Harriet White Fisher: A Driven Woman

Harriet White Fisher broke the glass ceiling into a thousand pieces in 1900. With a determination as gritty as the floor in her iron and steel factory, she managed her employees with dignity and style for four decades while never letting anyone forget she was a woman doing what most people believed only a man could do.From a disadvantaged childhood to one of the wealthiest American women in the early 20th century - Harriet White Fisher became the leading woman industrialist of her time.Melting the components for making cast iron, pouring 2,000-plus degree molten metal into molds, finishing the anvils, vises, and rail joints - Harriet learned every function in her factory and would never ask a man to do anything unless she could also do the job herself.Traveling the world and crossing oceans 29 times, Harriet led a grand tour with her chauffeur, her chef, and her maid as they drove around the world in 1909 and 1910, often going where roads did not exist.