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 Alabama, and at the age of 3, began learning music, ballet, French, and figure skating. She also learned to play the piano and wanted to be a concert pianist. Later on, her family moved to Denver, Colorado, where Rice graduated high school at age 16. She earned her bachelor’s degree in political science at age 20, and after seven years she earned her Ph.D. in international studies. When she was 27 years old, she joined Stanford University and began her three-decade career as a political science professor. Years later she became the first African-American women to serve as Provost at Stanford University. Condoleezza Rice began her political career when she was working as an international affairs fellow attached to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C. Afterwards, she became the director of Soviet and East European affairs with the National Security Council and served as a special assistant to President George H.W. Bush during the final days of the Soviet Union. At age 43 President George W. Bush appointed her as the National Security Adviser, by that she became the first African-American woman, and the second woman, to hold that position. Four years later, Rice became the first African-American woman to serve as the US Secretary of State. After Bush Administration ended, she returned to Stanford University and joined the Council on Foreign Relations. Rice published more than 10 books, some about politics and some about the memories and experiences of her family and herself at the White House. Read more...

Born Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, she grew up in the South Side of Chicago – sharing one attic, divided by wood paneling, with her parents and a brother. She was an excellent student, who skipped the second grade, enrolled into a gifted class in elementary school, and graduated as the salutatorian of her class from Whitney Young High School, Chicago’s first magnet high school. After high school, she studied at Princeton and later at Harvard Law School, where she became more aware of discrimination based on socioeconomic status, gender, and race. She joined demonstration for hiring professors from minority groups and worked for the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, aiding low-income tenants with housing cases. At the age of 25, she sat in a 47th-floor office, working for a Chicago-based prestigious law firm, a job she hated for it felt like “document production.” There she met her future husband, Barack Obama, whom she mentored as a summer associate. As her husband climbed to the US presidency, she left corporate law for public service practice, working for Chicago’s City Hall and the University of Chicago and raising their two daughters. After her husband won the presidential campaign on January 20th, 2009, he became the first black US president, and she became the first black first lady of the US. During her time in the White House(2009-2017), she became a role model for women and an icon of “relatability” – making her position less official and distant from the public, using familiar language, and expressing her opinions openly, even if controversial. She also advocated for healthy nutrition and lifestyle, mainly for children. As a First Lady, she became one of the most popular women in US history, and in 2018, she was ranked the most admired woman of the year in Gallup’s Most Admired List and stayed at the top for several years. The post-White House years secured her status as an icon. She published a memoir, “Becoming,” which was the best-selling book of 2018. In it, she wrote about professional and personal matters, including the fertility treatments the couple went through to conceive their two daughters, and courageously revealed her feelings of being a ‘damaged woman’ because of her difficulties to conceive. By that, she brought great awareness to a sensitive subject that causes many women great pain, along with the political issues of the cultural and social definitions of fulfillment as a woman first and most by becoming a mother. Read more...

Mary Stuart was born at Linlithgow Palace, Scotland, the only legitimate child of James V of Scotland and his French wife, Mary of Guise. She was the great-niece of King Henry VIII of England. Six days after her birth, her father died, and she inherited the throne, being crowned Queen of Scots at nine months old. Because she was only an infant, her mother was assigned as regent until adulthood. As King Henry VIII of England wanted to gain control of Scotland, she was initially engaged to his son, Prince Edward. The nobility of Scotland, which at the time was a Catholic country, opposed the alliance with Protestant England and annulled the agreement. That led England to attack Scotland in what became known as The Rough Wooing. The Scots turned to France for protection, which resulted in the engagement of Mary to King Henry II of France’s eldest son, the Dauphin Francis. At six years old, Mary was sent to France, living in the French court for the next 13 years. In 1558, at 16, she married Francis. The following year, her husband crowned Francis II, and she became both the queen of Scotland and queen of France. A year later, her husband died, and the 18 years old widow returned to Scotland. While she was in France, Protestantism spread throughout Scotland and caused inner-state rivalries within the nobility. As a Roman Catholic, Mary had faced many challenges; with the support and assistance of her illegitimate Protestant half-brother, James, earl of Moray, she managed to rule the country and establish a policy of religious tolerance. In 1565, at 23, Mary married her cousin, Henry Stuart, Earl of Darnley. Soon after, she discovered that he conspired with Protestant nobles to get a hold of her throne. After witnessing him killing her closest secretary, six months pregnant, Mary decided to detach herself from him. In 1567, Darnley died in a mysterious explosion; her involvement in the incident was unclear. Three months later, Mary married James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, her close confidant and the main suspect in her late husband’s death. The Scottish nobility did not approve of the marriage and rose against her. She lost an armed battle and was forced to abdicate her throne in favor of her infant son and imprisoned in Lochleven Castle, where she gave birth to still-born twins. In 1568, Mary escaped from the castle and raised a small army but was defeated. She fled to England, seeking the protection of her cousin Elizabeth I, but instead of getting help, Mary was imprisoned for the next 18 years. The Catholics in England wanted to put Mary on the throne instead of Protestant Elizabeth. Coded letters between Mary and her supporters were discovered in 1586, and she was brought to trial and was found guilty of treason. On February 8th, 1587, Mary got executed in Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire. She was 44 years old. Read more...

Born in La Vernia, Texas. She received education in county schools, and at 15 years old, she attended Dr. Zealey’s Female College in Mississippi. At age 18, she married Arthur McCallum, and the couple settled in Austin, where he served as a school superintendent. Her first steps into politics were campaigning for woman suffrage and prohibition. She convinced the owner of the newspaper “The Austin American” to publish a regular column in which she wrote editorials against the women’s rights movement’s opposition. At the age of 35, she attended the University of Texas at Austin and became one of the first mothers to study at the university. She dropped out after three years and registered again a few years later, but never completing her degree. In 1915, she was chosen as president of the Austin Women Suffrage Association. Together with Minnie Fisher Cunningham, the president of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association, she led a statewide campaign for the women’s suffrage movement, giving speeches and publishing articles. In 1920, after the ratification of the 19th amendment, McCallum shifted her focus toward other political reforms. She became active in the League of Women Voters in Texas and served as its first vice president. She also served as executive secretary of the Women’s Joint Legislative Council, also known as the “Petticoat Lobby,” promoting legislation of women’s and social issues such as school funding, maternal and child health care, restrictions on child labor, illiteracy, prison reform, and stricter prohibition laws. After supporting Dan Moody’s campaign for state governor, asking women to vote for him, she was appointed the Secretary of State, a position she served for six years. McCallum is the only person in Texas to serve in this position under two governors and for more than one term. While in office, she discovered an original signed copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence and helped restore it. She remained active in politics throughout her life, giving speeches, writing her column, and leading women’s demonstrations. She served as an elector during the 1940 presidential election and as a state Democratic committeewoman during the next two presidential elections. She was appointed as the first city planning commission of Austin and leading women. In 1954, after women won the right to serve on juries, 77 years old, McCallum became the first female commissioner of a Travis County Grand Jury. Read more...

Isidora Dolores Ibárruri Gómez was born in Gallarta in the Basque region of Spain. As the 8th of 11 children in a mining family, she was affected by the harsh working conditions that her father endured providing income to support the family. At 15, after her parents could no longer pay the tuition fee, she left school and started working as a seamstress and later as a cook. While working as a waitress in the city of Arboleda, she met Julián Ruiz Gabiña, a union activist and one of the founders of the Socialist Youth of Somorrostro, who introduced her to the movement, and its agenda. The couple got married in 1915, and soon after, Ibárruri joined the core group that in 1920 established the Spanish Communist Party (PCE – Partido Comunista de España) and renounced Catholicism. Over the next few years, Ibárruri immersed herself in Karl Marx’s writings and other socialists’ works. In 1918, at the age of 23, she published her first article on religious hypocrisy under the alias La Pasionaria – the Passionflower. Two years later, when the PCE was officially established, she was named a member of its Provincial Committee of the Basque. She served in various positions within the party, including a member of the Central Committee, and the Secretary of Women’s Affairs, while establishing herself as a journalist who promoted the cause. In 1931, following the formation of the Spanish Second Republic, Ibárruri moved to Madrid. There, she worked as the editor of the PCE’s newspaper Mundo Obrero, where she highlighted the issue of women’s rights. That same year, she traveled to Moscow with the party’s delegation to the Executive Committee of Communist International. As her reputation grew, so was the suspicion of the government, and she got frequently arrested. During this period, Ibárruri promoted cooperation between the PCE and other left-wing groups, co-founded the nonsectarian World Committee of Women Against War and Fascism, and led campaigns against the government’s repression of the population following the Revolution of October 1934. Two years later, at the age of 39, she entered the parliament as the PCE representative after the national elections of 1936. In this position, she lobbied for improving work and housing conditions and land reforms. At the time, she became known for her passionate and harsh criticism of fascist forces. In her radio and street speeches, she coined various phrases of the Republican resistance, including “No pasarán!” (They shall not pass!), and she became the symbol of the Republican cause. During the Spanish Civil War, which erupted in July 1936, Ibárruri emphasized the issues of women’s rights, arguing that in communist society, women must be treated equally to men, so their political and economic emancipation has to be a primary goal of the PCE. In addition to promoting the party’s agenda, she coordinated the evacuation of children from the war zone to safety. Following the victory of Francisco Franco in 1939, Ibárruri was among the tens of thousands of Republicans who fled Spain. She escaped to the Soviet Union and represented her party at Kremlin congresses as the PCE’s secretary-general. In 1960, she was asked to leave her position and was named president of the PCE, mostly an honorary title. No longer occupied with the party’s daily affairs, Ibárruri channeled her efforts toward other projects. She supervised the historical commission that documented the chronicles of the Spanish Civil War from the communist perspective (published in 1968), had a radio show broadcasted in Spain, and began to write her autobiography. On May 13th, 1977, 18 months after Franco’s death and after 36 years in exile, 82 years old Ibárruri returned to Spain. Upon her arrival, she was asked to run for the Spanish Parliament representing the newly legalized Spanish Communist Party. In the first free elections since 1936, held in June 1977, she was elected as a deputy from the Asturias constituency but resigned that same year due to health issues. She continued to participate in PCE congresses, political rallies, and Soviet holidays for the next decade. She died at the age of 94. Read more...

Martha Hughes Cannon was born in Clwyd, Wales, UK. When she was three years old, her family, who converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, immigrated to the US. They stayed in NYC for a few months before settling in Salt Lake City, Utah. Three days after their arrival, her father had died, and in the following year, her mother married the Mormon pioneer, James Patten Paul. At the age of 14, she taught for a year before learning to typeset. She then worked in various papers and magazines, including the Women’s Exponent, a suffrage publication edited by Emmeline B. Well, who encouraged her to become a doctor. At age 16, Hughes began taking pre-med night classes at the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah), from which she graduated five years later with a degree in chemistry. Afterward, she continued to medical studies at the University of Michigan with the church blessing and financial support. After graduation, she practiced for a short time in Algonac, Michigan, before moving to Philadelphia to further her studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was the only woman in her class. At that same time, she also learned Pharmaceuticals, Science, and Oratory, graduating at the age of 25 with four degrees. Upon her return to Salt Lake City, Hughes opened a private practice, and not long after, she was appointed by the LDS Church as the first resident physician of the new Deseret Hospital. There, she established a nurse training school and gave lectures on obstetrics. At the age of 27, she married Angus Munn Cannon, a Mormon polygamist who was 23 years older than her, and she became the fourth wife out of six. After her husband was sent to jail for been a polygamist and afraid of the option to testify against her husband, she exiled herself and her oldest daughter and stayed in Europe until the warrant against her had expired two years later. When she returned to Salt Lake City, Hughes became a prominent figure at the Utah Women’s Suffrage Association, giving public speeches and participating in suffrage conferences alongside Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. She believed that polygamous marriage is a feminist act that provides more freedom to women than a monogamous marriage. In 1896, Utah had restored women’s right to vote, and Hughes decided to run for state senator. She was 39 years old and became the first woman in the US to be elected as a state senator. In the four years Hughes held office, she authored numerous legislative bills promoting public health and sanitation. She lobbied for regulating working conditions for women and girls, education for children with disabilities, and pure food. She helped found the first state board of health and served as a board member. In that position, she established a commission to regulate contagious disease and tried to prevent unvaccinated children from attending school. In 1889, Hughes had her third child, and she did not run for a third term. She continued to serve at the Utah Board of Health, at the Utah State School for the Deaf and Dumb, and in 1902, she was appointed as a member of the psychology section of the Medico-Legacy Society of New York. In later years, she moved to California, where she served as vice president of the National Congress of Tuberculosis, and after her husband died, she settled in LA, where she passed away at the age of 65. Read more...

Kathleen Neal was born in Dallas, Texas, to well-educated and civil rights activists’ parents. When she was 9 years old, they moved to live abroad following her father’s job. Living in third world countries as Liberia, India, and Sierra Leone opened her up to different beliefs and ideologies. When her brother died of leukemia, she returned to the US to complete her education in a Quaker boarding school near Philadelphia. After graduating high school with honors, she studied at Oberlin College and then transferred to Barnard College, where she got more involved in civil rights movements. When her childhood friend got murdered by white supremacists, she moved to NYC to work at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. A year later, when she is 22, she met Eldridge Cleaver – the minister of information for the Black Panther Party. Not long after, she moved to San Francisco, and they got married. She served as the Communications Secretary for the party, holding press conferences, organizing rallies, and delivering speeches all over the country. She became the first female member to participate in the decision-making meetings, and as such, she had a huge impact on the progressive way that gender was approached at the party. She also helped party members, especially women, with their problems, from food and medical care to prison visits and rehabilitation after been tortured and living underground. As one of the party’s leaders, she and her husband were often investigated by the police, and in 1968 their apartment was raided. Later that year, her husband escaped to Cuba after being accused of attempted murder for staging ambush on police officers, in which two police officers were injured. She reunited with her husband in Algeria, where she gave birth to their first son, and in the following year, while in North Korea, she gave birth to their daughter. In 1971 the International Branch of the Black Panther Party was separated, and the couple founded a new organization – Revolutionary People’s Communication Network. Cleaver returned to NYC with her children to promote the organization. After 12 years in exile, her husband came back to the US, straight to jail. Although he was released after two years, they broke up, and in 1981, 36 years old Cleaver went back to school with a full scholarship to Yale University. She graduated with honors with a BA in History, and she continued to study for a J.D. degree, in a mission to become a lawyer. Afterward, she worked at a law firm in NYC, then as a law clerk in the US Court of Appeals, as well as a lecturer in numerous academic institutions. Throughout the years, she published articles in various newspapers and magazines and contributed to many scholarly essays regarding civil rights and the feminist aspect of the movement. Read more...

Born as Shirley Anita St. Hill in Brooklyn, NY, to a family of immigrants from the Caribbean region. Due to financial problems, Chisholm and her sisters were sent to live with their grandmother in Barbados, where she attended a one-room schoolhouse for five years before returning to the US. At 22, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brooklyn College, where she was recognized for her debating skills. Three years later, she married Conrad O. Chisholm. While studying at Columbia University for MA in elementary education, she worked and developed from a nursery school teacher to the director of the Friends Day Nursery in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and educational consultant at NYC Division of Day Care. By serving in those positions, Chisholm witnessed gender and racial inequalities, her interest in politics grew, and she began to volunteer for various organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the League of Women Voters and the National Association of College Women. In 1965 Chisholm became a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly, and three years later, she made history by becoming the first African-American Congresswoman in the US Congress. In her seven terms in the House of Representatives, she advocated for racial and gender equality, expanding the food stamp program, and promoted the ending of the Vietnam War. During her time in office, she hired women-only staff, claiming she faced discrimination more as a woman than as a person of color. On January 25, 1972, Chisholm announced her bid for the upcoming presidential elections. By that, she became the first African-American candidate of a major party to run for the US presidency, as well as the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. During the campaign, she faced many challenges; she wasn’t regarded as a serious candidate, received little support from her African-American male colleagues, and was blocked from participating in the televised primary debates. She lost the elections to George McGovern, who later was defeated by Richard Nixon. After the elections, Chisholm continued her work at the House of Representatives, served for four years as Secretary of the House Democratic Caucus, and in 1977, became the first African-American woman and the second woman to serve on the House Rules Committee. In 1982 Chisholm retired from Congress to take care of her second husband, who was injured in an accident. She moved to Williamsville, NY, and returned to work in education at Mount Holyoke Women’s College, teaching politics and sociology. She traveled all across the US, giving speeches at colleges and visiting different minority groups to empower them. In 1990, alongside 15 other black women and men, Chisholm established the African-American Women for Reproductive Freedom and served as its first chair. Chisholm died in her house in Florida after suffering from several strokes. Read more...

Born in Watertown, South Dakota and grew up on her family farm. After graduating high school, Noem enrolled at Northern State University but left school to help the farm after her father was killed in a machinery accident. She expanded the family businesses and added a restaurant and a hunting lodge. Taking over the farming operation motivated her to be more involved in government and tax reforms, and she turned it into action. Her first steps in politics were serving on local boards and committees, and at the age of 35, Noem won a seat in the South Dakota House of Representatives. She was re-elected and served in the House for a total of four years, and also served as Assistant Majority Leader. In 2018, Kristi Noem won the elections for Governor of South Dakota and became the first woman to hold the position. As a governor, she signed a bill to abolish the permit requirement to carry a concealed handgun, several bills restricting abortion, and a bill promoting intellectual diversity.   Read more...