Alice Bunker Stockham

Who was Alice Bunker Stockham?

Alice Bunker Stockham was an obstetrician and gynecologist from Chicago, and the fifth woman to be made a doctor in the United States. She promoted gender equality, dress reform, birth control, and male and female sexual fulfillment for successful marriages.

A well-traveled and well-read person who counted among her friends Leo Tolstoy and Havelock Ellis, she also visited Sweden and from her trips to schools there she brought back the idea of teaching children domestic crafts, thus single-handedly establishing shop and home economics classes in the United States.

Stockham lectured against the use of corsets by women, made public endorsements of the healthiness of masturbation for both men and women, advocated complete abstinence from alcohol and tobacco, and believed in women's rights.

Stockham was very concerned with the economic plight of divorced women with children and prostitutes who wanted to get off the street.