Jiřina Šiklová was born in Prague in 1935. She attended Charles University, where she studied history and philosophy. As a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and advocate for reform, she was one of the catalysts for the events of the Prague Spring. After the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, she left the Party and became a member of the underground Czech dissident movement. She was an active campaigner for political reform in Communist Czechoslovakia and was a signatory of Charter 77. Šiklová was also a pioneer in the field of gender studies in the Czech Republic