Maurine Neuberger entered politics in her 40s, fast becoming the third ever woman elected to the United States Senate. Born Maurine Brown, she followed her mother’s footsteps and worked as a school teacher. She taught physical education and modern dance until she met Richard Neuberger, who inspired her to follow him into politics. Five years after, Maurine Neuberger was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives, while her husband served in the State Senate. That made them the first married couple in US history to serve in the same legislature. The Neuberger “power couple” also worked together as freelance writers and published a book about their political rise. She became nationally famous when she appeared in the State’s all-male House of Representatives wearing an apron and holding a mixing bowl. She argued for the repeal of a state ban on yellow margarine – which originated from the dairy industry fear of a substitute that looked like the real thing. Neuberger demonstrated how difficult it was to whip yellow food coloring into white margarine. Her demonstration ended the ban and paved her career as an advocate of consumer rights. When serving in the US Senate, she became an early opponent of the tobacco industry – pushing for warning labels on cigarette packages and publishing a critical book about the dangers of smoking. She also called for pollution controls on cars and supported legalized abortion. Neuberger decided against seeking re-election to a second full term because of the fundraising efforts that it would require. She went back to education and lectured in universities. Read more...

Alice Paul was born to a wealthy Quaker family on a small New Jersey farm. As Quakers, her parents supported gender equality, including education for women. From a young age, she developed a passion for reading and learning. After graduating high school, top of her class, she studied biology at Swarthmore College, where she was a member of the Executive Board of Student Government. It sparked her interest in political activism, and she moved to NYC to complete a fellowship at the College Settlement House social work. She went on to study and gain multiple degrees, including a Ph.D. in sociology and three law degrees. During a fellowship in England, Paul became involved with the militant Women’s Social and Political Union in London, first selling Suffragist magazines on street corners and then, alongside fellow American suffragette Lucy Burns, organized events, campaigns and established the Scottish branch of the organization. She learned militant protest tactics, such as picketing and hunger strikes, and became known as one who put herself in danger in public events to increase the visibility of the movement. Despite the violent experience of 7 arrests, 3 imprisonments, and 4-week force-feeding, campaigning for the cause of suffrage became her life mission. Upon her return home in 1910, Paul joined the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). She became a central figure in organizing the 1913 Women March in Washington the day before President Wilson’s inauguration, in which about 8000 women marched through Pennsylvania Avenue, viewed by a half million people, many of them harassing and heckling the marchers. In 1916, Paul’s militant approach created tension between her and the NAWSA, and she left to found the National Woman’s Party (NWP). The following year, she stood wearing a white dress and holding purple and gold banners as part of the Silent Sentinels – the first political picket in front of the White House. She was arrested but did not receive the special treatment she was supposed to as a political prisoner, living in harsh conditions and poor sanitation. With her fellow suffragist prisoners, Paul embarked on a hunger strike, for which she was transferred to the prison’s psychiatric ward, being tied up and forced fed. Her methods led to the end of the long struggle of the US suffrage movement, with the ratification of the 19th amendment, granting the legal voting right for women. After women’s suffrage was achieved, Paul moved her efforts to the international arena: co-founding the World Woman’s Party and lobbing for gender equality. She then went back to national politics, drafting the Equal Rights Amendment, which is still in the process of ratification during the 21st century. In 1945, she lobbied for the inclusion of the equality for women clause in the United Nations proclamations, and at the age of 79, she ensured that the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had a ‘protection for women’ paragraph. Paul was considered professionally demanding and personally conservative, including being criticized for elitism and racism within the suffragist movement. Among the many biographies of her life, little is mentioned about her personal life. Paul passed away at 92 years old in New Jersey. Read more...

Barbara Charline Jordan was born in Houston, Texas, and grew up on an unpaved street “in the biggest ghetto in the biggest state.” Jordan graduated with a B.A. from Texas Southern University and later received a law degree from Boston University. After two failed attempts at running for the Texas House of Representatives, she won a seat in the 1966 Texas Senate, the first black woman in the position – among 30 white men. In 1972 she was the first black person elected to the National Congress from Texas since the Reconstruction era, after the Civil War. She served only six years due to ill health and spent the rest of her life teaching at the University of Texas in Austin. Barbara Jordan was a great orator, a skill that gained her national recognition when addressing the Judiciary Committee in 1974 on national television – she spoke in praise of the constitution when calling for the impeachment of President Nixon after the Watergate scandal. Her talent for speaking in public made her the first woman and the first black keynote speaker at a Democratic National Convention in 1976. At the same time, her nature as a politician was a pragmatic negotiator, which led to criticism from black and feminist activists. In Jordan’s last public service position, she was appointed Head of the Commission on Immigration Reform, for which she had to travel to Mexico and the Dominican Republic in a wheelchair. She died at the age of 59 from pneumonia. Her death made her the first African American woman buried in the Texas State Cemetery.   Read more...

Woodhull was born to a family of ten children in Homer, Ohio. She and her sisters worked on a traveling circus, telling fortune to help the family earn money. When turned 15, she escaped and married Canning Woodhull, with whom she had two children – one with a brain injury for life. After they moved to New York and the couple got divorced, Victoria and her sister worked together as a medium. One of their clients led them to open the first female-owned brokerage house on Wall Street. With the fortune that they made, the two sisters invested in promoting the political and social reforms that they believed in. They published “Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly” – an innovative newspaper with the motto: “Progress! Free thought! Untrammeled lives!” In 1872, to promote women suffrage, Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to address the House Judiciary Committee and declared her candidacy for the presidency of the United States, when she is not even 35 years old. The election day she spent in arrest, for her newspaper was accused of publishing “obscene materials”. The month in arrest and the legal expenses drained her funds until she relocated to England. There, she married for the third time, and published The Humanitarian magazine, together with her daughter. With her actions and words, Victoria challenged many conventions of her time. In addition to women’s right to vote, she advocated for a range of freethinking causes: 8-hour work day, social welfare, free love, sex education, short skirts, vegetarianism, and licensed prostitution. Her opinions are now considered to have been 100-years ahead of her time. 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...

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 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...

Jackie Kennedy, aka Jackie O, was born as Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in 1929 to a wealthy New York family. She started writing and publishing at an early age, and at 12 she won the Vogue magazine contest to work in Paris, but had to decline it due to her mother’s opposition. A few years later, she lived for a period in Paris while studying for her B.A. in French Literature. At 22 she started working for Washington Times-Herald, publishing a column of photo-interviews with city residents. Among her interviewees was John F. Kennedy (JFK), whom she married at the age of 24 years old. In 1960 John was elected as the 35th US president, and 31 years old Jacky Kennedy became one of the nations’ youngest First Ladies. Her time in the White House was marked by high publicity. She restored the residency and later hosted a televised tour, which was watched by 80 million viewers and won her an Emmy Award. Her main contribution was in raising the recognition of the arts in the White House – hosting jazz and ballet performances, appointing the first in-house curator and establishing a Fine Arts Committee. She also made a notable contribution to the fashion world, presenting new trends such as the pillbox hat, oversize sunglasses, and headscarves. Her marriage to Kennedy was notoriously clouded by his infidelity, as was the case with her parents’ marriage. At 34 she lost both her newborn child to lung disease and her husband in a historical assassination. Five years later she married Greek Aristotle Onassis, one of the wealthiest men in the world, who was 23 years older than her. Her nickname then changed to Jackie O. She spent her last two decades as an editor in American publishing houses, and died of cancer at 64, then buried beside her first husband in Arlington National Cemetery. Read more...

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...