From Ruth Bader Ginsburg to AOC, these 17 famous feminists have helped move women's rights forward. 

Although the 2020 U.S. presidential election gave us the first <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/8/14/21366307/kamala-harris-black-south-asian-indian-identity">Black and Asian American&nbsp;female vice president</a> and led to the first Black female judge on the Supreme Court, if we've learned anything in the past year, it's that women's rights are still under attack. After SCOTUS ruled last year that abortion was a state's rights issue rather than a federal one, effectively rolling back the decision in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54513499">Roe vs. Wade</a>, it's clear that the fight for women's equality is still at our doorstep. As we look ahead to the next generation of female changemakers, it's still worth noting how far we've come in history.
Here,&nbsp;L'OFFICIEL&nbsp;looks at 17&nbsp;famous feminists from around the world who inspire us to keep our strength.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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<a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/elizabeth-cady-stanton">Elizabeth Cady Stanton</a> was an author, academic, and one of the figureheads of the women&#39;s rights movement&nbsp;in the mid- and late-1800s. A leader of first-wave feminism, she organized&nbsp;the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/womens-rights/seneca-falls-convention#:~:text=The%20Seneca%20Falls%20Convention%20was,women%20the%20right%20to%20vote.">Seneca Falls Convention</a> in 1848, the first women&#39;s rights convention in the United States, which directly lead to women&#39;s suffrage in America.

Rose Scott

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<a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/scott-rose-8370">Rose Scott</a> was an Australian women's rights activist who held weekly meetings in her home to discuss issues like suffrage and education rights with politicians, philanthropists, and writers in the 1880s. In 1902, she founded the Women's Political Education League, which was successful in its efforts to raise the age of sexual consent to 16 years old. Scott also ensured greater workers' rights for women and betterment in the conditions of incarcerated women.

Simone de Beauvoir

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French author <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/beauvoir/">Simone de Beauvoir&#39;s</a> prolific writing on women&#39;s issues has made her a significant and well-studied figure in feminist theory. One of her most popular titles&nbsp;published in 1949,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/books/excerpt-introduction-second-sex.html">The Second Sex</a>, is considered the starting point of second-wave feminism.

Grace Lee Boggs

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<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/postscript-grace-lee-boggs">Dr. Grace Lee Boggs</a> was an Asian American author, activist, philosopher, and feminist. She and her husband, James Boggs, were two of the most prominent figures in Detroit's civil rights scene in the 1960s, where they fought for issues like human rights, feminism, and environmental awareness.

Gloria Steinem

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<a href="http://www.gloriasteinem.com/">Gloria Steinem</a> is one of the most prominent faces of American second-wave feminism, and her activism continues to this day.&nbsp;A journalist at heart, she co-founded&nbsp;<a href="https://msmagazine.com/">Ms. magazine</a> in 1971, a liberal women's glossy that steered away from the sexist narratives of other&nbsp;publications geared towards women at the time. A key supporter of the <a href="https://www.equalrightsamendment.org/">Equal Rights Amendment</a>, which eliminates legal gender-based discrimination,&nbsp;Steinem helped organize women around the movement.&nbsp;She has stayed active since then, lecturing and organizing women's social issues.&nbsp;

Angela Davis

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Amidst her work in African American activism, Angela Davis is heavily involved in academia. Influenced by her 1950s upbringing in Birmingham, Alabama&mdash;one of the most segregated cities in the country at the time&ndash;she immersed herself into far-left political movements, joining&nbsp;the Black Panthers&nbsp;and Communist party in her 20s.&nbsp;Since then, abolishing the prison-industrial complex has remained one of her main fights, and her titles like&nbsp;Are Prisons Obsolete?&nbsp;have surged in popularity during 2020&#39;s <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/black-lives-matter-fashion-beauty-brand-donations">Black Lives Matter</a> movement.

Bell Hooks

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Gloria Jean Watkins, better known by her pen name <a href="http://www.bellhooksinstitute.com/">Bell Hooks</a> (a name she adopted from her great-grandmother)&nbsp;is an acclaimed African American feminist theorist. Her expansive works cover the intersection between factors like race, gender, and class.

Audre Lorde

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<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde">Audre Lorde</a> was a Black lesbian&nbsp;author who fought for women's, civil, and gay rights in her work. After publishing her first poem in&nbsp;Seventeen&nbsp;in high school, she went on to write poetry collections and memoirs. Throughout the 1970s, she advocated for women's&nbsp;rights in media, working for the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Institute_for_Freedom_of_the_Press" title="">Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press</a>.&nbsp;One of her most notable works,&nbsp;The Cancer Journals, details her journey with breast cancer.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/the-directors-of-rbg-talk-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-s-legacy-and-feminism">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</a> served as a United States&nbsp;Supreme Court justice from 1993 until her passing in 2020. Her endless fight for women&#39;s rights was one of her hallmarks, voting against stricter abortion restrictions in&nbsp;Whole Woman&rsquo;s Health v. Hellerstedt in 2016.

Marsha P. Johnson

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<a href="https://marshap.org/about-mpji/">Marsha P. Johnson</a> was a gay liberation and AIDS activist who was a fixture of New York City's Greenwich Village. As a Black trans woman, she was one of the leading figures in the Stonewall Riots in 1969 and a founding member of the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Liberation_Front" title="Gay Liberation Front">Gay Liberation Front</a>. She was also prominent in New York's art scene, modeling for <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/the-whitney-takes-a-deeper-look-at-andy-warhol-2018">Andy Warhol</a> in the 1970s.

Malala Yousafzai

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At 17&nbsp;years old, <a href="https://malala.org/">Malala Yousafzai</a>&nbsp;became&nbsp;the youngest Nobel Prize laureate for her activism for&nbsp;girls' education. In 2013, she authored&nbsp;I Am Malala, which details her activism and the assassination attempt that resulted from it.&nbsp;

Roxane Gay

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Known for <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/top-ten-bestselling-books-at-the-strand-in-2017">titles</a> like&nbsp;Bad Feminist&nbsp;and&nbsp;Hunger, <a href="http://www.roxanegay.com/">Roxane Gay</a> is an American author and editor whose works deal with topics like race, women&#39;s rights, and body image. She&#39;s won numerous awards for her writing on feminist and racial issues in America.

Tarana Burke

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Tarana Burke is an American activist who began the original Me Too movement in 2006. The movement was re-popularized through the hashtag <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/time-s-person-of-the-year-goes-to-the-silence-breakers">#MeToo</a> in 2017, used by notable celebrities to uncover the rampant sexual misconduct in Hollywood and beyond.

Michelle Obama

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Former First Lady of the United States, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop+culture/michelle-obama-is-officially-the-most-admired-woman-in-the-world">Michelle Obama</a> has continued her work in advocating for young women, education, and nutrition since leaving the White House. Her memoir, Becoming,&nbsp;details her journey in finding her voice, and serves as inspiration for other women to do the same.

Margaret Atwood

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Aside from her prolific writing repertoire including works like her critically-acclaimed&nbsp;novel&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/season-3-of-the-handmaid-s-tale-is-on-its-way">The Handmaid&#39;s Tale</a>, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/17/margaret-atwood-the-prophet-of-dystopia">Margaret Atwood</a> is an activist and inventor. She is an avid lecturer and frequently covers topics surrounding feminism, power, and the environment.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

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Widely known by her initials, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-skincare-2019">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> currently serves as the U.S. Representative for New York's 14th congressional district. A staunch advocate for environmental awareness, universal healthcare, and immigration reform, she is no stranger to criticism for holding her own against those who oppose her in Washington D.C.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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<a href="https://www.chimamanda.com/">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie</a> is an award-winning Nigerian author who champions women's rights around the globe. Her 2012 <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists?language=en">TEDx talk&nbsp;</a><a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists?language=en">We Should All Be Feminists</a>&nbsp;opened up a much-needed conversation about reclaiming feminism's true roots, and was published as a book under the same name in 2014.

17 Famous Feminists That Changed Women's Rights

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