Barbara Seaman was born in 1935 in New York City and is a women’s health activist. Through persistent investigative journalism, reporting, and social organizing, she has brought about significant changes in the relationship between the medical and pharmaceutical establishments and women in America. As an activist, she introduced the concepts of informed consent, full disclosure, and sexism in healthcare, provoked a US Senate hearing, established the National Women’s Health Network, and authored a number of critical books and articles – some of which caused her to be fired, blacklisted, or censored. She received her BA and LHD from Oberlin College as a Ford Foundation scholar, plus a certificate in advanced science writing as a Sloan-Rockefeller fellow from Columbia University School of Journalism. She began her career as a science writer and editor for various women’s magazines. In 1969 she completed her first book, The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill, which led to a US Senate hearing on the safety of the oral contraceptive, and which made an enormous impression on the millions of women who took the pill each day– as well as the doctors who had prescribed it – despite a detrimental lack of information concerning its safety. One tangible result of Seaman’s book was the health warning that would be included with the pill, the first informational insert for any prescription drug. Seaman continued to author articles and advocate for women’s safety and participation in their own medical treatment specifically concerning hormonal contraceptives and childbirth and the unwillingness of some doctors and pharmaceutical companies to fully education patients and consumers. Although she began as a journalist for well-known women’s magazines, by the 1980s, the power of the pharmaceutical companies which advertised in these magazines and newspapers caused Seaman to be blacklisted from many publications for her criticism and exposure of the industry.
She continued to write, and in time, many of her books have been re-released and her biography of Jaqueline Susann was turned into a movie. Michele Lee's biopic, in fact, is based on Seaman's works, and Seaman herself has appeared on many biopics about Susann, most recently The Divine Ms. Susann which is a part of the 2006 Fox DVD of Valley of the Dolls.
Seaman was named by the Library of Congress in 1973 as the author who raised sexism in health care as a worldwide issue, and she was cited by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as responsible for patient package inserts on prescriptions. She went on to create many books, articles, plays, films, and anthologies. Her major works include: Free and Female (1972), Women and the Crisis in Sex Hormones (1977 with G. Seaman), Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann (1987), and For Women Only: Your Guide to Health Empowerment (2000); She has also contributed to Lawyers Manual on Domestic Violence (“Representing the Victim,” 1995), Career and Motherhood (1979), The Menopause Industry (1994), The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women (2003) and many other works.
In 2000, Seaman was named by the US Postal Service as an honoree of the 1970s Women’s Right Movement stamp. Seaman has been a critical part of many women’s, health, Jewish, and aging women’s organizations, and she continues to advocate and mentor younger generations of activists.