Katherine Dexter McCormick was the second woman in history to earn a degree in science from MIT. In 1904 she received her BS in biology and married an heir to the International Harvester fortune, Stanley McCormick, youngest son of Cyrus McCormick who invented the mechanical harvester. Two years after their marriage, Stanley was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Katharine built a fantastic castle, Riven Rock, in Santa Barabra, Ca, so she could live with Stanley surrounded by a peaceful atmosphere. Despite the tranquil surroundings her husband's episodes would wax and wane throughout his lifetime. Katherine earnestly believed that his illness was genetically-related so she resolved never to bear children. By 1909, Stanley was declared legally incompetent and the lawyers for the Cyrus McCormick estate battled to restrain Katharine's power to spend the money in Stanley's trust fund without court approval.
Katharine made small contributions to numerous causes, including the woman's suffrage movement and, later, Margaret Sanger's Planned Parenthood Federation. Most of her charitable spending went into neuroendocrine research. As long as her husband remained alive, her spending would be monitored by the probate court in Chicago and as long as she spent money on research into causes of and treatments for her husband's disease, her spending was easily approved. Only after his death in 1947 would she inherit the funds and be able to spend the funds at her own discretion.
By age seventy-one McCormick was wealthy in her own right and determined to develop a cheap, easy to use, safe, effective, artificial contraceptive pill. In 1951 McCormick met with Gregory Goodwin Pincus who had been working on developing a hormonal birth control method since the 1930s. McCormick agreed to fund Pincus' research into oral contraception and in 1954 she and Pincus got Dr. John Rock to conduct human trials. The FDA approved the sale of the Pill in 1960. During her lifetime and in her will, she contributed $2 million to develop the birth control pill, not a single cent of the government's money went into developing the most revolutionary pharmaceutical invention of the century. Nor did any corporation finance the development of a birth control pill: corporate executives refused to believe there was a market for a drug that prevents women from becoming pregnant. Without Katharine McCormick's funding, the birth control pill would probably not have been invented, tested, or marketed for a very long time.
She strongly believed in using her fortune only to aid unpopular causes which, in addition to controversial political movements, included the visual arts and music. She also donated money to MIT to build women's dormitories in her husband's name which are still used today. Following her death in 1967, her will provided $5 million to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which funded the Katharine Dexter McCormick Library in New York City.
According to Planned Parenthood, The Library serves the research and information needs of planned parentood, affiliate staff and volunteers nationwide, as well as researchers, other sexual health professionals, writers, and journalists. Last year the libaray drew from its collection of more than 6100 books, 23,000 articles, pamphlets, journals, and historic photographs and videotapes to respond to nearly 5000 requests for information and to create and publish fact sheets, white papers, bibliographics, and resource listings.
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Comments
Ok, she was completely AMAZING. I had no idea. Heh, explains how the pill ever got developed...
Posted by: Chris at March 13, 2006 5:25 PM
Wow! What an amazing woman. I have never heard her story before. Thanks for posting it.
Posted by: Dana at March 13, 2006 8:20 PM
What a truly amazing woman. I've heard of her before, but not in such detail. Quite a life.
Posted by: dena at March 14, 2006 7:54 AM
The selfless contributions by Katherine Dexter McCormick to the emancipation of women should be screenwritten in a movie. She never sought fame and notoriety for her good works but every American women today owes her freedom to her.
Hail to the Victor.
Posted by: Barbara at April 2, 2006 2:13 AM
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