Ceiling shattered: Anna Bissell broke barriers as America’s first female CEO

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Bissell company is approaching 150 years of manufacturing and designing household tools here in West Michigan. And while Bissell may be a household name, the legacy of one of its founders is not.

America’s first female CEO has roots right here in Grand Rapids. Anna Bissell was a dynamic, inventive, barrier-breaking businesswoman, who did it all while also raising a family and giving back to her community.

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Anna Sutherland Bissell was born in 1846 in Nova Scotia. Bissell was a direct descendent of early Canadian pioneers, but she didn’t stay in Canada long. Family records show that her parents moved to De Pere, Wisconsin, in 1850.

In a sign of things to come, Bissell pushed the limits. After completing the limited schooling in her village, she moved away to continue her education to become a teacher herself. She returned to De Pere at the start of the Civil War to help make hospital supplies, and as frustrating as that may have been, it ultimately changed the course of her life.

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Shortly after the war, she met Melville R. Bissell while he was visiting De Pere and the two were quickly married. According to family records, Melville Bissell came from a family of means that had fallen on hard times. He was set on finding a fortune of his own. That drive led the young Bissells to the other side of Lake Michigan.

They first settled in Kalamazoo and Melville Bissell opened a china shop. That didn’t last long, and he and his wife made their way further north to Grand Rapids. Once again, Melville Bissell opened a store to sell fine wares. This time, the business did well enough to stay afloat and stayed open until the young married couple developed an idea that would bring a fortune beyond Melville Bissell’s wildest dreams.

INTRODUCING THE ‘CARPET SWEEPER’

From the very beginning, Melville and Anna Bissell were a team. He ran the shop while she marketed their wares. They also worked together to develop the product that put the Bissells on the map: the carpet sweeper.

Legend has it that an everyday complaint sparked the idea. Anna Bissell was frustrated with how often she had to sweep up to keep their shop clean. With her input, her husband developed the prototype for what would become the carpet sweeper. After friends and customers saw how well it worked, the Bissells filed for the patent together and began selling the sweeper in 1876.

Carolyn Cassin, the CEO of Michigan Women Forward, emphasized how important Anna Bissell’s role within the company was long before she took over as CEO.

“She was really the product designer. … She figured out how to make (the sweeper) more efficient and more functional. She was always interested in the quality of the product,” Cassin told News 8.

According to Cassin, Anna Bissell’s ways of marketing the sweeper triggered an industrywide change, extending far beyond Bissell products.

“She actually was the first person to go take her product into department stores. (At that time) department stores (dictated) what they wanted. But she went out there and said, ‘You need to carry this product for women in your department stores,’” Cassin said.

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With the success of the carpet sweeper, the Bissells expanded their operation and became one of the key employers in Grand Rapids. That expansion allowed the business to weather some tough times, including the Panic of 1884 and other lean economic periods.

Another threat came in the form of a fire. The Bissell’s factory was gutted by a fire in 1883, but thanks to Anna Bissell’s business acumen, she was able to corral some local bank loans and get the factory up and running again within three weeks.

Still, the company faced its biggest hurdle in the spring of 1889.

TAKING CHARGE

Melville Bissell’s health was never the best. Even in the family tribute written after his wife’s death, his children described him as a man “strong in purpose, though not in health.”

He died on March 15, 1889, succumbing to pneumonia at just 46 years old, leaving Anna Bissell and their four surviving children with some decisions to make about how to move forward. She could have sold the company and lived a comfortable life. Instead, she doubled down, taking complete control of the company at a time when women simply didn’t run giant businesses.

“She may well have been America’s first female CEO. We can’t really identify one prior to that,” Cassin said.

Her gamble paid off. According to the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, by 1899 it was the largest corporation of its kind in the world.

Bissell used her marketing prowess to expand the company’s reach, taking the Bissell Carpet Sweeper Co. from a regional player to an international one. Bissell expanded into Europe and even got one of her sweepers into Buckingham Palace.

“It is said that England’s Queen Victoria insisted that the palace be ‘Bisselled’ every week,” the company’s history page stated.

She served as the president of the Bissell Company from 1889 through 1919 and then the chair of the board from 1919 until her death in 1934, laying a foundation strong enough that it still stands 90 years later.

ANNA’S LEGACY

Anna Bissell’s legacy extends beyond being a smart entrepreneur. In addition to running her successful corporation in an era when women were rarely seen in the board room, she raised her family, led community support efforts and even made a mark as a progressive labor leader.

“In the late 1800s, first of all, workers were treated very badly during that period of time. That’s how the labor unions and things rose. Workers were paid pennies, there no were child labor laws, all those kinds of things. She really was determined that people have wages that were fair,” Cassin said.

Bissell was one of the first companies to offer a pension plan and worker’s compensation.

“If you got hurt on the job, you could go home, get well and come back — and she paid them during that period of time. Those were unprecedented things back then,” she said.

Cassin believes she was a key factor in establishing those new conditions, not just in Grand Rapids, but nationally, to shift more rights to employees.

“I’d like to think that when companies came to Grand Rapids to start up, there was a norm in the community that we treat people fairly, we treat people with respect and dignity. That they are doing us a favor as the owners of the business. I think she was a big part of that,” Cassin said. “I think it raised the community standards, and it really became known nationally, too.”

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Business aside, Bissell was very active in her church and community. She helped fund two local programs to help children and families in need, including the Children’s House, which later became the D.A. Blodgett Home for Children, and the Bissell House.

According to Ruth Van Stee, of the Greater Grand Rapids Women’s History Council, the Bissell House was modeled after the Hull House in Chicago. They were settlement homes in larger cities, where middle- and upper-class men and women would live and help families in need and new immigrants by offering childcare to allow them to go work and education courses to help them expand beyond low-end jobs.

By 1900, there were more than 100 settlements across the country running similar programs to Chicago’s Hull House.

Anna Bissell died on Nov. 8, 1934. She was 87 years old. In the report announcing her death, the Grand Rapids Herald said her life “had been rich in every respect” and was known for her charitable giving as much as her business acumen.

To this day, the company remains firmly rooted in West Michigan, moving from downtown Grand Rapids to its current headquarters in Walker, and continuing to innovate and develop household cleaning tools. But the part of her legacy that is easiest to see now is the cracks in the glass ceiling that she helped break.

“We don’t know how hard it is to do that work when you look around you and there’s nobody else. There are no other women CEOs. That was really crazy. She really shattered a lot of stereotypes,” Cassin said. “Her legacy was really a reminder that gender is not a barrier to achieving goals and aspirations.”

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