“Opening the Way” brings together the little-known women’s history of the space between Chambers and Wall Streets in a walking tour of downtown Manhattan. Written by former New York Times editor Betsy Wade and founder of the Columbia Journalism Review James Boylan and sponsored by Women’s eNews, it honors 21 diverse women suffragists, abolitionists, journalists, and fierce thinkers who changed both New York City and the nation. It consists of guided, self-led, and interactive tours, multimedia add-ons, and more.

This interactive component of the walk includes contemporary women leaders recording quotes of the historical women whose sites we visit. You can also listen to these recordings by dialing (917) 791-5004 and entering one of the 21 stops. For more information, please visit www.womensenews.org/OpeningtheWay. Thank you and enjoy!

Gloria Steinem came to national eminence as an activist and organizer during the second wave of the women's rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. She has also contributed to a number of other social justice movements and causes, and to this day speaks in America and around the world on issues of equality. She is the author of several books and co-founded Ms. Magazine in 1972. She has been featured in or contributed to an extensive number of magazines, newspapers, textbooks, television shows, and documentaries. Ms. Steinem speaks as the voice of Margaret Sanger, who was indicted in 1914 for intending to distribute information on birth control through the mail.

Rita Henley Jensen is the founder and editor-in-chief of Women’s eNews, a nonprofit news service for issues of particular concern to women. Women’s eNews has won over 37 journalism awards, and Jensen herself has also won an armful of awards, including the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Alumni award, the Alicia Patterson fellowship, and the Lloyd P. Burns Public Service prize. Jensen formerly worked for the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund. She was also a senior writer for the National Law Journal and a columnist for the New York Times Syndicate. She has testified before New York City Council on crisis pregnancy centers, and in front of Congress on immigration. Jensen is a survivor of domestic violence and a former welfare mother who earned degrees from Ohio State University and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She reads a quote from Jenny June, a pioneer female journalist who worked as an editor at the New York World, as well as at multiple other newspapers.

Gloria Jacobs became the executive director of the Feminist Press after many years as the executive editor of Ms. Magazine. She is the co-author of Re-making Love: The Feminization of Sex, and her articles have appeared in many publications including the New York Times, the New York Daily News, the Guardian, Mother Jones, Working Mother and New York Woman. As a consultant for the United Nations, Jacobs edited and wrote several major reports on women around the world, particularly during times of war, conflict, and peace negotiations, as well as the impact of HIV/AIDS on women in developing countries. She has also been a board member and chair of several organizations. Ms. Jacobs records an excerpt from a speech by Ernestine Rose on the property rights of married women, given at the New York State Women’s Rights Convention in 1853.

The Rev. Violet Dease Lee is the assistant pastor at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City. She is the first and only woman to serve in this role and the first woman to preside over the ordinances in the church’s history of over 200 years. She has been with the Abyssinian Baptist Church since 1998. Prior to joining the church, she served in many social work capacities, contributing especially to the lives of men and women living with HIV/AIDS. She is currently also working towards her doctorate in religious education at Fordham University. Rev. Lee speaks in the voice of Sojourner Truth, in an excerpt of her autobiography discussing her name change.

Charlotte Cooper joined Women’s eNews as director of marketing in October 2010 after first working as a volunteer for the organization. She was a co-founder and designer of the British feminist magazine Subtext and has designed and produced online and print materials for a range of other commercial and third sector clients. She has written for Women’s eNews, the F Word, the Feminist Press’s Under the Microscope, and a number of other publications. She is originally from England. Ms. Cooper reads in the voice of the only fictional character on our tour, based on Susanna Haswell Ronson’s English novel Charlotte Temple, a Tale of Truth.

Dr. Galloway is a civil engineer who became chief executive officer of Pegasus Global Holdings in 2008. Before holding this position, she worked at Nielsen-Wurster as its executive vice president and chief financial officer. In 2004, Dr. Galloway was elected president of the American Society of Civil Engineers – the first woman to hold the position in the organization’s history. She was also appointed to the National Science Board in 2006, and has used this position to mentor girls interested in the sciences. Dr. Galloway earned her bachelor’s degree at Purdue University in 1978, received her MBA from the New York Institute of Technology in 1984, and obtained her doctorate from Kochi University of Technology in 2005. Here, she reads a quote from a one-woman play she created about Emily Warren Roebling, who finished construction on the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband got sick.

Ruth S. Holmberg was the editor of the Chattanooga Times in Tennessee for 28 years. She has also acted as director of the Associated Press and the New York Times Company. She is also a philanthropist and has been a trailblazer for women in leadership. In 1734, Anna Zenger took over the distribution of her husband's newspaper while he was in jail on charges of seditious libel. Here, Sulzberger reads one of the accounts that Anna Zenger carried out for him.

Kirstin Downey is an award-winning journalist and the author of a biography on Frances Perkins, called "The Woman Behind the New Deal." Downey wrote for the Washington Post from 1988-1998, covering business and the economy. Frances Perkins was the Secretary of Labor for the 12 years of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. Here, Downey reads a quote from Perkins, in which she views the infamous 1911 Triangle Fire in New York City.

Brenda Berkman spent 25 years as a firefighter and fire officer for the New York City Fire Department. She was one of the first women to be accepted into the FDNY, after suing the city with several other women in the 1970s in order to be allowed to join. She was promoted to captain in 2002, and retired in 2006 to pursue art. Captain Berkman was one of the first on the scene of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks. This excerpt is from a speech she gave shortly afterward in November, at the National Women's Law Center's 2001 Awards Dinner.