As Women’s History month comes to a close, we want to share some Michigan women who have made an impact on our state and our world.
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft was an Ojibwe and Scots-Irish writer born in Sault Ste. Marie in 1800. As the first known Native American woman writer, she wrote poetry and traditional Ojibwe stories and translated songs into English. Her writings were included in The Literary Voyager, the first Michigan magazine which was produced by her husband, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft.
Anna Sutherland Bissell, born in 1846, was the first female CEO in the U.S. She assumed the role at Bissell in Walker, Michigan after her husband died in 1889. She grew the company to an international market and later, as Chairman of the Board, introduced labor policies that were progressive for the time.
Cora Reynolds Anderson, born in L’anse Michigan in 1882 and of Chippewa, English and French descent, was the first woman and Native American elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 1924. After serving one term she left the legislature and served as vice president of the Republican Women’s Federation of Michigan.
Marguerite de Angeli was born in 1889 in Lapeer, Michigan and was the author of the Newberry award winning children’s book, The Door in the Wall, published in 1949.
Pearl Kendrick, a bacteriologist born 1890, Grace Eldering, a Public Health Scientist born in 1900 and Loney Gordon, an African-American chemist born in 1915 worked together at the Michigan Department of Health Laboratory in Grand Rapids to develop the first Pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine. Later, they developed the DTP vaccine for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus.
Emma Genevieve Gillette was born in Lansing in 1898. She went to Michigan State University Agricultural College and then founded the Michigan Parks Association, served on President Johnson’s Advisory Committee on Recreation and Natural Beauty and helped raise funds and support for public parks, including Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Fran Harris, born in Detroit in 1909 became the first female newscaster in Michigan when she broadcast on WWJ Detroit radio on January 4, 1943 and the first woman on Michigan television news on WWJ TV in 1946, and in 1964 began working in management. She also served a two year term as the national president of the Association for Women in Communications.
Ethelene Crockett was born in 1914 in St. Joseph, attended Howard University Medical School and became Michigan’s first African American female board certified OB/Gyn. In the late 1960s she was the director of the Detroit Maternal Infant Care Project and in the late 1970s the first woman to be President of the American Lung Association.
Dorothy Haener, was born in Detroit 1917, became a spot welder in 1937, and started working at Ford in Willow Run in 1941. She was an activist for the United Auto Workers International Union’s Women’s Department and co-founded the National Organization for Women. She helped unionize the clerical and engineering department’s at Ford under the UAW and was a member of the top negotiating committee.
Waunette McClellan Dominic was born in 1921 in Petoskey and was an Odawa rights activist who advocated for the U.S. government to comply with its obligations to Native Americans and for Native American fishing rights. She helped found the Northern Michigan Ottawa Association.
Dorothy Comstock Riley was born in Detroit in 1924. She attended Wayne State Law School, was the first woman to serve on the Michigan Court of Appeals and in 1984 became the first Hispanic woman elected to the Supreme Court of any state.
These are only some of the Michigan women who have contributed to our society through their hard work and talents. And we appreciate all of our amazing Michigan women readers!
