Change in society happens in many ways. Learn more about the impact women have made in the Chicago area through fundraising, forging new career paths, creating art, protesting, and more.
The Silent Sentinels were a group of suffragists organized by the National Woman’s Party who began picketing outside the White House on January 10, 1917, in response to President Wilson’s dismissive suggestion that they “concert public opinion” about the vote.
African American women have served as nurses and caretakers since the United States’ period of enslavement, work that can be viewed as another form of labor that befell African American women.
Pearl M. Hart was known as the “Guardian Angel of Chicago’s Gay Community” and as a lawyer who was devoted to defending immigrants and leftists amid anti-Communist fervor.
Irene McCoy Gaines devoted her career in politics and advocacy to working against segregation and for the rights of Black women.
Mary Koga was a photographer and social worker, known for her work documenting first-generation Japanese immigrants and working to promote cultural exchange between Japanese and US communities in Chicago and beyond.
Margaret Haley was a teacher, suffragist, and advocate for the rights of educators, serving as vice president of the Chicago Teachers Federation for much of her career.
