This list of feminists catalogues notable individuals who identify or have been identified as proponents of feminist political, economic, social, and personal principles for gender equality.
Early feminists
Born before 1499.
Period (birth) Name Country Born Died Comments Source1200–1300Helen of AnjouSerbia12361314Serbian queen, feminist, establisher of women's schools1300–1400 Christine de PizanItaly13651430Medieval court writer1300–1400 JefimijaSerbia13491405Serbian politician, poet, diplomat1400–1499 Laura CeretaItaly14691499Humanist and feminist writer1400–1499 Balaram Das Indiaunknownunknown15th century Odia poet; first attempt in India towards feminism1400–1499 Isabel de VillenaSpain14301460Feminist nun
16th-century feminists
Born between 1500 and 1599.
Period (birth) Name Country Born Died Comments Source1500–1599India JulianaPresent-day ParaguayGuaraní woman who lived in the newly-founded Asunción, known for killing a Spanish colonist between 1538 and 1542 and urging other indigenous women to do the same.1500–1599Heinrich Cornelius AgrippaGermany14861535Male feminist, wrote Declamatio de nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus (Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex), a book pronouncing the theological and moral superiority of women Online. 1500–1599Jane AngerUnited KingdomProtofeminist writer of Jane Anger her Protection for Women Online. 1500–1599Marie de GournayFrance15651645Protofeminist writer of Egalité des hommes et des femmes (The equality of men and women)1500–1599Modesta di Pozzo di ForziItaly1501–1600Protofeminist writer of The Worth of Women Preview.1500–1599Lucrezia MarinellaItaly1653Italian poet, author, and an advocate of women's rights1500–1599Izumo no OkuniJapanunknownOriginator of kabuki theater
17th-century feminists
Born between 1600 and 1699.
Period (birth) Name Country Born Died Comments Source1600–1699 Mary AstellUnited Kingdom1731English feminist writer and rhetorician1600–1699 Aphra BehnUnited Kingdom16401689Writer and protofeminist1600–1699 Anne BradstreetUnited Kingdom16121672North American colonial poet1600–1699 Sophia Elisabet BrennerSweden16591724Writer and women's rights activist1600–1699 François Poullain de la BarreFrance16471725Male feminist philosopher1600–1699 Sr. Sor Juana Inés de la CruzMexico16481695Hieronymite nun, scholar and poet1600–1699 Ninon de l'EnclosFrance16201795Author, courtesan, and patron of the arts
18th-century feminists
Born between 1700 and 1799.
Period (birth) Name Country Born Died Comments Source1700–1799Abigail AdamsUnited States17441818Wife of John Adams and mother of John Quincy Adams1700–1799Catharina AhlgrenSweden17341800Female Swedish publisher and writer.1700–1799Annestine BeyerDenmark17951884Pioneer of women's education 1700–1799Eleanor ButlerIreland17391829One of the Ladies of Llangollen1700–1799Marquis de CondorcetFrance174317941700–1799Olympe de GougesFrance17481793Playwright and political activist who wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen in 1791 1700–1799Anne-Josèphe Théroigne de MéricourtFrance17621817Politician1700–1799Francisco de Miranda, Gen.Venezuela17501816Published an impassioned plea for women's education.1700–1799Madeleine de PuisieuxFrance17201798Writer1700–1799Dorothea ErxlebenGermany17151762First female medical doctor in Germany, argued for the right of women to study medicine and other disciplines at university1700–1799Charles FourierFrance17721837Socialist feminist; philosopher; credited with coining the (French) word "féministe" 1700–1799Jane GomeldonUnited Kingdom1779Writer and first to use the press to gain power through transparency.1700–1799Sarah Moore GrimkéUnited States17921873Suffragist and abolitionist1700–1799Francis HutchesonIreland16941746Scottish-Irish philosopher, a founding father of the Scottish Enlightenment 1700–1799Christian Isobel JohnstoneUnited Kingdom17811857Journalist and author in Scotland1700–1799Anne Knight United Kingdom17861862Social reformer; pioneer of feminism1701–1800Anna Maria LenngrenSweden17541817Writer, poet, and salonist; possibly a feminist1700–1799Lucretia MottUnited States17931880Abolitionist and women's rights campaigner1700–1799Judith Sargent MurrayUnited States17511820Early American proponent of female equality and author of On the Equality of the Sexes1700–1799John NealUnited States17931876Writer, critic, and first American women's rights lecturer1700–1799Sarah PonsonbyIreland17551831One of the Ladies of Llangollen 1700–1799Mary ShelleyUnited Kingdom17971851Early pioneer feminist1700–1799Maria Engelbrecht StokkenbechDenmark1759after 1806Dressed as a man to be able to work1700–1799Thomas ThorildSweden17591808Male feminist, poet1700–1799William Thompson (philosopher)Ireland17751833Pro-feminist, socialist, collaborator of Anna Wheeler, author of "Appeal of One Half the Human Race, Women, Against the Pretensions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain Them in Political, and thence in Civil and Domestic Slavery", 1825, first published appeal for equality of women1700–1799Sojourner TruthUnited States1883First-wave feminist; abolitionist, women's rights activist, speaker, women's rights speech "Ain't I a Woman?" 1700–1799Anna WheelerIreland17851848Feminist and socialist writer who networked Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Henri Saint-Simon, William Thompson (philosopher) and Flora Tristan, Desiree Veret1700–1799Mary WollstonecraftUnited Kingdom17591797Early pioneer proto-feminist. Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 1700–1799Frances WrightUnited Kingdom17951852feminist
Early and mid 19th-century feminists
Born between 1800 and 1874.