Category: Women/Gender

AMANDA (HUNT) WICKER (1900-September 19, 1987) was born in Sandersville, Georgia, and was raised by her mother, who was widowed when Wicker was very young. Wicker was one of seven children. She graduated from Tuskegee Normal School for Teachers in 1923. The following year, Wicker was an apprentice at the Clarke Training School in Washington, DC, where she learned the dressmaking trade under Mrs. Addie Clarke.

WINGER, CLAIRE HARRIS (January 18th, 1891-October 26th, 1968) was an American science fiction author who primarily wrote during the early to mid-20th century. Born in Freeport, Illinois, Claire was the eldest child of Mary Porter Stover and Frank Stover Winger. She graduated from Lake View High School in Chicago in 1910 and went on to attend Smith College in Massachusetts, but dropped out in order to marry Frank Clyde Harris.

WINSLOW, LOUISE MARJORIE OTTERMAN (19 August 1917 - 16 May 2001) was a Cleveland based pioneer in sewing, cooking, and craft "how-to" programs on radio and television in the late 1940s, 50s, and 60s.  

The WOMAN’S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY was founded in 1872 at Second Church on Superior St., with the purpose of helping and supporting female Presbyterian missionaries in their work in foreign countries.

WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE LEAGUE OF CLEVELAND. See WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION, NON-PARTISAN, OF CLEVELAND and TEMPERANCE.

WOMEN. Tabitha Stiles, who accompanied her husband on MOSES CLEAVELAND's survey expedition, remained on the shores of Lake Erie and was rewarded with a sizable land grant. She was an exception. Women helped tame the wilderness but seldom held title to it. Nor did many women own the homes, stores, and factories that marked the urban landscape in the years that followed.

WOMEN TOGETHER. See CENTER FOR THE PREVENTION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

The WOMEN'S BUREAU OF THE CLEVELAND POLICE DEPT. (CPD) provided the only police work open to women for nearly 50 years, although the CPD had employed women as jail matrons since 1893.

WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSN. OF CLEVELAND. See YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSN. (YWCA)

The WOMEN'S LAW FUND, INC., opened in Sept. 1972 in Cleveland as a pilot project of the Ford Foundation and the CLEVELAND FOUNDATION, was the first nonprofit organization in the country to address sex-discrimination cases. The fund does not litigate, but rather funds litigation for select cases. In the first case supported by the Women's Law Fund, LaFleur vs.

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE. Cleveland and northeast Ohio played an important role in the long struggle for women’s rights and the passing of the 19th Amendment. 

WOMEN'S WELSH CLUBS OF AMERICA. See WELSH HOME.

WOMENSPACE, founded in 1975, was a nonprofit coalition which addressed "issues affecting women and families." Penny Steenblock, Del Jones, Roberta Steinbacher, and Rev. Joan Campbell created WomenSpace to coordinate and unite area women's groups. The group promoted increased opportunities for women, researched and educated, and acted as a clearinghouse and resource center.

WOOD, "MARGE" MARGUERETTE (3 Oct. 1920-22 April 1998) was a renowned softball pitcher who in 1976 was inducted into the first class of the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame. She was born in Cleveland to Norman Wood, a gardener, and Marie (Kohler) Wood. Wood was an Olmstead Falls High School graduate and pitched from 1936-1951.

WOOLSON, CONSTANCE FENIMORE (5 March 1840-24 January 1894), author, was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, to Charles Jarvis and Hannah Pomeroy Woolson. The family moved to Cleveland later that year after scarlet fever killed three of her sibling in three weeks. While living in Cleveland, Constance came to know the Lake County region and Tuscarawas Valley, which would later appear in her books.

WOOLSON, CONSTANCE FENNIMORE (5 March 1840-24 January 1894) was an American writer who is considered a significant female author who had connections to several of the major writers of the era. Born in Clairemont, New Hampshire, Woolson was the sixth child of Charles Jarvis and Hannah Cooper Pomeroy Woolson, the former of which washer father being a descendant of the famous author James Fenimore Cooper.

WORKING GIRLS' HOME. See VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA.

YWCA. See YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSN.