6 Feminist Icons Who Don’t Get The Credit They Deserve

Edith Garrud

Wikimedia CommonsA cartoon depicting Edith Garrud.

Of all the feminist icons, Edith Garrud was the toughest. She was born in 1872 and grew to just under five feet tall. Where she lacked in height, she made up for in courage and skill. Married to a physical fitness instructor, Garrud was always immersed in athletics, but it wasn’t until meeting a jiu-jitsu master that she truly discovered her path.

Garrud became one of the first female jiu-jitsu trainers in the Western World and decided to use her skills to aid in the women’s rights movement.

At the time, suffragists were getting arrested for speaking out and then going on hunger strikes in jail, causing them to be force-fed through tubes. Women were getting assaulted by officers and by public individuals in the opposition. Garrud knew they needed some sort of protection.

Edith Garrud came to the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) and taught them how to fight back using jiu-jitsu. She became the official trainer of the WSPU bodyguards.

When the police would come to arrest activist leaders, thinking it would be an easy job, these female bodyguards would pull out their jiu-jitsu skills and end up tossing officers over their shoulders or successfully knocking them to the ground.

Thanks to Garrud, officers started to think twice before messing with the suffragists.