civil rights activist, Born: 12/13/1903, Birthplace: Norfolk, Va. Baker was a driving force in the creation of the country's premier civil rights organizations. After graduating as valedictorian from North Carolina's Shaw University in 1927, Baker moved to New York City, where she encountered dire poverty, the result of the depression. She was a founding member of the Young Negroes Cooperative League, whose members pooled funds to buy products and services at reduced cost.
Grace Lee Boggs:
Lee became involved in the black power movement and was a founding member of Detroit's Asian Political Alliance. She has since continued her work as a writer, speaker, and civil rights activist. Has been working for women's rights all her life.
Evangeline Cory Booth:
1865–1950, general of the Salvation Army, b. England; daughter of William Booth. At the age of 17, she began evangelistic preaching. She was field commissioner of the Salvation Army in London for five years, commander of the Army in Canada from 1895 to 1904, and commander in the United States from 1904 to 1934. Booth was general of the international Salvation Army from 1934 to 1939. Her works include Love is All (1925),Songs of the Evangel (1927), and Woman (1930). See also Booth, family.
Margaret Brent:
1600?–1671?, early American feminist, b. Gloucester, England. With her two brothers and a sister, she left England to settle (1638) in St. Marys City, Md., where she acquired an extensive estate; she was the first woman in Maryland to hold land in her own right. Under the will of Gov. Leonard Calvert, Margaret Brent was made executor of his estates. She also acted as attorney (i.e., agent) for Lord Baltimore. As an important woman of affairs in the colony, she demanded (1648) a place in the colonial assembly. Her claim was refused while the heirs contested her handling of the Calvert estates. Shortly thereafter she moved to Virginia but kept her Maryland property.
Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee has been a star of stage and screen since her 1946 Broadway debut in Anna Lucasta. She has since appeared hundreds of times in plays, movies and television shows, frequently co-starring with her husband. The pair, married since 1948, are also famous for their off-screen activism and work on behalf of African-Americans in the performing arts. Dee's films includeThe Jackie Robinson Story (1950), A Raisin in the Sun, Do the Right Thing, and Baby Geniuses (1999).
Angelina Emily Grimké
1805–79, American abolitionist and advocate of women's rights, b. Charleston, S.C. Converted to the Quaker faith by her elder sister Sarah Moore Grimké, she became an abolitionist in 1835, wrote An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South (1836) in testimony of her conversion, and with her sister began speaking around New York City. She developed into an orator of considerable power and was invited (1837) to lecture in Massachusetts. Her three appearances before the Massachusetts legislative committee on antislavery petitions early in 1838 constituted a triumph. The same year she married Theodore Dwight Weld, also an active abolitionist. Ill health after her marriage led her to abandon the lecture platform, but she continued to aid Weld in his abolitionist work and maintained a lasting, lively interest in the cause to which they had contributed so much.
Ida Husted Harper:
1851–1931, American woman suffragist. Allied with the woman-suffrage movement from 1898, she became the official reporter and historian of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She wrote The Life and Works of Susan B. Anthony (3 vol., 1898–1908, repr. 1969) and later volumes (IV–VI, 1900–1922) of theHistory of Woman Suffrage started by Susan B. Anthony, who also contributed to Vol. IV.
Helen (Fiske) Hunt Jackson
1830–85, American writer whose pseudonym was H. H., b. Amherst, Mass. She was a lifelong friend of Emily Dickinson In 1863, encouraged by T. W. higginson, Jackson began writing for periodicals. She is the author of poetry, novels, children's stories, and travel sketches. In 1881 she published A Century of Dishonor,an historical account of the government's injustice to Native Americans. This book led to her appointment (1882) as government investigator of the Mission of California. She subsequently wrote Ramona (1884), her famous romance, which presented even more emphatically the plight of Native Americans.
Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low:
founder of the Girl Scouts of America,Born: Oct. 31, 1860, Birthplace: Savannah, Ga. Low came from a prominent Savannah, Georgia, family. After being educated at private boarding schools in Virginia and New York, Low spent many years traveling the world. She and William Low married in 1886 and lived in England for most of their marriage. Low, who was already partially deaf in one ear, lost nearly all of her hearing in the other ear shortly after her wedding. In 1911 Low met Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of England's Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, who inspired her to organize her own troops of Girl Guides. She formed two groups in London and one in Scotland before returning to the United States.
Yolanda King:
Died: May 15, 2007 (Santa Monica, California), Social Activist Best Known as: eldest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. A social activist, motivational speaker, actress, and eldest child of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. She was born in Montgomery, Ala., just two weeks before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. King later played the part of Rosa Parks in a 1978 mini-series. She graduated from Smith College and later earned her master's degree from New York University. During her life, King wrote and produced plays, gave speeches to all ages, and acted in a number of commercial movies. A visible member of the King family, Yolanda collapsed after giving a speech in Santa Monica, Calif.
Carry Moore Nation
1846–1911, American temperance advocate, b. Garrard co., Ky. During her childhood her family moved a great deal, finally settling at Belton, Mo., where she married (1867) Charles Gloyd, a physician. She abandoned Gloyd when he became a hopeless alcoholic, and in 1877 she married David Nation, an itinerant minister and lawyer. A proponent of temperance for many years and convinced of her divine appointment to destroy the saloon, Carry Nation gained fame in 1900 while living in Kansas when she began to supplement public prayers and denunciation with the personal destruction of saloon liquor and property. From Kansas she traveled to New York and soon became a national figure in the temperance cause. She presented a formidable obstacle to anyone attempting to stop her; her size (6 ft, 175 lb) and her use of the hatchet to smash saloons became legendary. Nevertheless, she was often attacked and beaten badly and was arrested 30 times in her life. Because of her unorthodox tactics, most temperance organizations were hesitant to support her. She did, however, focus public attention on the cause of prohibition and helped to create a public mood favorable to the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. She was also a forceful advocate of woman suffrage, although she received little support from suffrage organizations.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton:
1774–1821, American Roman Catholic leader, usually called Mother Seton, b. Elizabeth Ann Bayley, New York City. She was the daughter of a prominent physician. Her husband, William Seton, a successful merchant, died (1803) in Italy, leaving her with five young children. Soon afterward she became (1805) a Roman Catholic. This conversion severed her from her relatives, and she started a school in New York City to support her family. In 1808, invited by Bishop Carroll, she opened a school in Baltimore, then moved (1809) to Emmitsburg, Md., already the seat of a Catholic school for boys, Mt. St. Mary's. There she opened the first Catholic free school, the beginning of American parochial education and also founded St. Joseph's College (for women). About her she formed a community of women, which soon adopted the rule of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, the great sisterhood centered in Paris. This was the first American congregation of Daughters of Charity (or Sisters of Charity).
Sojourner Truth:
Freed Slave, Women’s rights activist, Black activist. leader in the Underground rail road. Convinced that she heard heavenly voices, she left (1843) domestic employment in New York City, adopted the name Sojourner Truth, and traveled throughout the North preaching emancipation and women's rights. A remarkable personality, she spoke with much effectiveness even though she remained illiterate.
Women of Government:
MINK, Patsy Takemoto
a Representative from Hawaii; born Patsy Matsu Takemoto, December 6, 1927, in Paia, Maui County, Hawaii; graduated from Maui High School, Maui, Hawaii, 1944; attended Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pa., 1946; attended the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebr., 1947; B.A., University of Hawaii, Manoa, Hawaii, 1948;
a Representative from Montana; born near Missoula, Missoula County, Mont., June 11, 1880; attended the public schools, and was graduated from the University of Montana at Missoula in 1902; student at the School of Philanthropy, New York City in 1908 and 1909; social worker in Seattle, Wash., in 1909; engaged in promoting the cause of woman suffrage in the State of Washington in 1910, in California in 1911, and in Montana 1912-1914; visited New Zealand in 1915 and worked as a seamstress in order to gain personal knowledge of social conditions; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1917-March 3, 1919); http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=r000055
Sandra Day O'Connor
had a reputation for being cold and humorless. Justice O'Connor was regarded as a consummate compromiser; her goal on issues was simply to achieve a majority vote. She is considered to be tough and is a conservative, but not as tough or conservative when it comes to women's rights and children. O'Connor made it clear that she believes a court's role, including that of the Supreme Court, is to interpret and not to legislate. She has been referred to as the most influential woman in America.http://phoenix.about.com/cs/famous/a/oconnor.htm Ruth Bader Ginsburg
is the first Latina to sit on the United States Supreme Court. She was a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit when President Barack Obama picked her to replace retired justiceDavid Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009.
-the first appointment of a woman to the U.S. cabinet. Her appointment was bitterly criticized by business, labor, and political leaders. As Secretary of Labor, she promoted adoption of the Social Security Act, advocated higher wages, urged legislation to alleviate industrial strife, and helped standardize state industrial legislation.
First woman governor The first woman governor of a state (Wyoming) in the United States, Ross later served as an officer in the Democratic Party and as a director of the U.S. Mint, one of the first women to head a federal agency.
Albright, Madeleine, 1937–, American government official, b. Prague, Czechoslovakia, as Maria Jana Körbel. Her family emigrated to the United States in 1948, and she attended Wellesley College (B.A., 1959) and Columbia Univ. (M.A., 1968; Ph.D., 1976). A lifelong Democrat, she was chief legislative assistant to Senator Edmund Muskie(1976–78) and served on the staff of the National Security Council and the White House (1978–81). When the Democrats lost the White House,
Barbara Boxer She was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1993, after serving 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. A liberal democrat, she is known for her advocacy of the environment and women's rights, as well as her stand against sexual harassment. She sought to thwart the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. As a representative, Boxer served on the powerful Armed Services Committee, and in 1984, exposed the Air Force's purchase of a $7,622 coffee maker http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0878898.html
Caraway, Hattie Wyatt(kăr'uwā") 1878–1950, U.S. senator (1932–45), b. near Bakerville, Tenn. In 1932 she was appointed to fill the unexpired Senate term from Arkansas of her late husband, Thaddeus H. Caraway. With the support of Huey Long, she was elected for a full term later that year, becoming the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. After failing to win renomination in 1944, she was appointed (1945) by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the Federal Employees Compensation Commission. http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/people/A0810355.html
Hobby, Oveta Culp, 1905–95, American public official and newspaper publisher, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1953–55), b. Killeen, Tex. She served as parliamentarian of the Texas house of representatives from 1925 to 1931 and from 1939 to 1941. In 1931 she married William Pettus Hobby, former governor of Texas (1917–21) and publisher of the Houston Post. She held various positions on the newspaper and at the family-owned broadcasting company. In World War II she became (1942) director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), which, in 1943, became the Women's Army Corps (WAC). She was commissioned colonel in 1943 and remained director until 1945. Appointed Federal Security Administrator under President Eisenhower, she became (Apr., 1953) the first Secretary of the newly created Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, the only woman in the cabinet. In July, 1955, she resigned to succeed her ailing husband as editor of the Houston Post, later (1965) becoming chairman of the board. The newspaper, now closed, was sold to the Toronto Sun Publishing Co. of Canada in 1983. http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/people/A0823863.html
Ada Kepley- First women to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1870.
Elle Baker:
civil rights activist, Born: 12/13/1903, Birthplace: Norfolk, Va.Baker was a driving force in the creation of the country's premier civil rights organizations. After graduating as valedictorian from North Carolina's Shaw University in 1927, Baker moved to New York City, where she encountered dire poverty, the result of the depression. She was a founding member of the Young Negroes Cooperative League, whose members pooled funds to buy products and services at reduced cost.
Grace Lee Boggs:
Lee became involved in the black power movement and was a founding member of Detroit's Asian Political Alliance. She has since continued her work as a writer, speaker, and civil rights activist. Has been working for women's rights all her life.Evangeline Cory Booth:
1865–1950, general of the Salvation Army, b. England; daughter of William Booth. At the age of 17, she began evangelistic preaching. She was field commissioner of the Salvation Army in London for five years, commander of the Army in Canada from 1895 to 1904, and commander in the United States from 1904 to 1934. Booth was general of the international Salvation Army from 1934 to 1939. Her works include Love is All (1925),Songs of the Evangel (1927), and Woman (1930). See also Booth, family.Margaret Brent:
1600?–1671?, early American feminist, b. Gloucester, England. With her two brothers and a sister, she left England to settle (1638) in St. Marys City, Md., where she acquired an extensive estate; she was the first woman in Maryland to hold land in her own right. Under the will of Gov. Leonard Calvert, Margaret Brent was made executor of his estates. She also acted as attorney (i.e., agent) for Lord Baltimore. As an important woman of affairs in the colony, she demanded (1648) a place in the colonial assembly. Her claim was refused while the heirs contested her handling of the Calvert estates. Shortly thereafter she moved to Virginia but kept her Maryland property.
Ruby Dee
Ruby Dee has been a star of stage and screen since her 1946 Broadway debut in Anna Lucasta. She has since appeared hundreds of times in plays, movies and television shows, frequently co-starring with her husband. The pair, married since 1948, are also famous for their off-screen activism and work on behalf of African-Americans in the performing arts. Dee's films includeThe Jackie Robinson Story (1950), A Raisin in the Sun, Do the Right Thing, and Baby Geniuses (1999).
Angelina Emily Grimké
1805–79, American abolitionist and advocate of women's rights, b. Charleston, S.C. Converted to the Quaker faith by her elder sister Sarah Moore Grimké, she became an abolitionist in 1835, wrote An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South (1836) in testimony of her conversion, and with her sister began speaking around New York City. She developed into an orator of considerable power and was invited (1837) to lecture in Massachusetts. Her three appearances before the Massachusetts legislative committee on antislavery petitions early in 1838 constituted a triumph. The same year she married Theodore Dwight Weld, also an active abolitionist. Ill health after her marriage led her to abandon the lecture platform, but she continued to aid Weld in his abolitionist work and maintained a lasting, lively interest in the cause to which they had contributed so much.
Ida Husted Harper:
1851–1931, American woman suffragist. Allied with the woman-suffrage movement from 1898, she became the official reporter and historian of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She wrote The Life and Works of Susan B. Anthony (3 vol., 1898–1908, repr. 1969) and later volumes (IV–VI, 1900–1922) of theHistory of Woman Suffrage started by Susan B. Anthony, who also contributed to Vol. IV.Helen (Fiske) Hunt Jackson
1830–85, American writer whose pseudonym was H. H., b. Amherst, Mass. She was a lifelong friend of Emily Dickinson In 1863, encouraged by T. W. higginson, Jackson began writing for periodicals. She is the author of poetry, novels, children's stories, and travel sketches. In 1881 she published A Century of Dishonor,an historical account of the government's injustice to Native Americans. This book led to her appointment (1882) as government investigator of the Mission of California. She subsequently wrote Ramona (1884), her famous romance, which presented even more emphatically the plight of Native Americans.
Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low:
founder of the Girl Scouts of America,Born: Oct. 31, 1860, Birthplace: Savannah, Ga.Low came from a prominent Savannah, Georgia, family. After being educated at private boarding schools in Virginia and New York, Low spent many years traveling the world. She and William Low married in 1886 and lived in England for most of their marriage. Low, who was already partially deaf in one ear, lost nearly all of her hearing in the other ear shortly after her wedding. In 1911 Low met Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of England's Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, who inspired her to organize her own troops of Girl Guides. She formed two groups in London and one in Scotland before returning to the United States.
Yolanda King:
Died: May 15, 2007 (Santa Monica, California), Social ActivistBest Known as: eldest daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.
A social activist, motivational speaker, actress, and eldest child of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. She was born in Montgomery, Ala., just two weeks before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus. King later played the part of Rosa Parks in a 1978 mini-series. She graduated from Smith College and later earned her master's degree from New York University. During her life, King wrote and produced plays, gave speeches to all ages, and acted in a number of commercial movies. A visible member of the King family, Yolanda collapsed after giving a speech in Santa Monica, Calif.
Carry Moore Nation
1846–1911, American temperance advocate, b. Garrard co., Ky. During her childhood her family moved a great deal, finally settling at Belton, Mo., where she married (1867) Charles Gloyd, a physician. She abandoned Gloyd when he became a hopeless alcoholic, and in 1877 she married David Nation, an itinerant minister and lawyer. A proponent of temperance for many years and convinced of her divine appointment to destroy the saloon, Carry Nation gained fame in 1900 while living in Kansas when she began to supplement public prayers and denunciation with the personal destruction of saloon liquor and property. From Kansas she traveled to New York and soon became a national figure in the temperance cause. She presented a formidable obstacle to anyone attempting to stop her; her size (6 ft, 175 lb) and her use of the hatchet to smash saloons became legendary. Nevertheless, she was often attacked and beaten badly and was arrested 30 times in her life. Because of her unorthodox tactics, most temperance organizations were hesitant to support her. She did, however, focus public attention on the cause of prohibition and helped to create a public mood favorable to the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. She was also a forceful advocate of woman suffrage, although she received little support from suffrage organizations.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton:
1774–1821, American Roman Catholic leader, usually called Mother Seton, b. Elizabeth Ann Bayley, New York City. She was the daughter of a prominent physician. Her husband, William Seton, a successful merchant, died (1803) in Italy, leaving her with five young children. Soon afterward she became (1805) a Roman Catholic. This conversion severed her from her relatives, and she started a school in New York City to support her family. In 1808, invited by Bishop Carroll, she opened a school in Baltimore, then moved (1809) to Emmitsburg, Md., already the seat of a Catholic school for boys, Mt. St. Mary's. There she opened the first Catholic free school, the beginning of American parochial education and also founded St. Joseph's College (for women). About her she formed a community of women, which soon adopted the rule of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, the great sisterhood centered in Paris. This was the first American congregation of Daughters of Charity (or Sisters of Charity).Sojourner Truth:
Freed Slave, Women’s rights activist, Black activist. leader in the Underground rail road. Convinced that she heard heavenly voices, she left (1843) domestic employment in New York City, adopted the name Sojourner Truth, and traveled throughout the North preaching emancipation and women's rights. A remarkable personality, she spoke with much effectiveness even though she remained illiterate.
Women of Government:
MINK, Patsy Takemoto
a Representative from Hawaii; born Patsy Matsu Takemoto, December 6, 1927, in Paia, Maui County, Hawaii; graduated from Maui High School, Maui, Hawaii, 1944; attended Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pa., 1946; attended the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebr., 1947; B.A., University of Hawaii, Manoa, Hawaii, 1948;http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m000797
Rankin, Jeannette,
a Representative from Montana; born near Missoula, Missoula County, Mont., June 11, 1880; attended the public schools, and was graduated from the University of Montana at Missoula in 1902; student at the School of Philanthropy, New York City in 1908 and 1909; social worker in Seattle, Wash., in 1909; engaged in promoting the cause of woman suffrage in the State of Washington in 1910, in California in 1911, and in Montana 1912-1914; visited New Zealand in 1915 and worked as a seamstress in order to gain personal knowledge of social conditions; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1917-March 3, 1919);http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=r000055
Sandra Day O'Connor
had a reputation for being cold and humorless. Justice O'Connor was regarded as a consummate compromiser; her goal on issues was simply to achieve a majority vote. She is considered to be tough and is a conservative, but not as tough or conservative when it comes to women's rights and children. O'Connor made it clear that she believes a court's role, including that of the Supreme Court, is to interpret and not to legislate. She has been referred to as the most influential woman in America.http://phoenix.about.com/cs/famous/a/oconnor.htmRuth Bader Ginsburg
Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg (born March 15, 1933) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ginsburg was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton. Ginsburg took the oath of office August 10, 1993. Generally she votes with the liberal wing of the Court. She is the second female justice (after Sandra Day O'Connor) and the first Jewish female justice.
Ginsburg spent a considerable portion of her career as an advocate for the equal citizenship status of women and men as a constitutional principle. She advocated as a volunteer lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union and was a member of its board of directors and one of its general counsel in the 1970s. She was a professor at Rutgers School of Law—Newark and Columbia Law School. In 1980, PresidentJimmy Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In 2009, Forbes named her among the 100 Most Powerful Women.[3]
Judge Sonia Sotomayor
is the first Latina to sit on the United States Supreme Court. She was a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit when President Barack Obama picked her to replace retired justiceDavid Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009.http://www.factmonster.com/biography/var/soniasotomayor.html
Frances Perkins-
-the first appointment of a woman to the U.S. cabinet. Her appointment was bitterly criticized by business, labor, and political leaders. As Secretary of Labor, she promoted adoption of the Social Security Act, advocated higher wages, urged legislation to alleviate industrial strife, and helped standardize state industrial legislation.http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/people/A0838456.html
Nellie Ross
First woman governor The first woman governor of a state (Wyoming) in the United States, Ross later served as an officer in the Democratic Party and as a director of the U.S. Mint, one of the first women to head a federal agency.
http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/whm/bio/ross_n.htm
Albright, Madeleine,
1937–, American government official, b. Prague, Czechoslovakia, as Maria Jana Körbel. Her family emigrated to the United States in 1948, and she attended Wellesley College (B.A., 1959) and Columbia Univ. (M.A., 1968; Ph.D., 1976). A lifelong Democrat, she was chief legislative assistant to Senator Edmund Muskie(1976–78) and served on the staff of the National Security Council and the White House (1978–81). When the Democrats lost the White House,
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/people/A0803112.html
Barbara BoxerShe was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1993, after serving 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. A liberal democrat, she is known for her advocacy of the environment and women's rights, as well as her stand against sexual harassment. She sought to thwart the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. As a representative, Boxer served on the powerful Armed Services Committee, and in 1984, exposed the Air Force's purchase of a $7,622 coffee maker
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0878898.html
Caraway, Hattie Wyatt (kăr'uwā")
1878–1950, U.S. senator (1932–45), b. near Bakerville, Tenn. In 1932 she was appointed to fill the unexpired Senate term from Arkansas of her late husband, Thaddeus H. Caraway. With the support of Huey Long, she was elected for a full term later that year, becoming the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. After failing to win renomination in 1944, she was appointed (1945) by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the Federal Employees Compensation Commission.
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/people/A0810355.html
Hobby, Oveta Culp,
1905–95, American public official and newspaper publisher, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1953–55), b. Killeen, Tex. She served as parliamentarian of the Texas house of representatives from 1925 to 1931 and from 1939 to 1941. In 1931 she married William Pettus Hobby, former governor of Texas (1917–21) and publisher of the Houston Post. She held various positions on the newspaper and at the family-owned broadcasting company. In World War II she became (1942) director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), which, in 1943, became the Women's Army Corps (WAC). She was commissioned colonel in 1943 and remained director until 1945. Appointed Federal Security Administrator under President Eisenhower, she became (Apr., 1953) the first Secretary of the newly created Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, the only woman in the cabinet. In July, 1955, she resigned to succeed her ailing husband as editor of the Houston Post, later (1965) becoming chairman of the board. The newspaper, now closed, was sold to the Toronto Sun Publishing Co. of Canada in 1983.
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/people/A0823863.html
Ada Kepley- First women to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1870.
Eleanor Roosevelt- First activist first lady.