5 Inspiring Women From Boston’s History You Didn’t Learn About In School

Illustration by Allie Runnion for Just Us Gals

Early in the year is a good time for us to reflect on our goals, hopes, and dreams. In times like these, we find comfort in looking to amazing examples of strength and grit to show us a path forward.  These 5 accomplished women from Boston’s history are sure to inspire your goals, and provide a source of inspiration for anything you’re set on accomplishing in 2021.

Elma Lewis

If you’re feeling like you’re not where you’d like to be in terms of your professional accomplishments, take inspiration from the extraordinary Elma Lewis.  A Roxbury native, Lewis dedicated her life to uplifting African American artists and culture through arts education.  A graduate of Emerson College and Boston University, Emerson is home to the Elma Lewis Center which uses storytelling as a means to achieve social justice.  She was the recipient of the MacArthur genius grant at age 60 in recognition of her contribution to the arts.  She also founded the National Center for Afro-American artists and its educational arm, the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts.  On top of all these accomplishments, she was awarded the Presidential Medal for the Arts in 1983.  Elma Lewis’s hard work and dedication prove that you can reach your goals and inspire at any stage of life.

Alice Stone Blackwell

Only child of suffragist and abolitionist Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell blazed her own trail as a women’s rights activist like her famous mother.  A Dorchester resident and graduate of Boston University, Blackwell was the editor of The Women’s Journal, a weekly publication of the American Woman Suffrage Association, from 1881-1917.  You can see the original offices at 5 Park Street on the Boston Women’s Suffrage Trail.  Blackwell was also a contributing writer who helped promote unity among different suffrage groups, and helped resettle Armenian refugees.  A lifetime of advocating for human rights causes helped unite a divided women’s rights movement.  Not a bad legacy if you ask me.

Mary Eliza Mahoney

If you’re in the health field, look to Mary Eliza Mahoney.  She was the first black woman to become a registered nurse in the United States.  Mahoney was educated at Phillips School at the corner of Pinckney and Anderson Streets in Boston.  At a young age, she knew she wanted to be a nurse and got a job at The New England Hospital for Women and Children.  The hospital also ran a professional nursing program that was very rigorous.  So much so that only 4 of Mahoney’s 42 classmates graduated.  She went on to have a career as a private nurse and advocate for black nurses in the profession by co-founding the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses in 1908.  Mahoney retired after a 40 year career and was also one of the first women to register to vote in Boston after the 19th amendment passed!  Mary Eliza Mahoney’s example shows that dedication to one’s craft and paving the way for those who follow you pays off.

Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin

Bostonian Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was a pioneer in publishing and civil rights.  Her list of accomplishments begins with the founding of the Woman’s Era Club, an association for black women.  Ruffin also published and edited Women’s Era which was a publication specifically for black women.  This was all happening in the 1880’s-90’s, about 30 years after the Civil War ended, which makes these accomplishments all the more impressive.  However, Josephine was just getting started.  She helped found the National Federation of Afro-American Women, served as the first vice president of the National Association of Colored Women, and was instrumental in starting the Boston chapter of the NAACP.  As an advocate for black women, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin helped ensure that those who followed would have a better life.

Rose Finkelstein Norwood

If you’re full of energy and looking to be involved in a cause, Rose Finkelstein Norwood is your girl.  Born in Russia, Norwood emigrated to Boston as a one year old.  She dropped out of Jamaica Plain High School to work as a telephone operator, and became an active member and leader in the Boston Telephone Operators Union.  She led the 1919 phone operator’s strike that resulted in a pay increase.  Norwood helped organize many different groups of union workers to fight for better pay, such as the Jordan Marsh department store workers, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, and Boston Public Library workers.  She was also active in the NAACP, advocated for married women to keep their pay, supported publicly funded daycare,  and was a labor Zionist.

Becky Holder is a content contributor for JUGs and works in education. In her free time she looks for the next best cup of coffee and great food. Follow along @rebeccalizholder on Instagram.

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