Introduction

Unladylike2020 presents biographies of 26 little-known Progressive Era women who broke barriers in male-dominated fields at the turn of the 20th century. These trailblazers broke barriers in science, medicine, politics, business, journalism, exploration, and the arts. Two of these women, Zitkála-Šá and Susan La Flesche Picotte, worked tirelessly to improve the lives of Native Americans but had different perspectives and opinions about assimilation policies of the time. By learning more about their lives and analyzing primary source documents written by both women, you will gain a deeper understanding of how assimilation policies impacted indigenous people in the past and continue to have consequences in the present.