In celebration to International Women’s Day, Her Campus Casper Libero is paying an homage to brilliant women that fought for change in our world. We could spend the whole day talking about them, but since it would take a really long time, we have prepared a list with ten women that revolutionized history, and some of them are still advocating for their causes.
Check it out and get inspired by them!
- Harriet Tubman
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Born in Maryland (USA) during the 1820s, Araminta Ross is one of the most iconic figures to fight against slavery in her country. The story got also a movie with lots of prize’s nominees like Oscar, starred by Cynthia Erivo.
When her owner died, in 1849, Ross escaped by herself to Philadelphia, where she found shelter, changed her name to Harriet Tubman — her mother’s first name and her husband’s last name — and joined the abolitionist movement.
During the 1850s, she dedicated her life to rescue slaves, including her friends and family, from the Southern states of the US and taking them North — where there wasn’t slavery — through the Underground Railroad, a secret clandestine network of routes and safe houses conceived for that purpose.
Her courage and determination helped her freeing at least 70 captives and, although there was a $40,000 reward to whoever was able to capture Tubman, the woman was never caught, and it is said that she also never lost a passenger she took with her.
Harriet also took part in the Civil War (1861 – 1865) as a nurse, a cook and even a spy! She is considered to be the first African American woman to serve in the military. Her deep knowledge about the Confederate states and the wide number of people Tubman knew there gave a lot of insights that allowed her to be one step ahead of the enemy and also save hundreds of people from slavery.
Even after the war was over, Harriet kept fighting for her rights by joining the suffrage movement, which advocated for women’s right to vote.
- Nise da Silveira
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Born in Maceió, Alagoas, in 1905, Nise da Silveira was the only woman to graduate at Bahia Medicine School among 157 men. She remodeled psychiatry by not conforming to the treatment methods that were used to patients back then, such as shock therapy, lobotomy and straitjackets.
Nise also recognised the therapeutic value of art. The woman noticed that when patients were given the opportunity to express themselves through painting, music and sculpture, their behaviour would improve and the results were beautiful art pieces. She reunited many of these works and created the Images of the Unconscious Museum, which gathers around 360 thousand artworks and is considered as a Memory of the World by UNESCO.
Full of empathy, intelligence and courage, the psychiatrist humanized the treatment of mental health patients and developed a new approach do reinsert them in society.
Her story got a brazillian movie called “Nise, The Heart Of Craziness”, starred by Gloria Pires – watch it to understand the essence of this brilliant mind.
- Bertha Lutz
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Bertha Lutz is considered to be one of the first feminists in Brazil. Born in 1894, in São Paulo, the woman studied Science in Europe, where she first got in contact with the suffrage movement.
Returning to her home country, Bertha started advocating for women’s rights. In 1932, she led a group to demand from the president Getúlio Vargas to change the voting legislation and include women, which turned out successfully. Lutz even took part in the committee to elaborate the 1934 Constitution, and made sure women’s rights were added to it.
The scientist was also present in a remarkable moment for the world history: the formation of the United Nations. She represented Brazil at the San Francisco Conference and was one out of the four women — among 850 men — to address the document that founded the UN, which, thanks to Bertha and other pioneer women, included an article that supported gender equality.
- Irena Sendler
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The Polish woman lived at the time of Hitler’s ascension and saw thousands of Jews being excluded from society and pushed into ghettos. During World War II, she worked as a social assistant in the Warsaw Ghetto and managed the distribution of food, clothes and medicine to Jewish families.
That allowed her to gain their trust and save the lives of more than 2500 children. Irena took the kids out of the neighbourhood, changed their names, and sheltered them into catholic orphanages or family houses, where they learned about Christian tradition, in order to hide their Jewish background.
The woman was discovered by the nazi officials, arrested and tortured, but refused to give away the children’s locations and identities. She was even sentenced to death, but a Gestapo agent let her escape.
Since she was a young girl, Irena Sendler had been taught by her father that she should help anyone in need, no matter where they came from, how much money they had or the religion the followed. And that’s what she did by saving all those people.
- Kathrine Switzer
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For 70 years, the traditional Boston Marathon had been a race restricted to men. But Kathrine Switzer changed that in 1967, when she was 20-years-old.
Even though there wasn’t a rule that prohibited women from running, there was a belief that they weren’t capable of achieving the 42 kilometers. At first, when the participants realized there was a girl competing, they got excited and congratulated her for that. But one of the directors of the event, Jock Semple, saw her and tried to push Switzer away from the marathon. “Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers”, yelled him.
The situation really shook her, but it gave Kathrine the motivation to complete the course. “I’m gonna finish this race, on my hands and my knees if I have to”, she said to her coach
Arnie Briggs, who was running with her. The athlete reached the finish line in four hours and twenty minutes, opening the door for many victories of women in sports.
Nowadays, Switzer manages 261 Fearless, a non-profit organization founded by her that empowers and unites women through running.
- Malala Yousafzai
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Malala is probably one of the biggest inspirations of this generation, due to her determination and braveness to go against the Taliban.
The extremist group dominated Swat Valley, a region in Pakistan where the girl lived with her family, and they wouldn’t allow girls to go to school. However, Malala and some of her colleagues didn’t listen to them and kept on learning. The student even started a blog, where she would write, using a pseudonym, about her experience living under the Taliban regime. Then, she started getting visibility from the media, having the opportunity to speak up and fight for girl’s education.
On October 9th, 2012, while Yousafzai and her friends were on the school bus returning home, two men entered the vehicle, asked for Malala and shot her in the head. The girl was 15-years-old back then and made the whole world turn their eyes to her and get to know her story.
Through her activism for women’s right to go to school, Malala got to do a speech in the UN and was the youngest person to win a Peace Nobel Prize, at 17. “The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born”, said her at the United Nations.
- Artemisa Xakriabá
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“We’re fighting for our sacred territory. But we’re being persecuted, threatened, murdered, only for protecting our own territory. We can’t accept one more drop of indigenous blood spilled.” As Artemisa Xakriabá finished her speech at the New York Climate Strike in 2019, she lighted a fire and addressed to the international community the urgency to talk about the indigenous fight.
At 19-years-old, she’s been representing Brazil at international events and has had the chance to speak at the UN Youth Climate Summit and meet American congressmen to deliver environmental issues and demand action from politicians to contain climate change.
Artemisa is part of the Guardians of the Forest, an organization that gathers indigenous communities from Brazil, Central America, Amazon Basin and Indonesia. Their goal is to show the world the strength of indigenous people and their importance at protecting the environment.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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Born and raised in Bronx, New York, in a working class Puerto Rican family, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez caught everyone by surprise during the 2018 elections for Congress. She defeated Democrat veteran Joe Crowley, who hadn’t had a primary challenger in 14 years, being the youngest woman to be elected to Congress, at 29.
The day she took office, Ocasio-Cortez showed how much representation matters and how important it is to inspire young girls to be who they are. The Congresswoman was wearing hoop earrings and red lipstick, which are usually looked down on for carrying Latino culture stigmas.
However, Alexandria completely reframed this negative perspective by showing how powerful it is to have someone you can relate to: “Next time someone tells Bronx girls to take off their hoops, they can just say they’re dressing like a Congresswoman”.
- Mari Copeny
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In 2016, in the middle of a water crisis in Flint, Michigan, an 8-year-old got everyone’s attention for stepping up and taking action.
The water of the city was contaminated with lead, and the only way for the population to get drinkable water was from plastic bottles. So, Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny sent a letter to President Obama talking about their situation, which not only convinced him to visit the city and meet Mari, but also brought Flint US$ 100 million to fix the water system.
Also known as Little Miss Flint, Copeny kept up with her claim for clean water, as she recognizes that this problem happens in many different locations. She’s been establishing partnerships with water filtration companies in order to increase the access of communities to drinkable water and reduce the use of plastic bottles.
Mari also supports campaigns to raise school supplies for students, such as backpacks and books. Her dream is to become the President of the United States, and she believes that the skills she’s developing will help her achieve this goal: “Obama was once a Black kid with a dream, and he was able to achieve it, so I can, too”.
- Mc Soffia
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At 16-years-old, this girl has already featured the BBC list of 100 notorious women of 2017; sung at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics next to Karol Conka; and has millions of views on her YouTube channel.
Meet Mc Soffia, from São Paulo. Since she was 6, the hip-hop singer has been recording songs that talk about racism, African Brazilian history and the importance for black girls to love themselves.
Mc Soffia wants to transmit acceptance through her music and, according to her, “prejudice is also a topic for children”. So, the sooner people start delivering these issues to young girls and boys, the easier it will be for them to understand who they are and where they came from.
She had also started the project Preteenha Rainha, which is a discussion group for children/teenage black girls to learn more about racism, sexism and also share their experience.
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The article above was edited by Gabriela Sartorato.
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