McCormick, Katharine Dexter (1875–1967)

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McCormick, Katharine Dexter (1875–1967)

American philanthropist and advocate for women's reproductive freedom. Born Katharine Dexter, Aug 27, 1875, in Dexter, Michigan; died Dec 28, 1967, in Boston, Massachusetts; dau. of Wirt Dexter and Josephine (Moore) Dexter; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, BS in biology, 1904; m. Stanley Robert McCormick (son of Nettie Fowler McCormick [1835–1923]), Sept 1904 (died 1947); no children.

Inherited family fortune (1894); became active in national suffrage moment (1909); for years, worked with Carrie Chapman Catt in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and chaired its War Service Department during WWI; founded Neuroendocrine Research Foundation at Harvard Medical School (1927) and funded publication of the journal Endocrinology; began funding research into an oral contraceptive (1952) and because of her efforts, Enovid, the 1st oral contraceptive for women, came on the market and quite literally changed the world; funded the construction of 2 dormitories for women at MIT (1962 and 1968); left a $5 million bequest to Planned Parenthood Foundation of America.

See also Armond Fields, Katharine Dexter McCormick (2003); and Women in World History.

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