Nantucket Women’s History

Nantucket has a long and proud history of empowering women. Mary Starbuck led the way in introducing Quakerism to the island in 1702. For the next 100 years, the Quaker tenets valuing education and equality, coupled with the fact that many of the men were off on protracted whaling voyages, created the conditions for women to assume leadership roles in virtually all areas of commerce and decision-making on the island. Women were in the forefront in the fight for abolition and equal rights. Consequently, it is no surprise that many of the nation’s leading figures in the struggle for Women’s Suffrage had direct Nantucket roots.