Mary Ann Shadd Cary was a teacher, publisher, lawyer, and civil rights activist who published a weekly newspaper called The Provincial Freeman.
Ada Lovelace: World’s First Programmer
Augusta Ada King, known as Ada Lovelace, was a brilliant mathematician, exceptional writer, and one of the world’s earliest computer programmers.
Ida B. Wells: Fierce Anti-Lynching Activist and Abolitionist
Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, better known as Ida B. Wells, was an African American writer and activist famous for her work campaigning against lynching in the South.
The Amazing Nellie Bly, Adventurer and Pioneering Journalist
Nellie Bly was only 23 years old when, against all odds, she earned a job at Joseph Pulitzer’s newspaper, The New York World. Nellie had spent 10 days undercover in Blackwell’s Island Lunatic Asylum, proving that women could be successful, intrepid journalists, not just confined to the fashion and society pages. In an active career […]
Maria Glenn, Brave & Determined Young Woman of Regency England
Maria Glenn (1801-1866) was a shy young woman living in Regency England who endured criticism and vilification and was stoic in the face of bullying by her numerous powerful enemies. Maria Glenn, the daughter of a barrister, was born in the West Indies in 1801. She moved to Taunton in Somerset when she was 11, lived […]
Mary Treat, Victorian Entomologist and Visionary Biologist
Mary Treat (1830-1923) was a prolific scientific writer who earned a reputation as “the world’s most famous and industrious woman naturalist” at a time when few women were professionally engaged in biology. The daughter of a minister, Treat attended a private girls’ academy early in life. Such academies, or “seminaries,” were an answer to the […]
Clara Barton, Humanitarian and Founder of the American Red Cross
Clarissa “Clara” Barton is most widely acknowledged as the founder of the American branch of the Red Cross. Her life’s work cemented her as one of the most important figures in the history of social work and nursing alike, and millions of people from across the globe have benefited from her contributions to American healthcare. […]
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Feminist Writer, Lecturer, and Thinker
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a feminist writer, lecturer, and thinker at the turn of the 20th century. Despite her lack of formal education, she authored Women in Economics, a foundational text of early feminism, and became known as a preeminent sociologist, philosopher, and social critic. Her works of fiction represented the psychological impact of traditional […]
Melanie Klein, the Founding Mother of Children’s Psychology
As with many fields of study, the canonical works of the social sciences are overrun with the findings of white males. But in the field of psychoanalysis, Melanie Klein, a Viennese Jewish woman, made an impact on the field with her unlikely-sounding theories published in her book The Psychoanalysis of Children, where she documents infants’ […]
Cathay Williams, AKA William Cathay, American Civil War soldier
Cathay Williams (1844 – 1892), a.k.a. William Cathay, was the first known African American woman to enlist in the United States Army, and the only black woman documented to serve in the US army in the 19th century. Born a slave in Independence, Missouri in 1844, Cathay worked as a house servant on a nearby […]