Fierce feminists: the trailblazing women who built democracy

Late Night Live - Separate stories podcast · Jul 22, 2026 · 27m

Until the early 1900s men did their best to keep women out of parliaments around the world. But the social disruptions of the twentieth century, like war, revolutions and the de-colonisation movement, created the opening women needed – and they grasped it with both hands. The trailblazing, and sometimes gun-blazing, women who built democracy around the world were all fierce, all feminists, but not all of them were progressives.

Guest: Paula Bartley, historian and author of 'Trailblazers, the first women elected to government’, published by Polity.

Producer: Catherine Zengerer