Elizabeth G. Watson

Elizabeth Grill Watson (January 7, 1914 – February 24, 2006) was an American Quaker minister, curator, and feminist theologian.

Personal life Elizabeth Grill Watson was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on January 7, 1914. Watson grew up in Lakewood, Ohio. Women were not permitted to be ministers at her childhood Methodist church. However, she wanted to become a minister regardless. She then studied at the Chicago Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago Divinity School. There she met George H. Watson, whom she married in 1937.

The Watson family lived at the Heller House in Chicago for 24 years. While living there, George worked as first chair of the political science department at Roosevelt University and Elizabeth worked at the local American Friends Service Committee. The Watsons' Chicago home was the first mailing address and meeting place used by CORE, an African-American civil rights organization.

After moving to Long Island, New York, Watson worked as a curator for the Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site in the 1970s. In 1977, she delivered a speech to the Friends Committee for Gay Concerns (later known as the FLGBTQC) entitled Each of Us Inevitable, in which Watson stated, "As Friends, we are called to combat oppression wherever it occurs. We are called to help empower the poor, the blacks, the Native and Hispanic Americans, women, gays, and anyone else who may be victims of disaster, injustice, indignity, discrimination, or any other form of oppression. I have constantly written and spoken about this for many years, and will not repeat it here."

Some of Watson's work focused on environmental theology.