Elizabeth Ann Herring grew up in a lower-middle-class family in Oklahoma. She excelled in debate and got a scholarship to George Washington University. At 19, she paused her studies to start a family with her high school sweetheart and devoted herself to raising a daughter and a son. Only later in life did she resume her career – got a Doctor of Law degree, started lecturing in Rutgers School of Law, University of Texas Law School, and University of Pennsylvania Law School. Warren became well known as Harvard Law School bankruptcy expert. In her public work, she served as an adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission and was appointed as a special adviser to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She published several books, including two popular volumes about middle-class economics, co-authored with her daughter. The two made the bold statement that “sending mothers to work has made families more vulnerable to financial disaster than ever before.” In 2012 she ran for Senate and became the first female Senator from Massachusetts. She was re-elected in 2018. In 2019 she declared herself as a candidate for president. The official launch of her campaign was made in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The location was chosen to reference the historic 1912 labor strike led by immigrant women textile workers. In March 2020 (during Women’s History Month), Warren suspended her bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination, following a disappointing showing in early primary contests. Elizabeth Warren shaped her political agenda around wealth re-distributive policies: criticizing Wall Street after the financial crisis, proposing a wealth tax and free childcare. She is one of the wealthiest presidency candidates with over $2.59 million worth. Read more...

Mary Kenney was born to a family of Irish immigrants in the railroad town of Hannibal, Missouri. Her father died when she was 14, and she had to find a job to support her disabled mother. She worked as a bookbinder 11 hours a day, six days a week. Following the job, she moved to Iowa and then to Chicago. There she was exposed to the gender wage gap: she was paid $7 a week when filling in for a male worker, but the management refused her demand to get his salary of $21 a week. At the age of 26, she organized the female bookbinders of Chicago into The Women’s Bindery Union no. 1. It was a first step in a dynamic lifetime career as a trade union leader, which included her appointment as the first woman general organizer of the American Federation of Labor. O’Sullivan moved to Boston and at the age of 30 got married to a fellow labor activist. After the premature death of their firstborn, the couple had three children. Eight years into their marriage, her husband was run over in an accident. The young widow, now a single mother, continued her unionist work, which included advocating for suffrage and pacifism. In 1903, she co-founded the National Women’s Trade Union League and served there a secretary for nine years. When she was 50 years old, she was appointed as a factory inspector by the Massachusetts State Board of Labor and Industries – a position which she held for 20 years, until retiring at 70. O’Sullivan visited her parents’ homeland Ireland at 62 as a delegate of the Women’s Peace Conference. When she died, she left a draft of an autobiography, which was never published. Read more...