Josefa Llanes Escoda was a Filipino champion for education and women's rights. She would get her high school teaching certification from one of the most prestigious universities in her country, the University of the Philippines. She would then put her degree to work as a social worker with the Philippine Red Cross. This opened up a new door for her in the form of a scholarship to Columbia University, where she would get her master's degree in sociology. While in America, she attended the Women's International League for Peace in 1925. Two decades later, she would finally return to the Philippines with the mission of equitable education for all. She worked alongside the president of the time, Manuel L. Quezon, to establish a Girl Scouts Chapter. Additionally, she founded a residential care center called Boys' Town in Manila and the Philippine National Federation of Women's Clubs (NFWC).
Her efforts would be entirely upended a year later with the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. She would utilize the NFWC to set up food preservation and medical aid centers across the country. The NFWC went so far as to connect prisoners of war with their families using their vast member network. Escoda and her husband Antonio Escoda, a fellow revolutionary, would set up a coffee shop across from Japanese soldiers and spy on them to learn the names of captured American soldiers. In November 1944, the Japanese would grow suspicious of the couple and capture and decapitate Antonio. Unfortunately, a few months later in August 1944, Josefa Escoda would suffer a similar fate to her husband and get captured and killed. Her contributions to the wellbeing of her people throughout World War II will forever mark her as an icon for all women to aspire to.