Annie Besant is known as an accomplished fighter for women's rights. She played a big role in helping the women of England become emancipated. She wrote many papers critcizing the oppression of women and the underpayed female workers. She was also very vocal about sexual rights for women. She fought for women to be allowed to change their fashion by adding shorter skirts and pants. She behaved like a "New Woman" by leaving her husband and starting to preach about atheism and feminism and she advocated for a change women's behaviour and attitude towards men during the Victorian Era. She helped to change the marriage law to be more in favor towards women. She was ended up being one of the biggest advocates for women's rights in the Victorian Era.
One of the most notable movements that Besant orchestrated was the Birth Control Movement, which occured in 1877. Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh republished a pamphlet describing how birth control should be a right not just for wealthy women but for the poor as well, written by the physician Charles Knowlton. The pamphlet described more primitive methods of contraception and that went against the law during that time. Promotiing or distributing any kind of birth control methods was illegal during the Victorian Era. Besant and Bradlaugh's actions ended up getting them arrested and they were tried and convicted of "publishing an obscene libel". Their trial made the pamphelt a best seller and after Besant won her appeal she wrote her own pamphlet reguarding birth control. She was one of the biggest fighters for women's rights during the Victorian Era.
All this information was found on the Victorian Web under the Gender Roles section. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/besant/diniejko.html#birthcontrol