International Women’s Day is known as a day to celebrate women’s rights, accomplishments, and progress. While International Women’s Day may have already passed, we can still look around us and celebrate the many women who have come far in life to advocate for women’s rights, become the first do many things and break boundaries. Here are a few of those admirable women.

Tarana Burke
Tarana Burke is a civil rights activist as well as the founder of the Me Too movement. The Me Too movement is a campaign to raise awareness of sexual harassment. She is also known as the director of the Girls for Gender Equity, a non-profit organization whose goal is to support the well-being of girls as a community.

Ilhan Omar
Ilhan Omar is the first Somali-American Muslim woman to be elected to Congress. She advocates for affordable healthcare, the abolition of ICE, and has spoken on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict where she has criticized Israel’s military actions as well as pro-Israeli organizations.

Rashida Tlaib
Rashida is the first Palestinian- American Muslim woman to be elected to Congress. Similar to Ilhan Omar, she has voiced her opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has criticized Israel’s military actions. She is a member of the Democratic Socialist America and has advocated for the impeachment of Trump.

Amal Clooney
Amal Clooney is a British-Lebanese barrister that advocates for human rights. With her husband, she started the Foundation of Justice which aims to fight for targeted individuals of oppressive governments. She has also donated money to the March for Our Lives after the Stoneman Douglas High School Shooting.

Winona LaDuke
Winona LaDuke is a Native American environmentalist. She is known as the director of the Honor the Earth, a non-profit organization created to advocate for Indigenous environmental justice. She ran for Vice President for the Green Party and participated in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.

Claudette Colvin
Claudette Colvin was a civil rights activist in the 1950s. She refused to give up her seat on the bus and got arrested. She then became part one of the plaintiffs of the Browder v. Gayle that ruled that the segregation on buses was unconstitutional.

Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta is an labor leader and civil rights activist. She founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez and helped organize the Delano grape strike. She also worked as a negotiator for the workers’ rights after the strike. She advocates for immigrant, worker, and women rights.

Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer and a former human rights activist. She is the founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. She advocates for human, women, children, and refugee rights and was the first Iranian Muslim woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Tegla Loroupe
Tegla Loroupe is a Kenyan long-distance runner and also advocates for peace, women’s rights, and education. She held the marathon World Record and was the first African woman to do so.

Sheikh Hasina
Sheikh Hasina is the longest serving Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She is a part of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international networks of women leaders. She is known to be one of the most powerful women in the world according to Forbes’ list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2018.

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