Twenty-four years before American women could vote, two Boston cousins used afternoon teas to fight the feather trade; about 900 women joined their boycott

Long before American women won the right to vote, two Boston cousins proved they could still change national policy. In 1896, Harriet Hemenway and Minna Hall began inviting society women to afternoon teas, not to discuss fashion or politics, but to persuade them to stop wearing hats decorated with bird feathers. What started as a series of conversations in Boston drawing rooms quickly became one of the earliest consumer boycotts for wildlife conservation. Within months, about 900 women had joined their campaign, laying the foundation for what would become the Massachusetts Audubon Society and eventually the National Audubon Society. Their quiet protest helped turn public opinion against the lucrative feather trade and paved the way for landmark bird-protection laws decades before women gained the right to vote in 1920, according to Smithsonian Magazine .

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