Celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Leaders from the Feminist Movement

This blog is part of our series for AANHPI Heritage Month. You can check out the next blog in the series here.

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) women and leaders have made significant contributions to the feminist movement’s aspiration towards intersectional justice and liberation. From student activists to modern-day movement leaders, here are some incredible feminist leaders to remember and celebrate this AANHPI Heritage Month:

• Grace Lee Boggs: a social justice activist, author, and leader, Grace Lee Boggs was a revolutionary feminist and Chinese American who worked on advancing racial equity, economic justice, and civil rights. From her tenant rights activism to organizing for the Black Power Movement in Detroit, Boggs spent decades working on intersectional social justice issues. Along with her husband, James Boggs, Grace wrote countless books and articles and co-founded the National Organization for an American Revolution. Before her death in 2015 at the age of 100 years old, Boggs published The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century, detailing the path towards radical social change through activism.




• Patsy Mink: Congresswoman Mink represents a long list of firsts: the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, the first Asian American woman to serve in Congress, and the first Asian American to run for U.S. president. First elected in 1964 to represent Hawaii, Mink served in Congress for over two decades and ran for President in 1972 as an anti-war candidate. As a member of Congress, Mink wrote Title IX, the Early Childhood Education Act, and the Women’s Educational Equity Act, and she was the first person to oppose a Supreme Court nominee on the basis of discrimination against women. After her death, the Title IX law was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.




• Aruna Miller: Currently serving as the 10th Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, Aruna Miller is the first woman of color and immigrant elected to statewide office in Maryland. Prior to serving as Lieutenant Governor, Miller served for eight years in the Maryland House of Delegates and worked for 25 years overseeing programs in the Montgomery County Department of Transportation as a civil and transportation engineer. Elected to the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in 2024, Miller has been a steadfast advocate for immigrants, women, and diversity within Maryland and beyond.




• Alok Vaid-Menon: ALOK is a non-binary writer and artist who advocates for bodily diversity, gender justice, and trans rights. The child of a Malayi father and a Punjabi mother, Vaid-Menon has used poetry, comedy, and art to challenge the gender binary and gender norms. The author of Femme in Public and Beyond the Gender Binary, ALOK offers a valuable intersectional perspective intertwining anti-racism and feminism in their advocacy for a liberated world.




• Andy Hong Marra: Currently serving as CEO at Advocates for Trans Equality, Hong Marra is a national leader in the movement for transgender and non-binary lived and legal equality. Before becoming CEO in 2024, she served as Executive Director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and held leadership roles with the Arcus Foundation, GLSEN, Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, and GLAAD. Her advocacy and leadership has focused on keeping LGBTQIA+ students and allies safe and inspired, supporting Korean unification, and protecting and advancing the rights of transgender people.




• Wilhelmine Kekelaokalaninui Widemann Dowsett: One of the key organizers of the Women’s Equal Suffrage Association of Hawaii (WESAH), Dowsett was a Native Hawaiian suffragist who organized for gender equality in Hawaii before the ratification of the 19th Amendment. When confronted with white male legislators who were opposed to granting women, especially Native Hawaiian and Asian women, the right to vote, Dowsett along with 500 suffragists protested the delays in approval by storming the House floor.




• Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee: An advocate for women’s voting rights, Lee was the first Chinese American woman awarded a PhD in economics from Columbia University. Her advocacy for women’s suffrage contributed to the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, but she was not legally able to vote until 1943 with the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Lee also went on to serve as Director for New York City’s First Chinese Baptist Church, where she continued her advocacy for gender equality and the local Chinese American community.

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