When a man does anything of note, it is rarely forgotten, in fact it is celebrated. Yet when a woman does the same or even better, it is likely disregarded or attributed to a man in her vicinity. Below, I will tell you the forgotten stories of women who fought for the rights you hold today.
Sappho of Lesbos lived in ancient Greece between 630-570 BC. She was a lyric poet and an outspoken activist for women’s rights. She was known as the “tenth muse” and “poetress”. Her work was learned and cited by many well known poets, including Plato and Solon. Nonetheless, most of her work was lost to time. During her time, she worked with feminist themes in her work and was one of the few who refuted Aristotle’s sexist views. For example, one of his more known quotes,“The relation of male to female is naturally that of superior to inferior, of the ruling to the ruled. This general principle must similarly hold good for all human beings generally.” At around 30 years of age, she would be banished to Sicily, where she would continue to write. Writing around 10 thousand works by the end of her life. She was honoured by the Scholars of Alexandria, adding her to the ‘cannon of nine poets’, as they believed her work worthy of being studied in detail.
India Juliana, a Guaraní woman, was one of the first women given to the Spanish colonisers for their ‘comfort’. She, fed up with their horrific treatment, would use herbs to poison Ñuño de Cabrera, a coloniser. After confessing to the crime she would be released, until the new Adelantado heard of her encouraging other women to do the same. He would order her to be executed by mutilation. He intended this to be a warning to the women still being trafficked. However, she would be remembered as one of the first to incite an uprising and is now the symbol for the Paraguayan indigenous women’s organisation.
Sojourner Truth was an African American woman who lived between 1797-1883. She was born into slavery to Ghanaian and Guinean parents. In her first few years of life, she was separated from most of her family. Her sibling would be sold when she was an infant and she was sold when she turned nine. Her first language was Dutch and she was only taught English later in her life. In 1826, she would escape to New York with her daughter. After being granted her freedom, she would petition the court to get her son’s freedom. She would win the case, becoming the first African American woman to win a case against a white man. Once free, she would become an advocate for equal rights, even saying, “If it is not a fit place for women, it is unfit for men to be there.”. Later, she would give a speech at the Ohio women’ s convention in 1851 titled ’Ain’t I a woman’. In which she discussed the lack of representation of black women in the women’s rights movement. For the rest of her life, she would fight for the rights of African American women.
Ida B. Wells, born into slavery in Mississippi, was an early member of the civil rights movement and a creator of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. She would lose both her parents and her brother at 14 years old to the yellow fever epidemic. With the rest of her family, she would move to Memphis Tennessee and become a teacher. In 1881, she would co-found the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight which would report on inequality and racial injustice. She would record and analyse lynchings. She showed the reality of the violence and disproved that the victims were ‘criminals’.“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” (Ida B. Wells) In 1895, she published the Red Pamphlet “… a sociological investigation of lynching in the United States since the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.” In the same decade, she would join the American suffragette movement. However, due to her outspoken advocacy against racially motivated violence, she would clash with the leadership. She spent her whole life educating and enriching her community, and subsequently the entirety of the US. “Her work helped establish the foundation of intersectional feminism, which explores how racism and sexism intersect in the lives of Black women.”
Uluma Aden
Uluma oli Naisjärjestöjen Keskusliitolla TET-harjoittelussa marraskuussa.
Works Cited
digitalonline. “10 BLACK FEMINISTS YOU NEED to KNOW about | National Organization for Women.” National Organization for Women, 15 Feb. 2019, now.org/blog/10-black-feminists-you-need-to-know-about/.
“Sappho.” Wikipedia, 18 Aug. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho#Legacy.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Ida B. Wells.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Nov. 2025.
—. “India Juliana.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Oct. 2025.
—. “List of Feminists.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Apr. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_feminists.
—. “Sojourner Truth.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth.