As we approach the end of Women’s History Month, we are continuing to recognize the incredibly gifted, powerful, and eloquent women that have had a major impact throughout history. During an era of the mid-19th century when women’s voices were not welcomed, the revolutionary author, Louisa May Alcott, penned what needed to be said with great style, truth, and a whole lot of grit. Known for her literary work of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott flourished with success at an early age, and made a mark on society that still remains today.
Growing up in Concord, Massachusetts, the daughter of a Transcendentalist, Alcott learned at a young age to speak about ideological ways of life. This, as well as being the eldest of her four sisters, allowed her to mature quickly - often coming across as older than her age. During her youth, Alcott was having discussions with abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, the women’s suffrage activist Julia Ward Howe, and the women’s rights activist Margaret Fuller. Althoughthe Alcotts were a poor family, they prioritized their involvement within the Underground Railroad and their support of women’s rights. Her father’s inspirational friends, including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne were significant poets, philosophers, novelists, and most of all naturalists.
The mix of all of her experiences and exposure to so much knowledge - picking the brains and listening to such influential people - encouraged Alcott, whose mind was overflowing with stories and ideas that she had to put on paper. As a teenager, in between jobs as a teacher and servant to earn money for her family, Alcott began writing. She became a published author at the age of 19 when a women’s magazine printed one of her poems. However, she went by the pseudonym Flora Fairfield until she was 22 years old when she published a set of poems titled Flower Fables, written for Emerson’s daughter.
Alcott later went by a different pseudonym, using the name A.M Barnard when publishing Perilous Play and Pauline's Passion and Punishment. It is believed that she did so because she thought she would be more respected as a male author and that her career, or repertoire, was not yet in a place for her own name to be used. Because of the vast differences between the sensationalized themes of these works and the more wholesome and honest ideas shared in other works, it wasn’t until Alcott wrote Little Women that she authored a book in her own name. [She was all about her branding and personal PR!]
As she continued to write and provide for her family, she felt inspired to also help others and became a nurse during the American Civil War. After helping many, she unfortunately became very ill, after being exposed to mercury poisoning - causing her health to remain compromised for the remainder of her life. This experience pushed her to write Hospital Sketches, which kicked her fame into gear. However, it was not until her publication of Little Women in 1868 that Alcott hit her peak.
Men and women of all ages responded to Alcott’s writing, and with the Little Women, inspired by her own childhood experiences, many young readers connected to her more than ever before. She became an influential voice, especially in the early women’s suffrage movement. Alcott wrote for a women’s periodical, knocked from door-to-door throughout Massachusetts encouraging women to vote, and in 1879 she became the first women to register to vote in Concord - after the state passed a law allowing women to vote in local elections relating to education and children. And while the nineteenth amendment was accomplished decades after she passed away, Alcott is recognized as a trailblazer in the forefront of women’s suffrage and equality.
simoneink is continuously striving to be the best communicators possible by sharing the truth, the stories, and the ideologies of great leaders within the hospitality industry, who we have the privilege to work with on a daily basis. We believe it’s about disseminating information so that others may learn more about those who exhibit strong leadership qualities, fine skills at their craft, creative minds, institutional knowledge, empathy towards others, and a genuine aspiration for success. Through attention to detail - diving in to pull out the most important message - simoneink is able to tell these great success stories. And, we owe it to women like Louisa May Alcott for giving us the ideas and inspiration to think this way, write this way, and continue this way!