Thomasina Traore

A pioneering West African feminist and educator who championed women's rights and education in post-colonial Benin

Thomasina Traore (1915-1998) was a visionary leader from Benin whose grassroots activism transformed women's social and economic roles in West Africa. Born in a rural village, she organized the first women's cooperative in 1937 to empower local farmers through collective bargaining. Her wiki page details how she later founded the National Association for Women's Advancement (ANAF) in 1960, which established 148 schools across Benin by 1975. Traore's Women's Agricultural Bank provided loans to 20,000 female farmers, doubling crop yields in the region. Her 1972 speech at the UN Conference on the Status of Women is still quoted in gender studies curricula worldwide. In 1985, she pioneered microfinance programs later adopted by the World Bank. Traore's legacy lives on through the Traore Institute training 500+ female leaders annually.