These four activists, profiled by The Story Exchange as part of our Women’s History Month coverage, demonstrate that activism doesn’t always manifest as a march or a protest.
Zitkála-Šá, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Bernice Sandler and Dorothy Bolden fought for very different causes – but each of them recognized an injustice, refused to accept it as inevitable, and found a way to organize, persuade and push institutions toward change.
1. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: The 19th-Century Advocate for Intersectional Feminism
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was fighting for overlapping forms of equality long before the term “intersectional feminism” existed. Born to a free Black family in Baltimore in 1825, she became an acclaimed writer, abolitionist, suffragist and public speaker.
Harper understood that the fight for women’s rights could not be separated from the fight against racism. In an influential 1866 speech, “We Are All Bound Up Together,” she argued that society could not deny rights to its most vulnerable members without harming everyone. She advocated for both Black men’s and Black women’s voting rights at a time when the suffrage and abolitionist movements themselves were divided over the issue.
Her activism extended beyond speeches. Harper helped form the American Woman Suffrage Association and co-founded the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, while her writing — including poetry, novels and essays — gave voice to the experiences of Black Americans and women.
2. Bernice Sandler: The “Godmother of Title IX”
When Bernice Sandler was rejected for a university teaching position in 1969, a male faculty member told her she was “too strong for a woman.” Rather than accepting the insult, Sandler began investigating the discrimination she and other women faced in academia.
Her breakthrough came while researching federal law. Sandler discovered a little-noticed footnote explaining that an executive order prohibiting discrimination by federal contractors also applied to sex discrimination — and that most universities had federal contracts. That realization gave her a legal strategy for challenging discrimination in higher education.
With the help of the Women’s Equity Action League and others, Sandler filed more than 250 lawsuits against colleges and universities. Her advocacy helped pave the way for Title IX, the landmark 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in education, including athletics and employment.
Sandler spent the rest of her life expanding opportunities for women, serving on federal advisory bodies and helping establish organizations dedicated to women’s education and advancement.
3. Dorothy Bolden: The Domestic Worker Who Built a Movement
Dorothy Bolden knew the realities of domestic work firsthand. Born in Atlanta in 1924, she left high school in the 11th grade and began working as a maid. For decades, she experienced the long hours and lack of recognition that characterized domestic work for countless Black women.
The buses she rode to and from work became an organizing ground. Domestic workers shared stories of low wages, abuse and difficult working conditions — and began exchanging information about their rights. Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement and activists including Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, Bolden began organizing her fellow workers.
In 1968, she founded the National Domestic Workers Union of America. She led the organization for nearly three decades, helping thousands of domestic workers improve their wages and working conditions. She also required members to register to vote, turning the organization into a formidable political force. At its height, it had more than 10,000 members in Atlanta alone.
Bolden ultimately brought the concerns of domestic workers to the White House, speaking with Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. Her advocacy helped influence labor policy and contributed to domestic workers receiving protections such as minimum-wage coverage.
4. Zitkála-Šá: She Fought to Protect Native Rights and Culture
Zitkála-Šá experienced the destructive force of forced assimilation firsthand. Taken from her family on the Yankton Sioux Reservation at age 8, she was sent to a boarding school where Indigenous children were pressured to abandon their languages, traditions and identities. She later turned that experience into writing and activism.
As a writer, she exposed the abuse and cultural erasure taking place in Native boarding schools, publishing nationally in outlets including The Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s Monthly. Her 1923 investigation into the exploitation of Native peoples, particularly the Osage, also helped draw political attention to corruption and abuse.
But Zitkála-Šá was more than an investigative writer. She advocated in Washington D.C. for Indigenous rights, helped secure U.S. citizenship for Native Americans through the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and co-founded the National Council of American Indians. She also used art and music to preserve Native culture, writing “The Sun Dance Opera,” the first opera by an Indigenous woman in America.