Women You May Not Know

When she coined the phrase “Do everything,” Francis E. Willard (1839-1898) tasked women with lobbying, petitioning, writing, and lecturing until the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments were secured.

A convert to service-oriented Methodism, Willard fought for workplace reform, federally funded education, health, and welfare, as well as child abuse protections.

But when family tragedy drove her brother to alcoholism, Willard’s cry for women’s suffrage in the name of “Home Protection” against “strong drink” took on deeply personal significance. It was thus that Willard traveled the country, delivering more than a lecture a day for ten years, advancing her dearest-held causes as national president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

Willard, who raised eyebrows with her bicycling and vegetarianism, was also the first Dean of Women at Northwestern University, and a founding member of the Illinois Woman’s Press Association (1885) and National Council of Women (1888).

By Jen Hawkins