TWOMN 347: History of Women in the United States
Basic Information Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 31, 1842. She was a woman who took on many roles; a civil rights activist, suffragist, and newspaper editor. Ruffin was best known for her career as one of the co-founders of the newspaper, The Woman’s Era, known for being the first…
Basic Information Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born to Mary Wescott Perkins and Frederick Beecher Perkins on July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut (Scharnhorst,1985, p.1). She was a prolific writer and, some would argue, the most influential feminist theorist of her time. Gilman’s writings include eight novels (three of which are utopian romances), a multitude of…
Antoinette Brown Blackwell Basic Information Antoinette Brown Blackwell was born in Rochester, NY in 1825 and passed in 1921 in the city of Elizabeth, NJ. Antoinette was married to Samuel C. Blackwell who was born in England, UK in 1823 and passed in 1901 Cincinnati, OH. They were both survived by Agnes Blackwell Jones, Ethel…
Basic Information Edith Ainge, or Mary E. Ainge, was born in England in 1874 (Oaks, n.d.). Edith Angie is known for how active she was in protest in New York and DC. She was arrested five different times for protesting. She was also an important speaker for…
Basic Information Mary Ann Cary, who is also referred to as Mary Ann Shadd Cary, was born on October 9, 1823 and passed on the 5th of June in 1893. Cary was a Black feminist and activist. She was a teacher, a journalist, an editor, and a lawyer later in life. Cary dedicated her…
Basic Information Jeannette Pickering Rankin is best known as the first woman elected to a federal office in the United States. She served two terms in the House of Representatives for the state of Montana. Her terms corresponded with World War I and World War II, and she was the only member of Congress to…
Basic Information Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born in Baltimore, Maryland September 24, 1825 and passed away February 22, 1911. Harper was known as the “Mother of African American journalism” (Atlas, 2019). She was an educator, writer, mother, abolitionist, and advocate for social reform. She is greatly recognized for her numerous poems published starting at…
Basic Information Virginia Louisa Minor was born on March 27th, 1824 in Goochland County, Virginia (National Park Service, 2019). She was an American women’s suffrage activist that led the fight for the enfranchisement of women based on the 14th amendment. She is most well known for her involvement in the Minor v. Happersett case,…
Basic Information Inez Milholland was born on August 6, 1886, in Brooklyn, New York and was one of the many women that participated in the women’s suffrage movement. Milholland supported those who were disenfranchised such as women, children, workers and the poor (Inez Milholland, n.d.). Milholland was passionate about social reform, which led her…
Basic Information Clarina Irene Howard Nichols, known to some as the “Forgotten Feminist” (Gambone, 2019), was born January 25, 1810 in Townshend, Windham County, Vermont. She gained notoriety for her journalism, her activism, and her eloquence. She was a suffragist, an abolitionist, and a frontier settler. Despite her early entrance to the fight for women’s…