Who was the first woman in your family to vote or inspire you? Friends of Women Leading the Way share their stories in writing and video.
Do you have a story to tell? Register your high school class today and join our growing community of storytellers — preserving the past and inspiring future generations of storytellers.
My grandmother Bernice Veroff lives at an elder care residence in Hartford, Connecticut, where she spends her days kvetching about the food, leaving lipstick stains on all the lemonade glasses, scowling at the aides, and hoarding her winnings from games like Scrabble, Mahjong and Bridge, which she plays against the other Jewish ladies. In her private room, she has a bumper sticker taped to the wall: “Proud Democrat,” it says. The sticker is pasted between newspaper clippings about Hadassah, the women’s Zionist organization that she was active in for many years, along with magazine profiles of Hillary Clinton and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
READ MORE +
Harriet Porcher Stoney Simons was born in Charleston in 1896 to a family that had long been active in the politics and culture of the city.
READ MORE +
My great aunt, Florence Bayard Hilles, was the black sheep of our family. She was also my hero. It was her tattoo that hooked me.
Whenever I quizzed my grandmother about her, there was an eye roll. “Oh, Florence! She had a tattoo on her arm. A suffragist tattoo.”
READ MORE +
