Writer and editor Clara Littledale was the first woman reporter of the New York Evening Post, head of the press section of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and associate editor and war correspondent from France for Good Housekeeping. She was also the first editor of Parents' Magazine. The collection details her personal life including her marriage, children, divorce, and experience as working mother. It also exhibits her work for Parents' Magazine, including correspondence with publishers, readers, and listeners, her advice to parents on child rearing, etc. The business files of Parents' Magazine are not included. Schlesinger Library holds issues of Parents' Magazine.

Writer and journalist Ludtke graduated from Wellesley College, and drew national attention in 1977 when, as a reporter for Sports Illustrated, she sued major league baseball to gain women reporters equal access to athletes' locker rooms. She worked for CBS News and Time, and held a number of fellowships at Harvard and Radcliffe (1992-1995) before publishing On Our Own: Unmarried Motherhood in America (1997). This collection contains research material for that book, including interview transcripts with single mothers.

The wife of William Whipple Purnell and the mother of Lee Julian Purnell, Theodora Lee Purnell was an officer of the Maria Baldwin Chapter of the American War Mothers, organized on February 8, 1922. It was the first chapter of Colored War Mothers in the United States. The collection consists of a printed pamphlet entitled "Paper Read by Mrs. Theodora Lee Purnell on the Spirit of the American War Mother at the Fourth Annual State Convention of American War Mothers, Santa Cruz, June 20th, 1923."

Bonnie Spanier received her doctorate in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Harvard University in 1975, and from 1978 to 1980 she was a fellow at the Bunting Institute (now the Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program) at Radcliffe College. While a fellow, she conducted a series of interviews with women scientists to look at their experiences as women within a male-dominated field. The collection includes audiocassettes of the interviews as well as transcripts and summaries, notes, and printed material. The interview subjects describe the obstacles they faced and the support or lack thereof they received. Many women also discuss the difficulties of balancing childcare and private life with their professional lives, as well as their parents' attitudes towards their pursuits of higher education, among other topics.