Women Activists Educational Posters, “A...-”
for the social studies classroom, home schoolers and theme decor.

Grace Abbott
Bella Abzug
Abigail Adams
Jane Addams

Maria Gaetana Agnesi
Louisa May Alcott
Susan B. Anthony

Grace Abbott
b. 11-17-1878; Grand Island, NE
d. 6-19-1939

Social worker Grace Abbott was a pioneer in incorporating sociological data concerning child labor, juvenile delinquency, dependency, and statistics into the lawmaking process for the welfare of children, and drafting the Social Security Act.

Grace was the younger sister of Edith Abbott.

Grace Abbott quotes ~
• “Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.”
• “The first and continuing argument for the curtailment of working hours and the raising of the minimum age was that education was necessary in a democracy and working children could not attend school.”

• Two Sisters for Social Justice: A BIOGRAPHY OF GRACE AND EDITH ABBOTT

Bella Abzug, née Savitsky
b. 7-24-1920; New York City, NY
d. 3-31-1998

Social activist, lawyer, and the first Jewish woman elected to Congress, Bella Abzug was a leader in the Women's Movement as one of the founders of the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971.

Bella Abzug quote ~
• “This woman’s place is in the House—the House of Representatives.”

Abigail Adams
b. 11-11-1744; Weymouth, MA
d. 10-28-1818

Abigail Adams, née Smith, one of the most influential women of the late 18th century, wrote to her husband John Adams in March of 1776, “If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”

• more Great American Women posters
• Revolutionary War posters

Jane Addams
b. 9-6-1860; Cedarville, IL
d. 5-21-1935; Chicago

Jane Addams is best known for being a founder of Hull House in Chicago where, “... At its height, Hull House was visited each week by around 2000 people ... as night school for adults (forerunner of continuing education classes), kindergarten classes, clubs for older children, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a coffeehouse, a gymnasium, a girls club, bathhouse, a book bindery, a music school, a drama group, a library, and labor-related divisions ... and an opportunity for young social workers to acquire training.

Addams was also a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1931, shared with Nicholas Murray Butler.

• The Long Road of Woman's Memory (Online)

Maria Gaetana Agnesi
b. 5-16-1718; Milan, Italy
d. 1-9-1799

Mathematician, philosopher and linguist Maria Gaetana Agnesi was a child prodigy who can also be considered an activist for her composing and delivering a speech in Latin on a woman's right to education at the age of nine. She was also the first woman to be appointed professor at a university (Bologna) and called the most important woman in mathematics since Hypatia (5th century AD) by Dirk Jan Struik.

Louisa May Alcott
b. 11-29-1832; Germantown, Pennsylvania
d. 3-6-1888; Boston

Did you know that Louisa May Alcott canvassed door to door to encourage women to register to vote, and in 1879 became the first woman in Concord, MA to register to vote in the village’s school committee election? Does this revelation remind you of Alcott's character Jo March in her novel “Little Women”? Alcott's first novel “A Long Fatal Love Chase” may be of more interest to those considering her feminism motives.

Louisa May Alcott Quote ~
• “I like to help women help themselves, as that is, in my opinion, the best way to settle the woman question. Whatever we can do and do well we have a right to, and I don't think any one will deny us.”

• more Louisa May Alcott posters
• more American Authors of the 19th C posters

Mary Astell
b. 11-12-1666; Newcastle upon Tyne, England
d. 5-11-1731; breast cancer

Considered the first English feminist, author Mary Astell advocated an education for women that would extend their choices beyond being only either a mother, or a nun.

Astell's best known books, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies, for the Advancement of Their True and Greatest Interest (1694) and A Serious Proposal, Part II (1697), were outlines of a new type of institution, a protected environment, for women to assist in providing women with both religious and secular education.

Mary Astell quotes ~
• “If all Men are born free, how is it that all Women are born Slaves?”
• “Women are not so well united as to form an Insurrection. They are for the most part wise enough to love their chains, and to discern how becomingly they fit.”

Viscountess Astor
b. 5-19-1879; Danville, Virginia
d. 5-2-1964; England

American born Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, was the first woman to serve as a member of the British House of Commons. She was the wife of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor, and also an adherant to her particuliar understanding of Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science.

FYI - Lady Astor's sister Irene was the wife of graphic artist Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the “Gibson Girl” iconic image.

• more Headlines posters

Hubertine Auclert
b. 4-10-1848; Auvergne, France
d. 8-4-1914; Paris

Hubertine Auclert was a feminist and a campaigner for women's suffrage as well as demanding that women be given the right to run for public office, claiming that the unfair laws would never have been passed had the views of female legislators been heard.