Chicago Women Activists & Leaders 1945 - 2000

An important part of CWHC’s “Documenting Women’s Activism and Leadership in Chicago, 1945 – 2000” project has been identifying and creating reference files on the many women who were social activists in Chicago during this period.

We began with women who were involved in the Second Wave women’s movement in Chicago and participated in activities such as reproductive rights, the fight for the ERA, anti-rape and violence movements, equal pay for equal work, anti-discrimination in the workplace, women’s health, legal rights, child care, self-defense, and other efforts to empower and secure the safety and rights of women in the 1970s and 80s.

As our project matured we expanded the scope of our work to include women’s activism in broader areas including civil rights, community organizing, anti-war and peace work, labor organizing, politics, Lesbian and Gay liberation, neighborhood and housing issues, environmental justice, school reform, Black, Latina, Asian, and Native American women’s activism, the work of women religious, and the expansion and reorganization of the curriculum by academic scholars and other educators.  Our scope is still expanding as we continually discover new areas of advocacy by remarkable Chicago women working in many arenas of social justice.

At present we have identified and developed reference files on nearly 700 Chicago women activists and leaders during the 1945 – 2000 period. Basic information about these women has been entered into a spreadsheet and we are in the process of developing a database that will contain information about each woman’s background, activism, the issues and organizations she was involved in, her writings and sources for more information. Eventually this database will be put online available to all. 

What follows is a list of the activists and leaders we have identified so far along with a notation as to whether we have an oral history with them. If you think we have missed someone, please let us know.