Previously, we wrote of some of the women who made significant impact on the American way of life. We continue that today, in order to make sure the distaff side is satisfied that we did not put more emphasis on the men in our national life.
With the problem of women’s suffrage being denied until 1920, most of the following will not impact the political realm, although some do. However, life is made richer by the contributions of these outstanding American women.
One of the most well-known people of the 19th century was Harriet Tubman. Born a slave in Maryland, she was regularly punished by her owner, usually by whipping. Injured as a girl, she suffered lifelong physical problems from that injury, causing dizziness, pain and times when she could not sleep.
In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, but returned to Maryland to help her family to freedom. Eventually she was able to aid dozens more, gaining the nickname “Moses” for her efforts. She used what was called the Underground Railroad, a series of places of refuge, to get people to safety. After the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was passed, she then helped many get to Canada.
When the Civil War began, Tubman began serving the Union Army as a cook and nurse, but eventually she worked as a spy and an armed scout. After the war, she was active in the women’s suffrage movement. Her life is an amazing account of a woman who did not allow her humble beginnings defeat her, and she deserves her spot as a truly great American.
Next are two of the most significant women who worked tirelessly for women’s right to vote. These, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, along with others, made sure the issue of suffrage was always in the news.
Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906), was born into a family of Quakers, and agitated for the abolition slavery at age 17, collecting signatures on petitions for that to come about. By 1856 she had become the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Anthony met Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851 and became lifelong friends with her as well as working with Stanton in the abolitionist cause and the push for women’s suffrage. In the Civil War, Anthony helped generate the largest petition to Congress to abolish slavery, with over 400,000 signatures garnered.
After the War, the right to vote became the focus of her work, and she helped for a national league to secure that right. In 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting in her hometown of Rochester, New York, and was convicted in a highly publicized trial. She refused to pay the fine, but authorities never pursued the matter further. She was inspiration for an amendment, in the early 1870s, to amend the Constitution to allow women to vote in federal elections. The amendment was named after her, even though it was not until 14 years after her death, 1920, that it became law. In 1979, she was honored, and rightly so, with her image on one of the series of dollar coins.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s public career was much the same as Anthony’s, beginning with abolition, a cause she shared with her husband, Henry Brewster Stanton, one of the founders of the Republican Party. Stanton’s interests spanned the gamut of issues facing women in the 19th century, including property rights and the right to divorce. She became well-known when she presented her Declaration of Sentiments at the Seneca Falls, New York, convention for women’s rights.
After the Civil War, Stanton continued her multi-layered work for women’s rights, and became a very prolific writer about the subject. She was president of the major association for women’s suffrage, the National Woman Suffrage Association, until she resigned at the age of 85. For her efforts, Stanton is rightly honored in the ranks of great Americans.
Almost all Americans have heard of our next lady of merit — Clara Barton.
Barton was born in Massachusetts in 1821. A timid girl, she eventually overcame this disability to become one of the most famous of American women. Her most important accomplishment was the establishment of the American Red Cross, modeled after the European Red Cross. Barton had become a teacher at the age of 17, and was quite successful at that profession.
At the beginning of the Civil War, she was living in Washington, D. C. When the first casualties from that conflict were brought there, Barton helped with the nursing of the injured, most from the First Bull Run battle in July of 1861. She continued with this during the War, and afterward spent her time in locating and identifying missing soldiers from the War.
After ending that work, Barton traveled to Europe, and was introduced to the work of the Red Cross in Europe. She assisted in the nursing and humanitarian work associated with the Franco-Prussian War, becoming quite well-known. Coming back to American, she worked for the founding of an American Red Cross, which was set up in her home in 1882.
In the United States, Barton expanded the Red Cross from a nursing association to one that helped in all kinds of natural catastrophes. Floods, famine and other problems were addressed by her organization, which she continued to actively lead well into her 80s. She went to Cuba during the Spanish-American War, her last encounter with a war zone. She was 77 at the time.
There are so accomplishments to Barton’s life that only a small number can be mentioned here. Her life was one of uninterrupted service to her fellow humans, and that gives her a spot in the pantheon of American women.
Few have heard of Jeannette Rankin, but she was a very accomplished woman who stood for principle against almost universal opposition. Rankin, born in 1880, became the first woman to be elected to Congress, from Montana’s 1st Congressional District, in 1916. By the time of her election, she had been campaigning for the right of women to vote for some time. But her term in Congress coincided with America’s decision to go to war in Europe. Early in the morning of April 6, 1917, Congress voted to join Allies against Germany in the Great War. Rankin was one of 50 members of the U. S. House who voted no, but because she was a woman, she was vilified for her stand.
Rankin did not return to Congress in the next election, and she spent the years between World War 1 and World War 2 as a pacifist, founding a Peace Society in Georgia where she lived, and giving speeches decrying the use of war in international conflicts.
She returned to Montana and ran for Congress again in 1940, and was once again placed in the spotlight because of an impending war. One day after Pearl Harbor, on December 8, 1941, Congress was asked by President Franklin Roosevelt to declare war on Japan. The only “no” vote was by Jeannette Rankin, becoming the only legislator to cast such a vote for two wars. Again harshly criticized for her stance, even her brother informed her that 100% of her home state was against her. Her statement was, “As a woman, I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.”
Her life as a pacifist was not over. When the U. S. got mired in the Vietnam War, she helped organize a peace march to Washington, D. C., in 1968, where an anti-war petition was presented to the Speaker of the House on the Capitol steps. Ranking had led over 5000 on the march to Capitol Hill.
A colorful character, who did not accomplish much in the way of lasting achievements, she yet deserves her place in the American annals of great women. Her lifelong work for women’s rights and her steadfast pacifism were unparalleled.
Edith Bolling Wilson is noted only for one accomplishment. The second wife of President Woodrow Wilson, whom she married in 1915 during his first term in office, she became the first woman who exercised de facto control of the executive branch of government. Wilson had suffered a massive stroke in October 1919, rendering him incapable of carrying out his duties as President. Edith Wilson stepped in, keeping even his closest aides from seeing him. She screened both visitors, letters, and official documents during the remainder of his second term. It is reliably reported that Edith Wilson probably signed papers and made decisions that carried his imprint. Although not as well-known as other women, she proved the ability of women to succeed in public life.
There are too many worthy candidates to chronicle their lives here. So I will conclude with a quick list of those who might deserve a better hearing than I can give them, along with their signal achievements.
Emily Dickinson — one of America’s most important poets, this woman wrote thousands of poems, and is still studied and honored today for her work merits inclusion here.
Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, transformed the role of First Lady during her more than 12 years in the White House. She was an activist for the rights of the downtrodden, especially targeting Native Americans and African-Americans during the Great Depression. One of her noted trips was to encourage the Tuskegee Airmen, the African-American part of the Army Air Force in World War 2. Subsequent First Ladies all aspire to be as influential as she was.
Although not the first person to challenge the Jim Crow laws in Alabama, Rosa Parks became the best know for her defiance of segregation on the buses of Montgomery, Alabama. On December 1, 1955, she refused to give up her seat in the white section of a public bus; she was arrested and tried for breaking the law. Her act helped spark the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s, and the subsequent boycott helped bring Martin Luther King, Jr., to the forefront of the movement to give African-Americans civil rights.
Another groundbreaking woman was Sandra Day O’Connor, who became the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Appointed by then President Ronald Reagan, she would sit on the court for 25 years.
Two women were firsts as U. S. Secretaries of State. Madeleine Albright, in 1996 became the first female Secretary of State, when appointed by then President Bill Clinton. Born in Czechoslovakia, she and her family escaped to England when the Nazis overran her country in 1937-8. After the Second Word War, the family emigrated to the United States, where they were given political asylum. Condoleezza Rice became the first African-American woman to serve in the same position, when then President George W. Bush appointed her in 2004, and served for Bush’s second term, 2005-2009. She is an accomplished pianist, and served in several academic positions before and after her work in Bush’s administrations. For being first, these two women deserve accolades.
You will probably fault me for not including others, of for not going into more detail on some of these latter women, but time and space does place limitations on us at times. Suffice to say, that although the nation was served mostly by men in leadership positions, women made more contributions to American than is generally conceded. The list is long and impressive, and we are better because of those pioneering women.