Women welders

Women welders at the Landers, Frary, and Clark plant, New Britian,1943
– Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

From their unsung labors to society-changing accomplishments, Connecticut’s women have contributed to diversified fields of endeavor. During colonial times, they kept farms, homes, and businesses running—despite restrictions that then, and long after, barred them from the same rights as men. Among those pioneering national and local change in the 1800s are educator-abolitionist (and state heroine) Prudence Crandall and women’s suffrage advocate Isabella Beecher Hooker. Twentieth-century notables include Mary Townsend Seymour, champion of African Americans’ civil rights, and Ella Grasso, first woman to be elected a US governor in her own right. Today, the Connecticut Women’s Heritage Trail connects new generations to the histories of these and other women.

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Johnson, John W. 2005. Griswold V. Connecticut: Birth Control and the Constitutional Right of Privacy. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
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