50 Important Women in US History

Abigail Adams

1744-1818. John Adam’s wife, she appealed to her husband to protect the rights of women. a member of the Daughters of Liberty

Jane Addams

1860-1935. Founder of Settlement House Movement. First American Woman to earn Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 as president of Women’s Intenational League for Peace and Freedom.

Louisa May Alcott

1832-1888. Famous author of the book, Little Women and children’s novels.

Marian Anderson

1897-1993. One of the greatest concert singers of her time. First African-American to perform at the Whitehouse. The DAR refused her use of Constitution Hall for a concert, so Eleanor Roosevelt set her up to perform at the Lincoln Memorial.

Susan B. Anthony

1820-1906. She worked for women’s suffrage (right to vote)

Clara Barton

1821-1912. Nurse, humanitarian, and teacher during the Civil War; started the American Red Cross

Mary McCleod Bethune

1875-1955. advisor to FDR who gathered a group of blacks, advised prez on issues involving black youth, worked to organize black leaders in favor of New Deal. Also formed a black school

Elizabeth Blackwell

1821-1910. A womans rights activist. Also first woman to receive a medical degree in the U.S.

Amelia Bloomer

An American women’s rights and temperance advocate. She presented her views in her own monthly paper, The Lily, which she began publishing in 1849. When Amelia was 22, she married a lawyer by the name of Dexter Bloomer. One of the major causes promoted by Amelia was a change in dress standards for women so that they would be less restrictive.

Mary Cassatt

American exile in Paris, painted sensitive portrayals of women and children (The Bath) that earned her a place in the pantheon of the French impressionist painters.

Willa Cather

United States writer who wrote about frontier life (1873-1947)

Shirley Chisholm

1st African American woman elected to Congress (NY) and later made a bid for the Democratic nomination in the 1972 presidential campaign

Emily Dickinson

., United States poet noted for her mystical and unrhymed poems (1830-1886)

Dorothea Dix

., along with Clara Barton, helped to get women to work in military hospitals during the Civil War.

Amelia Earhart

., first woman aviator to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic (1928)

Mary Baker Eddy

., founder of Christian Science in 1866 (1821-1910)

Geraldine Ferraro

., In 1984 she was the first woman to appear on a major-party presidential ticket. She was a congresswoman running for Vice President with Walter Modale.

Betty Friedan

., 1960s; wrote "The Feminine Mystique," an account of housewives’ lives in which they suboordinated their own aspirations to the needs of men; bestseller was an inspiration for many women to join the women’s rights movement

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

., nominated to supreme court on August 10, 1993 by President Clinton

Katharine Graham

., 70’s. publisher of the washington post, coverage of watergate eventually led to resignation of nixon

Sarah Grimke

., Wrote a panflit arguing about equal ritesof women. Essay titled "Essay on the Equality of Women." 1838, abolitionist and suffragist

Angelina Grimke Weld

.abolitionist and suffragist in the 30’s

Anne Hutchinson

., Puritan dissenter banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony who fled to Rhode Island in 1638

Helen Keller

., 10’s,20’s. Blind and deaf educator and author. She overcame her own disabilities and worked to help others who were blind and deaf.

Billie Jean King

., United States woman tennis player (born in 1943)

Mary Lyon

., in 1837 founded the first college for women, Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

Lucretia Mott

., A Quaker who attended an anti-slavery convention in 1840 and her party of women was not recognized. She and Stanton called the first women’s right convention in New York in 1848

Sandra Day O’Connor

.first woman supreme court justice in the 80’s

Georgia O’Keeffe

., United States painter (1887-1986)

Annie Oakley

., United States sharpshooter who was featured in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show (1860-1926)

Rosa Parks

., refused to give up her seat on a bus and was arrested in 1955

Alice Paul

., was a suffragist; in 1907 she went to England an marched with suffragist in London. She was then jailed and went on hunger strikes- all to help the British women win the vote. Later, she returned home to support the cause of suffrage for American Women

Frances Perkins

., FDR’s Secretary of Labor; first woman to be on a presidential cabinet

Jeannette Rankin

20’s-40’s. leader in the women’s suffrage movement in Montana, first woman to serve as an office for the House of Represntatives. but was equal to both

Sally Ride

., 1st and youngest U.S. woman in space; June, 1983

Eleanor Roosevelt

., 1930’s FDR’s Wife and New Deal supporter. Was a great supporter of civil rights and opposed the Jim Crow laws. She also worked for birth control and better conditions for working women

Wilma Rudolph

., first american woman to win three olympic gold medals in track and field in 1960

Sacagawea

., 1800’s. Teenage Native-American girl who guided Lewis and Clark through the Louisiana Purchase.

Margaret Sanger

., She organized a birth-control movement which openly championed the use of contraceptives in the 1920’s.

Bessie Smith

., famous Blues singer of the 1920s.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

A member of the women’s right’s movement in 1840. She was a mother of seven, and she shocked other feminists by advocating suffrage for women at the first Women’s Right’s Convention in Seneca, New York 1848. Stanton read a "Declaration of Sentiments" which declared "all men and women are created equal."

Gloria Steinem

United States feminist. Founder and original publisher of Ms. magazine, and was an influential co-convener of the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

United States writer of a novel (Uncle Toms Cabin) about slavery that advanced the abolitionists’ cause (1811-1896)

Ida Tarbell

A leading muckraker and magazine editor, she exposed the corruption of the oil industry with her 1904 work A History of Standard Oil.

Sojourner Truth

United States abolitionist and feminist who was freed from slavery and became a leading advocate of the abolition of slavery and for the rights of women (1797-1883)

Harriet Tubman

United States abolitionist born a slave on a plantation in Maryland and became a famous conductor on the Underground Railroad leading other slaves to freedom in the North (1820-1913)

Frances Willard

became leader of the WCTU. She worked to educate people about the evils of alcohol. She urged laws banning the sale of liquor. Also worked to outlaw saloons as step towards strengthening democracy.

Victoria Woodhull

(ran for prez in 1872) was an American suffragist who was publicized in Gilded Age newspapers as a leader of the American woman’s suffrage movement in the 19th century

Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias

Track and Field star. Won many awards. 30’s