How Brooklyn women paved the way
BY ROSE ADAMS
In politics, Brooklyn women have
continued to break barriers — becoming
the fi rst to serve on the New York
City Council and the fi rst to introduce
state legislation in the US.
In honor of Women’s History
Month, Brooklyn Paper looked back at
some of our borough’s political trailblazers
whose legacies carry on today.
Lady Deborah Moody (1586–circa
1659)
Born in London as a member of the
English nobility, Lady Deborah Moody
immigrated to the United States for
greater religious freedom after her husband’s
death. After being excommunicated
in Massachusetts for her Anabaptist
beliefs, Moody led a group of
Anabaptists to southern Brooklyn in
1645, where she established Gravesend
— the fi rst and only known colonial
village in North America founded by a
woman. Lady Moody laid out the town
in a square grid and introduced a policy
of religious freedom — a rarity in New
World colonies. The fi rst known female
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land owner in the New World, Lady
Moody became the fi rst woman in the
New World to exercise her right to vote.
Clara Cressingham (1863–1906)
Brooklyn-born Clara Cressingham
(née Howard) was one of the fi rst
women to serve in any US state legislature.
Educated in Brooklyn’s public
schools, Cressingham showed a “talent
for singing and public speaking,”
and married Navy veteran William
Harry Cressingham at 20 years old
before moving to Colorado.
One year after Colorado became the
fi rst state to grant women full suffrage
following a referendum in 1893, Cressingham
and two other female candidates
— Carrie C. Holly and Frances
S. Klock — were elected to the Colorado
House of Representatives.
The youngest of the female lawmakers,
32-year-old Cressingham
became the fi rst woman to hold a
leadership position within a state legislature
when she was appointed secretary
of the Republican House Caucus.
She was also the fi rst female state
lawmaker to have a bill she introduced
— which supported the sugar
beet industry — signed into law.
Genevieve Earle (1883–1956)
In 1935, Borough Park-born Genevieve
Beavers Earle became the fi rst
woman to be appointed to the New
York City Charter Revision Commission,
where she helped establish proportional
representation in city elections,
and was awarded a gold medal
for her service to Brooklyn by Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia.
Earle was also the fi rst woman
elected to the City Council, where she
represented Brooklyn for fi ve terms as
an “independent Republican.” Earle
served as the Republican minority
leader for nine years and fought for
the creation of playgrounds and recreational
centers. The lawmaker was
known for her aggressive parliamentary
tactics — in one famous instance,
she fought on the Council fl oor for 20
hours for the passage of her proposals.
This story has been edited for brevity.
For more on Brooklyn’s trailblazing
women, visit BrooklynPaper.com
and our new partner, PoliticsNY.com.
Women rally for a “women’s suffrage baseball game” in 1915. Wikimedia Commons
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