Recently I was asked by a student if abortion was necessary for women to achieve equality in the workplace. Absolutely not. Consider for a moment all of the landmark reforms that our feminist foremothers, who opposed abortion, achieved in their struggle for equality in the last half of the 19th century. In a peaceful revolution […]

Sophia Duleep Singh was a typical British suffragette, blending in with the crowds of protestors; her only stated interest was “the advancement of women.” But Sophia’s life was anything but typical.  Sophia’s story begins four thousand miles away from her home, with her grandfather Ranjit.  Ranjit Singh was the only ruler of the Sikh Empire, 

Nellie Bly, born Elizabeth Jane Cochrane in 1864, was best known for her travels, documented in her book, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days. In 1896, she met Susan B. Anthony, whose bicentennial birthday we celebrated on February 15, 2020. The following excerpt from “Champion Of Her Sex: Miss Susan B. Anthony,” originally printed in

Anne Trow Lohman, aka Madame Restell (1812-1878), was a notorious abortion provider who practiced without formal medical training in 19th-century New York City; the term “Restellism” became synonymous with abortion by the late 1830s. Born in Painswick, England, Lohman worked as a butcher’s maid starting at age 15. Shortly after she immigrated to New York with her first husband, he succumbed to