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Maya Angelou -

One of the most celebrated poets and memoirists in American history, Maya Angelou's impact on the world's understanding of the African-American experience in the 20th-century United States cannot be understated.

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Maya Angelou -

Most famous for her 1969 autobiography 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,' Angelou rose from poverty to the upper echelon of American writers and civil rights activists. Many of her works are required reading in teaching institutions across the United States and beyond.

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Laverne Cox -

Laverne Cox, born in Mobile, Alabama in 1972, has spent her career as a trailblazer for Black and LGBTQ+ representation. As an openly transgender woman, Cox has broken through innumerable barriers, clearing the way for countless other transgender artists and performers who follow in her footsteps.

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Laverne Cox -

First finding fame in the role of Sophia Burset in the seminal Netflix series 'Orange Is the New Black,' Cox went on to become the first transgender person to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy and the first transgender woman to be awarded a Daytime Emmy.

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Angela Davis -

In the 1960s, Angela Davis was one of the most prominent names and faces of the civil rights movement. A longtime affiliate of the Black Panther Party, Davis was on the frontlines of many of the decade's most important battles.

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Angela Davis -

A zealous and effective opponent of the American war machine and an active feminist, Davis remains a prominent and widely respected intellectual to this day.

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Comandanta Ramona -

A central figure in the Zapatista revolutionary movement as well as an outspoken advocate for women's rights and indigenous rights in Mexico, Comandanta Romana is seen in many circles as one of Mexico's greatest heroines.

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Comandanta Ramona -

An indigenous Tzotzil Mayan, Comandanta Ramona led the Zapatistas in 1994's Zapatista uprising in San Cristóbal de las Casas, an event for which she received international attention. Ramona battled cancer for years, all the while traveling around Mexico giving peace talks. The indigenous feminist revolutionary eventually succumbed to cancer in 2006, at the young age of 47.

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Huda Sha'arawi -

Egyptian feminist Huda Sha'arawi was one of, if not the, leading figure in Egypt's fight for women's rights as well as her country's fight for independence from Britain.

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Huda Sha'arawi -

Sha'arawi was a leader in the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, a women -led and -organized uprising against the British occupation. She was also a staunch and outspoken opponent of the place of women in Egyptian society. She rebelled against the Egyptian laws that kept women resigned to the home, and formed numerous women's groups around the country that focused on the education and liberation of Egypt's women.

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Constance Baker Motley -

A first generation Caribbean American born in Connecticut to immigrants from the island of Nevis, Constance Baker Motley spent her life breaking and setting precedents in the United States education system and government.

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Constance Baker Motley -

Known for her legal work on the seminal Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education, Motley lived a life of firsts. Not only was Motley the first Black woman to be accepted into the prestigious Columbia Law School, she was also the first Black woman to present a case in front of the Supreme Court, the first to be appointed to the New York Senate, and the first Black woman to sit as a federal judge.

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Wilma Mankiller -

Wilma Mankiller, an indigenous member of the Cherokee Nation, dedicated her life to protecting the rights of, and improving the conditions of, all indigenous Americans.

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Wilma Mankiller -

Mankiller became the first woman to serve as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1985, a position she held for a decade. During her career, Mankiller set into motion incredible advances in infrastructure, improving the conditions of education and housing, and bringing running water to some indigenous areas for the first time.

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Sarojini Naidu -

Nicknamed the Nightingale of India, poet and politician Sarojini Naidu was a central figure in the liberation and modernization of India. A brilliant individual from a young age, Naidu had already graduated university by the time she turned 19.

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Sarojini Naidu -

Naidu worked closely with Gandhi in India's nonviolent liberation movement, and helped to further progress Indian ideas outside of the realm of occupation as well. After university, Naidu married out of her social caste, in defiance of the caste laws and ethics that made such a union illegal. Naidu also served as the first female president of India's National Congress, and was the first woman to serve as governor of the state of Uttar Pradesh.

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Rigoberta Menchu -

Belonging to the indigenous Kʼicheʼ community, Rigoberta Menchu is a humanitarian and indigenous rights activist in her home country of Guatemala and around the world.

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Rigoberta Menchu -

Menchu's work in Guatemala during and after the Guatemalan Civil War earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, and today she continues to advocate for indigenous rights in front of the United Nations and other international bodies as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

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Leandra Medeiros Cerezo -

Leandra Medeiros Cerezo, more commonly known as Lea T, is a transgender fashion model born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, who has made leaps and bounds in the fight for trans representation in the fashion industry.

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Leandra Medeiros Cerezo -

Cerezo has been called the muse of Riccardo Tisci, a primary creative force behind both Givenchy and Burberry. In 2014, Cerezo became the first transgender woman to become the face of a global cosmetics brand, Redken. She remains the face of Redken to this day, and in 2016 also became the first out transgender person to perform in an Olympic opening ceremony, in Rio de Janeiro.

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Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti -

A Nigerian activist, educator, and unionist, Chief Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti was a champion of women's suffrage in 20th-century Nigeria.

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Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti -

As a child, Ransome-Kuti was the first girl to attend the Abeokuta Grammar School. As an adult, she established the Abeokuta Women's Union, through which she organized reading and writing lessons for the women of her city and fought for the rights of women in the marketplace.

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Berta Cáceres -

Indigenous Honduran activist Berta Cáceres was an incredibly influential activist for indigenous rights and the environment until her assassination in 2016, at the hands of Honduran military special forces, three of whom had received training from the United States military.

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Berta Cáceres -

Cáceres co-founded the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) in 1993, and successfully defended indigenous communities against the threats of corporate powers who wished to build four massive hydroelectric dams in protected areas. In 2021, David Castillo, head of Honduras' government-owned energy company DESA, who were involved in the planning of the illegal dam construction, was found guilty for his role as the mastermind in Cáceres' murder.

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Karimeh Abbud -

Considered one of the first celebrated female photographers in the Arab world, Karimeh Abbud was a Palestinian artist born in Bethlehem, Palestine, under Ottoman occupation.

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Karimeh Abbud -

Shooting in black and white during the early 20th century, Abbud developed film in a home studio and meticulously painted color into her photos by hand. All of Abbud's works were signed, in both English and Arabic, as "Karimeh Abbud - Lady Photographer."

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The Trưng sisters -

Trưng Trac and Trưng Nhi, commonly known as the Trưng sisters, were some of the Vietnamese people's first freedom fighters. Born sometime around the beginning of the 1st century CE, the Trưng sisters fought valiantly against invading Han dynasty forces.

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The Trưng sisters -

Trưng Trac, the older of the two sisters, served as Vietnam's first female monarch, and remains the only queen regnant in Vietnamese history. The sisters successfully liberated Vietnam from Chinese occupation in 40 CE, and ruled over the land until their deaths in 43.

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Fatima al-Fihriya -

Born around 800 CE in modern-day Tunisia, Fatima al-Fihriya was the founder of the first educational university in world history. That university, first established around 857, is known today as the University of al-Qarawiyyin (pictured).

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Fatima al-Fihriya -

The university, which calls Fez, Morocco, its home, was originally a dilapidated mosque bought by al-Fihriya with money inherited from her father during the first half of the 9th century. Al-Fihriya took it upon herself to rebuild the mosque and almost double its size and establish it as a center for education for immigrants fleeing from the Iberian Peninsula, then considered Al-Andalusia, and from northwestern Africa.

See also: Milestone moments in global women's history

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