A world where women are empowered is a better world for all. If women had unlimited access to all the positions we deserve — as leaders, healers, scientists, writers, artists, engineers, speakers, athletes, educators, and so much more — we would be a whole lot closer to experiencing true equality and seeing the end of poverty.
There is so much value in uplifting women and making sure we have the reins to lead our own lives, yet we still face barriers, the result of systems designed to cement gender inequality in our lives and futures.
For centuries women have stood up and refused to remain silent in the face of oppression; women have fought for our rights throughout history, and where they could, they brought a band of sisters along with them, making sure to leave no woman behind. That’s the power of womanhood: that in moving forward, taking up space, and designing a world where everyone can be free of poverty’s systematic causes, we refuse to leave our sisters behind.
It’s not just something you’ll see in history, it’s ongoing throughout generations. Today, there are formidable women and girls who continue that legacy in every space. Because, we’ll say it again, a world where women are empowered, is a better world for all.
For Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, we’re giving a much-deserved shout out to some of the incredible activists who’ve dedicated their careers to supporting other women. There’s simply no space to include every woman out there giving a helping hand to her sisters — but here’s to each and every one of you!
1. Jasvinder Sanghera CBE
For almost three decades, Jasvinder Sanghera has worked to make sure that forced marriage and honor-based abuse become a thing of the past. At the age of 16 she escaped a forced marriage. However, her sister, who was also subjected to child marriage at the age of 15, died by suicide as a result.
Speaking about her experience, Sanghera explains that she felt guilt for fleeing a marriage, as it meant her family would no longer accept her, however following the death of her sister, that changed.
“It was that moment when I made the transition from feeling like the bad guy to owning the fact that I was the victim,” she says. “That was when I established the charity Karma Nirvana.”
Karma Nirvana is a UK-based organization that works to support victims of forced marriage, and educate the public about honor-based abuse and forced marriage, so that no woman or girl has to endure what her sister did.
You can read more of Jasvinder Sanghera's story here.
2. Polly Irungu
American politician and activist, Shirley Chisholm, once said: "If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair,” and that’s exactly what Kenyan-American photographer, Polly Irungu did. In fact, she did more than that, she made her own table, and invited other Black women photographers to sit beside her.
Irungu is the founder of the Black Women Photographers, a community database that holds the work of and provides access to Black women and non-binary photographers.
“I decided that I couldn't keep waiting for the community that I wish I had — I needed to create it,” she says. “I have been going full speed ahead to provide visibility, access to hiring opportunities, mentorship, workshops and events, and other professional and personal growth opportunities, to a community of incredibly talented Black women photographers who have been shut out of all that for far too long.”
You can read more about Polly Irungu and how she started her initiative here.
3. Sabuni Francoise Chikunda
Sabuni Francoise Chikunda, a refugee from the DRC, is photographed at Nakivale settlement in Uganda where her work in mentoring and counseling women and survivors of gender-based violence has earned her the Nansen Refugee Award Regional Winner for Africa.
Sabuni Francoise Chikunda, a refugee from the DRC, is photographed at Nakivale settlement in Uganda where her work in mentoring and counseling women and survivors of gender-based violence has earned her the Nansen Refugee Award Regional Winner for Africa.
When it comes to protecting and uplifting refugee women and girls, Congolese activist Sabuni Francoise Chikunda plays many roles as she’s become a community leader for asylum seeking women in Uganda. Following her own harrowing experience, where she lost her husband and four children to violence and was exposed to slavery and sexual abuse for several years, Chikunda worked to become a strong pillar for refugee women and girls in her new-found home, Uganda.
Chikunda is not only an english teacher for refugee children, but she is also the founder of the Kabanza Women’s Center, where displaced women can receive training to help them become financially self-sufficient; including in tailoring, cooking, handicrafts, hairdressing, and agriculture.
“I want to see a change in their lives, socially and economically, while also introducing them to wider opportunities,” she tells the United Nations Refugee Agency. “I feel so good for healing my fellow refugees in these tough times. I have taught them to be independent and I am so proud.”
4. Nice Nailantei Leng'ete
Nice Nailantei Leng'ete attends the Time 100 Gala at at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2018, in New York.
Nice Nailantei Leng'ete attends the Time 100 Gala at at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2018, in New York.
Named one of Time’s Most Influential People in 2018, Nice Nailantei Leng'ete is a champion for the human rights of African girls who are subjected to harmful coming-of-age practices, including child marriage, dowries, and female genital mutilation (FGM).
Leng’ete, who managed to escape these practices when she was younger, now works as an ambassador for Amref Health Africa, and through her work, she speaks directly with elders and communities on the ground to seek better solutions to harmful traditions. She also represents Amref on the global stage, bringing awareness to the harsh realities of FGM to the rest of the world.
In her book, The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree, Leng’ete writes:
“Tradition can be good. Tradition can be beautiful. But some traditions deserve to die. Change does not mean giving up what is good in ourselves. It means keeping what is best while accepting the need to grow.”
5. Suhani Jalota
Portrait of Suhani Jalota, founder of Myna Mahila Foundation.
Portrait of Suhani Jalota, founder of Myna Mahila Foundation.
Realizing that there was a lack of access to health care and sanitation for low-income women in Mumbai, Suhani Jalota decided to step up and do something about it. At the age of 20 she founded Myna Mahila, a social enterprise that trains and employs women to make low-cost, eco-friendly sanitary products.
Jalota, who was a Global Citizen Prize: Cisco Youth Leadership Award nominee in 2020, works hands on with women in Mumbai’s urban slum communities, to empower them through employment, and to help dissipate the stigma and shame associated with menstruation — especially since period poverty, gender inequality, and gender-based violence are mass issues for women living in these communities.
“Those women didn’t think anyone cared about what they wanted. Instead, life was about doing whatever they could to survive,” she told Global Citizen, speaking about what drove her to kick off her work.
Read more about Suhani Jalota and the work she does here.
6. Zainab Salbi
Gender inequality is particularly exacerbated in times of war and conflict, and women and girls are often subjected to abuse and human rights violations. Moving through conflict and starting life over again after experiencing war as a woman is an uphill battle, but Zainab Salbi has worked to make sure that women have access to the resources they need to escape the clutches of war-induced poverty.
Through her organization, Women for Women, Salbi has been supporting women survivors of war with access to skills development, resources, and educational information to help them practically move from a state of instability and crisis, to economic self-sufficiency.
The organization works in eight countries across the globe — including Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Democratic Republic of Congo — and supports women experiencing ongoing crises, as well as those who are trying to rebuild their lives after conflict.
7. Kakenya Ntaiya
Kakenya Ntaiya speaks at TEDWomen 2018: Showing Up, November 28-30, 2018, Palm Springs, California. Photo: Marla Aufmuth / TED
Kenyan women’s rights activist and educator, Kakenya Ntaiya is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to protecting young girls in Kenya. Having escaped an arranged marriage and gone through FGM when she was young, Ntaiya — whose deep love for education stems from when she was a child — decided to start a school that elevates girls’ potential through education, and protects them from harmful practices like child marriage and FGM.
“To empower girls, you need to educate them,” Ntaiya says in her TED Talk, “so I built a school, and in the process, I learned something much bigger: when you empower a girl, you transform a community. School is just a start.”
Her school, the Kakenya Center for Excellence, has been educating girls in Kenya for over 10 years, and is continuing to brighten the futures of girls whose lives could have been limited by child marriage and gender inequality in Kenya.
8. Dr. Leyla Hussein
World-renowned advocate for the end of FGM, Dr. Leyla Hussein established the UK’s first specialist therapeutic service for FGM survivors, and has been working to end the practice after a nurse helped her realize that she’d experienced it herself when she was a child.
The Dahlia Project, founded by Hussein, provides support and counselling for girls who have undergone FGM in the UK. The organization also works with the UK’s National Health Service to help survivors access physical health counseling. She’s not only helping survivors directly, but she’s also educating communities through her organization and decision-makers through her advocacy, about the very real dangers of FGM.
“My biggest fear is that this country won’t act on tackling FGM until a young girl dies,” says Hussein.
Read more of Dr Leyla Hussein's story here.
9. Candice Chirwa
Candice Chirwa is pictured on May 8, 2021, in Johannesburg, South Africa. In South Africa, research has found that up to 30% of girls miss school because of period povertyand being unable to afford menstrual products.
Candice Chirwa is pictured on May 8, 2021, in Johannesburg, South Africa. In South Africa, research has found that up to 30% of girls miss school because of period povertyand being unable to afford menstrual products.
The Minister of Menstruation, as Chirwa is known, is making waves in South Africa as an advocate for menstrual health management and an educator who is squashing the stigmas surrounding periods and women’s health. Period poverty is an unfortunate reality in South Africa and Chirwa is working to change that, so that lives of girls across the country are not halted by their periods.
“Menstruation matters to me because it is still unacceptable to talk openly about menstruation, to make it visible,” Chirwa writes for Global Citizen. “How we view our periods is also important in the discussion of the dignity that menstruators are entitled to when it comes to placing menstrual health within the human rights agenda.”
Through her organization Qrate, Chirwa hosts menstrual health workshops, mainly for school children and teens, so that girls can be empowered, not limited when they get their periods, and that society can learn to respect women’s rights to sanitation and hygiene as human rights.
You can read more of Candice Chirwa's story here.