Category: women (7)

For most of the 19th century, Boston’s working women’s voices were not being heard. It would take the creation of the Women’s Trade Union League founded by Mary Kenney O’Sullivan in Boston to show women how to organize themselves into trade unions. On this tour, discover how women’s voices grew from the foundation laid by the Denison House and the WEIU (Women’s Education & Industrial Union).  Learn about the proud, defiant women who led Boston’s women’s trade unionism and suffrage movements, and the struggles these movements faced, divided along class lines. find out more

The Road to the Vote for national woman suffrage was a long and arduous one. Along the way, countless suffragists, in Boston, and across the nation, organized, wrote, fundraised, marched, picketed, boycotted, and went on hunger strikes to call attention to their cause. Generations of women fought in the struggle, all the while hoping to open minds and move hearts. By the early 20th century women in Boston were being arrested and jailed for their convictions. It was 72 years from Seneca Falls to the time when American women voted in municipal, state and federal elections exercising the right provided to them in the 19th amendment. This tour celebrates the centennial of the ratification of that amendment and highlights the places, people and protests that helped win the vote for women. This tour was developed by the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail , a group that works to restore women to their rightful place in the history of Boston by uncovering, chronicling, and disseminating information about the women who have made lasting contributions to the City of Boston. find out more

During the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century, Boston's Back Bay was alive with social clubs and thriving cultural institutions. On this tour we will explore the favorite haunts of Boston's upper-class, often known as "Boston Brahmins." Though "Brahmins" had a reputation for being exclusive and elitist, many of these men and women were active in making our city—and the whole nation—a better place to live. They fought to abolish slavery and to recognize women’s rights, and they built libraries, colleges, museums and orchestras. Though this elite generation of wealthy activists was often philanthropic, on this tour we’ll also discuss their limitations and shortcomings. find out more

Travel through the lovely Boston neighborhood of Jamaica Plain and discover some truly remarkable women who changed the course of the history of our nation. Our tour will feature a Nobel Peace Prize winner, who lost her job at Wellesley because of her socialist leanings. We will discover a slew of reformers; women who worked for the abolition of slavery, free education for everyone and later, on civil rights causes in the 20th century. We will meet a scientist who created new fields of study and coined the word ‘ecology’. Our tour wils also include some pivotal writers, who put their words into the world and remain important to this day. Our tour ends at the Loring-Greenough House, a lovely Georgian mansion that was saved from the wrecking ball thanks to a local women’s club and its formidable members. This tour was developed by the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail , a group that works to restore women to their rightful place in the history of Boston by uncovering, chronicling, and disseminating information about the women who have made lasting contributions to the City of Boston. find out more

Women’s History Month Tour From the 1600s to the mid-1900s, women's groundbreaking contributions to Boston were often under-recognized – or even overlooked.  On this walking tour, learn who some of these Bostonians were and what greatness they achieved against the backdrop of the city's downtown neighborhood. Their own backgrounds were mixed.  Some came from wealth that they put to various uses; some were self-made women; and some were wives and mothers whose identities didn't stop at that point.  Their passions and professions ranged widely from creative survival in the Puritan era when women were limited in ways to earn a living to medicine, nutrition, education, art, literature, philanthropy, gender rights, and reforms of the 20th century.  Overall, this tour acknowledges the giant steps these women took in making Boston and America what they are today. find out more