyksen
- Hilda Käkikoski – suffragist, writer, schoolteacher, early politician
France
- Isnelle Amelin - feminist and trade unionist from La Réunion
- Hubertine Auclert – feminist activist, suffragette
- Simone de Beauvoir – philosopher, writer
- Charles Fourier – philosopher
- Françoise Giroud – journalist, writer, politician
- Olympe de Gouges – playwright and political activist who wrote Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen, 1791
- Blanche Moria, sculptor, educator and feminist
- Maria Pognon - writer, feminist, suffragist and pacifist
- Alphonse Rebière – author of Les Femmes dans la science and advocate for women's scientific abilities
- Léonie Rouzade – journalist, novelist and feminist
- Anne-Josèphe Théroigne de Méricourt – politician
- Louise Weiss – journalist, writer, politician
Germany
- Jenny Apolant – Jewish feminist, suffragist
- Ruth Bré – writer, advocate of matrilineality and women's rights, founder of Bund für Mutterschutz
- Johanna Elberskirchen - feminist and activist for women's rights, gays and lesbians
- Johanna von Evreinov – Russian-born German feminist writer, pioneering female lawyer and editor
- Lida Gustava Heymann – feminist, pacifist and women's rights activist
- Luise Koch – educator, women's rights activist, suffragist, politician
- Helene Lange - educator, pioneering women's rights activist, suffragist
- Louise Otto-Peters – suffragist, women's rights activist, writer
- Alice Salomon – social reformer, women's rights activist, educator, writer
- Käthe Schirmacher – early women's rights activist, writer
- Auguste Schmidt – pioneering women's rights activist, educator, journalist
- Alice Schwarzer – journalist and publisher of the magazine Emma
- Marie Stritt – women's rights activist, suffragist, co-founder of the International Alliance of Women
- Marianne Weber – sociologist, women's rights activist, writer
- Clara Zetkin – Marxist theorist, women's rights activist, suffragist, politician
Ghana
- Annie Jiagge – lawyer, judge and women's rights activist, drafted Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, co-founded Women's World Banking
Greece
- Kalliroi Parren – founder of the Greek women's movement
- Avra Theodoropoulou – music critic, pianist, suffragist, women's rights activist, nurse
Greenland
- Henriette Rasmussen, educator, journalist, women's rights activist and politician
Hungary
- Clotilde Apponyi, suffragist
- Enikő Bollobás, academic specializing in women's studies
- Teréz Karacs, writer and women's rights activist
- Vilma Glücklich, educational reformer and women's rights activist
- Éva Takács, writer and feminist
- Blanka Teleki, feminist and advocate of female education
- Rosika Schwimmer, feminist and suffragist, World Peace Prize
- Pálné Veres, founder of Hungarian National Association for Women's Education
Iceland
- Bríet Bjarnhéðinsdóttir – activist for women's liberation and women's suffrage
- Ingibjörg H. Bjarnason – politician, suffragist, schoolteacher, gymnast
- Þórunn Jónassen – active member of the women's movement
- Katrín Magnússon - promoter of women's voting rights and women's education
India
- B. R. Ambedkar – Indian polymath, father of Indian Constitution, Champion of dalit right and women right
- EVR Periyar - Indian social reforms leader, predominantly fought for women rights
- Nazli Gegum - Indian girl education activist.
- Jyotirao Phule – social reformer, critic of caste system, founded school for girls, widow-remarriage initiative, home for upper-caste widows, and home for infant girls to curb female infanticide
- Angellica Aribam - Political activist, founder of Femme First Foundation.
- Kirthi Jayakumar – founder of The Red Elephant Foundation, rights activist, campaigner against violence against women.
- Madhusree Dutta – co-founder of Majlis, Mumbai, author, cultural activist, filmmaker and curator
- Mamatha Raghuveer Achanta – women's and child rights activist, chair of Child Welfare Committee, Warangal District, active in A.P. State Commission for Protection Child Rights, founder director of , focusing on girl-child and women empowerment
- Manasi Pradhan – founder of nationwide Honour for Women National Campaign against violence to women
- Margaret "Gretta" Cousins – Irish-Indian suffragist, established All India Women's Conference, co-founded Irish Women's Franchise League
- Rehana Fathima - women's rights activist
- Shruti Kapoor – women's rights activist, economist, social entrepreneur
- Subodh Markandeya – senior advocate
- Sunitha Krishnan – Indian social activist, co-founder of Prajwala, to assist trafficked women, girls and transgender people in finding shelter, education and employment
Indonesia
- Raden Adjeng Kartini – Javanese advocate for native Indonesian women, critic of polygamy and lack of women's education
Iran
- Bibi Khanoom Astarabadi – writer
- Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh – women's rights activist, founder of ZananTV and NGO Training Center
- Mohtaram Eskandari – woman's rights activist, founder of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah"
- Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani – women's rights activist
- Parvin Ardalan – women's rights activist
- Roya Toloui – women's rights activist
- Sediqeh Dowlatabadi – journalist and women's rights activist
- Shadi Sadr – women's rights activist
- Shahla Sherkat – journalist
- Sheema Kalbasi – writer and advocate for human rights and gender equality
- Shirin Ebadi – activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner for efforts for rights of women and children
- Táhirih – Bábí poet, theologian, and exponent of women's rights in 19th century
Ireland
- Hilary Boyle, journalist, broadcaster, and activist
- Margaret "Gretta" Cousins : see India.
- Anna Haslam – early women's movement figure, founded the Dublin Women's Suffrage Association
- Francis Hutcheson – philosopher born to activist family of Scots Presbyterians, opponent of slavery and advocate of women's rights
- Sarah Winstedt was a physician, surgeon and suffragist
Israel
- Ketzia Alon – academic, social activist, Mizrahi feminist, art curator and critic; one of the founders of the Ahoti – for Women in Israel movement
- Esther Eillam – founder of the Feminist Movement organization; Mizrahi second wave and Mizrahi feminism activist
- Carmen Elmakiyes – social and political activist, Mizrahi feminist; works on behalf of women in public housing
- Marcia Freedman – founder of Israel's feminist movement ; politician, social activist and writer
- Anat Hoffman – executive director, Israel Religious Action Center; director and founding member, Women of the Wall
- Shula Keshet – social and political activist and entrepreneur, Mizrahi feminist, artist, curator, writer, educator, and publisher; one of the founders and the executive director of the Ahoti – for Women in Israel
- Vicki Knafo – social activist; led the 2003 single-mothers struggle against austerity decrees
- Reut Naggar – producer, cultural entrepreneur and social activist, mainly focusing on LGBT and women's rights
- Vicki Shiran – one of the founders of the Mizrahi feminism movement
- Iris Stern Levi – activist for rehabilitation of trafficked women
Italy
- Laura Terracina, widely published poet, writer, protested violence against women and promoted women's writing
- Alma Dolens, pacifist, suffragist and journalist, founder of several women's organizations
- Linda Malnati, influential women's rights activist, trade unionist, suffragist, pacifist and writer
- Anna Maria Mozzoni, pioneering women's rights activist and suffragist
- Eugenia Rasponi Murat, women's rights activist and open lesbian who fought for civil protections.
- Gabriella Rasponi Spalletti, feminist, educator and philanthropist, founder of the National Council of Italian Women in 1903
Japan
- Raicho Hiratsuka
- Sayaka Osakabe
- Umeko Tsuda
- Yajima Kajiko
Latvia
- Berta Pīpiņa
Lebanon
- Lydia Canaan
- Laure Moghaizel – lawyer and women's rights advocate
Libya
- Alaa Murabit – physician, advocate of inclusive security, peace-building and post-conflict governance
Lithuania
- Felicija Bortkevičienė
- Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė
- Ona Mašiotienė
Luxembourg
- Catherine Schleimer-Kill
- Netty Probst
- Marguerite Mongenast-Servais
- Marguerite Thomas-Clement
Mauritania
- Zeinebou Mint Taleb Moussa
Netherlands
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali – see Somalia.
- Wilhelmina Drucker
- Mariane van Hogendorp
- Mietje Hoitsema
- Cornélie Huygens
- Aletta Jacobs
- Charlotte Jacobs
- Jeltje Kemper
- Selma Meyer
- Anette Poelman
- Cornelia Ramondt-Hirschmann
Namibia
- Rosa Namises
- Gwen Lister
- Monica Geingos
New Zealand
- Kate Sheppard – suffragette, influential in winning voting rights for women in 1893
Nigeria
- Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti – women's rights activist
- Priscilla Achapka - women and gender environmental activist
Norway
- Marit Aarum, economist, politician, activist
- Irene Bauer, government official, activist
- Anna Louise Beer, lawyer, judge, activist
- Margunn Bjørnholt, sociologist, economist, gender researcher, activist
- Randi Blehr, feminist, co-founder of the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights
- Karin Maria Bruzelius, Swedish-born Norwegian judge, government official, rights activist
- Nicoline Hambro )1861–1926), politician, women's rights proponent
- Siri Hangeland, politician, activist
- Aasta Hansteen, painter, writer, feminist
- Sigrun Hoel, government official, activist
- Anniken Huitfeldt, historian, politician, reported on women's rights
- Grethe Irvoll, political supporter of women's rights
- Martha Larsen Jahn, peace and women's activist
- Dakky Kiær, politician, civic leader, activist
- Betzy Kjelsberg, right's activist, suffragist, politician
- Eva Kolstad, politician, minister, proponent of gender equality
- Gina Krog, proponent of women's right to education, politician, editor
- Berit Kvæven, politician, activist
- Aadel Lampe, women's rights leader, suffragist, teacher
- Mimi Sverdrup Lunden, educator, writer, women's rights proponent
- Fredrikke Mørck, editor, teacher, activist
- Ragna Nielsen, headmistress, politician, activist
- Marit Nybakk, politician, activist
- Amalie Øvergaard, women's leader, active in housewives associations
- Kjellaug Pettersen, government official, politician, gender equality proponent
- Kjellaug Pettersen, politician, founder of the Norwegian Women's Public Health Association
- Ingerid Gjøstein Resi, philologist, women's rights leader, politician
- Torild Skard, psychologist, politician, women's rights leader
- Kari Skjønsberg, academic, writer, activist
- Anna Stang, politician, women's rights leader
- Sigrid Stray, lawyer, women's rights proponent
- Signe Swensson, physician, politician, women's leader
- Thina Thorleifsen, women's movement activist
- Clara Tschudi, writer, biographer of women's rights activists
- Vilhelmine Ullmann, pedagogue, writer, women's rights proponent
- Grethe Værnø, politician, writer, national and international women's rights supporter
- Margrethe Vullum, Danish-born Norwegian journalist, writer, women's rights proponent
- Fredrikke Waaler, musician, activist
- Gunhild Ziener, pioneer in the women's movement, editor
Pakistan
- Fatima Lodhi – Pakistani women's rights activist who addressed colorism
- Gulalai Ismail – Pashtun women's rights activist compaigning in the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, and founder of Aware Girls
- Malala Yousafzai – Pakistani women's rights activist shot in assassination attempt by Taliban for advocating for girls' education, now in UK
- Zubeida Habib Rahimtoola – member of All Pakistan Women's Association
Peru
- María Jesús Alvarado Rivera
Philippines
- Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel – women's right activities
- Liza Maza
Poland
- Maria Konopnicka
Portugal
- Carolina Beatriz Ângelo
- Sara Beirão
- Cesina Bermudes
- Adelaide Cabete
- Ana de Castro Osório
- Elina Guimarães
- Lutegarda Guimarães de Caires, poet and women's rights activist
- Maria Lamas
Puerto Rico
- Luisa Capetillo – labor union suffragette jailed for wearing pants in public
Romania
- Maria Baiulescu – Austro-Hungarian born Romanian writer, suffragist and women's rights activist
- Calypso Botez
- Alexandrina Cantacuzino
- Maria Cuțarida-Crătunescu
- Cecilia Cuțescu-Storck, influential painter and feminist
- Eugenia de Reuss Ianculescu – teacher, writer, women's rights activist, suffragist
- Clara Maniu – feminist, suffragist
- Elena Meissner – feminist, suffragist, headed Asociația de Emancipare Civilă și Politică a Femeii Române
- Sofia Nădejde
- Ella Negruzzi
- Elena Pop-Hossu-Longin
- Ilona Stetina
- Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan
Russia
- Anna Filosofova – early women's rights activist
- Evgenia Konradi – early women's rights activist and writer
- Maria Trubnikova – early women's rights activist
- Nadezhda Stasova – early women's rights activist
- Tatiana Mamonova – founder of modern Russian women's movement
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Nelcia Robinson-Hazell
Serbia
- Ksenija Atanasijević – philosopher, suffragette, first PhD Doctor in Serbian universities
- Helen of Anjou – queen, feminist, establisher of women schools
- Jefimija – Serbian politician, poet, diplomat, feminist
- Draga Ljočić
- Milica of Serbia – empress, feminist, poet
- Katarina Milovuk
- Milunka Savić – first female combatant, soldier, feminist
- Stasa Zajovic – co-founder and coordinator of Women in Black
Slovenia
- Alojzija Štebi – suffragist, who saw socialism as a means of equalizing society for both men and women.
Somalia
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali – Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer and politician
South Africa
- Shamima Shaikh – member of the Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa, exponent of Islamic gender equality
Spain
- Concepción Arenal – feminist and activist
- Clara Campoamor – politician and feminist
Sri-Lanka
- Saila Ithayaraj - women's in particular widow's, right, activist.
Sweden
- Gertrud Adelborg – teacher, leading member of the women's rights movement
- Sophie Adlersparre – publisher, women's rights activist and pioneer
- Alma Åkermark – editor, journalist, activist
- Ellen Anckarsvärd – women's rights activist, co-founded Föreningen för gift kvinnas äganderätt
- Carolina Benedicks-Bruce – sculptor, rights activist
- Ellen Bergman – musician, rights activist
- Fredrika Bremer – writer, feminist activist and pioneer
- Josefina Deland – feminist, writer, teacher, founded Svenska lärarinnors pensionsförening
- Lizinka Dyrssen – women's rights activist
- Agda Montelius – philanthropist feminist, chairman of the Fredrika-Bremer-förbundet
- Ebba von Eckermann – women's rights activist
- Ruth Gustafson – politician, trade unionist, women's rights activist, editor
- Anna Hierta-Retzius – women's rights activist and philanthropist
- Lilly Engström – women's rights activist, government official
- Soheila Fors – Iranian-Swedish women's rights activist
- Ellen Hagen – suffragette, rights activist, politician
- Amanda Kerfstedt – writer, active in the women's rights movement
- Ellen Kleman – writer, journal editor, women's rights activist
- Lotten von Kræmer – writer, poet, philanthropist, founder of literary society Samfundet De Nio
- Sara Mohammad, Iraqi Kurdish-born Swedish human rights activist campaigning against honour killing
- Agda Montelius – philanthropist, suffrage activist
- Rosalie Olivecrona – pioneer of the women's rights movement
- Gulli Petrini – suffragette, women's rights activist, politician
- Anna Pettersson – lawyer and pioneer in legal advice to women
- Emilie Rathou – journalist, editor, activist
- Hilda Sachs – journalist, writer and feminist
- Sophie Sager, – women's rights activist and writer
- Anna Sandström – educational reformer
- Alexandra Skoglund – suffragette, activist, politician
- Frida Stéenhoff – writer, women's rights activist
- Elisabeth Tamm – politician, women's rights activist
- Kajsa Wahlberg – Sweden's national rapporteur on human trafficking opposition activities
- Anna Whitlock – school pioneer, journalist and feminist
Switzerland
- Marianne Ehrmann – among first women novelists and publicists in German-speaking countries
- Margarethe Faas-Hardegger
- Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin – founder of the Swiss women's movement
Turkey
- Nezihe Muhiddin, feminist, founded a women's party
United Kingdom
- Lesley Abdela – women's rights campaigner, gender consultant and journalist who has worked for women's representation in over 40 countries including post-conflict countries: Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nepal and Aceh. In 1980 she founded the all-Party 300 Group to campaign to get more women into local, national and European politics in the UK. Author of hundreds of features in Guardian, Times, Independent and major women's magazines and the paperback Women with X Appeal: Women Politicians in Britain Today.
- Alice Vickery – physician, supporter of birth control as means of women's emancipation
- Alice Zimmern – writer and suffragist
- Anna Mary Howitt – feminist prominent in the campaign that led to the Married Women's Property Act 1870
- Anne Knight – feminist and social reformer
- Barbara Bodichon – active in the Langham Place Circle, promoter of first journal to press for women's rights, the English Woman's Journal
- Bessie Rayner Parkes – editor of first journal to press for women's rights, the English Woman's Journal
- Caroline Norton – social campaigner influencing the Custody of Infants Act 1839, Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 and Married Women's Property Act 1870
- Catherine Winkworth – translator and women's rights activist, secretary of the Clifton Association for Higher Education for Women
- Charlotte Carmichael Stopes – author and campaigner for women's rights, mother of Marie Stopes
- Pleasance Pendred - a secretary for the WSPU, writer and speaker for women's suffrage
- Constance Bryer - suffragette who went on hunger strike and was forcibly-fed
- Christabel Pankhurst – suffragette, co-founder and leader of Women's Social and Political Union
- Cicely Hamilton English actress, writer, journalist, suffragist and feminist
- Clementina Black – writer prominent in the Women's Trade Union League and the forerunner of the Women's Industrial Council
- Diana Reader Harris – educator and advocate of female ordination in the Church of England
- Dora Russell – campaigner, advocate of marriage reform, birth control and female emancipation
- Edith Margaret Garrud – trained "Bodyguard" unit of Women's Social and Political Union in jujutsu techniques
- Elizabeth Montagu – social reformer and Bluestocking
- Emma Watson – actress, feminist and women's rights activist
- Emmeline Pankhurst – founder leader of suffragette movement
- Helen Blackburn – suffragist and campaigner for women's employment rights
- Hannah Mitchell - suffragette and socialist, author of The Hard Way Up
- Ida Craft – suffragist, among main organizers of Suffrage Hikes
- Jane Austen – writer and feminist, focus on women rights and marriage complications through 6 novels
- Jessie Boucherett – co-founder of Society for Promoting the Employment of Women in 1859, editor of Englishwoman's Review, co-founder of Women's Employment Defence League in 1891
- John Stuart Mill – philosopher, political economist, author of The Subjection of Women
- June Eric-Udorie – Anti-FGM campaigner
- Malala Yousafzai – see Pakistan.
- Margaret Hills – organiser of the Election Fighting Fund
- Marie Stopes – advocate of birth control and equality in marriage
- Mary Fildes – political activist and founder of Manchester Female Reform Society
- Mary Wollstonecraft – writer and feminist
- Matilda Hays – co-founder of first journal to press for women's rights, the English Woman's Journal
- Millicent Fawcett – suffragist and feminist, president of National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies
- Olive Morris – feminist, black nationalist, and squatters' rights activist
- Priscilla Bright McLaren – women's rights campaigner
- Sophia Alexandra Duleep Singh - suffragette, involved in the Women's Tax Resistance League
- Myra Sadd Brown, suffragette, activist for women's rights and internationalist
- Kate Williams Evans, suffragette and activist for women's rights
- Katharine Gatty, journalist, lecturer and militant suffragette
United States
- Abby Kelley – opponent of slavery, women's rights activist, one of the first women to voice views in public speeches
- Adele Parker - ardent suffragist, 1903 U of WA law school graduate, 1911-1913 owned and operated the Western Woman Voter newspaper, 1934 House Representative 37th District in WA,
- Ah Quon McElrath – labor and women's rights activist
- Alice Paul – one of the leaders of the 1910s Women's Voting Rights Movement for the 19th Amendment, founder of National Woman's Party, initiator of Silent Sentinels and 1913 Women's Suffrage Parade, author of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment
- Alice Stone Blackwell – feminist and journalist, editor of the Woman's Journal, a major women's rights publication
- Amelia Bloomer – advocate of women's issues, suffragist, publisher and editor of The Lily
- Anna Howard Shaw – president of National Women's Suffrage Association
- Antoinette Brown Blackwell – founded American Woman Suffrage Association with Lucy Stone in 1869
- Betty Friedan – writer, activist, feminist
- Carol Downer – founder of women's self-help movement, feminist, and attorney
- Carrie Chapman Catt – suffragist leader, president of National American Woman Suffrage Association, founder of League of Women Voters and International Alliance of Women
- Deborah Parker – major player in the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 and activist for indigenous women's rights
- Diane Nash – Civil Rights Movement leader and organizer, voting rights exponent
- Doris Stevens – organizer for National American Women Suffrage Association and National Woman's Party, Silent Sentinels participant, author of Jailed for Freedom
- Dorothy Thompson – Buffalo and New York suffragist, later influential journalist and radio broadcaster
- Eleanor Smeal – organizer, initiator, president of NOW, founder and president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.
- Elisabeth Freeman – suffragist, civil rights activist, participated in Suffrage Hikes
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton – social activist, abolitionist, suffragist, organizer of 1848 Women's Rights Convention, co-founder of National Woman Suffrage Association and International Council of Women
- Ella Lillian Wall Van Leer – American artist, architect and women's rights activist
- Emma Goldman – campaigner for birth control and other rights
- Eva Kotchever – friend of Emma Goldman, owner of the Eve's Hangout in New York, assassinated at Auschwitz
- Frances Willard – long-time president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which, under her leadership, supported women's suffrage
- Francina M. Stevenson – labor activist, State of Ca. Native recruiter for Ca. Tribes for economic justice for employment. Ca. State Chair of Native American State Employee Assoc. Board of Dir. DLC 794 President
- Frederick Douglass – abolitionist, writer, speaker
- Frédérique Petrides – see Belgium.
- Gloria Steinem – writer, activist, feminist, women's rights journalist
- Grace Julian Clarke – suffragist, journalist, author
- Harriot Stanton Blatch – writer, suffragist, and the daughter of pioneering women's rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Helen Gurley Brown – author of Sex and the Single Girl, long-time editor of Cosmopolitan, advocate of women's self-fulfillment
- Helen M. Gougar – lawyer, temperance and women's rights advocate
- Helen Valeska Bary – suffragist, researcher, and social reformer
- Henry Browne Blackwell – businessman, abolitionist, journalist, suffrage leader and campaigner
- Hillary Rodham Clinton – lawyer, professor, author, First Lady, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of State, first female presidential nominee in U.S. history
- Ida B. Wells – civil rights and anti-lynching activist, journalist, educator, suffragist noted for refusal to avoid media attention as an African American
- Inez Milholland – suffragist, key participant in National Woman's Party and Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913
- Isabella Beecher Hooker – leader, lecturer and activist in the American Suffragist movement
- Jacqueline Ceballos – feminist and founder of Veteran Feminists of America
- Jane Addams – major social activist, president Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
- Jane Hunt – philanthropist
- Janet Mock – writer, transgender rights activist, producer, journalist
- John Neal – eccentric and influential writer and critic; America's first women's rights lecturer
- Judy Goldsmith – feminist activist, President of National Organization for Women
- Julia Ward Howe – suffragist, writer, organizer
- Kate Kelly – feminist and human rights lawyer, founder of Ordain Women, works for Planned Parenthood.
- Lee Minto – women's health and rights activist, sex education advocate, former Executive Director of Seattle-King County Planned Parenthood
- Lucretia Mott – abolitionist, women's rights activist, and social reformer, who helped write Declaration of Sentiments during 1848 Seneca Falls Convention
- Lucy Burns – suffragist and women's rights activist
- Lucy Stone – orator, one of the initiators of the first National Women's Rights Convention, founder of Woman's Journal, force behind the American Woman Suffrage Association, noted for retaining her surname after marriage
- Mabel Craft Deering – journalist
- Mabel Ping-Hua Lee – suffragist, advocate for women's rights and for the Chinese immigrant community
- Mabel Vernon – suffragist, member of Congressional Union for Women Suffrage, organizer for Silent Sentinels
- Marcia Pally – founder of Feminists for Free Expression, author of Sense and Censorship: The Vanity of the Bonfires, and Sex & Sensibility: Reflections on Forbidden Mirrors and the Will to Censor.
- Margaret Fuller – Transcendentalist, advocate of women's education, author of Woman in the Nineteenth Century
- Margaret Sanger – writer, nurse, founder American Birth Control League, founder and first president of Planned Parenthood
- Mary Hutcheson Page — Member of the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and the National Executive Committee of the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage; 1910 President of the National Woman Suffrage Association
- Mary Livermore – women's rights journalist, suffragist
- Matilda Joslyn Gage – suffragist, editor, writer, organizer
- Maud Wood Park – founder College Equal Suffrage League, first president League of Women Voters
- May Wright Sewall – educator, feminist, president of National Council of Women for the United States, president of the International Council of Women
- Mónica Ramírez - author, civil rights attorney, and speaker
- Muriel Fox - public relations executive and feminist activist
- Nancy Friday – writer and activist
- Pauli Murray – civil and women's rights activist, lawyer, and Episcopal priest
- Pauline Agassiz Shaw – founder president of Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government
- Rebecca Chalker- women's health writer and activist who fought for abortion rights and promoted self-help techniques for women to avoid the gynecologist's office
- Robin Morgan – poet, political theorist, journalist and lecturer
- Rosalie Gardiner Jones – suffragist and organizer of the Suffrage Hikes
- Rose O'Neill – famous illustrator who worked for women's right to vote by creating posters and advertising material to promoting the women's movement.
- Roshini Thinakaran – film-maker focussing on lives of women in post-conflict zones
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg – academic and lawyer for several women's rights cases before the United States Supreme Court. She herself became a Supreme Court Justice in 1993.
- Grace Greenwood – first woman reporter on New York Times, advocate of social reform and women's rights
- Sojourner Truth – abolitionist and women's rights activist and speaker
- Susan B. Anthony – prominent opponent of slavery, played a pivotal role in the 19th-century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States
- Thomas Wentworth Higginson – abolitionist, minister, author
- Victoria Woodhull – suffragist, organizer, first woman to run for U.S. presidency
- Wendell Phillips – abolitionist, orator, lawyer
- William Henry Channing – minister, author
- William Lloyd Garrison – abolitionist, journalist, organizer, advocate
- Yolanda Bako – New York activist, focused on addressing domestic violence
- Zelda Kingoff Nordlinger – instigator of first rape-reform laws
Uruguay
- María Abella de Ramírez
Zimbabwe
- Talent Jumo
Images