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Short histories of 65 feminist movements, India and South Asia first. Each has a timeline, links to read more elsewhere, and books from our shelf where we have them. These are starting points, not the last word: tell us what is missing through the complaints box or a discussion thread.
6 movementsAfrica ×
1977 onwardStill going
Founded by Wangari Maathai, the movement paid rural women to plant trees, tackling deforestation, firewood shortages and poverty together, and grew into a wider fight for democracy in Kenya. Maathai won the Nobel Peace…
2003
Christian and Muslim women led by Leymah Gbowee sat in protest in white at a Monrovia fish market, then blockaded the peace talks in Accra, pressing the warring sides to sign the 2003 agreement that ended Liberia's…
1929
Igbo and Ibibio women in south-eastern Nigeria rose against British colonial rule and its appointed warrant chiefs, fearing they were about to be taxed. Using the tradition of 'sitting on a man', thousands besieged…
Timeline and booksRead more on Wikipedia ↗ (opens in a new tab)
2014 onwardStill going
After Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls from Chibok in April 2014, Nigerian women led daily sit-outs in Abuja demanding their rescue, and the campaign spread worldwide. Many of the girls have since been freed or…
9 August 1956
About 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria against the extension of apartheid pass laws to women, singing 'Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo' (you strike a woman, you strike a rock). 9 August is now…
2018 to 2019
Women made up a large share of the protesters who brought down Omar al-Bashir. A photograph of Alaa Salah on a car, leading chants in a white tobe, became the emblem of the 'Kandakas', named after the queens of ancient…
Law and rightsBodies and choiceWar, peace and memory
TimelineThe 'Kandake' photograph, on Wikipedia ↗ (opens in a new tab)
