Purely Woman

Gen X is no longer in the dark about HRT. We are shifting the culture around menopause. We know that the WHI study was flawed. We know that HRT protects our bodies and brains. We are seeing the undeniable evidence of millions of women reclaiming their lives. They’re getting their sleep, their brains, and their stability back. And we are showing up to appointments informed, data-driven, and requesting the care we know exists. The hesitation isn't coming from us.

The actual friction we are facing is a medical system that wasn't built to handle our awareness. We are encountering doctors who haven't updated their education since medical school. We are navigating inconsistent protocols and providers who don't know how to manage dosages. And practically, we are facing national shortages where pharmacies simply cannot keep estrogen patches in stock. It is a logistical gauntlet that effectively gatekeeps our health.

This isn't a mindset block; it is a structural failure. But we cannot let the inconvenience of a lagging system convince us that the care isn't worth fighting for. If you are hitting these walls, know that it isn’t a failing on your part and that you are not alone. Instead, it is another sign that the system is cracking under the pressure of our new reality. We have to keep demanding better training and reliable access until the system catches up to us.

She was sold by her father at 13, dead by 23—but in between, she became the woman who made Paris kneel. Her name was Marie Duplessis. But that wasn't the name she was born with. She was born Alphonsine Rose Plessis on January 15, 1824, in a tiny village in Normandy, France. Her father was a violent alcoholic. Her mother—the last surviving member of an impoverished noble family—fled when Alphonsine was still small, seeking work as a maid in Paris. She died when Alphonsine was six. Alphonsine was alone with a father who didn't want her. At 12, she was r***d by a farmhand. The family she'd been living with blamed her and sent her back to her father. At 13, her father sold her to a man in his 70s named Plantier, who lived in the middle of nowhere. She escaped. Multiple times. She'd run to nearby villages, find work in laundries or shops, anything to survive. But her father kept finding her, kept dragging her back, kept trying to sell her labor—or her body—to whoever would pay. At 15, she made it to Paris. She was an orphan now, hungry, wearing rags, sleeping wherever she could find space. A theater director later remembered seeing her on the Pont-Neuf, staring longingly at a fried potato stall. He bought her a cornet of fries out of pity. Less than a year later, he saw that same starving girl on the arm of a nobleman at the Ranelagh Gardens. Alphonsine had transformed herself into Marie Duplessis. She chose "Marie" after the Virgin Mary—a deliberate irony, perhaps, for a girl who'd been robbed of her innocence before she understood what innocence was. She added "Du" to her surname to sound aristocratic. She taught herself to read, learned to speak French without her Norman accent, studied newspapers every morning so she could discuss current events with wealthy men. She understood something fundamental: if the world had decided she had no value except her beauty, she would make that beauty cost more than anyone could afford—and then make them pay anyway. By 16, she'd learned what other pretty girls in her position learned: prominent men would give her money, apartments, jewels, horses—anything—for her company. She stopped working in dress shops for pennies and became a courtesan. But Marie wasn't like other courtesans. She was elegant. Graceful. Witty. She hosted a literary salon in her apartment where politicians, writers, and artists gathered—not just to bed her, but to talk with her. Honoré de Balzac attended. She had a box seat reserved for opening night at every major theater. She collected art. She owned 200 books. She wore camellias—white when she was available, red when she wasn't. It became her signature. The flower had no scent, which was perfect for a woman whose life was about being seen, not known. Franz Liszt—the first international music superstar, a man who caused "Lisztomania" across Europe—fell in love with her. He wanted to take her to Constantinople. He promised to return for her. He never did. Alexandre Dumas fils, son of the famous novelist, fell in love with her too. They had an 11-month affair starting in September 1844. He was young, broke, and wildly jealous of the men who could actually afford to keep her. By August 1845, she'd had enough. He never forgave her. He never forgot her. But Marie kept moving. She married Count Édouard de Perregaux in England in 1846—a marriage of convenience that wasn't legally recognized in France, which suited her fine. She wanted access to his money and his name without giving up her freedom. Because here's what people miss about Marie Duplessis: she spent lavishly, yes. She gambled. She wore the finest clothes, rode imported English horses, lived in luxury apartments filled with Louis XV furniture and silk hangings. But she also gave. Generously. She helped other prostitutes. She donated to charities. When she died, the women she'd helped showed up to her funeral weeping. Not because she'd been kind in some abstract, patronizing way—but because she'd understood. She'd been where they were. And she'd pulled them up when she could. Marie lived as if she knew her time was short. Maybe she did. Tuberculosis—the "romantic disease" of the era, the illness that made you cough blood and waste away beautifully—was already killing her. In 1847, she was spending more time at health spas than in Paris, desperately trying to buy herself more time. It didn't work. On February 3, 1847, Marie Duplessis died in her apartment on the Boulevard de la Madeleine. She was 23 years old. The bailiffs were already ransacking her luxury apartment to pay off her debts as she took her last breath. Her funeral at the church of the Madeleine drew crowds. Charles Dickens attended and later wrote that Paris mourned "as though Marie was Jeanne d'Arc or some other national heroine, so profound was the general sadness. "Within weeks, all her belongings were auctioned off—furniture, jewels, books, even her pet parrot. Fashionable Paris turned out, not to bid, but to gawk. And Alexandre Dumas fils, consumed by guilt for avoiding her in her final weeks, locked himself away and wrote a novel in seven days. He called it La Dame aux Camélias—"The Lady of the Camellias." He changed her name to Marguerite Gautier and rewrote their story the way he wished it had been: tragic, romantic, redemptive. In his version, she gives up everything for love. She dies nobly, beautifully, redeemed by suffering. The book became a bestseller. Then a play. Then in 1853, Giuseppe Verdi saw the play and was so moved he composed one of the most famous operas in history: La Traviata (The Fallen Woman).The novel has never been out of print. The opera is still performed worldwide. There have been three ballets, over a dozen films (most famously Camille with Greta Garbo), and countless adaptations. Marie Duplessis became immortal—but as someone else's creation. Here's what Dumas never wrote: Marie didn't die heartbroken and abandoned. Count Perrégaux rushed to her bedside in her final days. He paid for her funeral. He followed her coffin to Montmartre Cemetery, openly weeping. Here's what he never wrote: Marie once confided to a friend, "I have loved sincerely, but no one ever returned my love. That is the real horror of my life. "Here's what he never wrote: Marie wasn't meek. She wasn't passive. She didn't spend her life waiting to be saved by a man's love. She survived by refusing to be owned. She took a world that gave her poverty, violence, r**e, and abandonment—and turned it into a fleeting but extraordinary reign over the very men who claimed to control her. She made them compete for her. She made them pay. She made them remember her. And when tuberculosis finally claimed her, Paris wept—not for the fictional saint Dumas would create, but for the real woman who'd refused to apologize for surviving the only way she could. She was buried honestly, under her real name: Alphonsine Plessis. Her grave is still in Montmartre Cemetery, often covered with camellias left by strangers who know her only through fiction. But the real Marie—the one who clawed her way out of poverty and abuse, who built a salon where intellectuals gathered, who helped other women even as she fought for her own survival, who loved and was never loved back—deserves to be remembered too. Not as a tragic, redemptive victim. But as what she really was: a woman who refused to be broken by a world determined to destroy her.

Milk as a Mother’s First Language: The Story Science Almost Missed

In 2008, a young scientist named Katie Hinde stood inside a primate research lab in California surrounded by hundreds of tiny vials of milk. What she found inside them would change how we understand motherhood itself.

For generations, women were taught that milk was “just food.” Calories in, nutrition out. A simple biological duty.

But Hinde discovered what so many mothers have always intuitively known:
a woman’s body is not simple — it is exquisitely intelligent.

**Milk wasn’t just feeding babies.

It was communicating with them.**

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What Katie Hinde Discovered About Mothers’ Milk

1. Milk changes depending on whether the baby is male or female

In rhesus macaques (a close primate relative), she found:
• Sons receive richer, higher-fat milk — more energy per drop.
• Daughters receive more milk overall, with different mineral balances.

Same mother, same diet, same day — but two completely different recipes.

Why? Because the mother’s body tailors her milk to who the baby is and what the baby needs.

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2. Milk responds to a baby’s emotional world

Hinde discovered something breathtaking:
• First-time mothers produced milk with higher cortisol, a hormone that affects infant temperament.
• Babies who drank this milk grew faster but were more cautious and clingy.

Milk wasn’t just growing the baby’s body —
it was shaping personality, confidence, and behavior.

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3. Milk detects illness… before the mother even realises

When a nursing baby gets sick, the mother’s body knows within hours.

How?

When babies latch, a trace of their saliva travels back into the breast. That saliva carries clues about the baby’s immune status.

The mother’s body responds instantly:
• White blood cells in the milk spike dramatically
• Antibodies are customised and fed straight back to the baby
• When the baby recovers, milk returns to normal

It is a biological conversation.
The baby speaks. The mother answers.

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4. No two women’s milk is the same

Just like fingerprints:
• Every mother produces a unique milk signature
• Every baby receives a unique formula crafted specifically for them
• Even the same mother produces different milk for different children

This isn’t random.
It’s wisdom — embodied, ancient, instinctive wisdom.

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The Most Advanced Nutrition on Earth — Ignored by Science

When Hinde looked into scientific databases, she made a shocking discovery:

There were twice as many studies on erectile dysfunction as on human breast milk.

The first food every human has ever consumed.
The foundation of the human immune system.
The biological driver of infant development…

…and it was one of the least studied substances in medicine.

Hinde made it her mission to change that.

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What Her Research Revealed About Human Milk

Breast milk contains:
• 200+ oligosaccharides (special sugars babies can’t digest, but their gut bacteria can)
• Hormones that regulate sleep, stress, and appetite
• Immune cells
• Stem cells
• Antibiotic-like compounds
• Microbes that seed the infant gut
• Growth factors shaping brain and body development

Milk isn’t just food.
It’s medicine, messenger, and microbiome architect.

It is the first chapter of a baby’s health story.

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Why Her Work Matters for Women Today

Katie Hinde’s discoveries have transformed:

Healthcare

Helping premature and vulnerable babies receive the bioactive components they most need.

Formula development

Not to replace breastfeeding, but to support mothers who cannot or choose not to breastfeed — with science, not guesswork.

Public policy

Highlighting the need for:
• Workplace lactation rights
• Longer parental leave
• Better postpartum support
• Respect for the complexity of women’s biology

Women’s confidence

Perhaps most importantly, her work validates the lived experience of millions of women:

Your body knows what it’s doing.
It always has.

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The Conversation Between Mother and Baby

Katie Hinde didn’t simply study milk.
She uncovered a hidden dialogue — a system 200 million years old, older than mammals, older than dinosaurs.

Every feed is a message.
Every drop is information.
Every mother is a scientist in action.

Milk is not a duty.
It is not a chore.
It is a profound biological language —
a mother’s first love letter to her child.

Anna Bissell: The Widow Who Stepped In – And Stepped Up

In the late 1800s, business leadership in America was almost entirely male.
Women could rarely vote, rarely control their own money, and almost never run companies.

And yet, in 1889, when her husband died suddenly, Anna Sutherland Bissell took over his growing carpet-sweeper business and became widely recognised as the first female CEO in the United States. 

This is her real story — no myths needed.

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From Nova Scotia to the shop floor

Anna Sutherland was born in 1846 in River John, Nova Scotia, and moved with her family to the United States as a child. By sixteen she was a schoolteacher — already stepping into responsibility in a world that expected girls to aim for marriage, not independence. 

At nineteen, she married Melville Reuben Bissell, and the two became partners in a crockery and china business in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The shop had a practical problem: sawdust from shipping crates kept grinding into the carpets and was almost impossible to clean. 

Melville designed a better solution: a mechanical carpet sweeper that used rotating brushes to actually pick up dust instead of pushing it around. He patented the sweeper in 1876. 

Anna didn’t just stand on the sidelines while he invented. She became the company’s star salesperson – travelling from town to town, demonstrating sweepers, and closing orders. On a trip to Philadelphia, she personally persuaded retail pioneer John Wanamaker to stock Bissell sweepers in his department stores, an early breakthrough in getting their product into modern retail. 

Behind the scenes, she organised manufacturing, assembly, and distribution. Long before she had a title, she was already acting like an executive.

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Fire, loss – and a woman at the helm

In 1884, a fire destroyed Melville’s first factory. Insurance covered only a fraction of the loss, but the patents and the strength of the business allowed the company to rebuild and grow. 

Then, in 1889, Melville died of pneumonia in Grand Rapids. He was in his mid-40s; Anna was 42, with five children and a grandchild to support. 

What happened next is clear from the historical record:
Anna did not sell. She took over.

She became chief executive of the Bissell company, stepping fully into leadership at a time when women were almost entirely shut out of corporate power. By 1899, under her direction, Bissell had become the largest carpet sweeper manufacturer in the world. 

The company was not a failing wreck when she inherited it — but it needed direction, resilience and vision. She provided all three.

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Building a global brand – on her terms

As CEO and later chairman of the board, Anna did what many male leaders of her era never even thought to do:
• She aggressively defended patents and trademarks, protecting the company from copycats. 
• She expanded internationally, establishing factories and agencies overseas and bringing Bissell sweepers into Europe and beyond. 
• She understood the power of brand and reputation decades before “branding” was a buzzword.

One of her most famous customers?
Queen Victoria. Company histories and museum sources recount that the Queen insisted the carpets in her palaces be “Bisselled” regularly – a royal endorsement that turned Bissell into a global household name. 

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Radical leadership: profits and people

Anna Bissell’s greatness wasn’t just in market share. It was in how she treated people.

At a time when industrial workers were often expendable, she became known as a progressive employer:
• She introduced workers’ compensation and pension plans at Bissell, long before such protections were widespread. 
• She developed policies for paid sick leave, and later accounts credit her with avoiding layoffs during the Great Depression by finding ways to keep people employed. 

Colleagues and later historians described her as fair, personally involved, and deeply respected by employees — a leader who believed that business success and human dignity should go together. 

Whether or not every modern anecdote about “never having a strike” can be firmly documented, what is clearly recorded is this:
Anna’s workforce was remarkably loyal, and her labour policies were decades ahead of their time.

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Beyond the factory: lifting women and children

Anna’s leadership didn’t stop at the factory gate.

She was:
• The first woman trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
• For years, the only woman member of the National Hardware Men’s Association. 
• A generous philanthropist, active in civic and women’s organisations in Grand Rapids. 

She helped create and support Bissell House, a community centre offering recreation and training for youth and immigrant women, and served on the board of what became the Blodgett Home for Children. 

Family recollections and local histories emphasise her passion for finding homes for children in need and supporting women who were building new lives in a new country. The exact numbers vary in later retellings, but the heart of it is true: she used her power to open doors for others.

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Legacy: what Anna Bissell means for women today

Anna led Bissell as president/CEO from 1889 to 1919 and then as board chairman until her death in 1934 at age 87. 

She raised five children as a widow.
She turned a single-product manufacturer into a global brand.
She pioneered workplace policies that would only become standard decades later.

And she did it at a time when many people still thought women shouldn’t even be in the room.

Today, Bissell remains a privately owned family company, headquartered in the Grand Rapids area and holding roughly 20% of the North American floor-care market, with billions in annual revenue.  In 2016, a seven-foot bronze statue of Anna Bissell was unveiled in downtown Grand Rapids — a public reminder of a woman who once had to fight just to be taken seriously in a boardroom. 

But her real monument is bigger than bronze:
• Every time a woman steps into the CEO role of a company people assumed would always be led by men.
• Every time a worker receives a pension, sick pay, or compensation for an injury because their employer believes they deserve security, not just a wage.
• Every time we tell the story of a woman who led with both strength and compassion — and refuse to let her be forgotten.

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Purely Woman: Why her story matters

At Purely Woman, we believe stories like Anna Bissell’s are not just “nice history.”
They are evidence.

Evidence that women have always built, led, innovated and cared — even when the law, the culture and the economy were stacked against them.

Anna Bissell was not a token, not a fluke, and not an exception meant to prove a rule about “men in business.”
She was part of a long, powerful lineage of women who quietly reshaped what leadership can look like.

Widow. Mother. Saleswoman. CEO. Reformer.
Anna Sutherland Bissell stepped into a space women were told they did not belong — and made it better for everyone.

This is the kind of woman Purely Woman chooses to honour:
women who lead, who innovate, who insist that success must include dignity.

And this is only one story.
There are many more women like Anna — in science, in art, in activism, in medicine — waiting to be remembered, retold, reclaimed