Nana Asma’u was born Asma’u bint Shehu Usman dan Fodio in Degal, present-day Northern Nigeria. Born into a powerful family of scholars, Nana Asma’u received a great education and had a passion for writing poetry. Many of her writings were used to spread the faith of Islam and focused on the leadership and right’s of women. She was an advocate for women’s education and established the yan-taru, a program consisting of female teachers who would travel to rural villages to educate women. An early feminist icon, Nana Asma’u is still a revered figure with schools bearing her name and her teachings still recited.
womens history month (2)
To kick off Women's History Month, we're celebrating our founder, Lena Madesin Phillips!
Lena Madesin Phillips, born in Kentucky, was an American lawyer and founder of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (IFBPW). A woman ahead of her time, Phillips challenged the predetermined life women were meant to live in the late 1800s, wives and mothers, and became the first woman to graduate with full honors from the University of Kentucky law school in 1917.
Lena Madesin Phillips dedicated her life to issues of child labor, equal pay for women, and endorsement of the ERA. She founded the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs (NFBPWC) in 1919 to organize women to campaign for equal rights. In the 1920s she expanded her outreach to Europe to found the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (IFBPW) in 1930.
