Our first installment of Avenger of the Month features Katharine Dexter McCormick, scientist, suffragette, and philanthropist. Born in 1875, her father was a lawyer and abolitionist; her mother was also an early advocate for women’s rights. Only the second woman to graduate from MIT, she received her degree in biology in 1904. While at MIT, Katharine earned a reputation as a rabble-rouser. At the time she attended, women were required to wear hats to class; she recognized that feather plumes and open flames in a chemistry lab represented a real hazard. Her protests eventually led to an end to this tradition.
Although she originally intended to attend medical school, like so many women of her time, these plans were interrupted by marriage and family. Wed to Stanley McCormick, heir to the International Harvester fortune, their union quickly turned tragic as Stanley progressively succumbed to mental illness. As his guardian, she controlled his wealth, becoming one of the richest women in the world at the time. Katharine used her wealth and influence to advance the cause of women’s rights; in 1909, she became involved with the women’s suffrage movement, and after the passage of the 19th amendment, served as the first vice president of the League of Women Voters.
In the 1920s, Katharine began her long collaboration with her friend Margaret Sanger to advance the cause of reproductive freedom. The two shared the view that, without the ability to control whether and when to have children, women’s rights were meaningless. In 1923, she famously smuggled nearly a thousand diaphragms back from Europe, all sewn into garments she had made while overseas. Ultimately, she is best known for bankrolling the research necessary to develop the birth control pill, to the tune of over $2 million. For her vision, her determination, and generosity, we remember this true renaissance woman!
Want to learn more?
The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution. Jonathan Eig, WW Norton and Company, 2014.
Amazing Women in History: all the kick ass women the history books left out
MIT Institute Archives and Special Collections
