Willard, Frances (Elizabeth Caroline) (1839–1898)

US educator, reformer, lobbyist, and temperance leader best known for her work on behalf of Prohibition, but also identified with the movement for women's suffrage. She helped organize the Chicago Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1874, becoming its president in 1879. Under her leadership, the WCTU quickly evolved into a well-organized group able to mount campaigns of public education and political pressure on many fronts. Willard went on to found the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1883, and was elected its president in 1891.

Born in Churchville, New York, Willard was educated at Northwestern Female College. She gave up a successful career in teaching in 1874 to become secretary of the WCTU. She was instrumental in the formation of the Prohibition Party in 1882, and was later elected president of the National Council of Women, largely for her belief in women's right to vote. Willard became the first president of the National Council of Women 1888–90, and also helped organize the General Federation of Women's Clubs in 1889. Her publications include Woman and Temperance (1883) and her autobiography Glimpses of Fifty Years (1889).

Growing up on the frontier in Wisconsin Territory, Willard struggled to gain an education against opposition from her father. She spent a year at the North Western Female Seminary, Evanston, Illinois 1858–59, and held a series of teaching posts in the northeast 1859–68. She then travelled in Europe for two years with a wealthy friend, Kate Jackson, before returning to Evanston as president of the new Evanston College for Ladies in 1871. When the college merged with Northwestern University in 1873, she became dean of women students and professor of English and art, resigning in 1874.