Antoinette Funk

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Antoinette Funk (May 30, 1873 – March 26, 1942) was an American lawyer and a leader in the women’s rights movement. Born Marie Antoinette Leland in Dwight, Illinois, she was the daughter of Cyrus Leland and Virginia Leland. She first married Charles Thurber Watrous in 1892; they had one child, Anna Virginia Watrous, but he died soon after the marriage. In 1893 she married Isaac Lincoln Funk, and they had a child, Rey Leland Funk.

She studied law at Illinois Wesleyan University and earned a J.D. in 1898. She moved to Chicago in 1902, where she began her work for women’s rights. Funk gave many speeches to women’s rights groups and was known for speaking outdoors to reach more people. In 1914 she rode stagecoaches across South Dakota and Nevada to spread her message, and on October 2, 1914, she was jailed in Minot, North Dakota for giving an unauthorized street speech.

In 1915 she spoke at Bryn Mawr College on “The Best Arguments for Woman Suffrage.” She supported the U.S. war effort in World War I as a member of the Women’s Committee of the Council of Defense, and in 1918 she was vice chair of the Woman’s Liberty Loan Committee at the Treasury Department.

During Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, Funk served as Assistant Commissioner of the Land Office. She later became the executive secretary of the Congressional Committee for the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) and retired from NAWSA in 1939. Antoinette Funk died in San Diego, California, on March 26, 1942, at age 68.