From Kittur Rani Chennamma to Hilda Kuper, these women changed history

In every field throughout history, women have made immense contributions. However, their roles have rarely been highlighted. Often due to sexism, or bias towards male perspectives the contributions of women have been given a raw deal. Women that we should have been reading about in our history textbooks were pushed into oblivion. There are even instances of men taking credit for women’s work. From ancient times to recent history, many contributions of women have been discounted and even neglected by the patriarchal society. 

Let us look at a few women in history who have changed the world in more ways than one:

Dra. Paulina Luisi:

Born to Argentinian parents, Dra. Paulina Luisi was the first woman in Uruguay to earn the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree. As the first female medical student, she had to face a lot of harassment from her own classmates. Paulina founded the Uruguayan branch of the National Women’s Council in 1916. Uruguay became the second Latin American country to grant full voting rights for women. Luisi, who was in Europe at that time, came back to Uruguay to fight elections. By the 1940s, she was the most important female voice of the Socialist party. She spoke in favour of women’s rights- legal and political. 

Hilda Kuper:

Born in Bulawaya, Rhodesia, and growing up in Johannesburg, South Africa, Kuper’s fieldwork was on the impact of liquor laws on Black women in Johannesburg. Her research expanded to Swaziland and Indian communities in Durban. Her marriage with Leo Kuper and subsequent involvement in non-violent apartheid protests changed the course of her life. She became one of the founders of the Liberal Party which resulted in her being shunted out of South Africa. She worked as a Professor of Anthropology at UCLA. Based on her research, she theorised that Westernization weakened Swazi and Indian South African women.

Kittur Rani Chennamma: 

The Indian Queen of Kittur became a symbol of the independence movement in India because of her rebellion against the British forces. She married Raja Mallasaraja at the age of 15. Chennamma's husband died in 1824 leaving behind a son and an unstable kingdom. Her son also passed the same year, which is when she adopted Shivalingappa as an heir to the throne. 

According to the Doctrine of Lapse, if the ruler of a state dies childless, then the right to rule goes to the State. Chennamma sent a letter to the British pleading her case, but it was turned down. War broke out. Both the forces lost a lot of men, and during the second attack, Chennamma was captured by the British and sent to prison for life. She died on February 2, 1829. 

Begum Royeka :

She was a Bengali feminist thinker and political activist from British India (present day Bangladesh). She is considered as a pioneer of women’s liberation in South Asia. She believed that the lack of education for women was the reason for their poor economic standing. Royeka established the first school aimed at Muslim girls in Kolkata. In 1916, she founded the Muslim Women’s Assocation. 

She was deeply involved in debates, conferences and speeches regarding the rights of women. BBC ranked Royeka number 6 in BBC’s poll of the ‘Greatest Bengali of all time.’ She wrote a number of poems, essays, novels, short stories, etc., in which she urged women to fight against atrocities and break the cycle of discrimination. 

Jeannette Rankin:

She was an American women’s rights advocate and politician, and the first woman to hold federal office in the United States. In 1941, she was the only member of Congress who voted against the declaration of war on Japan after the Pearl Harbor incident. She introduced legislation which eventually became the 19th Constitutional Amendment which granted unrestricted voting rights to women in the US. Rankin strongly believed that the corruption prevalent in the United States government during her time was because of the lack of women’s participation. 

These women deserve to be better known, and more importantly, deserve to occupy the annals of history with more prominence. Their contributions have been unfairly neglected and downplayed for a long time. Let these stories inspire you to fight for future generations of women. You can counteract the overshadowing of these important women by reading about them and discussing them with your peers.