With Thanks to Martha!

As another holiday season approaches, I find myself reflecting on the chance clipping I found  that first introduced me to Martha Matilda Harper.  That clipping said Harper was the first woman member of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, but when I called the Chamber, they had no clue who she was, but said, “Let us […]

Happy Women’s Equality Day. There is more to do!

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From Women Getting the Vote to Women Getting Their Own Pocketbooks

The celebrations have started  for the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment  which passed on June 4, 1919,.  That constitutional action gave women the right to vote as of Aug. 26, 1920 . Discussing women’s suffrage brings up Martha Matilda Harper. Susan B. Anthony and other suffragists understood that women gaining the right to vote […]

Why Rochester, NY Was So Progressive.

Discover how Rochester led the abolition and suffrage movement, which led to pioneering women entrepreneurship, Visiting Nurses, and affordable housing.

Martha, Susan, and Election Day

Empowering All As our country awaits our election day results, my thoughts return to Rochester, NY, where an extraordinary assortment of brave souls have rallied for centuries to assure everyone had the right to vote and  fully participate in our society. It took a radical group of Quakers, spearheaded by Amy Post, to entice Frederick […]

Martha and the Girl Scouts

When Juliette Gordon Low started the Girl Scouts with 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia, I wonder if she had ever been to a Harper Method shop and was encouraged by the female network of shops that Harper created worldwide?  Certainly, it was tragic that Martha had such a gruesome childhood being bound out at age seven to work […]

Remembering Outstanding Women

March is women’s history month.  I appreciate that at least women get a month a year, but, surely, it is time to realize women have and are making history every day. As we all reflect on the tragic loss of life at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, I have been reminded […]

Martha and Me

As another year passes, I am reflecting on how  Martha and I became buddies when she had been dead for almost fifty years.  Who knew that a marketing assignment for the grand opening of First National Bank of Rochester, NY’s refurbished headquarters in the grand Powers Building would change the direction of my life? As my consulting […]

Follow Martha Matilda Harper, the Empress of Labor, On Labor Day and Forever

The chance of birth determines not only your sex, but, often, your economic future.   In the Victorian Era, poor women were limited  to low or no-paying jobs including marriage, servitude or  factory work.  It was out of that quicksand of opportunity that Martha changed options for herself and other poor women.

How Rochester’s Women’s Equality Movement Propelled Harper’s World-wide Franchise Network

Rochester women and men were early leaders in the cause of women’s equality and it led to economic options for women… Here’s why Rochester, our foremothers, and especially Post, Anthony and Harper need to be remembered.Now, as we look at the earnings gap, the inequitable distribution distribution of women leaders at the top of major organization including our government, the discriminatory legislation affecting women, it is up to us to continue that struggle for equality.