Famous Women's Rights Activists a to z

Bella Abzug was a leading liberal activist and politician in the 1960s and 1970s, especially known for her work for women’s rights.

Jane Addams co-founded one of the first settlements in the United States, the Hull House in Chicago, Illinois, and was named a co-winner of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize.

Susan B. Anthony was a prominent American civil rights activist and leader during the women's suffrage movement of the 1800s.

Joan Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter and activist who is best known for her distinctive voice and for her role in popularizing the music of Bob Dylan.

Alva Belmont was a wealthy socialite who used her fortune to advance the women's rights movement of the early 1900s.

The daughter of famous suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriot Stanton Blatch continued her mother's work in the women's rights movement.

Amelia Bloomer was a women's rights activist. She advocated for changes in women's fashion that would be less restrictive. "Bloomers" are named after her.

Prolific author Pearl S. Buck earned a Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Good Earth. She was also the first female to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Judy Chicago is an American artist, educator and writer, and a leading figure in feminist art. She received critical acclaim in the 1970s for her art project "The Dinner Party."

After writing radio and television plays for the BBC, British playwright Caryl Lesley Churchill penned the controversial theatrical play Seven Jewish Children.

When Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2001, she became the only American first lady to hold national office. She became the 67th U.S. secretary of state in 2009, serving until 2013.

Angela Davis is an activist, scholar and writer who advocates for the oppressed. She has authored several books, including Women, Culture & Politics.

Oscar-winning actress Geena Davis played Thelma in the 1991 cult classic Thelma & Louise, starring opposite Susan Sarandon.

Militant suffragette Emily Wilding Davison fought to gain equal voting rights for British women before dying at the Epsom Derby in 1913.

Dorothy Day was an activist who worked for such social causes as pacifism and women’s suffrage through the prism of the Catholic Church.

Andrea Dworkin was an American feminist and author, an outspoken critic of sexual politics, particularly of the victimizing effects of pornography on women.

Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer and human-rights activist. She was the first female judge in Iran, and won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.

Geraldine A. Ferraro was a member of Congress and the first woman to run for the U.S. vice presidency on a major party platform.

Writer, feminist and women's rights activist Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique (1963) and co-founded the National Organization for Women.

Margaret Fuller is best known for feminist writing and literary criticism in 19th century America.

Matilda Joslyn Gage was an author and one of the leading figures in the women's rights and suffrage movement that began in the mid-1800s.

Bernice Gera became the first female umpire of a baseball game in 1972, but later resigned, reportedly because other umpires refused to work with her.

Kirsten Gillibrand is a U.S. lawyer and politician from New York who's served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Abolitionist and feminist Sarah Moore Grimké and her sister Angelina were the first women to testify before a state legislature on the issue of blacks' rights.

Caroline Harrison married future U.S. President Benjamin Harrison in 1853. As first lady, she oversaw the installation of electricity in the White House.

Dorothy Height was a civil rights and women's rights activist focused primarily on improving the circumstances of and opportunities for African-American women.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a 17th century nun, self-taught scholar and acclaimed writer of the Latin American colonial period and the Hispanic Baroque. She was also a staunch advocate for women's rights.

The wife of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson served as first lady from 1963 to 1969.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

African-American hairdresser and inventor Lyda Newman patented an improved hairbrush design in New York City in 1898.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Peter Singer is an Australian philosopher whose work in applied ethics has led to controversial views on abortion, animal liberation and infanticide.

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.

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.

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.

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

Mary Walker was a physician and women's rights activist who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for her service during the Civil War.

Julia Ward Howe was a women's rights activist, abolitionist and writer who penned the poem "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Faye Wattleton, former president and CEO of Planned Parenthood—as well as the first African-American, first female and youngest president in the organization's history—has been one of the strongest champions of women's rights and reproductive health for more than four decades.

Pearl White was an American silent film actress best known for her role in The Perils of Pauline, in which she did her own stunt work.

Mary Wollstonecraft was an English writer who advocated for women's equality. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman pressed for educational reforms.

Victoria Woodhull was a spiritualist, activist, politician and author who was the first woman to run for the presidency of the United States.