Wangari Muta Maathai (born April 1, 1940, in Ihithe village, Tetu division, Nyeri District of Kenya; died September 25, 2011), was a Kenyan environmental and political activist, and the first African woman to recieve a Nobel Peace Prize.

She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica College and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya.

Emmeline Pankhurst (née Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was an English political activist and leader of the British suffragette movement which helped women win the right to vote.

In 1999 Time named Pankhurst as one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century, stating:

"she shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back."

Ntozake Shange born October 18, 1948, is an American playwright, and poet.

As a self proclaimed black feminist, much of the content of her work addresses issues relating to race and feminism.

Shange is best-known for the Obie Award-winning play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf.

A former classmate of Dr. Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro (mother of President Barack Obama), remembered her as "intellectually way more mature than we were and a little bit ahead of her time, in an off-center way."

A high school friend described her as knowledgeable and progressive:

"If you were concerned about something going wrong in the world, Stanley would know about it first.

Janet Gertrude "Nettie" Palmer (née Higgins) (18 August 1885 - 19 October 1964) was a poet, essayist and Australia's leading literary critic.

She did more to promote Australian literature by women than anyone else of her generation.

Nettie Higgins was born in Bendigo, Victoria, the niece of H.B. Higgins, a leading Victorian radical political figure...