Herstory Project possible subjects
1920-1998) - NY Congresswoman, peace and advocacy leader,
and founder of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)
Jane Addams (1860-1935) - U.S. social and welfare activist and
suffragist; founder of Hull House—the first settlement house in the U.S., the
National League for peace and Freedom, and co-founder of the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU); first U.S. woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, 1931
Madeleine K. Albright (b. 1937) - First woman U.S. Secretary of State,
former Ambassador to the United Nations under president Clinton, and now the
highest-ranking woman in the history of U.S. government.
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) - Leading suffragist, social reformer, and
leader of the women’s rights movement. Due to her tremendous contribution to
women’s suffrage, many often refer to the 19th Amendment of 1920,
which finally granted women the vote, as the Anthony Amendment
Ella Baker (1903-1986) - Premier behind-the-scenes organizer and
co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, headed by Martin
Luther King, Jr. She also helped establish the Civil Rights Movement’s
foremost student organization, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
Clara Barton (1821-1912) - American humanitarian, battlefield nurse, and
founder and leader of the American Red Cross
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(1875-1955) - U.S. educator, writer, and civil
rights administrator; served as special advisor to President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt on minority group issues; founded the National Council of Negro
Women; began a Florida girls school with five pupils and $1.50 in cash
Antoinette Blackwell (1825-1921) - First American woman ordained as a
minister by a recognized denomination (Congregational), despite great opposition
to women in the ministry. She was also an active women’s rights leader.
Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910?) - English/American physician and the
first U.S. woman doctor, 1849; co-established the first U.S. hospital staffed by
female physicians, 1857
Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894) - The first woman to own, operate, and edit a
newspaper for women. The Lily began in 1849 in Seneca Falls and became a
recognized forum for women’s rights issues.
Myra Bradwell (1831-1894) - America’s first woman lawyer. When denied
permission to practice law in Illinois even after passing the Bar examination
because of her gender, she began publishing the Chicago Legal News, a
very successful legal journal.
Rachel Carson (1907-1964) - U.S. ecologist and author of Silent
Spring, a critical analysis of the detrimental environmental impact of
pesticides; credited with rejuvenating the ecology movement
Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) - Tenacious women’s suffrage movement
organizer whose efforts at the helm of the National American Women’s Suffrage
Association put forth the "winning plan" that led to state-by-state
enactments of suffrage and the final victory in 1920.
Shirley Chisholm (b. 1924) - First African-American woman elected to the
U.S. Congress
Jacqueline Cochran (1906-1980) - First woman aviator to break the sound
barrier. She held many speed, distance, and altitude records. She led the Women’s
Air Force Service Pilots during World War II, becoming the first woman to pilot
a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean.
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(b. 1944) - U.S. academic, radical, communist, prison
reform activist, and women’s and civil rights leader
Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) - One of the United States’ earliest and most
effective advocates for better care for the mentally ill. When she saw that such
people were badly treated in institutions, she lobbied nationwide for reform and
humane treatment.
Anne Dallas Dudley (1876-1955) - Central to the campaign to pass the 19th
Amendment, she served as national campaign director. In her home state of
Tennessee, she led a march of 2000 women in the South’s first suffrage parade
in 1914.
Geraldine Ferraro - First woman Vice Presidential candidate of one of
the two major political parties of the U.S., 1984
Ruth Bader Ginsburg - First tenured woman professor at Columbia Law
School, and the second woman U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1993
Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) - Lost her job and home for attempting to
register to vote in segregated 1960s Mississippi; led Mississippi Freedom
Democratic party
Anita Hill - Lawyer; educator; and activist against sexual harassment,
whose testimony before the Senate—against Supreme Court appointee Clarence
Thomas—generated outrage, awareness, and increased political activity around
the issue of sexual harassment, 1991
Dolores Huerta (b. 1930) - Crusader for the rights of Mexican-Americans,
farm workers, and women worldwide; co-founder, with Cesar Chavez, of the United
Farm Workers
Mae Jemison (b. 1956) - Physician, engineer, and astronaut. She was the
first Black woman astronaut in space.
"Mother" Jones, Mary Harris (1830-1930) - Labor organizer and
agitator; she was a major figure in the American labor movement for decades,
speaking out and organizing for social justice for workers. She worked for the
United Mine Workers and other groups.
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(b. 1936) - First African-American woman elected to the
U.S. Congress from the state of Texas, and the Deep South
Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968) - American author, lecturer, and pacifist
who overcame tremendous physical disabilities to become an inspiration to the
world
Flo Kennedy (b. 1916) - filed a 1970 class-action suit demanding the
repeal of all abortion laws in New York; sued to overturn the Catholic church’s
tax-exempt status because of its involvement in politics; founded the Feminist
Party
Maggie Kuhn (1905-1995) - At age 65, after a forced retirement, she
began work forming the Gray Panthers, an organization which has addressed age
discrimination and pension rights, as well as larger public issues.
Susette La Flesche (1854-1903) - Member of the Omaha Tribe who was a
tireless campaigner for Native American rights. She was also the first Native
American published lecturer, artist, and author. She helped change national
perceptions about the rights of Native Americans in the U.S.
Maya Lin - U.S. architect, designer of the Civil Rights Memorial in
Montgomery, Alabama (1989) and Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC
Belva Lockwood (1830-1917) - First woman to practice law before the U.S.
Supreme Court (1879)
Mary Mahoney (1845-1926) - First Black woman to study and work as a
professionally trained nurse. She paved the way for other Black women and was a
suffrage advocate.
Wilma Mankiller (b. 1945) - First woman elected Principal Chief of the
Cherokee Nation. As chief, Mankiller has brought about major economic and social
improvements for her tribe, including better health care, economic development,
and education.
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(b. 1902) - Renowned U.S. geneticist and physician
who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for her groundbreaking
discovery that genes can "jump" between cells. Although she made the
discovery in 1951, the scientific community treated her largely with
belittlement and neglect, until finally recognizing her achievement and
awarding her accordingly with the Nobel in 1983.
Margaret Mead (1901-1978) - U.S. anthropologist renowned for her studies
on gender and culture
Luisa Moreno (1907-1992) - Principal organizer of El Congreso de Pueblos
de Habla Española (first national civil rights assembly for Latinas/Latinos in
the U.S.)
Carol Moseley-Braun - First African-American woman U.S. Senator
Lucretia Mott (1793-1880) - She began as a Quaker anti-slavery advocate
and, after meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton, became a leader in the women’s
rights movement. A planner of the first women’s rights convention in Seneca
Falls in 1848, Mott remained true to her sense of justice for Blacks and women
throughout her life.
Antonia Novello (b. 1944) - First woman and first Hispanic to be named
Surgeon General of the United States. Novello is a pediatrician who has used her
position to alleviate suffering worldwide, especially for women and children.
Sandra Day O’Conner (b. 1930) - First woman U.S. Supreme Court
Justice, 1981
Rosa Louise Parks (b. 1913) - Civil rights activist whose arrest in
Montgomery, Alabama for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man,
sparked a girl/boycott of buses by African-Americans, 1955
Alice Paul (1885-1977) - Militant U.S. suffragist who led the final
fight to win women the vote; founder of the National Woman’s Party; introduced
the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution, which though not yet
ratified in the U.S., has become a model for such amendments of gender equality
worldwide.
Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973) - First woman member of the U.S. House of
Representatives, and the only Congressperson to have voted against both World
War I and World War II
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- American physicist who became the first U.S. woman in
space aboard Challenger, 1983
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) - Peace and social welfare activist and
"First Lady of the World," who served as the first U.S. delegate to
the United Nations, 1945-1952, and helped to draft the UN Declaration of Human
Rights.
Zitkala-Sa (1876-1938) - Sioux activist who sought legal reforms to
enable Native Americans to more easily sue the U.S. government
Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) - Pioneer birth control advocate, founder of
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, mother of the birth control pill, and
the driving force behind funding and advocacy of birth control pill research
Patricia Schroeder (b. 1940) - Nine-term, longest-serving woman U.S.
Congressperson (1972-1996), leader and prime strategist of women’s rights
legislation
Eleanor Smeal (b. 1939) - Political scientist who first discovered the
"Gender Gap," women’s rights advocate, three-term president of the
National Organization for Women (NOW), co-founder and President of the Feminist
Majority and the Feminist Majority Foundation, and leader of the campaign to
ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), (1975-1982)
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) - Suffragist, abolitionist, chief
political strategist, and theoretician of the women’s rights movement for over
fifty years; author of the feminist work, The Woman’s Bible
Gloria Steinem (b. 1934) - U.S. feminist, activist, author, and
co-founder of Ms. magazine, 1972
Mary Eliza Church Terrell (1863-1954) - Founded the National Association
of Colored Women; she attacked Jim Crow laws, lynching, and the convict lease
system; led a successful campaign to desegregate restaurants and hotels in
Washington, DC
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(ca. 1799-1883) - Freed slave who fought against
slavery, segregation, and for women’s rights; gave famous "Ain’t I a
Woman" speech in Akron, Ohio, 1851
Harriet Tubman (1821-1913) - Abolitionist who escaped from slavery,
became the leader of the Underground Railroad, and put her own life in grave
danger repeatedly while leading more than 300 slaves to freedom
Alice Walker (b. 1944) - U.S. writer, womanist, activist, and author of
the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Color Purple; renowned for her efforts to
raise awareness about female genital mutilation
Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919) - First self-made woman millionaire in the
U.S.; president and sole owner of her company, selling hair care products for
black women
Sarah Weddington - Women’s rights activist and lawyer who won the
right to abortion for American women through Roe v. Wade, 1973
Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) - Founded the Alpha Suffrage Club in
Chicago; organized anti-lynching campaigns in U.S. and Britain
Frances Willard (1839-1898) - President of the Women’s Christian
Temperance Union; she worked for suffrage, legislated temperance, tougher rape
laws, improved prison conditions, and to remove the double standard from
prostitution statutes
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