Mary Ware Dennett

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1872, Mary Coffin Ware Dennett became an American activist known for her work in women's suffrage, pacifism, sex education, and birth control reform. She was active in the women's rights movement before focusing much of her energy on reproductive freedom and public education.

Dennett is especially remembered for arguing that people deserved clear, humane information about sex rather than silence or shame. Her pamphlet The Sex Side of Life, first written for her sons, presented sex as a natural part of life. When authorities treated the pamphlet as obscene and prosecuted her for mailing it, the case drew national attention and became an important test of censorship laws.

She also helped found organizations that pressed for wider access to contraception and for changes to restrictive laws. Though she is sometimes overshadowed by better-known contemporaries, her writing and activism made her a significant voice in the long struggle for reproductive rights and open sexual education in the United States.