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Women's March on Versailles -

Of course, resistance movements fronted by women go way back. The beginning of one of history's most influential revolutions, the French Revolution, all began with a women's march and food riot.

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Women's March on Versailles -

On October 5, 1789, women from the markets of Paris furious over the cost of bread, among other things, led an armed mob of thousands to the Palace of Versailles, where they successfully forced King Louis XVI into submission and led the royal family back to Paris to face trial, marking the beginning of the French Revolution.

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The Suffragette Movement -

Perhaps the most famous women's movement in the United States, and certainly one of the most important, was the long-fought Suffragette Movement. The movement, along with all other American women's rights movements, decidedly began in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott (pictured) as a convention to discuss the rights of women in America.

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The Suffragette Movement -

The women's rights organizations and the Suffragette Movement that were galvanized by the Seneca Falls Convention worked, spoke, and lobbied tirelessly for women's right to vote. Finally, in 1929, more than half a century later, the 19th Amendment was passed, banning voter discrimination on the basis of gender.

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The Paris Commune -

The short-lived but wildly revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871 saw a complete overthrow of the French Third Republic in Paris by the working class. In its place a working-class government started to work towards progressive social reforms, and none of it would be possible without women's organizations like the Women's Union for the Defense of Paris, founded by Nathalie Lemel (pictured).

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The Paris Commune -

Lemel and her anarchist union, along with countless other women and women's organizations, kept the barricades of the commune secure and functional throughout the Commune's two-month existence, before troops from Versailles came and squashed the revolutionaries in what is known as the Bloody Week.

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Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Protests -

The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was one of the most devasting workplace tragedies in the history of the United States. In total, 123 women and girls as young as 14, along with 23 men, were locked inside the Manhattan factory and either burnt to death, died from smoke inhalation, or jumped from the factory's high windows in a frantic attempt to escape death.

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Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Protests -

Family members, mourners, and women's unions numbering a total of 400,000 people marched through the rain in New York to protest the inhumane working conditions and corporate greed that were to blame for the tragedy. Numerous women championed this cause for months to come—including the influential union leader Rose Schneiderman, as well as Frances Perkins, who would become the first-ever woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, as the secretary of labor. These women's movements led to 60 new laws regarding working conditions and working hours being put into place in New York.

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Huda Sha'arawi and the Egyptian Feminist Union -

The 19th-century Egyptian feminist leader Huda Sha'arawi was instrumental in kick-starting a decades-long fight in Egypt for women's rights, including the right to vote and the abolition of mandatory head covering. After organizing a number of women's meetings in order to get women out the "harems" of their patriarchal homes, Sha'arawi officially founded the Egyptian Feminist Union in 1923.

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Doria Shafik and the Egyptian Feminist Union -

Decades later, legendary Egyptian author, feminist, and activist Doria Shafik continued in Sha'arawi's spirit in the fight for women's rights. After years of occupying government buildings, hunger strikes, and protests, Shafik and the numerous women's unions who supported her applied enough pressure to the government to finally convince them to give women the constitutional right to vote in 1959.

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Aba Women's War -

A continent away, in colonial Nigeria, women were protesting against the colonizer-appointed Warrant Chiefs who drastically limited women's involvement in government. Thousands of women from six different ethnic groups came together and performed sit-ins, as well as destroying more than 10 Native Courts.

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Aba Women's War -

After months of conflict and unrest, the English colonial government folded and abolished the system of warrant chieftains, and allowed women to serve on the preexisting Native Courts.

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Montgomery Bus Boycott -

The Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and 1956 was one of the most influential forms of civil protest in the Jim Crow South, and a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement. While Rosa Parks is almost always credited with being the first to bravely defy Alabama's bus segregation laws, it was actually the fearless 15-year-old Claudette Colvin (pictured) who, nine months before Parks, was arrested for refusing to relinquish her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus.

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Montgomery Bus Boycott -

The trend of civil disobedience started by Colvin and later popularized by Parks (pictured) spread across the country and eventually to the Supreme Court, where the justices ruled in December 1956 that Alabama's segregation laws were unconstitutional.

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Take Back the Night -

Take Back the Night started as a women's protest in Philadelphia in 1975 following the tragic murder of Susan Speeth, a microbiologist who was stabbed to death while walking home.

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Take Back the Night -

Since then, it has grown into a worldwide organization that carries out protests, marches, and direct actions against violence towards women.

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Comandanta Ramona and the Zapatistas -

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation, commonly referred to simply as the Zapatistas, are a group of rural, indigenous people in southern Mexico who have fought for autonomy in their region since 1983. One of their most iconic and influential members was known only as Comandanta Ramona (pictured).

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Comandanta Ramona and the Zapatistas -

A Tzotzil Maya woman, Ramona led the Zapatistas in their first real conflict with the Mexican government. In 1994, along with Major Ana Maria, she planned and executed the capture of the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas. Shortly after the liberation of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Ramona presented her "Revolutionary Law on Women," which was voted into Zapatista law by a co-ed assembly. Later in life, Ramona also represented the Zapatistas in Mexican parliamentary meetings and traveled extensively organizing, educating, and uniting the indigenous women of Mexico.

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Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace -

The Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace, an organization founded and led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee, were instrumental in putting an end to the Second Liberian Civil War.

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Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace -

In 2003, Leymah Gbowee led 200 women to the Liberian presidential palace, where tentative peace talks were taking place. The women surrounded the room where the peace talks were occurring, and refused to let anyone in or out until an agreement had been reached. That agreement helped put an end to the 14-year-long war, and later helped put Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in office, the first time a woman held the position in the history of Liberia.

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Revolution in Rojava -

One of the most resilient and underreported revolutions taking place in the world today is in the Kurdish autonomous region of Rojava, in northern Syria. Aside from successfully fighting off ISIL in the region, the YPJ, or Kurdish Women's Defense Units, is made up exclusively of women, and place women's rights at the forefront of their policies.

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Revolution in Rojava -

Throughout the 21st century, the YPJ have battled fearlessly and successfully fought against ISIS, ISIL, and the Syrian Assad regime, most notably in the 2014 Siege of Kobani, during which news outlets described the women's militia as "vital" in the defeat of ISIS in the region.

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Women Wage Peace -

The Women Wage Peace movement, started by Israeli women who were horrified by their country's actions in the 2014 Gaza War, has tirelessly advocated for the end of Israeli colonial aggression and pushes for peace talks towards a bi-lateral solution to the conflict.

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Women Wage Peace -

Today, Women Wage Peace consists of more than 20,000 members, both Jews and Muslims, from Israel, Palestine, and numerous other nationalities. Together, they have organized effective non-violent protests that have gotten leading members to the negotiating table with high-ranking Israeli officials.

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The 2017 Women's March -

The 2017 Women's March was the largest protest in American history. It protested the election of Donald Trump and what was seen as dangerous, misogynist campaign promises.

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The 2017 Women's March -

An estimated five million people marched in cities across the US, with an incredible 470,000 showing up in Washington, D.C. alone.

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March of Indigenous Women -

Since 2019, the indigenous women of Brazil have annually gathered in massive demonstrations in Brasília, the country's capital, to protest the policies of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

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March of Indigenous Women -

Over 110 ethnicities participate each year, signifying a beautiful and powerful sense of unity across indigenous communities, brought together to protect the natural areas and resources of Brazil's rain forests from the industrious far-right government. 

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Masha Amini Protests -

The ongoing anti-government and anti-fundamentalist movement in Iran came to a head on September 16, 2022, when nationwide protests broke out following the horrific death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Masha Amini at the hands of Iran's Guidance Patrol, colloquially known as the morality police. Amini was apprehended for "improperly" wearing her hijab, an article of clothing that is mandatory by law in Iran. According to eyewitness reports, the morality police brutally beat young Amini, and she died shortly after.

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Masha Amini Protests -

After Amini's death, tens of thousands of Iranian and Kurdish women have taken to the streets to protest not only the morality police's horrific act of brutality, but also the mandatory hijab laws and the fundamentalist government as a whole, by burning hijabs, cutting their hair, and organizing in massive numbers. The government and its police forces responded with internet and media blackouts, as well as massive militant police mobilization, with officers using tear gas, pellet guns, and even live ammunition. The conflict resulted in the deaths of over 200 people, including children.

Sources: (LEADR) (Voice of America) (Amazon Frontlines)

See also: History's greatest warrior women

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