Category: Historical / page 9

Lucretia Mott
Lucretia Mott


Born Lucretia Coffin on January 3, 1793, in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Lucretia Mott was a women's rights activist, abolitionist, and religious reformer. A child of Quaker parents, Mott grew up to become a leading social reformer. At the age of 13, she attended a Quaker boarding school in New York State. Mott stayed on and worked there as a teaching assistant. While at the school, she met her future husband James Mott. The couple married in 1811 and lived in Philadelphia. By 1821, Mott became a Quaker minister, noted for her […]
Emily Murphy
Emily Murphy


Emily Murphy was a Canadian equal rights activist, jurist and author. Murphy was the first female magistrate in Canada and the British Empire, and helped to repeal discriminatory legislation against women in Canada. However, her legacy is disputed, with her contributions to feminism weighed against her racist views and her advocation of eugenics. Murphy was born on March 14, 1868, in Cookstown, Ontario. Due to her family’s wealth and influence in society, Murphy was educated in private schools throughout her early life. In 1887, she married Arthur Murphy and had […]
Alva Myrdal
Alva Myrdal


Alva Myrdal was a Swedish politician, diplomat and social reformer, and the 1982 co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Myrdal was born on January 31, 1902, in Uppsala, Sweden. She earned a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Stockholm in 1924 and a Master of Arts from the University of Uppsala in 1934. Myrdal and her husband were leading advocates for social welfare reform and women's rights in the 1930s. She was also a prominent member of the Social Democrat Party in Sweden. In 1943, she was appointed to […]
Clarina H Nichols
Clarina H Nichols


Clarina Howard Nichols was an American journalist, lobbyist and public speaker involved in the temperance, abolition, and the women's rights movements. Despite her prominence in her time, she has been largely overlooked by historians until recently. Nichols was born on January 25, 1810 in West Townshend, Vermont. After graduating as class valedictorian, she attended an advanced school in West Townshend for further education, then taught for a year or two before marrying Justin Carpenter, a recent law school graduate and member of a prominent local family; the couple moved to […]
Thelma Catherine “Pat” Nixon
Thelma Catherine "Pat" Nixon


Thelma Catherine "Pat" Nixon was first lady of the United States from 1969-1974, the wife of the 37th president of the United States, Richard Milhous Nixon. Nixon was born on March 16, 1912, in Ely, Nevada and raised in California. She was given the nickname "Pat" by her father, in reference to her birthdate and Irish ancestry. Her mother died in 1925 and her father in 1930. She graduated cum laude from the University of Southern California in 1937 with a Bachelor of Science degree in merchandising and a teaching […]
Leonora O’Reilly
Leonora O'Reilly


Leonora O’Reilly was a labor leader, trade union organizer and suffragist. O'Reilly was born February 16, 1870, in New York City to working class Irish immigrant parents. Her father died when she was one year old, and her mother supported the family by working long hours as a garment worker and taking in boarders. As a child, O'Reilly attended union meetings with her mother. At age 11, she was forced to leave school to work in a factory as an assistant to a seamstress, and at 16, she became a […]
Christabel Pankhurst
Christabel Pankhurst


Christabel Pankhurst was born September 22, 1880 in Manchester, England. She was the daughter of a major leader in the suffrage movement, Emmeline Pankhurst and her husband, Richard Pankhurst. She attended the Manchester High School for Girls. Following that education, she obtained a law degree from the University of Manchester, despite not being allowed to practice law, as she was a woman. She was a co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union. She was a major force in the militant action of the organization. Many of the events of […]
Emmeline Pankhurst
Emmeline Pankhurst


Emmeline Pankhurst was a political activist and leader of the suffrage movement in Great Britain. Though often criticized for her strongly militant tactics, her contributions toward achieving women's suffrage in Great Britain are well-recognized. Pankhurst was born on July 15, 1858, in Manchester, England, to politically active parents. Despite being academically gifted, she did not receive the same education as her brothers. Although her parents supported women's suffrage and the general advancement of women in society, they believed that the most important part of a girl's education were the skills […]
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks


Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American civil rights activist who was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger. Her act of defiance and the resulting Montgomery Bus Boycott became important symbols of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and helped launch nationwide efforts to end segregation of public facilities. Parks was born February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. She married in 1932, and with her husband's encouragement, finished high school in 1933 at a time when […]
Alice Paul
Alice Paul


Alice Paul was one of the main leaders in the U.S. women's suffrage movement. Paul was born on January 11, 1885, in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, a descendant of William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania. Paul’s parents supported gender equality and social reform, and Paul attended women’s suffrage meetings with her mother. Paul graduated from Swarthmore College, a Quaker school co-founded by her grandfather, in 1905 with a bachelor's degree in biology. She received a Master of Arts in 1907 and a doctorate in 1912 from the University of […]