7 Places Where Women's History Happened

Women have been making history long before it was recorded, with many stories being left out of the school books. But while figures are forgotten, places remain. Let's travel to five significant sites to spotlight the events that changed women's history forever.

Seneca Falls was home to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the principal founder of the U.S women’s equality movement. In 1848, Stanton organized the first women's rights convention in the town, kickstarting a movement that would change the lives of women around the world forever.

Women have often had to resort to extraordinary lengths to get their voices heard. Few more so than Emily Wilding Davison, a 40-year-old teacher who was killed when she threw herself in front of the king’s horse as it ran in the Epsom Derby in June 1913.

This bill also gave women the right to hold public office, own and inherit property, and take guardianship of children. In 1870, a woman named Esther Morris became the first female Justice of the Peace in the territory, ruling on 27 cases during her time in office.

Women have long been underappreciated in countries around the world and in 1975, the women of Iceland decided prove just how essential they were to society by calling a mass strike, or ‘Woman’s Day Off’. On 24 October, 25,000 women took to the streets of Reykjavik.

It’s important to remember that women’s history is world history. Few things incapsulate this more powerfully than the events of 1 December 1955. On that Thursday evening, a seamstress called Rosa Parks was travelling back to her home in Montgomery, Alabama.

When the bus driver asked Parks to give up her seat for a white passenger, she refused and was soon arrested. The event led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a key event in the U.S Civil Rights Movement and the end of segregation in the American South. 

The city of Pune in India is where the social reformer Savitribai Phule and her husband Jyotirao founded the first school for girls in India in 1848. Savitribai also became the first female teacher in India.

This trailblazing move allowed Savitribai and Jyotirao to establish an education society later in 1853, that opened more schools for girls and women from all classes, in surrounding villages.