Woman-led uprisings

In 40 B.C., theTrung sisterssuccessfully rebelled against

theChineseHan-Dynasty rule, and are regarded as national

heroines ofVietnam.
In 378, QueenMavialed a rebellion against the Roman armyand

defeated them repeatedly. The Romans finally negotiated a truce

with her on her conditions.
In 1429, Joan of Arcled the French armyin a revolt against the

occupation of the English during the1000 years old War.

In 1799, Bibi Sahkub Kaur was a Sikh princessandPrime Minister

who led armies into battle against the Britishand was one of few
Indian women to win battles against a British general, and forced
George Thomas to withdraw.
In 1958, Ani Pachenwas a Tibetan Buddhistnun who led

aguerrilarebellion of 600 fighters on horseback against Communist

Chinese tanks.

French revolutions
Women were especially prominent in food riots in

French marketplaces.The most momentous French

food riot was The Women's March on Versailles.
This occurred in October 1789, when the market
women of Paris began calling the men 'cowards' and
declaring: 'We will take over!' These women proceeded
to march to Versailles with soldiers following them.
Three years later, women were again major
participants in the demonstrations that led to the
abolition of the monarchy. As a police inspector said in
1793: 'It is mainly the women who are stirred up,
women who in turn communicate all their frenzy to the
men, heating them up with their seditious propositions
and stimulating the most violent effervescence.'

The Women's March on Versailles

World War I
Women's protests for the right to vote became

particularly militant in Britain. They included arson,

widespread window breaking and attempts to storm
both Parliament and Buckingham Palace.

During World War I, women led large numbers of food

riots in Germany, Russia, Italy and elsewhere.Women

workers also led the way in strike-waves in Berlin and
Paris. The German authorities reported that union
leaders were doing 'everything possible to prevent
such disturbances and strikes over food provisions,
but ... it is the countless female workers who
constantly agitate and stir things up.'
Women also led food riots in Japan and Spain. Women's
protests against high food prices spread across Spain in
both 1913 and 1918.
In Barcelona, in 1918, women used the slogan: 'In the
name of humanity, all women take to the streets!'.
They organised demonstrations and attacked shops,
warehouses, government offices and music halls.

Russian Revolution
Karl Marx had recognised that 'great social revolutions

are impossible without the feminine ferment and, in

1917, it was Petrograd's female workers who spread
the idea of a general strike on 8 March,International
Womans day. On that day, hundreds of women threw
stones and snowballs at factory windows and then
dragged their fellow male workers on to the streets.
Women participated in the riots by, for instance,
attacking police stations.
As Leon Trotsky later wrote, the women took hold of
the soldiers' rifles and 'beseeched almost commanded:
"put down your bayonets and join us"', and, within five
days, the centuries-old Tsarist regime had collapsed.

Colonial revolts
Women were prominent in various revolts in

the colonial and ex-colonial world. One of the

most notable in Africa was theIgbo Womans
day against British tax collection in Nigeria in
1929.

The civil rights movement and feminism

since the 1960s
It was a boycott of segregated buses by African-

American women that sparked the UScivil rights

movementthat then inspired activists across the
world.Young women's rejection of the patriarchal
family and sexual repression was also a major
factor in the rebellions of the 1960s.
Women were, also, at the forefront of many

working class struggles in the 1970s and 1980s.

Women Against Pit Closures

Women Against Pit Closureswas a political

movement supporting miners and their

families in the UK miners strikeof 198485.
An early event was a rally at the end of May
1984, held in Barnsleywhich was attended by
5000 women across the country, from
Scotland to Kent. This was followed by a
conference in June and a large protest march
in Londonon 11 August 1984. 23,000 working
class women attended that event, joined by
other women trade unionists.[

There will never be a new world order until

women are a part of it.
Alice Paul