A Woman’s Place: Chicago Women’s History Tour

Chicago history is filled with tales of famous men — Burnham, Sullivan, Wright, Palmer, Marshall Field — and many tours, including ours, rightly sing their praises. But hidden in plain sight are the women who shaped the city right alongside them, often overlooked and underappreciated trailblazers who transformed Chicago’s architecture, culture, politics, commerce, and public life. Take a deep dive with Inside Chicago Walking Tours into Women’s History on our newest tour route!

Led by formidable women tour guides, you’ll explore both women in art — the female figures historically used to symbolize ideas, places, and ideals — and women “in” art: the architects, artists, writers, publishers, designers, and cultural powerhouses who created Chicago themselves. You’ll meet local heroes including Ida B. Wells, Jane Addams, Sophia Hayden, Bertha Palmer, Gwendolyn Brooks, Harriet Monroe, Marion Mahony Griffin, and Jeanne Gang, and discover their stories in some of downtown Chicago’s most beautiful and extraordinary spaces — both indoor and outdoor!

We’re also launching this tour as a celebration of the success of this small, local, woman-owned business! Since 2014, Inside Chicago Walking Tours has been making its authentic, one-of-a-kind mark on Chicago’s fiercely competitive tourism industry with integrity and creativity, and this tour is a celebration of that — telling the story of women through the eyes of women. You know the men who built Chicago. Now come meet the women who made it what it is — and support a local woman-owned Chicago business while you do it.