(1875-1942)
Františka Plamínková, a politician and journalist who devoted her whole life to the women’s movement. A teacher by original profession, she joined the National Socialist Party before the end of World War I. As a politician, Františka Plamínková contributed to equal suffrage for women and the abolition of celibacy for female teachers. She advocated for a number of other laws to improve the position of women and mothers. She was also involved in the international women’s movement, was the first Czech woman to give a speech before the United Nations and met President Roosevelt personally when in USA. In 1925, she was elected senator for the first time and held her position until the Senate was abolished in 1939. World War II caught her at the peak of her political career. In 1938, she showed her bravery and wrote a letter to Adolf Hitler, in which she reprimanded him for insulting the Czechoslovak President. After the German occupation, she protested again. Two weeks after the assassination of the high Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich, she was arrested and executed, together with other prominent Czech public figures. She was 67 years old.