Hajiya Binta Abdulhamid
Hajiya Binta Abdulhamid was born on March 20, 1965, in Kano, the capital of Kano State, in northern Nigeria. She attended primary school and girls’ secondary school in Kano and Kaduna State. Thereafter she attended classes at Bayero University in Kano, where she received a degree in Islamic Studies. While she initially wanted to be a journalist, in 1983 she was encouraged to take education courses at the tertiary level in order to serve as a principal in girls’ secondary schools in Kano State. While other women had served in this position, there had been no women from Kano State who had done so. She has subsequently worked under the Kano State Ministry of Education, serving as school principal in several girls’ secondary schools in Kano State. Her experiences as a principal and teacher in these schools have enabled her to support girl child education in the state and she has encouraged women students to complete their secondary school education and to continue on to postgraduate education. She sees herself as a woman-activist in her advocacy of women’s education and has been gratified to see many of her former students working as medical doctors, lawyers, and politicians.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, education, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video
Ai Xiaoming
Ai Xiaoming, born in 1953, is a feminist literary scholar and the co-producer and director of the Chinese version of The Vagina Monologues, one of the activities of the Stop Domestic Violence network. She is Deputy Director of the Women's Studies Center and director of the Sex/Gender Education Forum in Zhongshan University, Guangzhou.
A chapter in Gender Dynamics, Feminist Activism and Social Transformation in China published by Ke Qianting in 2019 discussing the Vagina Monologues in China can be found here.
Keywords: feminist conferences, media, academia and women's studies, education, gender-based violence, politics and the law, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (English, Mandarin), Video (English, Mandarin), Bibliography, YouTube Video (Mandarin, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio
Laura Castro
Laura Castro, born in December 1981 in Rio de Janeiro, is an actress, playwright, singer, cultural producer, and political activist for LGBT families. She is the author of a number of stories and plays, including the 2013 play "To our Children," about a lesbian woman telling her mother that she is going to have a baby.
Keywords: LGBTQ rights, reform of domestic/family roles, art as activism
Media: Transcript (Portuguese, English), Video, YouTube Video (Portuguese, English Subtitles), Name Pronunciation Audio
Chen Mingxia
Chen Mingxia, born in 1948, is a researcher at the Institute for Legal Research of the China Academy of Social Sciences, and was one of the leaders who initiated an anti-domestic violence project that developed into the first large scale women's NGO in China, Stop Domestic Violence. She headed this first national women's network.
Keywords: feminist conferences, education, gender-based violence, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (English, Mandarin), Video (English, Mandarin), Bibliography, YouTube Video (Mandarin, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio
Ima Thokchom Ramani Devi
Ima Thokchom Ramani Devi was born in 1930. At last contact, she was serving as the General Secretary of All Manipur Women's Reformation and Development Samaj.The Samaj has taken up several issues like banning of alcohol, rape, individual cases of women, and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. She belongs to the Meitei community.
Keywords: gender-based violence, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (English), Video, Bibliography, YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio
Josephine Effah-Chukwuma
Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, born in Lagos in 1966, is a specialist in gender and development and a human rights advocate. She received her B.A. in English, and her M.A. in development studies with a special focus on women’s issues, from the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague, the Netherlands. She worked for a few years for the Constitutional Rights Project (CRP), and then in 1999 established Project Alert on Violence Against Women, a not-for-profit that addresses gender-informed abuses The Project provides counseling, advocacy, and temporary shelter for abused persons. The organization opened the first shelter for abused/assaulted women and girls in Nigeria in 2001.
Keywords: community activism, gender-based violence, reform of domestic/family roles, environment, feminist conferences
Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video
Dr. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo
Dr. Joy Ngozi Ezeilo is professor of law and the Dean of the Law School, University of Nigerian (UNN). She has been the lead professor of the "Women, Children, and the Law" class at the UNN since 1997. An activist and feminist scholar, Dr. Ezeilo was appointed the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons between 2008 and 2014, during which time she traveled to several countries to determine the causes, mechanisms, and scope of human trafficking. She is an active member of the civil society movement in Nigeria, where she founded the Women’s Aid Collective (WACOL), a not-for-profit that works to promote and protect the rights of women and girls. She is the founder and moderator of the West African Women’s Rights Coalition (WAWORC).
Keywords: politics and the law, reform of domestic/family roles, gender-based violence, academia and women's studies, environment, feminist conferences
Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video
Ge Youli
Ge Youli, born in 1962, is the China Country Director for the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities in Guangzhou. She has worked at the Ford Foundation and at the United Nations Development Program in Beijing, becoming involved in many feminist projects in China.
Keywords: feminist conferences, gender-based violence, politics and the law, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (English, Mandarin), Video (English, Mandarin), Bibliography, YouTube Video (Mandarin, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio
Ngozi Iwere
Ngozi Iwere, born in 1956, has pursued work in language teaching, journalism and communications, but describes herself as primarily an activist. Through her contributions to the United Nations Expert Strategy Meeting on HIV/AIDS and Gender preparatory to the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, the Expert Strategy Meeting on HIV/AIDS as a security issue, and UNAIDS Consultative Meeting on Communication for Social Change, she played key roles at the national and global levels in shaping policies on HIV/AIDS. She developed a model program for HIV/AIDS Prevention that targets and involves the entire community, which earned her an Ashoka Fellowship.
Keywords: community activism, gender and health, reform of domestic/family roles, feminist conferences
Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video
Yelena Viktorovna Kochkina
Yelena Viktorovna Kochkina, born in 1956, began working in gender research in 1990. Her work focuses on a gender analysis of legal reform in Russia, structural adjustment programs and the implementation of equal opportunity policies in Russia, as well as gender in the Russian education system. She is a research fellow and professor at the Institute of Social and Economic Studies of the Population at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, politics and the law, intersectionality, community activism, reform of domestic/family roles, feminist conferences
Media: Transcript (English, Russian), YouTube Video (English, Russian), Name Pronunciation Audio
Li Huiying
Li Huiying, born in 1957, is Professor of Sociology and assistant Director of the Women Research Center of the Central Party School, providing training for senior level Chinese Communist Party officials. She has succeeded in incorporating courses on gender studies in the official curriculum and runs feminist workshops for faculty nationwide.
Keywords: feminist conferences, academia and women's studies, education, politics and the law, reform of domestic/family roles, rural women and land reform
Media: Transcript (English, Mandarin), Video (English, Mandarin), Bibliography, YouTube Video (Mandarin, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio
Dr. Mairo Usman Mandara
Dr. Mairo Usman Mandara was born on June 5, 1965, in Bukuru, just outside of Jos, the capital of Plateau State, Nigeria. She first attended primary school in Bukuru and continued her post-secondary education at the University of Jos. There she studied medicine, specifically women’s health issues, an interest that expanded to include the socio-economic issues associated with women’s health such as VVF (vesico-vaginal fistula), e.g., early marriage and stunting due to malnutrition. Her work as an obstetric-gynaecologist led to a broader feminist concern with girl-child education, the founding of the Federation of Muslim Women of Nigeria (FOMWAN), and with the NGO, Girl-Child Concerns. Between 2005 and 2010, Dr. Mandara was a Senior Country Adviser in Nigeria to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and more recently worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the Country Representative to Nigeria. Her current activist and scholarly work reflect her belief in the importance of working with traditional political and religious leaders in encouraging parents to enable their daughters to complete their secondary school education.
Keywords: gender and health, reform of domestic/family roles, academia and women's studies, feminist conferences
Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video
Yamileth Mejía
Yamileth Mejía was born in 1967, joining the national Literacy Campaign as a girl and receiving her teacher training in Cuba in 1984. She is one of the nine feminists formally accused by the Government of Nicaragua for supporting the rights of an eleven year-old girl who had been raped to obtain an abortion. At last contact, she was working for the Project for Comprehensive Services to Victims of Gender-based Violence funded by the Spanish Cooperation Agency.
Keywords: community activism, education, gender-based violence, reproductive rights, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (English, Spanish), Video (English, Spanish), Bibliography, YouTube Video (English, Spanish), Name Pronunciation Audio
Marianna Georgievna Murav’eva
Marianna Georgievna Murav'eva, born in 1975, is a Professor of Law at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, in Moscow. Her research focuses on the history of crime, legal history, gender history, and the history of sexuality. She has published extensively, addressing such issues as family violence, sex crimes, and domestic violence.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (English, Russian), Video (Russian), YouTube Video (English, Russian), Name Pronunciation Audio
Angélica Souza Pinheiro
Angélica Souza Pinheiro (interviewed with Luciana Adriano da Silva) (1982-2016) was a Quilombola and black woman who studied Rural Education at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro and later tourism, focusing on community based tourism. She represented the Quilombo Santa Rita do Bracuí in the Forum of Traditional Communities of Angra dos Reis, Paraty, and Ubatuba, succeeding in creating quilombola schools. The GFP staff note with sadness the death of of Angélica in 2016.
Keywords: rural women and land reform, racial identity, education, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (English, Portuguese), Video, YouTube Video (Portuguese, English Subtitles), Name Pronunciation Audio
Natal’ia L’vovna Pushkareva
Natal'ia L'vovna Pushkareva was born in 1959 in Moscow. A historian by training, at last contact she was the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Russian Academy of Sciences. Pushkareva is considered to be a principal founder of the field of women’s studies in Russia and served as a collaborator for the Russia portion of the Global Feminisms Project, conducting the majority of the interviews.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, reform of domestic/family roles, education
Media: Transcript (English, Russian), Video (English, Russian), Name Pronunciation Audio
Natal’ia Mikhailovna Rimashevskaia
Natal'ia Mikhailovna Rimashevskaia was born in 1932 in Moscow and is a professor at Moscow State University, and at the Academy of Labor and Social Relations. She helped to create the Laboratory on Issues of Gender at the Institute of Social and Economic Studies of the Population, where she worked until 2005. She is a member of the Russian Academy of Life Sciences and editor of Human Population magazine, and works on issues of demography.
Keywords: reform of domestic/family roles, gender and health
Media: Transcript (English, Russian), Video, YouTube Video (English, Russian), Name Pronunciation Audio
Liubov Vasil’evna Shtyleva
Liubov Vasil'evna Shtyleva, born in 1956, was a teacher of history in public schools before going back to get her doctorate in education. She then taught educational science and psychology at the Murmansk State Pedagogical Institute, worked at the Institute for Social Pedagogy at the Russian Academy of Education, and was the principal research associate at the Institute of Childhood, Family and Upbringing at the Russian Academy of Education. She has worked on issues of education and gender in Russia and internationally.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, reform of domestic/family roles, community activism, feminist conferences
Media: Transcript (English, Russian), YouTube Video (English, Russian), Video (Russian), Name Pronunciation Audio
Luciana Adriano da Silva
Luciana Adriano da Silva (interviewed with Angélica Souza Pinheiro) was born in 1981 in Angra dos Reis. She studied at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, and received a graduate degree in Rural Education. Luciana is a community leader of the Quilombo Santa Rita do Bracuí and also works with a number of other social movements and institutions.
Keywords: rural women and land reform, racial identity, education, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (Portuguese, English), Video, YouTube Video (Portuguese, English Subtitles), Name Pronunciation Audio
Anna Titkow
Anna Titkow was born in 1942. She has a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Warsaw and has worked as an instructor and researcher in medical sociology since 1979. At last contact, she was serving as a Professor of Gender Studies at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology in Warsaw. Titkow is a notable feminist scholar and one of her earliest efforts was a contribution to the "Sisterhood is Global" anthology published in 1984. Titkow's work challenges Polish gender and sexuality taboos.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (English, Polish), Video (English, Polish), Bibliography, English YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio
Elizabeth Viana
Elizabeth Viana (interviewed with Giovana Xavier) was born in 1954 in Rio de Janeiro and is a sociologist. She helped found the Group Lima Barret and actively participated in the democratization process of the country. She has been involved with the Nzinga Collective of Women, the Unified Black Movement (MNU), and the Black Action of Nilópolis. She has been the Legislative Assistant at the Municipal Chamber of Rio de Janeiro for 35 years.
Keywords: community activism, racial identity, academia and women's studies, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (English, Portuguese), Video, YouTube Video (Portuguese, English Subtitles), Name Pronunciation Audio
Olga Aleksandrovna Voronina
Olga Aleksandrovna Voronina, born in 1957, is a writer and philosophy professor at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She was one of the first researchers who began to study feminist theory and women’s movements, and from 1987 to 1990 she was a member of an early feminist grassroots group, Lotus. In 1990, with other colleagues, Voronina helped to found the Moscow Center for Gender Studies (MCGS), where she was director from 1994 to 2015.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, reform of domestic/family roles, feminist conferences
Media: Transcript (English, Russian), Video (Russian, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio
