
Biographies generously sponsored by Susan D. Whiting.
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Women have always played an active role in history. Explore some of the historical pioneers and contemporary newsmakers that continue to impact the world. New biographies are added regularly, so check back to discover new stories!
Featured Biographies
Biography
Wilma Mankiller
Wilma Mankiller is often remembered as the first Principle Chief of the Cherokee Nation but her life was filled with activism from the beginning.
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Biography
Ruth Hanna McCormick
Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms was a Republican United States Representative from Illinois who served from 1929 to 1931.
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Biography
Patsy Mink
Patsy Mink was the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress.
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Biography
Gabriela Mistral
Chilean author and educator Gabriela Mistral became the first Latin American author to receive the Nobel Prize in literature.
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Biography
Maria Mitchell
Maria Mitchell was the first female astronomer in the United States and the first American scientist to discover a comet.
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Biography
Janet Mock
Janet Mock became the first transgender woman of color to write and direct an episode of television.
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Biography
Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture
Canadian Charlotte Monture moved to the US for nursing training and served in the US Army during World War I.
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Biography
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno became the first Latina woman to earn an “E.G.O.T.:” an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
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Biography
Biography
Lucretia Mott
Lucretia Mott argued as ardently for women’s rights as for black rights, including suffrage, education, and economic aid.
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Biography
Judith Sargent Murray
A prominent essayist of the American republic, Judith Sargent Murray was an early advocate of women’s equality, access to education, and the right to control their earnings.
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Biography
Mary Musgrove
Mary Musgrove become a negotiator between English and Native American communities and played an important role in the development of Colonial Georgia.
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Biography
Florence Nightingale
Nurse Florence Nightingale is best known for making hospitals a cleaner and safer place to be.
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Biography
Mary Adelaide Nutting
Mary Adelaide Nutting had a profound impact on American nursing. She was one of the key figures in modernizing the profession and her work is still influential in the field today.
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Biography
Joyce Parrish O'Neal
O’Neal has received many honors in her life, including inclusion in the Alabama Social Work Hall of Fame (2017). She was also the first African American elected to the Alabama State Personnel Board (2006 and 2010).
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Biography
Biography
Miné Okubo
Miné Okubo is well known for her representations of daily life and humanity in drawings depicting Japanese American internment during WWII.
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Biography
Adelina Otero-Warren
Adelina Otero-Warren, the first Hispanic woman to run for U.S. Congress and the first female superintendent of public schools in Santa Fe, was a leader in New Mexico’s woman’s suffrage movement.
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Biography
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and set in motion one of the largest social movements in history, the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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Biography
Alice Paul
A vocal leader of the 20th century women’s suffrage movement, Alice Paul advocated for and helped secure passage of the 19th Amendment.
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