Daughter to Emmeline, sister to Christabel, Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (English, 1882-1960) was perhaps the most reserved—though no less dedicated—member of the Women’s Social and Political Union’s founding family.  Pankhurst designed banners, posters, and other promotional materials for the militant WSPU, but eventually left, opting to provide practical help to women by instituting a daycare, a […]

A Quaker teacher, Dr. Alice Bunker Stockham (1833-1912) earned obstetrics and gynecology degrees from two medical colleges, one specializing in homeopathy, and one in “eclectic” medicine (herbalism).  While operating a clinic and a free kindergarten, Stockham embraced suffrage and the nonviolent philosophies of iconic writers like Leo Tolstoy.  Tolstoy Stockham’s Tokology (Greek for “obstetrics”), which

Dr. Rachel Brooks Gleason (1820-1905) was a largely self-taught physician who assisted her husband, Dr. Silas O. Gleason, in allopathic medicine.  The couple successfully appealed for women’s admission to Central Medical College, and, in 1851, Gleason became the fourth American female medical doctor. Both her daughter and her sister would also become physicians.  Gleason went

Born in Illinois, Abigail Scott Duniway (1834-1915) was eighteen when she lost her mother and baby brother to a grueling six-month journey on the Oregon Trail. Duniway married a Lafayette farmer; when he was later incapacitated in an accident, she taught school and sold ladies’ accessories to support their six young children. Provoked by stories