Notable Female Reformers and Activists

Updated August 5, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Abbott - Crandell |
Davies - King |
La Flesche - Sanger |
Seton - Wright

Abbott - Crandell

Abbott, Grace, American social worker
Abzug, Bella, American politician
Addams, Jane, American social worker
Ali, Ayaan Hirsi , writer, activist, critic of the treatment of women in Islam
Anthony, Susan Brownell, American reformer and leader of the woman-suffrage movement
Baker, Ella, civil rights activist sociologist
Barton, Clara, American humanitarian, organizer of the American Red Cross
Beauvoir, Simone de, French author
Beecher, Catharine Esther, American educator
Bell, Theresa Hayward, American Indian activist
Besant, Annie, English social reformer and theosophist
Betancourt, Ana, political figure, revolutionary
Bethune, Mary McLeod, American educator
Bissell, Emily, American social worker
Blackwell, Alice Stone, American feminist
Blackwell, Elizabeth, American physician and reformer
Bloomer, Amelia Jenks, American reformer
Boggs, Grace Lee, American activist
Booth, Evangeline Cory, General of the Salvation Army
Bradwell, Myra, American lawyer, activist
Breckinridge, Sophonisba Preston, American pioneer social worker, educator, and author
Brent, Margaret, early American feminist
Bridgman, Laura, first blind deaf-mute to be successfully educated
Cadbury, Dame Elizabeth, English social worker and philanthropist
Carpenter, Mary, English educator and reformer
Shadd Cary, Mary Ann, American woman-suffrage leader
Catt, Carrie Chapman, American suffragist and peace advocate
Chapman, Maria Weston, American abolitionist
Chavez-Thompson, Linda, American labor leader
Child, Lydia Maria , American author and abolitionist
Crandell, Prudence, American educator and abolitionist
Crenshaw, Anne Clay, American women's voting advocate

Abbott - Crandell |
Davies - King |
La Flesche - Sanger |
Seton - Wright

Davies - King

Davies, Emily (Sarah Emily Davies), British feminist, co-founder of Girton College, Cambridge
Davis, Angela, American political activist, author
Davis, Paulina Wright, American lecturer and suffragist
Dee, Ruby, actor, writer, activist
Deraismes, Maria, French feminist
Dix, Dorothea Lynde, American social reformer, pioneer in the movement for specialized treatment of the insane
Douglas, Marjory Stoneman, pioneering conservationist
Duchesne, Rose Philippine, French educator in the United States
Ebadi, Shirin , lawyer, activist, Nobel laureate
Eddy, Mary Baker, founder, Christian Science Church
Edelman, Marian Wright, American lawyer, civil rights activist, children's advocate
Evers-Williams, Myrlie, American civil rights leader
Fonda, Jane, American actor, activist
Ford, Betty, former First Lady of the United States, humanitarian
Foster, Abigail Kelley, American abolitionist and advocate of women's rights
Friedan, Betty Naomi, American social reformer and feminist
Fry, Elizabeth (Gurney), English prison reformer and philanthropist
Fuller, Margaret, American writer and lecturer and feminist
Gage, Matilda Joslyn, American woman suffrage leader
Gbowee, Leymah, Liberian activist
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, American feminist and reformer
Gittings, Barbara, gay rights activist
Goldman, Emma, American anarchist
Greer, Germaine, Australian author
Grimké, Angelina Emily, American abolitionist and advocate of woman's rights
Grimké, Sarah Moore, American abolitionist and advocate of woman's rights
Hamer, Fannie Lou (Townsend), American civil rights activist
Hamilton, Alice, American physician and educator
Harper, Ida Husted, American woman suffragist
Height, Dorothy, activist
Howe, Julia Ward, American labor leader
Huerta, Dolores, American author and social reformer
Idar, Jovita, American journalist and political activist
Jackson, Helen (Fiske) Hunt, American writer - chronicled injustice to Native Americans Native American
Jagger, Bianca, activist
Jones, Mary Harris, American labor agitator, called Mother Jones
Karman, Tawakkol, Yemeni activist
Kelley, Florence, American social worker and reformer
Keller, Helen Adams, American author and lecturer, advocate for the blind and other social causes
King, Coretta Scott, American civil rights leader
King, Yolanda, civil rights leader
Kuhn, Maggie, activist

Abbott - Crandell |
Davies - King |
La Flesche - Sanger |
Seton - Wright

La Flesche - Sanger

La Flesche, Susette, reformer, writer, and lecturer
Lathrop, Julia Clifford, American social worker and administrator
Lease, Mary Elizabeth, American agrarian reformer and temperance advocate
Loving, Mildred, activist
Low, Juliette Gordon, founder of Girl scouts
Ludington, Sybil, war heroine
Maathai, Wangari, conservationist, Nobel laureate
Millett, Kate, writer, political activist, artist
Mills, Heather, activist, model
Mott, Lucretia Coffin, American feminist and reformer
Nation, Carry Moore, American temperance advocate
O'Hair, Madalyn Murray, atheist, activist
Pankhurst, Emmeline Goulden, British woman suffragist
Parker, Francine, political activist
Parks, Rosa Lee, American civil rights activist
Paul, Alice, American activist
Perkins, Frances, U.S. Secretary of Labor
Rankin, Jeannette, American pacifist, suffragist and member of the 77th Congress
Roosevelt, Eleanor (Anna Eleanor Roosevelt), American humanitarian
Rothman, Lorraine, women's rights activist
Sanger, Margaret (Higgins), American leader in the birth control movement

Abbott - Crandell |
Davies - King |
La Flesche - Sanger |
Seton - Wright

Seton - Wright

Seton, Saint Elizabeth Ann, American Roman Catholic leader, usually called Mother Seton
Shaw, Anna Howard, American woman-suffrage leader
Sheehan, Cindy, activist
Shriver, Eunice Mary Kennedy, philanthropist, mental health activist
Simkhovitch, Mary Kingsbury, American social worker
Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson, political leader, Liberian activist
Spencer, Anna Garlin, American educator, feminist, and Unitarian minister
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, American reformer, a leader of the woman suffrage movement
Steinem, Gloria, American journalist and feminist
Stone, Lucy, reformer and leader in the woman's rights movement
Szold, Henrietta, American Zionist leader
Tarbell, Ida Minerva, American author and muckraker
Terrell, Mary Eliza Church, American civil rights and women's rights activist
Thomas, Martha Carey, American educator and feminist
Truth, Sojourner, American abolitionist, a freed slave
Tubman, Harriet, American abolitionist
Valentine, Lila Meade, American women's rights, public health, and education activist
Wald, Lillian D., American social worker and pioneer in public health nursing
Wattleton, Faye, American activist
Wells-Barnett, Ida B., American journalist and activist
Willard, Emma, American educator, pioneer in woman's education
Willard, Frances Elizabeth, American temperance leader and reformer
Williams, Betty, Northern Irish peace activist
Williams, Jody, American activist
Wollstonecraft, Mary, English author and feminist
Woodhull, Victoria (Claflin), American radical and feminist
Woods, Harriet, U.S. politician, feminist leader
Wright, Frances, Scottish-American reformer