b. Nov. 8, 1875 | d. Jul. 15, 1907

Qiu Jin was a Chinese writer who’s publications advocated for her feminist and revolutionist ideas. She was executed after a failed rebellion against the Qing Dynasty, and is considered in China a heroine and martyr for women’s rights and republicanism.

b. Aug. 7, 1956

Christiana Figueres is a Costa Rican diplomat and internationally recognized leader on global climate change. She served as the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010-2016. During this tenure, she forged a new form of collaborative diplomacy that culminated in the historical Paris Agreement of 2015. She is currently the convener of Mission 2020, a global initiative that seeks to ensure the world bends the curve on greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

c. 500 | d. Jun. 28, 584

Married to Emperor Justinian, ruler of the Byzantine Empire from 527-565, Empress Theodora was his most trusted advisor. Many historians suspect that she controlled the political affairs of the kingdom and she is thought to be the most powerful woman in the history of the Byzantine Empire. She was one of the first rulers to recognize the rights of women, passing legislation that prohibited the trafficking of young women.

b. 1583 | d. Dec. 17, 1663

Queen Nzinga Mbande ruled the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms (modern day Nambia) during Portugal’s colonization efforts. She built up her kingdom to become an equal of that of the Portuguese colonizers. As such, despite on-going conflicts, she was able to broker peace for a considerable time between the Ndongo Kingdom and Portugal.

b. Feb. 12, 1905 | d. Jan. 14, 1994

Federica Montseny was named Spain’s Minister of Health during the Spanish Revolution of 1936, becoming Spain’s first female cabinet minister. Montseny accomplished several reforms including preventative family planning, sex education, and the legalization of abortion. At the end of the Revolution, the communist party had regained control. Montseny lived in exile in France where she continued her efforts through the publication of the anarchist newspaper, L’Espoir.

b. 1820 | d. Apr. 7, 1879

During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Begum Hazrat Mahal led a rebellion against the British East India Company. This came to be the longest resistance against the British. The British were forced to seek refuge in Lucknow while Mahal ruled for 10 months as regent. Eventually, Mahal retreated to Nepal.

b. 1947

Shirin Ebadi was named the first female judge in Iran in 1969. Following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Ebadi was demoted and retired early. She eventually formed her own legal practice and defended many human rights cases pertaining to women, children, and dissident figures. Ebadi’s human rights efforts won her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003.

b. Nov. 26, 1832 | d. Feb. 21, 1919

As of 2015, she is the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor. Prior to the American Civil War, she earned her medical degree and later volunteered with the Union Army serving as a surgeon. Captured by Confederate forces after crossing enemy lines to treat wounded civilians, Walker was arrested as a spy. She served as a prisoner until released in a prisoner exchange.

b. 1951 | d. 2013

A former member of a secret I.R.A. unit called the Unknowns, that conducted clandestine paramilitary work, including disappearances. Price became the first woman admitted to full membership in the I.R.A. in 1971 when she was twenty. She went to prison for a 1973 London bombing that injured 200 people.

b. 1977

Tabassum Adnan, from Swat Valley, founded the first-ever women-only Jirga in Pakistan. She was awarded the 2015 Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award in recognition of her services of women’s rights.

b. 1956? | d. 2007

Lakwena was a warrior priestess and rebel leader in Uganda whose Holy Spirit Movement (HSN) was the precursor to Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The mission of the HSN was to rebel against Ugandan Government forces and in doing so purify Uganda and restore Acholi glory. When HSN forces were defeated in 1987, Lakwena fled to Kenya. Many of her followers joined the insurgent Lord’s Resistance Army under Joseph Kony, who claimed to be her cousin. Lakwena died in Kenya in 2007 after a long illness.

b. 1946

Rebiya Kadeer is an ethnic Uyghur, businesswoman, former Chinese parliamentarian and an activist advocating for Uyghur autonomy. Charged with and found guilty of leaking state secrets, she was imprisoned for six years in China. Kadeer is now based in Washington, DC and runs the World Uyghar Congress.

b. 1962

Asha Haji Elmi is a Somali politician and peace activist. Elmi formed the Sixth Clan women’s movement to advance female participation in Somalian politics. The name stems from the fact that traditionally Somalia’s society is said to consist of five major clans. The “sixth clan” is the pan-Somali women’s movement. In 2002, she led a group of women to the Somali Peace and Reconciliation conference in Eldoret, Kenya. There, the “sixth clan” was officially recognized, and women representatives were allowed to officially participate in the discussions. This political activism led the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to adopt in the Transitional Federal Charter (TFC) a quota of 12% of the 275 seats in the Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP) to be reserved for women.

b. 1963

Elda Neyis Mosquera García (nom de guerre Karina) is the former commander of the 47th Front of FARC-EP, a communist rebel group in Colombia. She surrendered to the Colombian Military on May 18, 2008, was subsequently tried in court and found guilty of massacres, kidnapping, murder, among others, and sentenced to 33 years in jail. She was released in 2009 to promote peace and serve as an example to other rebels to entice them to surrender.

b. 1979

Tawakkol Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 in recognition of her work in nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peacebuilding work in Yemen. Upon being awarded the prize, Tawakkol became the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, as well as the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate to date, at the age of 32.

b. 1972

Leymah Roberta Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women’s peace movement that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. In 2011, she received the Nobel Peace Prize for this work.

b. 1925

Segouin was a French resistance fighter in the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans group. She was involved in armed actions against enemy convoys and trains, attacks against enemy detachments, acts of sabotages etc. and also assisted in capturing 25 German POWs during the fall of Chartre on August 23, 1944. Segouin was promoted to lieutenant, and awarded the Croix de guerre.

b. 1950

The Australian-born former leader of the women’s wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of Sri Lanka. She later participated in the LTTE peace negotiation team.

b. 1906 | d. 1982

Virginia Hall Goillot was an American spy with the British Special Operations Executive during World War II and later with the American Office of Strategic Services and the Special Activities Division of the Central Intelligence Agency.

b. 1916 | d. 1974

Lyudmila Mykhailivna Pavlichenko was a Soviet sniper during World War II. Credited with 309 kills, she is regarded as the most successful female sniper in history.

b. 1942

The only western female prisoner of war held by North Vietnamese captors. She was imprisoned in various locations for four years, often held in solitary confinement and at one time, was the only female prisoner at the “Hanoi Hilton.”

 “During the march, a North Vietnamese officer beat me twice until I was unconscious — because I was a woman.”

b. 1914 | d. 1988

The only female guerilla commander in the history of the British Army, leading 150 Nagas armed only with ancient muzzle-loading guns across some 800 square miles of mountainous jungle in India during WWII.