Katharine Dexter McCormick single-handedly funded the research that produced the oral contraceptive pill—one of the most transformative medical innovations of the 20th century. She gave nearly $2 million (equivalent to $19 million today) of her own money, with no government or university funding involved.
A Pioneering Woman
Born in 1875, Katharine was one of the first women to graduate from MIT, earning a degree in biology in 1904. She planned to attend medical school but instead married Stanley McCormick, the youngest son of reaper inventor Cyrus Hall McCormick.
Within two years of their marriage, Stanley was institutionalized with schizophrenia. He would spend the rest of his life in care, and Katharine would never remarry. But she channeled her energy into causes she believed in.
The Fight for Suffrage
Katharine became a leader in the women's suffrage movement. In 1909, she organized the first outdoor suffrage rally in Massachusetts. She served as vice president and treasurer of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, funding their publication The Woman's Journal.
Through her suffrage work, she met Margaret Sanger, the birth control activist. Katharine joined the Committee of 100, a group promoting the legalization of contraception, and even smuggled illegal diaphragms from Europe into the United States for Sanger's clinic.
Funding the Pill
When Stanley died in 1947, Katharine inherited his $35 million estate. At age 75, she finally had the resources to pursue her deepest conviction: that women needed reliable birth control.
On June 8, 1953, Margaret Sanger brought Katharine to a small lab in Worcester, Massachusetts to meet scientist Gregory Pincus. At the end of that first meeting, Katharine wrote a check for $40,000. It was the first of many.
She pledged to fund the project to completion, contributing $100,000 annually at first, later increasing to $150,000–$180,000 per year. By the time the FDA approved the pill in 1960, she had invested nearly $2 million of her personal fortune.
Legacy
The birth control pill transformed society. It gave women unprecedented control over their reproductive lives, enabling advances in education, careers, and economic independence that continue to this day.
Katharine died in 1967, leaving $5 million to Planned Parenthood and $1 million to the Worcester laboratories. She was 92 years old.
"A group of brave, rebellious misfits—Sanger, Pincus, McCormick, and Rock—made such a radical breakthrough and did it with no government funds and comparatively little corporate money."