Breaking the Ice
Trailblazing Women in Westerville History
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Introduction
For over 200 years, women with passion, persistence, and courage have shaped the course of Westerville's history. These women had bold visions. They saw potential, overcame challenges, and enacted change. One Westerville reporter described the first woman who rode a bicycle through town as having "broken the ice." Many other local women, from librarian to cryptologist, Marine to musician, broke the ice in their own creative ways.
Sometimes Westerville served as the focal point of their pioneering efforts, and other times it served as a springboard, launching their innovation into the wider world. Wherever they landed, these Westerville women transformed their communities with their impressive accomplishments. As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage on a national level this year, we also remember the women who trailblazed the way close to home.
The First Trailblazer
Activists
Otterbein Women
Wartime Women
Librarians
First Ladies
In the early history of the U.S., women could not vote or own property. Their vocational opportunities were severely limited because it was commonly believed that women should not work outside their homes. The 1800s and 1900s brought social changes that enabled women to do things they weren't able to before. Universities opened their doors to female students and industrialization created new labor demands that would need to be filled by women. Although World War II saw many women perform jobs traditionally done by men, it wasn't until the 1970s that the U.S. began seeing married women move into a male-dominated workforce in mass numbers.
Westerville has a varied history in terms of opportunities for women. Although Otterbein was one of the first universities in the country to be founded co-educational, women didn't hold certain roles in the community until much later. Here, we celebrate a few of Westerville's first Ladies.