Antoinette Brown Blackwell may not have perfected the work-life balance, but she came close. She was not only the first to successfully journey into unexplored territories, she persevered and gracefully negotiated a male-dominated culture, disrupting what women’s roles used to be in religion and ministry.
Through thick and thin, Brown Blackwell remained relevant in various important aspects of her life and purpose. In 1878 she was absolved, and Oberlin awarded her an honorary Master of Arts (M.A.) degree and an honorary Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) degree in 1908.

After over twenty-five years, in 1878, she was eventually received as a minister, by the Committee on Fellowship of the American Unitarian Association. She facilitated the establishment of the All Souls Unitarian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and from 1908 until she died she preached, holding the position of pastor emeritus in the church.
She also continued to write far into her nineties, publishing her final book, The Social Side of Mind and Action, six years before her death in 1921, at the age of ninety.

Olivia Ekeoyo