THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Norma Meras Swenson

1932 – May 11, 2025

“Women need to mobilize in small groups, learn how to trust one another with their most personal truths, and then organize to resist corporate and professional or political power over their lives.”

A passionate global feminist activist who never stopped working to improve the health of women. A co-author/editor of most editions of the groundbreaking book Our Bodies, Ourselves. An internationally recognized leader and expert in reproductive and sexual health and rights, and in maternal and child health. An early leader in the maternity care reform and natural childbirth movement. Past president of both the International Childbirth Education Association and the Boston Association for Childbirth Education.  Created and taught Women, Health and Development from a Global Perspective at the Harvard School of Public Health, the first and longest-running Women and Health course at Harvard University. 

Photo. Our Bodies Ourselves founders, circa 1975. Back row (L-R): Wendy Sanford, Paula Doress-Worters, Joan Ditzion, Judy Norsigian, Jane Pincus, Norma Swenson, Nancy Miriam Hawley; seated in front row: Pamela Berger, Ruth Bell Alexander, Vilunya Diskin, Esther Rome. (Photo: Phyllis Ewen)