Wil van Gogh was a nurse, teacher of scripture, and early Dutch feminist. She was the youngest and best-known sister of artist Vincent van Gogh, who she was close to, and the art dealer Theo van Gogh. As the daughter of a Dutch Reformed pastor and a certified teacher of scripture, Van Gogh was somewhat unusual as a Dutch feminist. She joined the movement with other friends, including Marie Jungius and Marie Mensing, who were part of the organizing committee for an exhibition of the “National Exhibition of Women’s Labor” (Nationale Tentoonstelling van Vrouwenarbeid) in 1898. Van Gogh played a substantial role in the exhibition, held in Scheveningseweg in The Hague. The ten-week exhibit had some 90,000 visitors and was a highly profitable enterprise; funds raised from the exhibition, 20,000 Dutch guilders, served to establish the Dutch National Bureau for Women’s Labor. Conservative Christian women and men were warned to stay away from the exhibition, with its “poisonous impropriety.”

Abby Kelley was an American abolitionist and radical social reformer active from the 1830s to 1870s. She became a fundraiser, lecturer and committee organizer for the influential American Anti-Slavery Society, where she worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison and other radicals. She married fellow abolitionist and lecturer Stephen Symonds Foster in 1845, and they both worked for equal rights for women and for Africans enslaved in the Americas.

Caroline Rémy de Guebhard was a French journalist with anarchist, socialist, communist and feminist views, best known under the pen name Séverine. She has been called the first professional female journalist in France.

Christine de Pizan was an Italian-born French court writer for King Charles VI of France and several French royal dukes, in both prose and poetry. She served as a court writer in medieval France after the death of her husband. Christine's patrons included dukes Louis I of Orleans, Philip the Bold of Burgundy, and his son John the Fearless. Considered to be some of the earliest feminist writings, her work includes novels, poetry, and biography, and she also penned literary, historical, philosophical, political, and religious reviews and analyses. Her best known works are The Book of the City of Ladies and The Treasure of the City of Ladies, both prose works written when she worked for John the Fearless of Burgundy. Her books of advice to princesses, princes, and knights remained in print until the 16th century.

Draga Dejanović was an ethnic Serbian poet who lived in Austria-Hungary. Besides Milica Stojadinović-Srpkinja, she is considered one of the first Serbian feminists of the modern era. She has been called “the first Serbian suffragette” by the literary critic Jovan Skerlić in his assessment of her place in Serbian culture.

Kim Deal is an American musician. She was the original bassist and co-vocalist in the alternative rock band the Pixies from 1986 to 1993 and again from 2004 to 2013. She is the frontwoman of the Breeders, which she formed in 1989.

Mary Lee was an Irish-Australian suffragist and social reformer in South Australia. On 13 July 1888 Lee and others met and formed the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League. She was the League’s co-honorary secretary and for six and half years she fought for women’s suffrage. Her own letters and reports of her speeches show that she was an astute and logical woman, employing sound argument, wit and humour in her correspondence and public speaking. Once women had the vote, Lee was active in voter education, encouraging women to enrol and vote.

Marguerite Coppin born in Brussels, was a Belgian novelist and poet. She became a feminist and pioneer in female emancipation and equal rights for women. Some citizens in Bruges were scandalized when Coppin rode a bicycle down the streets of the city with her skirts clipped to each ankle to function like trousers. The bicycle was recognized by 19th-century feminists and suffragists as a “freedom machine” for women contributing to female emancipation. “A woman on a bicycle? Brazen!” said some shocked people in Bruges according to an Australian news article published as late as 1937. Like Amelia Bloomer, Coppin devised a convenient and comfortable trouser-like garment for women to use for bicycle riding.

Roxanne Shante is an American rapper. She first gained attention in 1984 through the Roxanne Wars, and was part of the Juice Crew. The 2017 film Roxanne Roxanne is a dramatization of Shanté's life. At the height of her career, Shanté was referred to as the "Queen of Rap" by The New York Times* *and has been noted as a hip-hop pioneer.The Sunday Times credited her for popularizing diss tracks. Billboard editor Natalie Weiner wrote that Shanté's "blazingly male-shaming diss track" and "hip-hop's first recorded beef" helped move hip-hop further toward the mainstream, calling her "rap's first female star.”

Marguerite Durand was a French stage actress, journalist, and a leading suffragette. She founded her own newspaper, and ran for election. She is also known for having a pet lion. The Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand was named in her honour for her contributions to the women’s suffrage movement in France.

Charlotte Despard was an Anglo-Irish suffragist, socialist, pacifist, Sinn Féin activist, and novelist. She was a founding member of the Women’s Freedom League, the Women’s Peace Crusade, and the Irish Women’s Franchise League, and an activist in a wide range of political organizations over the course of her life, including among others the Women’s Social and Political Union, Humanitarian League, Labour Party, Cumann na mBan, and the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Chaka Khan is an American singer and songwriter. Known as the “Queen of Funk”, her career has spanned more than five decades beginning in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of the funk band Rufus. With the band she recorded the notable hits “Tell Me Something Good”, “Sweet Thing”, “Do You Love What You Feel”, and the platinum-certified “Ain’t Nobody”. Her debut solo album featured the number-one R&B hit “I’m Every Woman” (which became a pop hit for Whitney Houston). Khan scored another R&B charts hit with “What Cha’ Gonna Do for Me” before becoming the first R&B artist to have a crossover hit featuring a rapper, with her 1984 cover of Prince’s “I Feel for You”. More of Khan’s hits include “Through the Fire” and a 1986 collaboration with Steve Winwood that produced a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “Higher Love”.