Women Human Rights Defenders are challenging extractive industries and taking on corporate power and vast economic and political forces. These inspiring stories of action and resistance tell us that extractive industries may have immense economic and political resources at their disposal; but they are not invincible. Corporate power is overwhelming in its scope, but it is not as all-encompassing and invulnerable as it seeks to appear. Resistance is not futile. Forty-eight women human rights defenders from 22 countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, participated in a research process of interviews and regional collective consultations conducted by AWID and the Women Human Rights Defender International Coalition (WHRDIC). Confronting extractive industries means challenging powerful national and transnational corporations and global elites that operate in collusion with governments and often with religious and ‘traditional’ institutions... For indigenous peoples, it is a familiar centuries-old struggle, against colonization and dispossession by foreign powers. For women, it also involves challenging patriarchy and traditional gender roles, as they assert leadership in defense of their rights, communities and territories…