Katharine Dexter McCormick is a name that every woman today should know, because your life would probably be very different today if it wasn’t for her. Katharine funded what The New York Times called the “most sweeping sociomedical revolution in history. . . [whose] impact on the United States and other nations [is] almost too vast to analyze.” She was responsible for funding the reseach that discovered the birth control pill.

Before the feminist movement, arguments about birth control centered around family planning for married couples, population control and eugenics, not an individual woman’s control over her own body. Beginning in 1914, activist Margaret Sanger was the first to popularize the term “birth control”, which placed emphasis on a woman’s right to choose. At that time, … Read More »

This post is by guest author Natalie Alner.

“The life of men and women is so cheap and property is so sacred. There are so many of us for one job it matters little if 140-odd are burned to death.” Rose Schneiderman

Rose Schneiderman was a prominent labour union leader, who dedicated her life to the effort of improving the working conditions of the women labour workers and achieving for them fairness and equality throughout the various industries. She was one of the most important women in the history of labor union movement and her ideas changed and improved the working conditions for millions of workers.

Rachel Rose Schneiderman (1882–1972) had a difficult childhood. She was born in the village of Sawin in Russian Poland but her parents, … Read More »

“I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the South. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to the cook kitchen. And from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing hair goods and preparations….I have built my own factory on my own ground.” Madam Walker, National Negro Business League Convention, July 1912

Madam C.J. Walker was born Sarah Breedlove in 1867, the first child in her family born into freedom after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Her parents and five older siblings were slaves on a plantation in Louisiana. By the time of her death in 1919, Madam Walker was the wealthiest black woman in America and the first self-made female American millionaire.

Sarah’s parents died when … Read More »

Corazon Aquino (1933-2009) was the first female president of the Phillipines, and is known for leading the People Power Revolution in 1986 which restored democracy to the country. She was named TIME’s Woman of the Year in 1986.

Cory Aquino did not aspire to be a politician. In 1955, after graduating from Mount St. Vincent College in New York City, she married Benigno Aquino (nicknamed “Ninoy”), a young politician. She supported her husband’s career as he was elected senator, raising 5 children at home.

Ninoy Aquino became a popular, outspoken opponent of Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator who held the presidency from 1965. In 1972, Ninoy was imprisoned for eight long years, and then exiled to the United States. Ninoy was finally allowed to return to his homeland in … Read More »

Eugenia Charles (1919-2005) was the Prime Minister of Dominica from 1980 to 1995. She was Dominica’s first and only female prime minister, and Dominica’s longest-serving prime minister.

She became interested in law while working at the colonial magistrate’s court. After studying law at the University College of the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics and Political Science, she passed the bar and returned to Dominica, to become the island’s first female lawyer in 1949.

In the 1960′s, Eugenia began campaigning against restrictions on press freedom. She helped to found the Dominica Freedom Party in 1978, and was its leader from the early 1970s until 1995, helping Dominica to gain independence from Great Britain in 1978.

In 1980, Eugenia became the Prime Minister of Dominica. The Dominica … Read More »

Ella Josephine Baker (1903–1986) was an African American civil rights and human rights activist whose career spanned over five decades. Ella worked with some of the most famous civil rights leaders of her time, including W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King Jr. She also had an influence on the future of the civil rights movement after her time, mentoring Diane Nash, Stokely Carmichael, Rosa Parks and Bob Moses.

As a girl, Baker listened to her grandmother tell stories about slave revolts. Her grandmother had been whipped for refusing to marry a man chosen for her by the slave owner. As a student, Baker challenged school policies that she thought were unfair.

Baker immersed herself in the cultural and political milieu of Harlem in … Read More »

Randy’L He-dow Teton is a Shoshone woman who posed for the image of Sacagawea on the Sacagawea dollar coin, first issued in 2000. She’s the only woman besides Martha Washington to appear on US currency, the only Native-American woman to pose for an American coin, and the only living person whose image appears on American currency.

Ms. Teton graduated from the University of New Mexico at 24 with a BA in Art History and a minor in Native American Studies. She continues to make public appearance as Sacagawea to bring attention to American Indian and Alaska Native issues and concerns.

“The image doesn’t represent me, it represents all Native American women. All women have the dignity of the Golden Dollar’s image.” [...]

“There is a great deal of Native … Read More »