Alice Wolfson
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Alice Wolfson | |
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| Alma mater | Barnard College |
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| Known for | Women's health |
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Alice Wolfson is an American activist and attorney who specializes in women's health care. A Barnard College graduate and former Fulbright Scholar, she is a veteran political activist in women's reproductive health issues, a lawyer, and a co-founder of the National Women's Health Network.
Activism
Wolfson gained prominence for her role at the Nelson Pill Hearings on Capitol Hill, where she and other soon-to-be prominent health feminists were galvanized by their success at warning women of the Pill's dangerous side effects.[1] Wolfson invited fellow feminist Barbara Seaman to testify at the hearings, and worked with her to eventually form the National Women's Health Network.[2] Wolfson's group consistently made national news at the time, and led to the public's outrage about women's health misconceptions.[3] Wolfson's activism is credited with opening up the FDA to consumer observers in order to better ensure that women's health would be addressed.[4] Her efforts also led to the FDA requiring medication package inserts with birth control pills, the first ever prescription drug insert in the United States.[5]
Wolfson is also notable for her discovery on intersectionality between race, class, and healthcare in the late 1960s to early 1970s.[6] Through her efforts in the D.C. Women's Liberation Movement (DCWLM), she was able to realize that women of color and/or women of lower social classes were more likely to seek out unsafe abortion methods because of inequalities in the healthcare system.[7]
In 1968, Wolfson signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.[8] In 1970, Wolfson was one of 17 women that contributed to writing the first issue of the impactful feminist paper, Off Our Backs.[9] In the 1990s, she worked to obtain damages for women adversely affected by breast implants.[10]
Wolfson was featured in the 2014 documentary film She's Beautiful When She's Angry, where she advocated for "changing the whole paradigm" of under-represented women's rights in society.[11]
Women's health
In the first issue of Off Our Backs, Wolfson writes about how the FDA had suppressed information from a study done about the pill's potentially fatal effects on women, which raised many safety concerns about the contraceptive.[12] Wolfson also argues that the choice of birth control method belongs to the individual woman, as they would be the one affected by its failure.[13] She has stated that the "work and toil put in by her generation" would be undone if Roe v. Wade was ever overturned.[14]
Awards and honors
- Wolfson was the recipitent of the 2021 Millicent Carey McIntosh Award for Feminism[15]
See also
References
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- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Kissling, Elizabeth (May 25, 2010). "How the Pill Gave Birth to the Women's Health Movement". MenstruationResearch.org. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Goldman, Marline B.; Hatch, Maureen, eds. (2000). Women and Health. Elsevier Science. p. 29. ISBN 9780122881459. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Senate Hearings on the Pill | American Experience | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2025-10-20.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Seaman, Barbara; Eldridge, Laura, eds. (February 14, 2012). Voices of the Women's Health Movement, Volume 1. Seven Stories Press. p. 54. ISBN 9781609804459. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Klein, Joanna (July 26, 2021). "A Pioneer In Women's Health in the 1960s". JourneyToLegacy.com. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Women's Activist Organizing in US History: A University of Illinois Press Anthology. University of Illinois Press. 2022. doi:10.5406/j.ctv2b6z7zm.13. ISBN 978-0-252-04434-2.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.White, Deborah Gray (2017). U.S. Women's History: Untangling the Threads of Sisterhood. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-7584-1.
- ^ “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” January 30, 1968 New York Post
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Vol. 1, No. 1, FEBRUARY 27, 1970 of Off Our Backs on JSTOR". www.jstor.org. Retrieved 2025-10-23.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Boodman, Sandra G. (June 22, 1992). "Now Women Are Having a Hard Time Getting Them Out". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Falek, Rachel (February 20, 2015). "Review Film: "She's Beautiful When She's Angry" and the history of the feminist movement". awolau.org. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Wolfson, Alice (1970). "answers to pill advocates". Off Our Backs. 1 (1): 3–3. ISSN 0030-0071.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Bloom, Amy (October 8, 2007). "Alice Wolfson". nwhn.org. Archived from the original on October 8, 2007. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ali, Safia Samee (May 3, 2022). "'Speak up. Don't be ashamed': Activists who fought for Roe urge younger generation to keep fighting". NBCNews.com. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Waxman, Judith (June 2021). "Alice Wolfson: "The Women's Movement Gave Me a Voice"". Veteran Feminists of America. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
