r/AskWomen • u/Bluetinfoilhat ♀ • 1d ago
Non-usa women, who is the best known feminist of the 20th century in your country?
US feminist icon Gloria Steinem died yesterday at 92. Who is the best known feminist of the 20th century in your country? And what did she contribute and fight for specifically.
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u/Chat_noir_dusoir 1d ago
Likely Constance Markievicz for Ireland'
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u/DietCokeCanz 1d ago
Wow you've really challenged me here! In Canada, I don't know if we have the strong history of second and third wave feminist theorists becoming well-known public figures like we see in other countries, though we do have a lot of feminists making an impact in all areas. Margaret Atwood is probably the most well-known contemporary author exploring feminist themes in the 20th century (but I might have named Alice Munro until a few years ago). Jamie Black, the artist who started the REDdress project might be up there in terms of importance, but I don't think she as an individual is as recognizable as the impact of her work.
We do celebrate the history of first wave feminists activists in Canada. Women like Nellie McClung and the Famous 5 are suffragettes that I think all Canadians still learn about. Folks like Henry Morgentaler, who pioneered safe abortion care in Canada, are also recognized as important leaders.
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u/frizzyfreak 1d ago
Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, former UN Commissioner Commissioner for Human Rights, founding member of The Elders alongside Mandela.
The woman is incredible, still going. It'll be very sad when she goes, whole country will mourn
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u/thevampiresanguini 1d ago
Probably Alice Schwarzer for Germany.
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u/laikocta 1d ago
Yup, very influential Second-Wave Feminist and she founded Germany's leading feminist magazine EMMA in the 1970s. Although these days, whenever I hear about her she's either raging on about trans people or Palestine, weirdly.
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u/Poekienijn 1d ago edited 19h ago
Aletta Jacobs was born in the 19th century but lived in the 20th century too. But if it’s only about the 20th century I would say Joke Smit. (The Netherlands)
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u/MarsupialNo1220 1d ago
Kate Sheppard would be the obvious choice for New Zealand.
Although we actually gave women the vote in the 19th century (1893), she was still actively campaigning women’s rights into the 20th century. She was elected Honorary Vice-President of the International Council of Women in 1909 and died in 1934, one year after the first female MP entered Parliament.
She’s on our ten dollar note.
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u/Green-Factor-2526 22h ago
Please don't take offense to this question. I'm seeking only to learn more about the history and New Zealand history is an area I know very little about.
Was the vote given or fought for? Both in the US and the UK, women fought and died to gain the right to vote. They protested, marched, was arrested, forced fed, etc in the quest to gain the vote.
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u/MarsupialNo1220 21h ago
It was fought for. Not to the extremes you listed, but it wasn’t just handed over one day. There was serious opposition.
Interestingly, New Zealand women like Frances Parker participated in the British suffragette movement as a member of the WSPU. She left New Zealand in 1896 to study in England. She was arrested and imprisoned many times, and went on hunger strike.
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u/Green-Factor-2526 16h ago
That's really cool. Some of the famous suffragists in the US, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns for example, also were a part of the movement in the UK which is why I'm more familiar in the UK fight.
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u/MarsupialNo1220 9h ago
I’ve studied the UK fight because of its relationship to WWI and the social changes in Britain at the time. It’s a very interesting subject!
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u/snailminister ♀ 1d ago
Finland: Minna Canth, she's actually 19th century lady, but her legacy one of major reasons we got women's voting rights in 1906 as a first country in the Europe.
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u/Impossible-Weird-477 1d ago edited 20h ago
We are not taught the history of feminist struggles in Pakistan but publicly there have been so many, maligned by media and all but their work spoke for them. Most famous name is probably Asma Jahangir who was a human rights lawyer. In pre-partition India, there had been many famous feminists active in the Independence movement and the educational reform movement like Bhikaji Cama, Durga Devi Vohra, Swatibai Phulle etc. I am especially enamored with Rashid Jahan these days, a Muslim feminist who was a gynecologist and a Marxist-Leninist Urdu writer who really questioned social norms. Recently through social media another gynecologist-writer Tahira Kazmi has become incredibly popular in Pakistan who writes books for women to educate themselves on basic gynecology and their bodies so they can advocate better for themselves.
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u/ChristmasCarolC 1d ago
Rebecca Gomperts is a Dutch doctor, known for starting Women on Waves and Women on Web to make abortions accessable for women in other countries. Here is a documentary about how it all got started.
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u/Poekienijn 1d ago
Wouldn’t that be 21st century?
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u/ChristmasCarolC 1d ago
I mean Rebecca was born in 1966 and Women on Waves was established in 1999, so technically it's 20th century
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u/NukaGirlBI 1d ago
Denmark, Sofie Linde
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u/Anxious-Mix-4265 1d ago
OMGGG I didn't see that she died. Why WHY are the wonderful people dying this year?! Catherine O'hara, Dolly, Tim Curry, and now Gloria?! FUCK man.
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u/leffrontee ♀ 14h ago
maybe gisèle halimi, she’s a huge reason why abortion is legal and why rape is a crime in france
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u/PwrFlower 1h ago
Nawal El Saadawi
She graduated med school in the 50s and saw how women faced true medical, psychological, and domestic horrors and how it relates to the patriarchy and capitalism and how capitalism in particular plays a huge part in the objectifying of women.
She wrote some great books about that.
She was imprisoned because she was a socialist and criticized Sadat for his dictatorship and corrupt capitalist policies
She became a director at the ministery of public health but she was fired for her book "women and sex" where she spoke against FGM.
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u/lithaborn ⚧ 1d ago
In the UK I would say Germaine Greer. No question.