Phillis Wheatley Peters
She was the first Black woman to publish a book of poems in America. But it wasn’t until she turned 25 that Phillis Wheatley was allowed to decide her own name.
Historic Women
Kate Warne
When Kate Warne interviewed for a job at the Pinkerton Detective Agency, no one would have predicted that she would save the life of Abraham Lincoln. When Warne arrived for her interview in 1856, it was assumed that she was there for a secretarial position. Instead, she charmed Allan Pinkerton …
Melusina Fay Peirce
Melusina Fay Peirce dreamed of a life for women that paid them for everyday household chores. Oh, what might have been.
Maud Stevens Wagner
When tattoos began popping up everywhere in our research this week, we took it as a sign and discovered Maud Stevens Wagner, credited as the first female tattooist in the United States. Born in Kansas in 1877, little is known of her early life. By adulthood, Maud was performing as …
Julia Child
Julia Child mastered French cuisine, but before Paris she lived in Sri Lanka and China working for the US government.
The Oracle of Delphi
Today’s autumnal equinox has us feeling a bit metaphysical, so let’s turn to ancient Greece and the story of the Oracle of Delphi, a collective of women over time whose divine communication with the gods made them among the most powerful women in the ancient world. From about 1400 BC …
Katharine Dexter McCormick
Born in 1875 in a Michigan town named after her family, Katharine had lineage, serious lineage. Her great-grandfather had served in both John Adams’ and Thomas Jefferson’s cabinets and was honored to read George Washington’s eulogy before the Senate. Intelligent and determined, Katharine wanted to make her own mark. She …
RBG
We created the 100 Woman Project to prove a point: That women, who make up 49.7 percent of the world’s population, have — despite thousands of years of effort to erase our stories, our history, our contributions and our opinions — risen above all that to make this world a …
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Nikole Hannah-Jones is an investigative journalist who writes for The New York Times Magazine about racial inequality. She received the Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for commentary for her essay in “The 1619 Project,” a special edition of the magazine that traces the influence of slavery in the United States. “At …