By Fiona Maxwell, University of Chicago Graduate Global Impact Intern Frances Willard’s prominence as an activist, orator, writer, and educator has tended to overshadow many of the other remarkable woman leaders active in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union during the late nineteenth century–including Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the National “superintendent for work among the colored … Read more
There has been a lot of debate and discussion about the meaning of the word feminism in recent years. Women today take various stands for or against it – and generally its true meaning is lost in the fray. Feminism is a loaded word in our culture with some wearing the term proudly and others … Read more
In 1896, Frances Willard was visiting her friend Lady Somerset when she heard about a refugee crisis in Marseilles, France. The crisis had begun in 1894 when massacres of Christian Armenians broke out across the Ottoman Empire and continued for the next several years as the Empire sought to repress the Armenian population. This was … Read more
Following the 2016 Presidential Election, there was a call to action for women, inspired by the historic first female presidential candidate, to get involved in politics and fight for policies that would be best for women and their communities. This uniting of women (and men) with such fervor for politics and policy seemed unprecedented, but … Read more