Abigail Smith was born and raised in Massachusetts. Her father was a liberal minister, her mother was a member of the famous Quincy family mother, and she had two sisters. At a time when women were not allowed to receive a formal education, she was homeschooled and satisfied her appetite for knowledge at the family’s library, forming progressive views. After a two-year courtship, she married John Adams, a country lawyer, and became his closest advisor and partner. They settled in the house John had inherited from his father in Braintree, MA. When his practice expanded, John had to frequently travel while Abigail managed their finances, investments, household, and growing family. For a while, they even moved to Boston next to his practice. Between 1784 and 1788, Abigail joined John in his diplomatic missions in Paris and London. On March 4th, 1797, John became the second president of the United States, and she was the first lady. They lived in the Presidential Mansion in Philadelphia and later in the White House in Washington, DC. She was a politically active first lady, made frequent public appearances, and was involved in the decision-making process, paving the way for future first ladies to be proactive figures. When John lost presidential re-election, the family retired to Peacefield in Quincy in 1800. During his frequent travels before and during the presidency, the couple corresponded in more than 1100 letters, where Abigail demonstrated her talent for writing and opinionated spirit. In one of those letters, she urges her husband to consider women’s rights in the new legislation after independence, warning that if not given equal representation: “women will rebel.” He dismissed her suggestion by writing back that it makes him laugh, but her words “remember the ladies” became an iconic feminist slogan. Before her death, she wrote a will favoring her female relatives. It was an act of protest against the laws prohibiting married women from owning assets. Read more...

Born in Churchville, New York as Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard, and moved from one place to another with her family, until they settled in Evanston, Illinois, where she attended the North Western Female College. After graduation, she began a teaching career, and at the age of 32, she was appointed the president of Evanston College for Ladies. Two years later she was named the first Dean of Women at the university, but she resigned after only one year due to confrontations with the University President, to whom she was engaged a few years earlier. At the time, women began to oppose alcohol consumption in purpose to reduce domestic violence. Willard, dedicated to the cause, became a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and served in various positions in the organization, including the first Corresponding Secretary, the Head of the Publications Department, and the President of the National WCTU, a position she served for 19 years until her death. Under Willard’s presidency, the WCTU grew to be the largest women’s organization at the time, encouraging women to be involved in local and national politics and supporting social change. With the assistance of her personal secretary, Anna Adams Gordon, Willard promoted the temperance goals by giving speeches throughout the country, advocating for women’s rights, the suffrage movement, labor reform, and education. When Willard was 49 years old, she joined the International Council of Women meeting, where they established the National Council of Women. Later on, she was appointed as the first president of the organization. She also took part in the establishment of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. In 1898, while preparing for a trip to Europe, she caught the flu and died in her sleep when she is 59 years old.   Read more...

Born in Cedarville, Illinois. As a teen, inspired by reading Dickens and by her mother’s kindness to the poor, Addams had a dream to do good in the world and to become a doctor. After graduating from Rockford Female Seminary, she attended the Woman’s Medical College of Philadelphia but had to quit after one year due to health problems. After returning from a two years tour in Europe, Addams felt useless and unsure of her future and sank into depression. At the age of 27, accompanied by several friends, Addams traveled to London to visit the first settlement house, a non-class community house, where people live, earn an education and get health care. Two years later, Addams and her partner, Ellen Gates Starr, founded a settlement house in Chicago, called Hull House, which eventually became a research and education center, with activities and services. At its height, Hull House was the residence of about 25 women and was visited by 2,000 people on a weekly basis. In addition to her activities at Hull House, Addams worked with other reform groups to achieve social improvements, including factory inspection, an eight-hour working day for women, justice for immigrants and the black community, women’s suffrage, research on the causes of poverty and crime, and the establishment of the first juvenile-court law. At the age of 45, Addams began serving on Chicago’s Board of Education, and five years later she became the first female president of the National Conference of Social Work. As a pacifist and peace activist, during WW1 she lectured on peace and ending the war, served as chairman of the International Congress of Women, and later as the president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. In 1931, in recognition of her work, Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the first American woman that won this prize. Read more...

Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, to a family of abolitionist and transcendentalists, a movement that encouraged the perfection of the individual. She was homeschooled by her father, who was a teacher. During Alcott’s childhood, her family moved to various places. When in Harvard, they tried to establish a utopian community called ‘Fruitlands,’ and when moved back to Concord, they helped hide fugitive slave that escaped via the Underground Railroad. From a young age, Alcott helped to support her family and worked in various jobs, such as a teacher, governess, seamstress, domestic helper, and writer. When she was only 17 years old, she wrote her first book. At first, she published under the pen name Flora Fairfield, and later as A. M. Barnard. She published poems, thrillers, short stories, and juvenile tales. During the American Civil War, Alcott volunteered as a nurse in the Union Hospital at Georgetown, DC. Her experiences in the hospital inspired her to write “Hospital Sketches,” the book which made her famous. After Alcott accepted an editorship at a girls’ magazine, she was asked to write a book especially for girls, and that resulted in the first part of ‘Little Women,’ inspired by her relationship with her three sisters. She was an enthusiastic supporter of women’s rights, wrote for a women’s rights periodical, encouraged women to vote, and an abolitionist. When the state of Massachusetts passed the law allowing women to vote, she was the first women to register. During her lifetime, Alcott published more than 20 books and almost 300 literary works, in them, she challenged social norms addressing women’s issues and encouraged her readers to do so as well. Read more...

Born Juliette Margikk Kinzie Gordon in Savannah, Georgia, to a well-established family and was affectionately called “Daisy.” In 1911, she met with the founder of Boy Scouts and was inspired to establish the Girl Scouts of the USA in 1912, a movement she originally initiated with the name “Girl Guide,” similar to the one in England at that time. Gordon Low set herself a mission to assure girls in their capability, power to contribute to society, and to become self-sufficient. Her goal was to teach them skills, empower them, and help to “build their character.” The girls were taught to manage a household and care for livestock, but also practiced knot tying, map reading, first aid, and drilling, signaling, and camping. The first troop was of only 18 girls and was culturally and ethnically diverse, breaking the social conventions back then. Not only did the movement reach out to all girls from all backgrounds, but it also welcomed girls with disabilities which were often isolated. Low strove for the cause with determination and enthusiasm, and had a vast network of supporters. With her natural talent for public relations, she used those sources to raise funds to open more Girl Scouts programs across the nation and eventually worldwide. By 1925, there were over 90,000 active Girl Scouts in the US, and based on the girl scout organization, in 2019, there are 2.5 million(!) Girl Scouts — 1.7 million girl members and 750,000 adult members working in the USA. And always “Girl Led.” Juliette Gordon Low died of breast cancer in 1927. She kept her illness a secret and continued to present “business as usual” throughout her struggle. Her home, now called “Birthplace,” was bought by the Girl Scouts, became a museum of the movement, and is run by them to this day. The house is a registered national landmark. Read more...

Born in New Orleans. As a child Jackson used to sing hymns to her dolls and her family. Despite her aunt’s house-rules against secular music, she would secretly listen to blues singer Bessie Smith, who later inspired her unique interpretation of religious singing. She wanted to become a nurse, but left school to work. At 16 she moved to Chicago and worked as a laundress, hotel maid, and baby sitter. She performed in churches for donations and ten cents tickets and sang at funerals. Despite the moderate commercial success of her first album, she continued singing only gospel. A decade later she became the first one to sell over million gospel albums with her hit “Move Up a Little Higher”. With more than 30 albums later, she is credited in music history as the undisputed “queen of gospel”, making the genre popular outside of churches in the mainstream culture. In 1961 she became the first gospel singer to win a Grammy, and that same year she sang the anthem at John F. Kennedy’s inaugural ball. Her popularity was expressed in full concerts in Europe, her own radio show, and TV appearances. She encountered many acts of racism, and became politically active, singing in rallies as “the soundtrack of the civil rights movement”. She performed two songs for a crowd of 250,000 at the famous 1963 March on Washington. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came up to give his speech, she called him on stage “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” – a comment that has inspired him to improvise and add the “I have a Dream” line in his famous speech. She had two public funeral services, attended by thousands, in New Orleans, and Chicago. She was divorced twice, and never had children. Read more...

Lucy Stone grew up in a rural household that practiced patriarchy, and so she devoted her life to women’s liberation. She saved money for nine years, by working as a teacher and a housekeeper, to fund her higher education. Stone enrolled in Oberlin Collegiate Institute, Ohio – the first college in the US where female and black students could study together. She co-founded a secret debating society for women, who met in the woods. At the age of 29, she became the first woman from Massachusetts to graduate with a Bachelor degree. Her talent for public speaking took her touring the country, advocating for women’s rights and speaking against slavery. In 1850 she took part in organizing the National Woman’s Rights Convention, attended by more than 1,000 participants. The convention attracted international attention when advocating for the rights of black women. She took her politics home as well, and when marrying Henry Brown Blackwell, she decided to keep her last name. She was the first married woman in the US to keep her maiden name, and those who followed her used the term “Lucy Stoner,” popular for married women who didn’t change their family names after their husbands.’ The couple established and edited the Woman’s Journal, the newspaper of the “American Woman Suffrage Association.” She was the first person cremated in Massachusetts.   Read more...

Born in New York City to an affluent and politically dominant family, she became an orphan at the age of 8 and was raised by her grandmother. At 15 she was sent to London to study languages and arts in a private school, where her headmistress Marie Souvestre inspired her political and social awareness. After returning to New York, she married her distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who later became the 32nd president of The United States. By his side, she was a politically active First Lady for no less than 12 years. The couple had six children. In addition to advising her husband in his political career, she was an active member of various organizations promoting equal rights for women, racial and social justice. Her vast activity is said to have been boosted after finding out about her husband’s affair: she decided to stay by his side but availed herself to independent activism, and her own affairs with both women and men. She was the author of several books, contributed content to many publications and radio shows, including the popular newspaper column “My Day,” which was published six days a week for 26 years, and delivered many speeches during her nationwide travels. At 62 she was appointed to the first US delegation to the United Nations, where she was central in creating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Until her death, she was involved in policy making, notably chairing the President’s Commission on the Status of Women. Read more...

Born in Massachusetts, USA. At age 10 started practicing her nursing skills when she took care of her older brother after he fell from a roof and got severely injured, and even learned how to place leeches on his body. To get over her shyness, Barton’s parents persuaded her to become a teacher. When she reached age 24, Barton founded a school for workers’ children and later established the first free school in New Jersey. When the school became successful, the board replaced her with a man, and Barton got demoted, so she quit. Barton moved to Washington, DC, started working as a clerk in the US Patent office, she was the first woman appointed such a position in a federal office and got equally paid as her male colleagues. When the Civil war began, she decide to quit her job in order to support the Union soldiers. Barton distributed supplies and served as an independent nurse, and therefore received the nickname ‘The angel of the battlefield.’ After the war, she established the Office of Missing Soldiers, helping identify soldiers, reunite them with their families, or bring them to appropriate bury. The office is still standing and became a museum. While traveling in Europe, she learned about the International Red Cross, so when she came back to the US, Barton began lobbying and building support for an American branch of the organization. In 1881, the American Red Cross was formed, and Barton was elected as its first president. At the age of 83, after she was forced to resign from the Red Cross due to autocratic leadership, Barton founded the National First Aid Society. Barton remained an activist for human rights as well as the woman’s suffrage movement, giving lectures until her last years. She also published an autobiography. The Clara Barton National Historic Site, established in 1975, was the first National Historic Site dedicated to the accomplishments of a woman.   Read more...

Born in Montana to a wealthy rancher and a teacher, oldest of seven siblings. She studied Biology at Montana State University, Social Work in New York School of Philanthropy, and Policy-Making in the University of Washington. After exploring various professional avenues – as a teacher, social worker, seamstress, and lobbyist, politician became her chosen career. In 1916, she was elected to the US House of Representatives from Montana and became the first female in Congress four years before the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution passed, allowing women to vote. Rankin served twice as a Republican Representative of Montana in the House, the only woman from Montana. Both times she voted against US involvement in World Wars. She was an active advocate of pacifism, suffrage and social welfare up until her nineties. At the age of 87, she led a march of 5,000 women dressed in black, against the Vietnam War, named “Jeannette Rankin Brigade.” Rankin loved to travel, for work or pleasure, a spirit captured in her legendary diary entry: “It makes no difference where, just so you go! Go! Go! Remember, at the first opportunity, go.” In the United States, she lived and worked in various states, and owned a farm in rural Georgia, which she tried to turn into a female commune, and where she established the Georgia Peace Society. In her travels overseas, she visited New Zealand, Russia, Ireland, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, Switzerland, and returned several times to her favorite destination – India. Her fame attracted to her several marriage proposals via mail, which she rejected. She is said to have had little time for romantic affairs and did not want to have children. She passed away at 92, in California. She left her estates to the Jeannette Rankin Foundation which awards educational scholarships for low-income women above the age of 35. Read more...