Abzug, Bella Savitsky (1920-1998)

US feminist, lawyer, and politician. A powerful speaker and legislator who pressed for women's rights, peace, and civil rights, Abzug became known as ‘Battling Bella’ or ‘Hurricane Bella’. She was elected to Congress as a Democrat to represent a Manhattan district 1970-76. She wrote numerous articles for magazines and anthologies on the women's movement, and in 1972 published Bella! Ms Abzug Goes to Washington. Throughout the 1980s she remained politically active, and wrote Gender Gap: Bella Abzug's Guide to Political Power for American Women (1984).

Born in the Bronx, New York, Abzug practised law in New York City 1944-70, and represented individuals named by Senator Joseph McCarthy as suspected communists in the 1950s. She also represented the American Civil Liberties Union, was a founder of the Women's Strike for Peace and the National Women's Political Caucus in the 1960s, and opposed US military intervention in Vietnam. She was a spokesperson for a variety of issues, including welfare reform, openness in government, equal rights, aid to cities, and consumer and environmental protection.

While in Congress she served on numerous government committees and presidential commissions, and was co-author of the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts. In 1976 she gave up her seat in Congress to run for the US Senate, but was unsuccessful. However, she continued to be politically active and attended the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the Global Forum of Women conference in Dublin in 1992, and the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995.