Every single day, women across the world, and over thousands of years, are changing our lives and shaping history.
When we think about our privledge to get an education, to work, to be with a partner of our choosing... none of it would be possible without the help and the voices of some really spectacular feminist leaders. These are just some of the feminists throughout the ages who have made an impact on society. Learn about these BAMFs here! Because of This Woman
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Photos from previous posts: Ho Miu Ling (Madame Wu Ting Fang), Indira Gandhi, Uzbek girl engineer, Kang Tongbi (Kang Tung Pih) 康同璧, Philippine schoolgirls, and Japanese mother and daughter.
Doria Shafiq (1908 - 1975) was one of the bravest and significant women’s rights activist of Egypt.
Shafiq, who studied at the Parisian Sorbonne, founded the the magazine Daughters of the Nile during the 40s and a little later the “Union of the Daughters of the Nile”. In July 1951 she stormed the parliament in Cairo together with hundreds of other women to push trough the female suffrage. Three years later she went on hunger strike to protest for the right of women to run a political office. Revolutionary Leader Nasser, with whom she had initially worked together, placed the belligerent women’s rights activist under house arrest in 1957 when she demanded his resignation. He let all her publications be annihilated. In 1975 the completely isolated Shafiq commited suicide by jumping off the balcony of her apartment.
She now has been crossed out of the Egyptian textbooks for 2013/14 by the Minister for Education, Mostafa Mosaad. The reason: She was not veiled.
(via coolchicksfromhistory)
Peggielene Bartels, A.K.A. King Peggy, is currently the King of Otuam, Ghana. She was chosen to be one of only three female kings in Ghana, and when she discovered that male chauvinists wanted her to only be a figurehead, she said: “They were treating me like I am a second-class citizen because I am a woman. I said, ‘Hell no, you’re not going to do this to a woman!’” When she encountered corruption and the threat of embezzlement to the royal funds, she declared “I’m going to squeeze their balls so hard their eyes pop!”
King Peggy has maintained her work in Ghana’s embassy in Washington, D.C. while making education affordable in Otuam, installing borehead wells to produce clean drinking water, enforcing incarceration laws to deal with domestic violence, replenishing the royal coffers by taxing Otuam’s fishing industry to improve life in the village, and appointing three women to her council.
“Nobody should tell you, ‘You’re a woman, you can’t do it,’” she insists. “You can do it. Be ready to accept it when the calling comes.”
Quoted from the Spring/Summer 2012 issue of Ms. Magazine.
What a beautiful badass woman.
King Peggy has been on my blog before but this is my goddamn blog and I will have King Peggy on here twice if I want.
MORE FEMALE KINGS.
Always reblog King Peggy, who is on my dash far less than she should be. Did you know she has written a book about her life? It is great, and you should all get right on that if you haven’t already.
(Source: pizza-grrrl, via it-only-takes-a-spark)
Jeanne Manford, the founder of PFLAG, died today in her home in California. She was 92. From The Advocate: “One of Manford’s sons, the late Morty Manford, was gay. He was beaten during a Gay Activists Alliance demonstration in April 1972, and police failed to intervene. She wrote a letter to the New York Post, published April 29, 1972, in which she stated, ‘I have a homosexual son, and I love him.’ Her letter sparked a groundswell of response, and less than two months later, she joined her son at the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade. Her participation and the affirmations she received from others eventually led to the beginning of PFLAG.”
May she rest peacefully. We will never forget this kind, beautiful soul for all she did.
(Source: gaywrites, via homohysteria)
Educator Charlotte Hawkins Brown on her wedding day in 1912. Founder of the historic Palmer Memorial Institute in North Carolina, Ms. Brown was also one of the invaluable suffragists who worked for black women to have the same equal rights black men and white women were fighting for in the early 20th century.
(Source: soulmahogany, via str8forzuko)
Name: Marie Sklodowska-Curie (Born Maria Salomea Sklodowska)
Dates: 1867-1934
Why She Rocks: Known for her pioneering research in the fields of physics and chemistry, Sklodowska-Curie, along with her husband Pierre Curie and and fellow physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for their discovery of radioactivity. With this win Sklodowska-Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel. Sklodowska-Curie would win her second Nobel in 1911 (this time in Chemistry) for the discovery of the elements Polonium (Po, 84) and Radium (Ra, 88). She is the only woman to have ever received two Nobel Prizes and is the only person to receive two Nobel prizes in different sciences. Along with her contributions to science, Sklodowska-Curie was a strong advocate for Polish Independence, becoming a member of the Committee for a Free Poland during World War I and naming Polonium after the Latin name for her homeland, Polonia.
Quote: ”Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
Because of this Woman: Her discoveries shook, changed and simplified the fields of science. Radioactivity lead multiple finds and studies, ranging from determining the exact age of the Earth to the creation of X-Rays, just to name a few. Also, by overcoming societal barriers that barred women from the scientific field, Sklodowska-Curie not only showed her determination and dedication, but paved the way for future women entering the STEM field by being a role model that the words “amazing” can only begin to describe.
Name: Indira Bajramovic
Dates: present
Why she rocks: Indira is a Rroma politician who raises awareness of violence against Rroma women, oversees legal persecution of abusers and heads the organization Youth at Risk which works to help and protect Rroma youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.
Quote: “Keep on learning, because the more you know, the more you can help others.”
Because of this woman: More Rroma women are becoming involved in politics and representing their people, the world is learning about the problems faced by Rroma women and youth and abuse against them is pursued more by the law.
Links: http://www.youthatrisk.eu/ - her organization
http://www.unwomen.org/2011/11/roma-women-turning-the-tide-of-violence-and-discrimination/
http://saynotoviolence.org/around-world/news/roma-women-turning-tide-violence-and-discrimination
say-it-somehow asked: Have you done JK Rowling on this page yet??
OOOO I haven’t… good suggestion Mel! Coming right up! =D
Name: Dr. James Barry (formerly Margaret Ann Bulkley)
Dates: 1789-1865
Why They Rocks: Not only was Barry a first class surgeon in the British army, but they were one of the first trans* people to ever gain the rank of Inspector General. In 1926, Barry became the first doctor to perform a Cesarean section in South Africa. They also fought for humanitarian rights including woman’s rights and PoC’s rights.
Because of this woman… Woman and PoC rights in South African hospitals were improved, and there is one more trans* role model for everyone to be proud of.
