Sylvia Bernstein Seaman

November 8, 1900–January 8, 1995

A pink-patterned cover with the title and author, and two illustrations of women's faces. The first features a woman with gray hair in a bun, plain glasses, and gold earrings. The second shows a woman with blonde hair in a curly bob, glasses with colorful wing-shaped frames, hoop earrings, and a cigarette.

Cover of author Sylvia Bernstein Seaman's 1979 book, How to be a Jewish Grandmother.

In Brief

Sylvia Bernstein Seaman fought for women’s suffrage as a teenager, then became an important voice for second wave feminism as the first person outside the medical profession to write about breast cancer. Her first books were novels, co-written with her college roommate, Frances Schwartz, under the alias Francis Sylvin. In 1965, after surviving a mastectomy, she wrote Always a Woman: What Every Woman Should Know about Breast Cancer. The book was both popular and controversial in an era when cancer was a taboo subject. She followed this with How to Be a Jewish Grandmother in 1979, talking frankly about her own experiences with drinking and contraception. In both efforts, she was encouraged by her daughter-in-law, Barbara Seaman, co-founder of the National Women’s Health Network.

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Bibliography

Dullea, Georgia. “For Family’s Three Generations of Feminists, A Memorable Day.” NYTimes, August 25, 1980.

Saxon, Wolfgang. “Sylvia B. Seaman, 94: A Writer and a Suffragist.” NYTimes, January 11, 1995.

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