Shaw, Anna Howard (1847-1919), was an American leader in the campaign for women’s rights. She lectured throughout the United States calling for woman suffrage (voting rights for women). She also urged audiences not to drink alcoholic beverages.
Shaw was born on Feb. 14, 1847, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She came to the United States with her family when she was 4 years old. She spent much of her childhood on a homestead near Big Rapids, Mich. Shaw was ordained a Methodist minister in 1880 and received an M.D. degree from Boston University in 1886. Few women of the 1800’s entered either the ministry or medicine.
As a minister and a physician, Shaw became increasingly aware of the problems of women. She began to work with the American women’s rights leader Susan B. Anthony in 1888 and lectured extensively in support of a woman suffrage amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Shaw served as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1904 to 1915. She died on July 2, 1919.
