Rebecca Lee Crumpler was born as Rebecca Davis in Christiana, Delaware, and was raised by her aunt in Pennsylvania. Growing up, she was inspired by her aunt, who acted as the community doctor, providing medical services and helping her sick neighbors. Crumpler was considered gifted in mathematics, and this permitted her to attend the prestigious private West-Newton English and Classical School in Massachusetts. At the age of 21, Crumpler moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, where she met and wed her first husband, Wyatt Lee. With no requirements needed, Crumpler began to work as a nurse. During the next eight years, her talent and professionality impressed many of the doctors she worked with, who encouraged her to apply to medical school. In 1860, with letters of recommendation from her male doctor colleagues, Crumpler was accepted into the New England Female Medical College – the first African-American woman to attend the school. In 1864, at the age of 33, Crumpler graduated and was named a Doctor of Medicine, becoming the first African-American woman in the US to receive a medical degree. While in school, Crumpler’s husband died, and around the time she graduated, she married her second husband, Arthur Crumpler. The couple settled in Boston, and she practiced medicine, treating mostly poor African-American women and children. At the end of the Civil War, she moved to Richmond, Virginia, to treat former slaves who were denied medical care by white physicians. In addition to practicing medicine, she provided missionary service and took the opportunity to learn about women and children’s diseases. In 1869, Crumpler returned to Boston, where she treated the African-American community of Beacon Hill. She took care of anyone in need, epically children whose parents did not have the means to pay for medical services. At 43, she began to teach medicine in Delaware, and a few years later, she stopped practicing medicine, dedicating her time to write a medical book based on her notes from her career as a nurse and a physician. Published in 1883, her book, titled “A Book of Medical Discourses,” focuses on different medical care options for women and children. Crumpler died at the age of 64 of fibroid tumors. Read more...

Harriet Hosmer was born in Watertown, Massachusetts. By the age of 4, her mother and her three siblings died of tuberculosis. Her father, who was a physician, was determined that his only surviving child would be healthy and strong, and from a young age, Hosmer knew to ride, row, and skate. Her father also supported her artistic passion and built her a studio where she sculptured animals from clay. After high school, Hosmer decided to become a professional sculptor, which required both anatomy and art training. Not able to attend medical school and live modeling classes because of her gender, Hosmer took private lessons at the Medical Department of the state university (today the Missouri Medical College) and then studied sculpting with an artist in Boston. At 23, Hosmer realized that she would not be taken seriously as a sculptor in the US, and together with her girlfriend at the time, Charlotte Cushman, moved to Rome, Italy. There, she was accepted to the studio of the sculptor John Gibson and practiced live modeling. She joined a group of expatriate artists and writers that included Nathaniel Hawthorne, George Eliot, Bertel Thorvaldsen, and numerous American women such as Edmonia Lewis, Anne Whitney, and Vinnie Ream. Together they were known as the Sisterhood of American Lady Sculptors and as the White Marmorean Flock. Six months after she arrived in Rome, Hosmer received her first commission. Not long after, she began working on her first life-size sculpture of Oenone. In 1855, she created a sculpture of Puck, based on the character from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It became one of her most popular pieces, selling 50 copies, one of them to the prince of Wales (later Edward VII). Afterward, Hosmer became a well-known artist both in Europe and in the US, and by 1859, she had earned enough money and secured enough commissions to open a studio of her own and run her business independently. Influenced by the artistic trend of that time, Hosmer sculptured in the Neoclassical style, mostly depicting mythological figures, strong and courageous female characters, such as Daphne, Medusa, and Zenobia – the Queen of Palmyra. At the time, Hosmer met Louisa, Lady Ashburton, a Scottish philanthrope and art collector, who became her life partner for the next 25 years. The couple lived mainly in England, and Hosmer traveled between her studio in Kent and her studio in Rome. In the late 19th century, the neoclassical style fell out of fashion, and Hosmer became focused on designing and constructing new devices to convert limestone into marble, as well as inventing a modeling process in which the shape of the statue is made first in plaster, and the wax coating came second. In 1900, Hosmer returned to the US and settled in Chicago, where she befriended Susan B. Anthony and became involved with the women’s rights movement. Her last work, a sculpture of Queen Isabella of Castile, commissioned by her fellow members at the women’s suffrage group the Queen Isabella Association, was displayed at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In her last years, Hosmer lived in Watertown, Massachusetts, where she died, 78 years old, from respiratory disease. As a successful professional sculptor with international recognition, Hosmer created almost a hundred pieces and became one of the most independent women of her time. She made her mark in art history and paved the way for generations of women who became artists, especially sculptresses. Read more...

Sarah Josepha Hale was born and raised in Newport, New Hampshire. Her parents were advocates for equal education, and in her home-school classes, her mother, and later by herself with the books of her Dartmouth student brother, she learned everything she could, from Latin and geography to philosophy and literature. As a young adult, she worked for a few years as a schoolteacher until she married David Hale at 23. Her husband supported her motivation to learn and encouraged her to publish her writings in local newspapers. In 1822, her husband died, and at 34, Hale published her first poetry collection, “The Genius of Oblivion,” to earn money to support her five children. Five years later, her first novel, Northwood, was published both in the US and the UK – making her one of the first American woman novelists as well as one of the first novelists to write about anti-slavery. The novel was a success, and not long after, Hale became the editor of the Ladies’ Magazine in Boston. In 1833, while working at the magazine, she published another poetry collection titled ‘Poems for Our Children’ that included the timeless nursery rhyme ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb.’ As a daughter of a Revolutionary War veteran, Hale was patriotic from birth, supporting patriotic and humanitarian organizations. She was an active member of the Boston Ladies’ Peace Society, and in 1833 she founded the Seaman’s Aid Society, an organization that employed wives of sailors who died at sea. The organization later expanded into a Mariners House that included a sailors’ boarding house as well as a day nursery and a school for seamen’s daughters. At 49, Hale started editing the Godey’s Lady’s Book journal, located in Philadelphia. During the 40 years she served in this position, she became one of the most influential voices of her time. More than 150,000 subscribers throughout the country have read her columns, essays, and poems. The vast range of topics she covered included clothes, interior design, cooking, literary criticisms, abolishing slavery, and child welfare. Hale used her platform to promote causes she believed in, especially women’s education, employment for women, the rights of women as property owners, and the acceptance of women physicians. As an editor, she supported American writers and insisted on publishing works of emerging authors and poets, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edgar Allan Poe, Emma Willard, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Since 1846, Hale wrote to every president, proposing to them the idea of celebrating Thanksgiving as a unifying national event. In 1863, after 17 years of promoting the holiday, President Lincoln accepted her initiation and declared that the fourth Thursday of November would be “A National Day of Thanksgiving and Praise.” Hale died in her home in Philadelphia when she 91 years old. Read more...

Kathrine Virginia “Kathy” Switzer was born in Amberg, Germany, where her father, who was a US Army major, was stationed. When she was 2 years old, the family returned to the US and settled in Fairfax County, Virginia. She began practicing sports as a teenager, playing basketball, field hockey, and running a mile every day. While attending Lynchburg College, VA, she practiced track and competed in numerous events that were open to women. After she transferred to Syracuse University, NY, she joined the men’s cross-country team and began long-distance running. Then she decided to run the Boston Marathon, even after her running coach told her that women are too fragile to run these distances. She signed up to the Boston Marathon under the name “K. V. Switzer.” This gender-neutral name conceals the fact that she is a woman, though that was a name she signed regularly. On April 19th, 1967, 20-year-old Switzer started to run the Boston Marathon. When it was discovered K. V. Switzer is a woman, the organizers treated her as an intruder, but this did not stop her from running. Four miles into the race, she was pushed by Jock Semple, a race official, who physically tried to remove her off the track. That moment was captured in a photograph and made headlines all over the world. Tom Miller, her boyfriend back then, who was running next to her, shoved him aside, while Switzer kept on running. After approximately 4 hours and 20 minutes, she reached the finish line. After the run, the Amateur Athletic Union banned women from all mixed running competitions, so Switzer, alongside other women runners, started a campaign to get women official status in marathons and long-distance races. It took five years of tireless efforts, and in 1972 women were officially allowed to run the Boston Marathon. Switzer proceeded to learn in college, earning a Master’s Degree in public communications, while continue running, participating in 40 marathons, and winning the New York City Marathon of 1974. She became a marathon commentator on TV and simultaneously worked to create and improve opportunities for female runners in the US and abroad. One of of her most significant achievements is including the women’s marathon in the Olympic Games in 1984. In 2015 she founded the 261 Fearless Foundation – a non-profit global organization that uses running as a method to unite and empower women. Read more...

Born as Sarah Margaret Fuller in Cambridge, MA. Her father, a lawyer and Congressman, was disappointed that his first child wasn’t a boy, so he provided her an education as if she was one, as well as forbidden her from reading “feminine” materials. At the age of 3, she learned to read and write, and at 5, she began learning Latin. At 9, Fuller began her formal education. Still, at 16, she felt that she is different from other girls her age, so she left school and came back home to continue studying independently, learning several languages, and reading world literature. In later years became to be known best-read person, male or female, in New England. At 24, Fuller published her first work – a response to historian George Bancroft, and a year later, she published her first literary review. When she was 27 years old, she began to teach under the journalist and educator Hiram Fuller and was paid $1,000 per year, an unusually high salary at the time. In 1939, 29-year-old Fuller decided to use her knowledge to educate women, so she gathered them and held what she called “Conversations”. These lectures were more like open discussions aiming to promote women’s education, focusing on subjects such as arts, literature, history, mythology, and nature. The goal of the conversations was to question, examine, and define women’s options. That same year, Fuller started to edit the transcendentalist journal “The Dial”, which made her an important figure of the Transcendental Movement, though she never identified herself as one. At the age of 34, Fuller published the book “Summer on the Lakes” in it she described her experiences traveling throughout the US and interacting with various Native-Americans tribes. The next book Fuller published was “Woman in the Nineteenth Century”, where she discussed women’s role in the US. The book became one of the most important works in American feminism and considered first of its kind. Fuller moved to NYC to work as a literary critic at the “New York Tribune”, she was the first full-time female book reviewer in the US, and two years later she became the first female editor of the magazine. During the four years she worked there, Fuller published over 250 columns regarding different topics, from art and literature to women’s rights and the plight of slaves. At 36, she was sent to Europe as the newspaper’s foreign correspondent, where she met many important figures, including Giovanni Angelo Ossoli, an Italian revolutionary who was ten years younger than her. They became a couple and moved to Florence, Italy. It is unknown whether they were officially married, though they were referred to as husband and wife, and had a son. In 1848, Fuller and her family sailed back to the US, but the ship hit a Sandbank close to the shore of Fire Island, NY. Most of the passengers and crew jumped and were rescued, but the bodies of the Fuller family have never been found. Margaret Fuller was one of the first active feminists; she promoted women’s education and employment opportunities, encouraged women to be independent in their marriage, and not to rely only on their husbands. She was also a humanist, advocating for social reforms, addressing issues such as African-Americans’ rights, prison’s living conditions as well as poverty and homelessness. Many prominent leaders of the Suffrage Movement regard Fuller as one of the movement’s major influencers, as Susan B. Anthony wrote about her that she was “possessed more influence on the thought of American women than any woman previous to her time.”   Read more...

Born in NYC, the 4th of 7 children. Her father was a prominent banker, and her mother was a poet who died when Howe was 5 years old. Howe attended school until the age of 16, and afterward, she educated herself, reading books her brother brought from Europe, attending lectures, and learning foreign languages. Thanks to her father’s social status, she was acquainted with noted writers, such as Charles Dickens and Margaret Fuller. Her love of poetry began at a young age, and by the age of 20, she had already published essays anonymously in literary magazines. At age 24, she married the physician and the founder of the Perkins School for the Blind (which accommodated Hellen Keller), Samuel Gridley Howe, who was 18 years older than her. Their marriage had many difficulties, as Howe’s husband did not support her writing and socializing and wanted her to be a homemaker, although he relied on her editing and writing for his newspaper. Hints of their troubled marriage can be found in the plays and poems she wrote. They got separated after 9 years of marriage. Howe’s first poetry collection “Passion-Flowers” was published anonymously when she was 34 years old, and 4 years later, she published her second collection, “Words for the Hour”, also not signed with her name. In 1861, Howe wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, a poem that became the hymn of the Union during the Civil War. She received only 4 dollars for publishing the poem. After the war, Howe dedicated her life to activism and promoting women’s rights. She co-founded and led many women’s organizations, including the New England and Massachusetts Suffrage Association, the American Woman Suffrage Association, the Association of American Women, the Association for the Advancement of Women, and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Howe also helped establish the Woman’s Journal of the AWSA, which she edited for 20 years. In 1872 she wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation” – an essay calling all women to join for world peace. Later she advocated for establishing a national Mother’s Day. Howe never stopped writing, and throughout her life, she published poems, essays, lecture collections, children’s fictions, travel books, biographies, and even music. Read more...

Sampson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts. In her youth, her father abandoned the family, and she was sent into care at family members and later to work as a servant. Even though she didn’t get any formal education, she learned to read, and at the age of 18, she worked as a teacher, as a skilled weaver and a light carpenter. When Sampson was 22 years old, during the American Revolutionary War, she decided to join the (male-only) army. She cut her hair, dressed in men’s clothes and called herself Timothy Thayer. This attempt failed when she was recognized by a local resident. Her second try was more successful, and again she cross-dressed and joined as “Robert Shirtliff” to an elite unit that was known for choosing above average tall and strong men. Due to her unusual height (approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall), nobody suspected she’s a woman. Sampson fought in several battles until she got wounded in her thigh by two musket balls and suffered from a cut on her forehead. Even though she didn’t want to be treated, she was taken to a hospital. Out of fear that her secret will be revealed, she left before they attend her thigh and she removed one of the bullets herself. The second one was too deep, and her leg never fully recovered. Her injury didn’t stop her; she continued to serve and was assigned as a General’s waiter. A year later, Sampson became ill, and the doctor who treated her discovered her true gender and identity. Instead of informing the army authorities, he took her to his home, where his wife and daughters took care of her. Sampson served in the army as a man for 17 months. Two years after her release, she got married. They were poor, with four children, couldn’t farm their land and the army withheld her payment because she was a woman, so she had to borrow money from family and friends, one of them was Paul Revere who requested on her behalf the pension she deserved. At the age of 42, in order to make a living, Sampson began giving lectures about her time in the army. In those lectures, she used to go off the stage, change to her uniform and perform complicated military drills. After 33 years of recurring attempts, the Congress approved Sampson’s petition, and she got the money owed her for serving the country. Sampson died at the age of 66 from yellow fever. Only years after her death, she was acknowledged for her bravery and heroism.   Read more...

During her long and productive career, Rich published more than 30 books of poetry and essays. In her writing, she explored issues of gender, racism, consumerism, class privilege, and politics. She was considered a radical figure in Second Wave Feminism, yet she was accepted by the institutions, won many awards, and is now considered a classic. The first one was for the collection of poetry, which she published at 22. The same year she graduated from Radcliffe College. Adrienne Cecile Rich was born in Baltimore, MD, and over the years she taught English, poetry, and creative writing at several institutions, including Swarthmore College, Columbia University, City College of New York, and Scripps College in Claremont. Among her most influential works, were two texts that dissected heterosexuality and motherhood as socially constructed institutions. In both cases, she provided a critical perspective toward every woman’s freedom to choose. In the case of Compulsory Heterosexuality, for example, she presented the notion of Lesbian Continuum as an alternative way of thinking about the variety of relationships between women. Both in her poetry and her non-fiction writing, the honestly spoke of taboos, like that of motherhood. In her book “Of Woman Born”, she points out to the difference between motherhood as an experience and an imposed political institution. Her mother was a concert pianist who put her career aside to raise her family, while her father developed his career as an academic. Rich embodied the feeling that she was the benefactor of her mother’s sacrifice. When awarded the 1973 National Book Award, she declared that she accepted it on behalf of all women and shared it with her fellow nominees, Alice Walker and Audre Lorde. In 1997 she refused the National Medal of Arts, she did so to express her critique of the Clinton administration. Her famous quote from the refusal letter stated: “art means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of the power which holds it hostage”. By her thirties, she was married and had three children. After her husband’s suicide, she had a relationship with novelist and poet Michelle Cliff. Read more...

Meredith Gang was born in New Jersey to secular Jewish parents who encouraged her to make art and have social awareness. She graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Fine Art from The Cooper Union in 1977 and the following year traveled to Europe, settling shortly in Pietrasanta, Italy to further develop her sculpting skills. The breakthrough came after 20 years of practice when she won her largest public commission, that of the Boston Women’s Memorial. Her work is informed by her timely interest in complex histories, female and racial representation in public spaces. Those themes come across in her public installations such as Countee Cullen memorial in New York Public Library and September 11th Memorial for the Cathedral of St. John. Bergmann won the commission to create the first monument of “real women” in Central Park, NYC, which was dedicated on August 26th, 2020. The monument has gained public attention since, among the 22 historical statues in the Park, there were none commemorating women, only fictional characters like nymphs, Alice in Wonderland, and Mother Goose. The new monument is called “Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument,” devoted to the suffragists Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She started studying poetry at the age of 48. Her poems since appeared in various publications, she served for a decade as the poetry editor of American Arts Quarterly and published a poetry chapbook. Bergmann is married to film director Michael Bergmann, with whom she collaborated as Production Designer. The two have a son and live in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Read more...

Jane Swift is Massachusettsian from birth. Her interest in politics was inspired by her father, who ran the family business and was a member of the Republican Party. Swift earned her degree in American Studies from Trinity College, where she was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and played on the women’s rugby team. At 25, she was elected to the Massachusetts Senate, the youngest woman in history to serve in this position. During her term, she promoted the 1993 Education Reform Act. At the age of 31, Swift ran as the Republican nominee for United States Congress, but she lost to the Democratic nominee by only 4 points. In 1998, when she was 33 years old, she was elected as the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. She was pregnant with her first child during the campaign and had to deal with criticism for her choices as a working mother. In 2001, Swift became Governor of Massachusetts after Governor Paul Cellucci resigned to become US Ambassador. At the age of 36, Swift became the youngest female Governor in U.S. history. At the time, she was pregnant with twins and became the first U.S Governor to give birth while in office. Though she was on maternity leave and had to be on bed rest, she remained active as an executive authority, chairing meetings by teleconference. She managed the crisis in Massachusetts during the 9/11 events, when two of the airplanes that crashed into the World Trade Center departed from Logan airport. In 2002 she tried to reelect but decided to leave the race. Since then, Swift focuses on education technology as well as empowering women and girls in the US and abroad. Read more...