Female Activists a to z

Mary Harris Jones (aka "Mother Jones") was a union activist. She founded the Social Democratic Party, and helped establish the Industrial Workers of the World.

Shirley Jones is a singer and actress best known for her parts in movie musicals, and for her role as Mrs. Partridge on the 1970s television show The Partridge Family.

Raden Adjeng Kartini is a Javanese noblewoman and is best known as a pioneer in the area of women's rights for native Indonesians.

American educator Helen Keller overcame the adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century's leading humanitarians, as well as co-founder of the ACLU.

The matriarch of the Kennedy clan, Rose Kennedy saw three of her sons, Robert, John, and Edward, elected to public office and two of them killed by assassins.

American singer and songwriter Carole King has written or co-written over 400 songs that have been recorded by more than 1,000 artists.

Coretta Scott King was an American civil rights activist and the wife of 1960s civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Candy Lightner founded one of the country's largest activist organizations, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, after her daughter died in a drunk driving accident.

Viola Gregg Liuzzo was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. She was murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan for her efforts.

Activist and lawyer Belva Lockwood was the first woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mary Lyon was an educator and founder of the first women's college, which is now known as Mount Holyoke College.

Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan political and environmental activist and her country's assistant minister of environment, natural resources and wildlife.

Winnie Mandela was the controversial wife of Nelson Mandela who spent her life in varying governmental roles.

Mary Mahoney became the first black woman to complete nurse's training in 1879.

Miriam Makeba, also known as "Mama Africa," was a popular South-African singer who introduced Xhosa and Zulu songs to Western audiences. She is best known for the songs "Pata Pata," "The Click Song" and "Malaika."

Wilma Mankiller worked for several years as a leading advocate for the Cherokee people, and became the first woman to serve as their principal chief in 1985.

Rita Marley is Bob Marley's widow, and is best known for carrying on her late husband's musical legacy and developing her own career as a solo artist.

Jenny McCarthy was named Playboy's 1994 Playmate of the Year and hosted MTV's Singled Out from 1995 to 1997. She began hosting Love in the Wild in June 2012.

Linda McCartney was a photographer who became widely known as the wife of Beatle Paul McCartney.

Fashion designer and committed vegetarian Stella McCartney is the daughter of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his late wife, Linda.

Founder of female musician showcase Lilith Fair, McLachlan's emotional ballads include "I Will Remember You," "Sweet Surrender," "Adia" and "Angel".

Heather Mills is best known as the ex-wife of musician Paul McCartney as well as for her activism and philanthropy.

American gymnast Dominique Moceanu was a member of the "Magnificent Seven," the U.S. women's gymnastics team that won Olympic gold in 1996.

Kelly Monaco is an actress and model known for her role on General Hospital. Additionally, she was a Playboy "Playmate of the Month" in 1997, and won season 1 of Dancing with the Stars.

Anne Moody is an African-American author whose writings about her personal and political struggles during the American Civil Rights Movement became classic.

Contrasting her edgy, tomboyish style with that of her female popstar peers, Pink has had huge success with hits like "You Make Me Sick" and "There You Go".

Constance Baker Motley was a legal advocate in the Civil Rights Movement. She became the first female African-American federal judge in 1966.

Lucretia Mott was a leading social reformer of her time and helped to form the Free Religious Association.

Sarojini Naidu was an India political leader best known as the first female President of the India National Congress.

Pat Nixon was the wife of Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States. As first lady, she traveled extensively and championed volunteerism.

Asra Nomani is known for her fight for women's equality in the American Islamic community.

Civil rights activist and ACLU alum Eleanor Holmes Norton serves as a non-voting delegate to Congress from the District of Columbia.

With her signature shaved head, Sinead O'Connor emerged with a powerful and expressive voice, complex songs, and a fair share of controversy.

Yoko Ono is a multimedia artist who became known worldwide in the 1960s when she married Beatles front man John Lennon.

Mary White Ovington was a civil rights activist and one of the white reformers who helped found the NAACP.

Hayden Panettiere is the young American actress who became famous for her role as the cheerleader on the television show Heroes.

Dorothy Parker was the sharpest wit of the Algonquin Round Table, as well as a master of short fiction and a blacklisted screenwriter.

Lucy Parsons was an activist who was politically radical for her times and one of the first minority activists.

Suffragette Alice Paul dedicated her life's work to women's rights and was a key figure in the push for the 19th Amendment.

Actress, musician and activist Pauley Perette is best known as the lab technician on the crime drama NCIS.

Eva Perón used her position as the first lady of Argentina to fight for women's suffrage and improving the lives of the poor.

Janie Porter Barrett was a social worker and reformer who established a school for previously incarcerated African-American girls.

Princess Diana was Princess of Wales while married to Prince Charles. One of the most adored members of the British royal family, she died in a 1997 car crash.

The daughter of comedian Richard Pryor, Rain Pryor is a multifaceted actress, singer, comedian and artistic director.

Bonnie Raitt is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose musical range encompasses blues, folk, rhythm and blues, pop, and country rock.

Queen Rania of Jordan is best known for her advocacy work in public health, education and as an outspoken opponent of the practice of "honor killings."

Jeannette Rankin was the first woman to serve in the U.S. Congress. She helped pass the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, and was a committed pacifist.

Charlotte E. Ray was the first female African-American lawyer in the United States.

One of the greatest women's beach volleyball players of all-time, Gabrielle Reece is also a successful model, actress, writer and fitness expert.

Faith Ringgold is an American artist and author who became famous for innovative, quilted narrations like Tar Beach that communicate her political beliefs.

Ann Romney is the former first lady of Massachusetts and the wife of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger, spurring the Montgomery boycott and other efforts to end segregation.

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was an American community leader and women's rights activist who focused particularly on issues affecting African-American women.

Aung San Suu Kyi is an opposition leader in her home country of Myanmar and the winner of the  1991 Nobel Prize for Peace.

Margaret Sanger was an early feminist and women's rights activist who coined the term "birth control" and worked towards its legalization.

Augusta Savage is remembered as an artist, activist, and arts educator, serving as an inspiration to the many that she taught, helped, and encouraged.

Rose Schneiderman was a labor activist, union leader and social reformer. She held labor-related positions in Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration during the Great Depression.

Betty Shabazz is best known as the wife of African-American nationalist leader Malcolm X, who was assassinated in New York City in 1965.

Dr. Anna Howard Shaw was the first female minister in the Methodist Protestant Church. She spent most of her life working for the cause of women's suffrage.

Kate Sheppard was a leader in the New Zealand women's suffrage movement, helping women gain the right to vote in New Zealand.

Alicia Silverstone is an actress who starred in such films as Clueless and The Crush. She is an outspoken environmentalist, vegan and animal rights activist.

After her impressive 2006 debut, professional dancer Karina Smirnoff went on to star in six more seasons of Dancing with the Stars.

Susan Sontag was a critical essayist, cultural analyst, novelist and filmmaker. She wrote On Photography, Illness as Metaphor, The Volcano Lover and In America.

Mira Sorvino is an Academy Award-winning actress who starred in Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an early leader of the woman's rights movement, writing the Declaration of Sentiments as a call to arms for female equality.

Social activist, writer, editor, and lecturer Gloria Steinem has been an outspoken champion of women's rights since the late 1960s.

Lucy Stone was a leading activist and pioneer of the abolition and women's rights movements.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an author and social activist best known for her popular anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Hilary Swank is an American actress who has won Academy Awards for her starring roles in the films Million Dollar Baby and Boys Don't Cry.

Helen Taft was a schoolteacher, political adviser and U.S. First Lady who was the wife of President William Howard Taft.

Mary Church Terrell was a charter member of the NAACP and an early advocate for civil rights and the suffrage movement.

Charlize Theron is a South African-born actress, best known for her roles in such films as North Country and Monster, for which she won an Academy Award.

Sojourner Truth is best known for her extemporaneous speech on racial inequalities, "Ain't I a Woman?", delivered at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in 1851.

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery to become a leading abolitionist. She led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom along the route of the Underground Railroad.

Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, African-American novelist and poet most famous for authoring The Color Purple.

Australian Aboriginal writer and political activist Kath Walker is considered the first of the modern-day Aboriginal protest writers.

Madam C.J. Walker was the first American woman to become a self-made millionaire. Her business was worth more than $1 million at the time of her death.