Originally posted on Instagram 6th November 2022

From the days of Zenobia and Boudicca to today’s fights for the right to choose, women have been leading and participating in rebellion and revolt for as long as there has been something to fight against.

There is even evidence to suggest this goes back to the very first hunter-gatherer societies, with respected academics theorising that these egalitarian societies were formed through uprisings against dominant males, with women looking to ease their childcare burdens.

The thesis (proposed by Chris Knight) is, admittedly, contentious, but it’s not impossible.

And it’s not just their own rights that women fight for. While the global suffrage movements and, for example, abortion rights protests are among the most famous examples of women fighting back, they are far from the only important ones.

Action led by women – both militant and peaceful – have created ripples in global history, including the abdication of a king (Abeokuta Women’s revolt) and the end to war plus the election of the first female president in Africa (Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace)

Women-led protest also rang in more well-known social revolutions – namely, the French and Russian.

“great social revolutions are impossible without the feminine ferment”

Karl Marx

See also:

• Blog post: Madres de Plaza de Mayo
• Blog post: Igbo Women’s War
• Bitesize History: Jewish women resisters