Conference turris::womannotes-v5

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          Week of 01-15/21-1997 - Women of Achievement and Herstory

      Compiled and Written by Irene Stuber <[email protected]> who
                is solely responsible for all content. 
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      Women have suffered most from the relocation of American industries
to Asia or Mexico. 
      One of the reasons is because most of the American jobs moved to
third world countries are the lower paying jobs or labor-intensive jobs
and American *women* traditionally hold/have held 67% of them. Such jobs
are rated at $5.99 an hour or less. 
      Women now hold 46% of the jobs in the U.S. according to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics and by the early years of the 21st century will
constitute the majority of workers. According to projections, women will
continue to be paid back-of-the-bus wages while men who will be a
distintive minority will pocket most of the income. Yet retraining
programs that are supposed to refit workers for higher paying jobs are
still concentrating on men while women are being trained towards
lower-paying secretarial and service jobs. 
      The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 14.1 percent of all women lived
in poverty in 1994 while only 8.6 million men lived in reduced economic
conditions. 
      According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women in
marketing, advertising, and public relations average yearly income of
$32,800 compared to men's $55,300 which translates to women in these
fields earning 59 cents compared to men's $1. 
      In the field most consider equal, that of insurance adjusters, the
facts are that women average $23,300 and men average $35,200 which
translates to women making 60 cents to the men's $1. 
      Things are better for travel agents with women earning 78 cents for
every $1 men make, lawyers are 82 cents for women compared to $1 for men,
and computer analysts and scientists are 86 cents for women to a man's $1. 
      But most surprising is the 88 cents for women as compared to $1 for
men elementary school teachers in a field that is supposedly regulated by
anti-discrimination laws and non-sexist public contracts. Even janitorial
jobs pay men 19% higher wages and in retailing men are paid a whopping 44%
more. 
      The bright note sounded in other studies is that more and more women
are forming their own businesses and companies, hiring women and doing an
end-around of the solid rows of men's bodies blocking women's economic
equality. 
      The other bright note is that more and more women are investing in,
or utilizing women workers in preference to men as they realize the
prejudices that have held them back from pay equity. 
      (Part of the information for this article was obtained from a series
of articles in the Philadelphia Inquirer entitled _Who Stole the Dream?_
published during 1996.)

      -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 01 - 22/28 - Anniversaries -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Born 01-22-1858, Beatrice Potter Webb, English writer and economist. An
early member of the Fabian Society, BPW published important works before
she met her husband and formed a major partnership which influenced
socialist thought of their day. Co-founded the London School of Economics
(1895). 
      B. 01-22-1880, Constance Collier, Anglo-American actor, one of the
stages greatest stars of London and Broadway. CC was the winner of the
American Shakespeare Festival theatre Award for distinguished service in
training and guiding actors in Shakespearean roles.  Her mother was a
Shakespearean actor. DD played 548 performances of W. Somerset Maugham's
_Our Betters_ and had a lengthy supporting actor career in Hollywood. 
      "Constance Collier) tried to make me see the values in the beautiful
speeches, to bring out the music without losing sight of the meaning.  She
explained to me the two chief dangers in reading Shakespeare's verse: the
one, to intone in a stilted fashion losing all feeling or reality; the
other, precisely the opposite, in the effort to be natural, the complete
disregard of poetic metre. She was a ruthlessly honest teacher." 
      --Eva Le Gallienne in her autobiography _At 33_

B. 01-23-1688, Ulrika Eleonora, Swedish queen whose short reign (1718-20)
led to Sweden's Age of Freedom when absolutism wanned in favor of
parliamentary government. 
      B. 01-23-1813, Camilla Collett, Norwegian novelist and passionate
advocate of women's rights. Her writing style and the breath of her novels
influenced later authors including Henrik Ibsen.  Her masterpiece is _The
Governor's Daughter_. 
      B. 01-23-1918, Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist. GBE was
co-winner of the 1988 Nobel prize for developing the synthesis of drugs
that combat such ailments as acute leukemia, gout, and malaria and an
immunosuppressant compound that made possible the successful
transplantation of organs. She led the development of acyclovir, the first
effective treatment for herpes-cirus infections." Later, when she was
supposedly retired, scientists working under her direction and using her
methodology developed AZT, the first FDA drug approved for the treatment
of AIDS but she was given very little publicity for her development. Her
mother was a homemaker whom GBE described as having "more common sense
than anyone I have ever known."  Of Jewish descent, she was from a long
line of rabbis which dated back to 700 AD according to extent synagogue
records. 

B. 01-24-1915, Vitazslava Kaprolova, Czechoslovakian conductor and
composer who performed her own piano concerto at 14, conducted the Czech
and the BBC philharmonic orchestras before her death at 25. 
      B. 01-24-1862, Edith Newbold Wharton, American novelist who examined
the upper-class society of New York City with irony and wit. ENW won the
1921 Pulitzer Prize for her novel _Age of Innocence_ (movie 1994) and in
1935 for the Pulitzer for her drama _The Old Maid_. Was the first woman to
receive an honorary degree from Yale University. Her childhood nickname -
Pussy Jones - followed her all of her life.  Always wrote in private in
her boudoir.  Her stories were of her day and so were her women who were
real and had human failings. Her work fell into relative obscurity as part
of the academic blackout that relegated women authors into the "not worth
reading" category until resurrected by feminists recently. Her life
portrayed by male biographers as bland and uninteresting - a married old
maid - has instead been revealed as lively with romantic encounters and
affairs. 

B. 01-25-1831, Jane Goodwin Austin, novelist, essayist, short story
writer, may have had her dear friend Louisa May Alcott's collaboration in
_The Cipher_ (1869) which combined murder, poisoning, bastardy,
miscegenation, super- natural and other such joys that were dear to LMA's
heart.  Most of her novels were authentically accurate depictions of the
Pilgrims which she carefully researched. 
      B. 01-25-1890, Neysa McMein, American artist noted for pastels of
women and children, did covers for most of the largest magazines of the
first part of the 20th century including Saturday Evening Post and
McCalls.  Her covers rivaled those of Norman Rockwell until his public
relations blitz.  She also produced ad materials for a number of consumer
products and painted patriotic posters during World War II. 
      Event 01-25-1970, U.S. Supreme Court ruled in *Phillips* v *Martin
Marietta* that employers could not refuse to hire a woman with small
children if they did not also refuse to hire a man with small children. 


B. 01-26-1882, Julia Anna Gardner, geologist, stratigraphic
paleontologist, whose work was of national and international importance to
economic geology of the western hemisphere. Served with the Red Cross in
France, often near the front. During WWII because of her geological
knowledge she was able to pinpoint the launch site of Japanese incendiary
balloons by the sea shells found in the sand ballast of the balloons. Her
mother was a schoolteacher.  She never married and her personal papers
were destroyed at her death. Florence Bascom was her lifelong friend. 
      B. 01-26-1928, Ertha Kitt, American actor and singer of
international fame in nightclubs, radio, TV, and film.  Her throaty, sexy
voice was highly distinctive. As a child she lived in abject poverty after
her father deserted the family. Her mother sharecropped a small plot of
land in South Carolina as best she could and raising her children. 
      Event 01-26-1951, Paula Ackerman, becomes the first woman in the
United States to serve as spiritual leader with rabbinical duties and
authority. 

B. 01-27-1886, Bessie Beatty, American author, journalist, and radio
commentator who did a series of reports from around the world during World
War I. Lived for nearly a week during World War I with the notorious
Russian Battalion of Death which was made up of all women. Some Russian
historians are now claiming the battalion did not exist and that women did
not take part in the fighting. BB was in Russia for the Bolshevist and
Kornilov uprisings and then the Bolshevist revolution. She edited McCall's
Magazine 1918-1921, was director of National Label Council to get
Americans to read labels and buy American, and had a news-talk radio show. 
      B. 01-27-1934, Edith Cresson, France's first woman prime minister
served from May 1991 to April 1992. A longtime socialist she had
previously been ministers of agriculture and of trade. As premier, Cresson
was known for her vigorous defense of French economic interests but was
pulled down and replaced by a man after her party suffered losses in local
elections. 
      B. 01-27-1944, Mairead Corrigan who along with Betty Williams
organized the Community of Peace People in Northern Ireland, a grassroots
movement of Roman Catholic and Protestants attempting to end the violence
there. The two shared the 1976 Nobel Peach Prize. Both resigned when the
organization's leaders changed the direction of its efforts. 

B. 01-28-1862, Hannah Bachman Einstein, through her varied charitable
efforts with the Temple Emanu-El sisterhood, Hannah became convinced that
the maintaining of the family was vitally important and lobbied for a
system of mother's pensions that would allow mothers to stay home with
their children instead of the children being placed in institutions. The
family reform was adopted in New York and by HBE's death had spread to
nearly all the other states. 
      B. 01-28-1903, Dame Kathleen Lonsdale, British crystallographer who
developed several techniques for the x-ray study of crystal structure.  In
1945 she became the first woman to be elected to the Royal Society of
London; in 1956 she was made Dame of the British Empire. 
      Event 01-28-1921, a study by the U.S. House of Representatives was
released which showed motherhood was safer in 17 countries than in the
United States. The study led to a federal funding for infant and maternity
care. Recent studies during the 1990s shown the U.S. still lagging behind
other developed nations. 

      ....................... * ........................
      To receive Women of Achievement and Herstory by email, write
<[email protected]> and in the body of the note <subscribe WOAH-Herstory>.
      The archives of more than 800 episodes of Women of Achievement and
Herstory are located at http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html
      ....................... * ........................
      Don't let anyone tell you there weren't notable and effective women
throughout history.  They were always there, but historians failed to note
them in our histories so that the women of each generation have had to
reinvent themselves. Because of space, WOA only contains a fraction of the
almost 20,000 women's biographies the author has on file. Any suggestions on
a possible book publisher?
                  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>>(C) 1997, All Rights Reserved, Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs
National Park, AR 71902, email [email protected] with comments and
suggestions. Distribute verbatim copies freely with copyright notice for non-
profit use. Please let me know. We are accepting donations to help offset the
costs of posting WOA.<<

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Week of 02-05 / 02-11, 1997 - Women of Achievement and Herstory 

          Episode - #06-1997 of the weekly WOA series Compiled and Written
by Irene Stuber - [email protected] who is solely responsible for all
content. Archives of more than 800 daily episodes are located at
http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html

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      We received a review copy of _Lost Heroines, Little-Known Women Who
Changed Their World_ that is simply excellent for children. At $10.95 from
Uintah Springs Press, 801-967-3681 (email [email protected]) it is a
fine gift for girls seeking confirmation in their pride in being born
women. In this volume you'll read about Lozen, the Apache woman warrior,
Maria Dorian, explorer, Jessie Faucet the mother of black literature, and
many others not generally found in such collection. It is an exceptional
addition to a women's history library. 
      Another review copy _Ruts, Gender Roles and Realities_ edited by
Anne Rankin Mahoney and published by the Red Mesa Publishing, 1166 S.
Clarkson, Denver, CO 80210 shakes the head up and complacency flies out
the door.  An anthology, various authors explore various facets of gender
stereotyping and their impacts of limiting our choices and happiness. We
are trapped in learned ways of living - ruts - that direct our behavior
rather than letting us choose. A longtime virtual friend Thea Deley has
contributed a powerful and educational piece "Religious Rape: Men in the
Anti-Abortion Movement." She writes, "A woman who places her own happiness
above that of others has joined the ranks of men, and upset the delicate
balance many pro-lifers believe is essential." It's $14.95 and suggested
as an introduction to feminist studies. 

      -=-=-=-=-=- February 5 through February 11 Anniversaries -=-=-=-=-=-

B. 02-05-1788, Sarah Goodridge, esteemed American miniature portrait
painter who learned to draw on birch bark with a pin.  Her commissions
supported her family. 

      Event 02-05-1971, women in Switzerland are enfranchised to vote in
national elections but they are not allowed to vote in local elections in
many cantons, a fact that doesn't change until 1994. 

      Event 02-05-1993, the family and medical leave bill is signed by
President Clinton that requires employers to permit unpaid leave for such
reasons as attending sick family members, a burden that traditionally
falls primarily on women. Although dire economic consequences were
predicted by opponents, it did not bankrupt or disrupt business. 

B. 02-06-1577, Beatrice Cenci, a young noblewoman of Rome, Italy, was
publicly executed for killing her father. The euphemism used at her trial
for the abuse and incest her father inflicted on her was "grossly ill
treated."  The reason for the patricide didn't matter and she was
condemned to death by Pope Clement VIII and executed along with other
members of her family.  She was the subject of Shelley's poem "The Genci"
and "Beatrice Cenci" by Alberto Moravia. 

      B. 02-06-1893, Madge Thurlow Macklin, American physician who worked
and taught in Canada. MTM invented the term "medical genetics," and was a
pioneer researcher in the inheritance of disease. MTM made fundamental
contributions to genetics proving that hereditary factors as well as
environmental factors were involved in many specific types of cancer. 
Helped establish the Canadian Eugenics Society and favored eugenics as a
method of preventative medicine. Married and with several children (she
was pregnant when she got her medical degree) she was mired at the
University of Western Ontario where she was held to being an assistant
professor and not allowed to lecture in the field of genetics in which she
had garnered a worldwide reputation. She was outspoken and did not fit the
model of a proper wife and retired academic. In 1945, she moved to the
Ohio State University where she lectured in medical genetics and research
fellow, traveling to Ontario to vacation with her family. 

B. 02-07-1918, Dr. Ruth Sager, American geneticist, professor of Biology,
Hunter College, defined the second human genetic system outside the
chromosomes. Scientists had previously said that non-chromosomal genes
were transmitted ONLY by females although males had them also. She proved
that hereditary factors could be transmitted through many generation
without "the tyranny of chromosomes" and both sexes did the transmitting. 

      Event 02-07-1966, a federal court declared Alabama's law excluding
women from jury duty to be unconstitutional. 

B. 02-08-1851, Kate Chopin, American author whose novel _Awakening_ (1899)
shocked many with its portrayal of a woman's sexual awareness and made KC
a social outcast and probably ruined her health and caused her early death
in 1901. She had been a respected interpreter of New Orleans culture
before writing the _Awakening_ being noted for her vivid and realistic
portrayals of Creole and Cajun life.  Her _Bayou Folk_ (1894) and _A Night
in Acadie_ (1897) were well received and sold well. 

      B. 02-08-1879, Maud Caroline Slye, American pathologist who used her
own money, to study hereditary causes of cancer and in May 1913, provided
the proof that cancer was not contagious, nor was it a virus.  Her studies
on recessive cancer causing genes along with her theory of how to breed
cancer as well as other diseases out of species are still not fully
accepted and she has yet to receive full recognition for her important
work. She had put herself through school by working full-time and carrying
a full scholastic load before suffering a nervous breakdown. She raised
her test mice on her own money (often feeding them before herself) through
more than 100 generations (3,000 years in man years). Through selective
breeding she was able to almost double their life spans and she could
predict all their illnesses before their birth. 

      B. 02-08-1938, Elly Ameling, Dutch soprano. Although a rich
performer of oratorio and opera, she is best honored for her
interpretations of the lieder singing with a purity of tone, sharp clarity
and perfect pitch. Her mother sang for pleasure and urged her daughter to
take voice and piano lessons. EM was knighted by the Dutch government for
her accomplishments. 

B. 02-09-1872, Helen Elizabeth Haines, American librarian who championed
literary freedom in book selection for libraries. Her_Living With Books:
The Art of Book Selection_ (1935) became a standard text.  "We must face
controversial violences and prevailing hatreds, must counteract mass
pressures from super- patriots, must continue to make material on all
sides of any subject available to readers." 

      B. 02-09-1915, Anna Sokolow, American modern dance choreographer and
teacher. Her works are performed around the world and is one of the noted
companies in which she uses emotional images of alienation and despair
that continue to be performed in noted ballet houses of the world.  Began
dancing with the Martha Graham Company of New York. 

      B. 02-09-1944, Alice Walker, black-native American essayist, poet,
novelist, and womanist.  AW won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for her novel _The
Color Purple_ (1982) which was made into a successful movie.  Her works
_Warrior Marks_ and _Possessing the Secret of Joy_ take up the
controversial practice of female genital mutilation in Africa. She was
dismissed from Spellman College for her involvement in a civil rights
demonstration. She then won a scholarship at Sarah Lawrence where she
impressed a teacher, poet Muriel Rukeyser. 

B. 02-10-1693, Marquise de la Mizanger, considered the earliest woman in
France to compose piano music, she toured extensively giving harpsichord
recitals. 

      B. 02-10-1883, Edith Clarke, pioneer American electrical engineer.
EC was the first women to receive a M.S. from MIT, first woman elected to
fellow of AIEE (1948). EC patented a calculating device to predict
behavior of electrical systems. Her main career was with General Electric
although she taught at various times during her life. Her _Circuit
Analysis of A-C`Power Systems_ (1943, 1950) was the authority text in the
field. Her mother who had nine children, six living, ran the family farm
after her father's death but died five years later from overwork. 

      B. 02-10-1898, Dame Judith Anderson, Australian-born American stage
and film actor, in 1918 her mother seeking escape from grinding poverty
took JA to Hollywood after a budding amateur acting career in Australia.
Failing in Hollywood, they went to New York where she sewed to keep them
alive while JA made the rounds of casting studios. Finally in 1924 JA got
a good role and was an immediate star.  She premiered many of Eugene
O'Neil's plays and was one of the pre-eminent actors of the era.  Did a
number of Hollywood films including the immortal rendition of Mrs. Danvers
in _Rebecca_ (1940). Was the first Australian woman actor to be elevated
to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, received her insignia
of a Dame Commander in 1960. She had a number of well known affairs with
women. 

B. 02-11-1802, Lydia Maria Child, U.S. author, one of the great writers of
the abolitionist cause. Edited _Juvenile Miscellany_ 1826-34, the first
American children's magazine. Her book _An Appeal in Favor of That Class
of Americans Called Africans_ (1833) caused a furor and brought many into
the movement.  She was also forthwith shunned from Boston society for it.
LMFC was named to the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery
Society by William Loyd Garrison and edited the _National Anti-slavery
Standard_ but was removed by Garrison because she was seen as too womanly
and moderate in her views. Actually, she was becoming too famous. Her
_Letters from New York 1843-45_ was a best seller going through 11
editions from 1845 to 1879. A pamphlet Child wrote condemning slavery sold
300,000 copies in the north. 
      In a famous quote, she replied to a southern woman who insisted that
they were kind and helpful to slave women at childbirth, "In New England,
too, `the pangs of maternity'...meet with the requisite assistance, and
here at the North, after we have helped the mothers, _we do not sell the
babies_."  She continued to write and publish the rest of her 78 years, a
respected and honored member of society. 

      B. 02-11-1925, Virginia Eshelman Johnson, American psychologist and
author. She is the Johnson of the famous Masters and Johnson sexual
behavior studies and co-author of the book that summed up its findings,
_Human Sexual Response_. 
                .  .  .  .  .  .  .^w^o^a^ .  .  .  .  .  .  . 
      WOA salutes volunteers Jennifer Gagliardi for posting Women of
Achievement and Herstory and Catt's Claws through her listserv. To receive
Women of Achievement and Herstory by email, write <[email protected]>
and in the body of the note <subscribe WOAH-Herstory>. 
      ....................... * ........................
      Don't let anyone tell you there weren't notable and effective women
throughout history.  They were always there, but historians failed to note
them in our histories so that the women of each generation have had to
reinvent themselves. 
                  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>>(C) 1997, All Rights Reserved, Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs
National Park, AR 71902, email [email protected] with comments, suggestions
and any corrections. Distribute verbatim copies freely with copyright notice
for non-profit use. We are accepting donations to help offset the costs of
posting and archiving of WOA at http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html which
because of cost and space only contains a fraction of the more than 20,000
women in Ms. Stuber's files.<<

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Week of 02-12 / 02-18, 1997 - Women of Achievement and Herstory 
         Episode - #07-1997 of the weekly WOA series 
Compiled and Written by Irene Stuber - [email protected] 
who is solely responsible for all content. Archives of more than 800 daily
episodes are located at http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html
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      One of WOA's readers wrote: 

      "(A few years back) I was doing a twice weekly practicum stint in a
French language school and was required to teach the grade 6 class that
the presence of only one male anything -- dog, cat, tree, man -- in a
group forced *all* pronouns into the masculine. 
      "As I outlined this, the girls, not yet schooled to accept this as
the 'natural order' of things, snickered a bit. Finally, I set out the
rule for them to copy down as follows: 
      "In grammar, the masculine takes precedence over the feminine.
(Pause) But ONLY in the case of grammar. 
      "There was a big, gurgling laugh, from both girls and boys. 
      "Later in the week, their teacher told me that he overheard one of
the girls say something like this during recess: 
      "`Okay, you can change the pronouns in GRAMMAR, but you can't change
the rules in THIS GAME." 
      "Don't the young make you hope?" 
            -- Sent to WOA by Judith Blackburn-Johnson (who, when asked
why she uses such a long name, replies: "Because I'm worth it.")

   -=-=-=-=-=- February 12 through February 18 Anniversaries -=-=-=-=-=-

Born 02-12-1926, Joan Mitchell, the leading American abstract painter of
her generation. Her lush paintings were an accumulation of color. A leader
in the second generation of Abstract Expressionists she lived in Paris
most of her creative life. 

      B. 02-12-1938, Judy Blume, highly popular American writer of books
for young people. Groups who know what's better for us than we do attempt
to censor her books more than any other author in America, according to
the American Library Association. 

B. 02-13-1827, Susan McGroarty (Sister Julia MCGroarty), Irish-born
American nun founder of Trinity College, Washington, D.C. In a lifetime
devoted to improving educational opportunities for Catholic girls from
Massachusetts to California, she developed a common course of education
for girls being taught by her order. Her life's work culminated in 1900
with the opening of Trinity College when for the first time in American
history, Catholic girls were given equal education with that given in the
all-male Catholic institutions. In all, she opened 14 new schools, an
orphanage, and a training school for novices of her order, the Sisters of
Notre Dame de Namur. SM served as assistant with full powers and then as
provincial superior of her order from 1885 to her death in 1901.
Conservatives in the catholic community strongly opposed the creation of
Trinity and advanced education of women feeling that it would liberalize
women and Americanize them away from their duties as wives and mothers. A
direct papal approbation enabled Trinity to proceed. McGroarty herself,
although brilliant, was not taught to read until she was 13 having
memorized lessons by listening. Her widowed mother had cared for her ten
children with some financial help from a relative. 

      B. 02-13-1903, Elizabeth Homer Morton helped found the Canadian
Library Association-Association Canadienne des BibliothSques and served as its
executive secretary (1946). A staunch advocate and activist for public 
libraries
for rural Canada.

      E. 02-13-1990, _Working Woman_ magazine announced a base rate of
1,00,000, the first business magazine to reach that exalted distribution rate -
making it larger than Fortune, Forbes or Business Week ... but what magazines
get quoted as authorities?

B. 02-14-1871, Marion Lucy Mahony Griffin, architect, delineator, and a
primary designer of Canberra, Australia. MLMG was the second woman to
graduate the Massachusetts Institute of Technology architect course and
the first women registered to practice architecture in Illinois. Working
with Frank Lloyd Wright from 1895, she refused to take over his Prairie
School when he went to Europe but agree to stay on as designer. She
actually designed several of the homes on which Wright's fame is based. On
his return, Wright accused her of trying to steal clients and projects and
she broke with him in 1909. She and her husband designed Canberra,
Australia and lived there for 20 years. Returning to Chicago at age 67
after a stint in India and the death of her husband, she remained
architecturally active for over two more decades. Her renderings and
delineators of the designs made in conjunction with those of Wright and
her husband Walter Burley Griffin make it difficult to decide where one
began and the other left off - so, in the time-honored ways - she is
usually ignored. Her widowed mother was principal of the Kamnsky School in
Chicago. 

      B. 02-14-1898, Angela Bambace-Santos, Brazilian-born American labor
organizer and leader who was active in the organization of the International
Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). She was particularly effective with
ethnic women. 

      B. 02-14-1904, Hertta Elina Kuusiner, member of the Finland Diet. HEK
served as minister without portfolio in the Finnish Cabinet.


Event 02-15-812 B.C. Rome is founded, according to the legends re-written
for children, by Romulus and Remus, who are suckled by a "she-wolf." The
"she- wolf" was probably the prostitute Acca Laurentia (the Latin word
Pupa for she-wolf can also mean prostitute), who was the wife of
Faustulus. Acca Laurentia's death was commemorated for many years in the
February 15 fertility festival called the Lupercalia in which girls put
love messages into urns and boys draw them out. Lupercalia would give rise
in later centuries to St. Valentine's Day, a Christianized version meant
to replace the pagan celebration. The now popular valentine heart shape
has traditionally been the artistic shape of a woman's labia. 

      B. 02-15-1876, Ada Everleigh who with her sister Minna operated a
brothel in Chicago from 1900-1911. It was "probably the most famous and
luxurious house of prostitution in the country." At a time, there were
reported to be nearly 600 houses of prostitution in Chicago alone. When a
reform movement closed them up in 1911 - probably because of their fame
since many others remained open, the sisters retired as millionaires. 

      B. 02-15-1860, Annie Blythe West, American missionary. The Japanese
government awarded her the Sixth Degree of the Order of the Crown for her
40 years of missionary work in Japan with women, children, and disabled
soldiers. 


B. 02-16-1893, Katharine Cornell, one of the most celebrated American
actors of the 1920-50 period, known for her deep, mellifluous voice and
impeccable acting style. Her first big hit was in _Bill of Divorcement_
(1921) which ran for 173 performances. Best know as Elizabeth Barret
Browning in the _Barretts of Wimpole Street (1930) which ran for more than
300 performances and toured for 20 weeks, and for her greatest role in
Shaw's _Saint Joan_ (1936). Her father was a martinet, extreme in his
disciplines and her mother was withdrawn and timid, the classic case of
spousal abuse which may have spilled over onto their only child who
acknowledged a lonely and unhappy childhood. Her mother's one streak of
independence left her estate to her daughter instead of her husband (as
was customary) and allowed Katherine to leave home. Her marriage to
director Guthrie McClintic is recognized as a cover for her lesbianism.
Her indispensable assistant Gertrude Macy was at her side during all her
years in the theatre, and KC left her extensive estate to her longtime
"housemate" (domestic partner) Nancy Hamilton who won an Academy Award in
1955 for the documentary _Helen Keller in Her Story_. KC narrated the
documentary. 

      B. 02-16-1906, Vera Francevna Menchik-Stevenson, Russian-born
British international chess master. VFMS was the women's world chess
champion from 1927 until her death in 1944. 

      Event 02-16-1945, Elizabeth W. Peratrovich, a native Tlingit of
Alaska, won her long fight for civil rights for the First People in Alaska
(1945). The day was set aside in her honor in 1989. 


B. 02-17-1881, Bess Streeter Aldrich, award winning American novelist and
short story writer who wrote of life on the plains and small towns that
resembled her life in Nebraska. _A Lantern in Her Hand_ (1925), and _Miss
Bishop_ (1933). BSA also wrote as Margaret Dean Stevens. 

      B. 02-17-1888, Dorothy Kenyon, attorney and longtime director of the
ACLU. DK wa a member of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women headed
by Eleanor Roosevelt. MK opposed any women's equal rights amendment
because she believed women needed special legislation in the modern world. 

      B. 02-17-1949, Glenys Fay Anderson, first woman director of the
Australian YMCA, 1974-1977. GFA was awarded the OAM for her conservation
and public service works. 

B. 02-18-1851, Ida A. Husted Harper, American author and women's rights
advocate. In spite of the violent opposition of her husband (divorced
1890), she wrote - although under a male pseudonym - and helped organize
her state's suffrage society. IAH was the official biographer of Susan B.
Anthony. Noting her ability, Carrie Chapman Catt appointed her to head the
Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education which produced the needed, steady
stream of letters, articles, and pamphlets that inspired women throughout
the United States to fight for their suffrage. In 1922 she edited and
published the last of the six volumes of the indispensable History of
Women's Suffrage to 1920. 

      B. 02-18-1874, Mary Williams Dewson, American reformer and truly one
of the most under-rated women's advocate in American history. One of the
most overlooked and powerful women of period who saw that the advancement
of women was directly tied to their political influence. She was an the
earliest advocate of women becoming active in party politics that has led
to the powerful gender gap. Her early studies before becoming active in
politics provided the basis for the Massachusetts minimum wage law in
1913, the first one in the U.S. MWD was instrumental in the passage of New
York State's unemployment insurance program and in the passage of minimum
wage laws in other parts of the country. She sought a way to
professionalize house cleaning to make it as attractive an employment
opportunity as factory work so that women who had interests outside the
home would be free to follow them. While superintendent of the
Massachusetts State Industrial School for Girls, MWD made statistical
studies to better understand the cause and rehabilitation of female
delinquency. She chaired the Massachusetts Suffrage league and like most
effective suffrage leaders served the war effort. She was France with the
American Red Cross 1917-1919. Florence Kelley made Dewson her chief
assistant at the National Consumers' League. CWD soon moved her interests
to the Democratic Party when she saw that the party leaders could be
influenced to pass social legislation. At the behest of Eleanor Roosevelt
she organized Democratic women for Alfred E. Smith's campaign of 1928 and
did the same for Franklin Roosevelt in his 1930 gubernatorial campaign and
later for his presidential campaigns. Through her work and ER's influence,
MWD became a part of the women's division of the Democratic National
Committee which she reorganized into a powerful weapon for women. CWD used
her influence to get government jobs for women party workers and, along
with ER, was probably the most powerful force in gaining the Secretary of
Labor appointment for Frances Perkins (1932), the first woman to serve in
a U.S. President's cabinet. Under CWD's tutelage, the women's division
became the guiding force of the democratic party and the 1936 presidential
campaign was almost entirely dependent on materials - the so-called
Rainbow flyers - that the women's division created. Through CWD's
influence, the Democratic party changed its rules for equal female
representation on the Platform committee. In 1937, President Roosevelt
appointed her to the Social Security Board and she finally got things
moving with Congress and developed a strong working relations with the
states. CWD began sharing a home with Mary G. Porter in 1913 and they
lived together the rest of her life. CWD's mother carried the
responsibilities for the family because of her father's ill health. 

      B. 02-18-1878, Blanche Ames Ames, American suffragist, feminist, and
artist best known for her illustrations of botanical works. She was an
early advocate of legalized birth control. Together with her husband also
named Ames they raised orchids. BAA illustrated and made the analytical
sketches published in the seven volume _Orchidacea: Illustrations and
Studies of the Family Orchidaceas_. HE became the world-recognized leading
orchidologist while she was considered a consultant. In 1916, MAA
co-founded the Birth control League of Massachusetts. After many failures
to legalize birth control information, she wrote, "Women must resort to
their old expedient of self-help. They must tell each other how to
regulate conception. Mothers must teach their daughters since their
doctors may not supply the means." She then illustrated birth control
methods of using common things around the home and passed on formulas for
spermicide jellies. She was a major fundraiser that saved the New England
Hospital for Women. A fund for medical education for women is named for
her. She was also an avid inventor of numerous devices including a
non-polluting toilet. An early graduate of Smith College, she was
president of her class. Her grandmother was Sarah Hildreth Butler, a famed
Shakespearean actor. 
                      . . . . . . .^w^o^a^ . . . . . . .
      WOA salutes volunteers Jennifer Gagliardi for posting Women of
Achievement and Herstory and Catt's Claws through her listserv. To receive
Women of Achievement and Herstory by email, write <[email protected]>
and in the body of the note <subscribe WOAH-Herstory>. 
      ....................... * ........................
      Don't let anyone tell you there weren't notable and effective women
throughout history. They were always there, but historians failed to note
them in our histories so that the women of each generation have had to
reinvent themselves. 

                  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>>(C) 1997, All Rights Reserved, Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs
National Park, AR 71902, email [email protected] with comments,
suggestions and any corrections. Distribute verbatim copies freely with
copyright notice for non-profit use. We are accepting donations to help
offset the costs of posting and archiving of WOA at
http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html which because of cost and space
only contains a fraction of the more than 20,000 women in Ms. Stuber's
files.<<

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Week of 02-19/25-1997 - Women of Achievement and Herstory
Episode - #08 / 1997 of the weekly 1997 WOA series
Compiled and Written by Irene Stuber - [email protected] 
who is solely responsible for all content. The archiving of more than 800 
episodes is in progress at    http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
                  Women in the Clergy as of 1996
      Includes priests, bishops, ministers and rabbis

Baptist                             2,313 ministers
Episcopal                           6 bishops, 1,452 priests
Evangelical Lutheran                1,838 pastors
Judaic 
      reform                        259 rabbis
      Conservative                   72 rabbis
      Orthodox                        0
Latter-day Saints (Mormon)            0 priests
Methodists                           10 bishops, 4,995 ministers
Presbyterian                        3,026 ministers
Roman Catholic                          0
Seventh-day Adventist                   0
Unitarian Universalist 
Association                         4,443 ministers
United Church of God 
(Congregationalist)                  2,080 ministers
 
(Table based on an article from _Working Woman_ magazine.)

   -=-=-=-=-=- February 19 through February 25 Anniversaries -=-=-=-=-=-

B. 02-19-1867, Annie Nathan Mayer, American publicist, writer,
antisuffragist, and a founder of Barnard College. Her older sister Maud
Nathan was a prominent suffragist and president of the New York
Consumers's League. ANM dropped out of Columbia's collegiate course after
refusing to answer questions on courses that women were barred from
attending. Marrying a wealthy physician, she set about creating Barnard
College, correctly assuming the trustees of Columbia would cooperate with
a separate women's college if it didn't cost them any money. She actively
supported black students and recruited them for Barnard. Although she
herself wrote and traveled extensively, she opposed mothers working and
she campaigned against woman's suffrage - and yet it is known that she was
bitter about a woman being expected to give up her career when she
married. 

      Event 02-19-1963, _The Feminine Mystique_ was published and the
world changed. Author Betty Fridan became the voice of women frustrated to
near madness by being forced by societal, legal, and religious pressures
that defined their humanity and their entire lives to the confines of
their homes, the lives of their children, and the desires of their
husbands without any chance of them being recognized as individual human
beings. 

B. 02-20-1805, Angelina Emily Grimke, American anti-slavery crusader and
women's rights advocate. AEG, along with her sister Sarah, drew audiences
in the thousands. In addition to being chastised for their messages, they
were widely criticized for addressing audiences of both sexes. Angelina's
letters to Catherine Beecher regarding slavery and abolition along with
sister Sarah's letters on _The Equality of the Sexes and The Condition of
Women_, published in 1838, probably constitute the first written advocacy
for women's rights in the United States. About 1830, the sisters sat with
their black friend Sarah Doublass and her mother to protest the existence
of a colored bench in a Quaker meeting house in Philadelphia.  Recently
some question have been raised on whether the Grimkes were black or white
as well as the lesbianism of one of the sisters. 

      B. 02-20-1921, Ruth Gipps, English composer and conductor who
published and performed her The Fairy Shoemaker opera when she was eight.
At 17 she became one of the youngest people to received a Ph.D. in music.
She was the first woman to conduct her own symphony on the British
Broadcasting System and was a guest conductor with many symphony
orchestras before her youthful blush was over and she was subject to the
usual erasing of women composers and conductors from classical music. 

B. 02-21-1947, Olympia J. Snowe, United States Senator from Maine, elected
to the Senate after serving eight consecutive terms as U.S.
Representative. In 1973 she was elected to fill her husband's unexpired
term in the Maine House of Representatives. She was then elected to the
Maine Senate in 1976 where she sponsored health-care legislation. Although
a Republican, she favors national health insurance and is pro-choice. Her
mother died of cancer when OJS was eight and she was raised by an uncle
and a textile-mill-working aunt who had five children of their own. She is
of Greek ancestry. 
 
     Event 02-21-1964, the formation of an American branch of Britain's
St. Joan's Alliance, was announced. It seeks equality for women within the
Roman Catholic Church. 

B. 02-22-1889, Lady Olave St. Clair Baden-Powell, chosen chief guide of
the world's girl scout movement in 1930 and she continued in that post for
several decades. OSVP also headed the Girl Guide movement in England from
1917.  She was made Dame of the British Empire in 1931. Her husband was
founder of the Boy Scout movement in England. 

      E. 02-22-1994, the Church of England made it official and announced
it would ordain women as priests. The first ordination of the 1,200 women
in line for priesthood occurred 03-12-1994 with the first woman
celebrating mass and communion the next day, British Mother's day.
Thirty-five Anglican priests immediately announced they would leave the
Anglican church for the Roman Catholic Church and indicated that as many
as one-third of the men would leave over the issue of women's ordination.
It did not occur although there are pockets of resistance to women priests
even today. 

B. 02-23-1868, Katherine Pettit, American settlement worker and pioneer
began a number of settlement projects in Appalachia which not only served
as schools to teach children academics but also trades. The settlement
houses also served as health centers. Her partner was May Stone. Later
along with Linda Neville and later Ethel de Long, KP was instrumental in
the building of many roads, held farmer's institutes to improve animal
production and care, led the battle for the U.S. Public Health Service to
provide care in the area as well as founding two major schools, Hindman
and Pine Mountain Schools. Pettit was the Jane Addams of Kentucky's
Appalachia. 

      B. 02-23-1901, Ruth Roland Nichols, American aviator, held more than
35 "firsts" for women in the early days of aviation, including being the
first woman to receive an international hydroplanes license. In 1917 RRN
was one of the first two women to receive a transport license from the
Department of Commerce.  She co-founded the Ninety-Nines, a networking
organization for early women pilots that is still in existence today. (The
Ninety-Nines has a www site.) Her autobiography is _Wings for Life (1957).
During WWII she formed Relief Wings, a civilian air-ambulance service. She
made a world tour on behalf of UNICEF in 1948. 

B. 02-24-1887, Mary Ellen Chase, U.S. scholar, teacher, and writer whose
novels are largely concerned with the Maine seacoast and its inhabitants.
She was professor of English at Smith College. Her best known works are
Windswept. Sila Crockett (1935). 

      B. 02-24-1890, Marjorie Main*, actor with more than 100 movie
credits to her name. She is best known for her crusty, down-to-earth
characters, such as Ma Kettle. 

      B. 02-24-1917, Dorothy Florence Raedler, founder and director of the
American Savoyards which presented Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in the
U.S. 

B. 02-25-1890, Dame Myra Hess, brilliant English pianist, ranked as one of
the foremost of her time and one the finest pianist of history - and she
was certainly one of the bravest. Cancelling her concert tours in the
United States and Australia at the beginning of World War II, she put
music aside to help evacuate the children from London during the
horrendous bombing as well as other war work. She organized and played the
piano in an experimental lunchtime series of concerts at the National
Gallery (already emptied of all pictures because of the danger of
bombings) which lasted from 10-10-1939 to 04-10-1946 - all through the
worst of the air raids. Sometimes bombs fell nearby shaking everything but
Hess kept playing, never missing a note, never hesitating. In the 6.5
years she gave 1,698 concerts, donating all her time.  The admission of
one shilling to the concerts which eventually totaled 15,000 pounds was
donated in its entirety to the Musicians Benevolent Fund.  In 1941 she was
made Dame Commander of the British Empire to add to her dozens of other
awards. She gave seven concerts in eight days in Holland starting only two
days after their liberation from German occupation. Wherever she appeared,
she was inundated in triumph for not only was she a great pianist but she
was recognized as a genuine hero. A noted New York critic had said of her
1922 New York city debut, "(MH) is not merely a great woman pianist; she
is a great pianist without limitation." 
      MH was raised in an orthodox Jewish home "but I have since forgotten
it. It is impossible for an artist to keep up the orthodox faith. 
Besides, one's ideas do change. I look at life a little differently now." 

Quote de Jour:

      In her triumphant post WWII tour of the United States Dame Myra Hess
told audiences, "...it was your help that enabled us to maintain this
unbroken series of 1698 concerts. We were threatened with a serious
financial problem.  It was then that you came to our rescue. Generous
contributions reached us from all over America, continuing even after you
yourselves were faced with the enormous burdens of war. I wish I could
make you see what these concerts meant to people. Then perhaps, you would
imagine the measure of my profound gratitude...These years have forged an
unbreakable bond. This welcome you have given me is more than a personal
tribute. It is a symbol of enduring unity between your people and mine." 

                .  .  .  .  .  .  .^w^o^a^  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
      WOA salutes volunteers Jennifer Gagliardi for posting Women of
Achievement and Herstory and Catt's Claws through her listserv. To receive
Women of Achievement and Herstory by email, write <[email protected]> and
in the body of the note <subscribe WOAH-Herstory>.

      ....................... * ........................
      Don't let anyone tell you there weren't notable and effective women
throughout history.  They were always there, but historians failed to note
them in our histories so that the women of each generation have had to
reinvent themselves. Never again! 
                  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>>(C) 1997, All Rights Reserved, Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs
National Park, AR 71902, email [email protected] with comments,
suggestions and any corrections. Distribute verbatim copies freely with
copyright notice for non-profit use. We are accepting donations to help
offset the costs of posting and archiving of WOA at
http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html which because of cost and space
only contains a fraction of the more than 20,000 women in Ms. Stuber's
files.<<

Last night I saw the recently released film version of the book *A Midwife's 
Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785 - 1812* by Laurel 
Thatcher Ulrich. They've done a great job bringing this Pulitzer prize-winning 
book to the screen and making the diary come alive. It's wonderfully done.  
Mostly dramatizations of stories based on Ballard's diary, the early part of 
the film also includes sequences showing Ulrich working with the diary, which 
was no easy task; other researchers before Ulrich had seen it and dismissed
it because of its density of everyday domestic detail, but Ulrich says that's
what she loved about it! 

Kaiulani Lee, who plays Martha Ballard, is *superb*, really unforgettable in 
projecting the character of this hard-working woman in rural Maine, who was
a wife, mother of nine, and "skilled practitioner of an ancient female craft." 
(Lee is also the one who wrote, produced, and periodically performs a one-woman
play based on the life of Rachel Carson.) 

I saw the film at the Carpenter Art Center at Harvard; I put my name on a list 
to hear about any upcoming showings.  It's also scheduled to be on tv at some 
point, but no one knew when for sure. 

If you have a chance to see it, don't miss it!

Dorian

In honor of Women's History Month, the display cases in the foyer/hallway of
the Worcester Public Library are devoted to women's history, with a focus on
local women who were present at the first National Women's Rights
Convention, held in Worcester on October 23 and 24, 1850. (The women are
Paulina Wright Davis, Abby Kelley Foster, Lucy Stone, and Sojourner Truth).
Nicely done exhibit; worth a look if you're in the area.

The exhibit was developed by the Worcester Women's History Project, which is
also planning to sponsor Women 2000, an event to celebrate the 150th
anniversary of that first convention.  They hope to re-enact the first
convention and to hold a new convention.

The WWHP have a website with a good deal of information about and historical
sources for the 1850 and 1851 conventions as well as local involvement in
the women's movement.

http://www.assumption.edu/html/academic/history/wwhp/Front.html

And according to an announcement in one of the display cases ...
"A Midwife's Tale" will be shown in the auditorium of the Worcester Art
Museum on Thursday, 13 March, at 7:30 p.m.  Director/producer? (it's a 
"film by") Laurie Kahn-Leavitt and author Laurel Ulrich will be there 
to discuss the film with audience members after the showing.  And, 
guess what?  It's FREE!

If anyone does not have access to the Web and would like any of the back
issues of WOA for 1997 (only 1997) please write [email protected]

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Week of 03/12 - 03/18, #11 - 1997, Women of Achievement and Herstory

Compiled and Written by Irene Stuber - [email protected] 
who is solely responsible for all content. Archives of more than 800
episodes are being located at http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
  
   Has anyone else noticed how little is written about the actions of the
first United States Secretary of State who is also a woman? 

     "We created our own little women's caucus (in the United Nations) and
that terrified everybody. There were those from larger countries who
complained about the fact that the ambassador from Liechtenstein had
unfair access to the American ambassador, and I said there clearly was an
easy way to rectify that. (That is, appoint more female ambassadors)." 
          -- Madeleine Albright

What is Secretary Albright about?  Why are the appointments and elections
of women to places of influence so important? 
     "Health, population and the environment -- these are not, as some
might suggest, peripheral issues. They are central. They relate directly
to the long-term security and well-being of our people and of all people.
They will become increasingly important as we enter the 21st century." 
          - Madeleine Albright

-=-=-=- Herstory highlights of the week -=-=-=-

B. 03-12-1877, Annette Abbott Adams, American attorney and judge, the
first American woman to act as a federal prosecutor and the first woman
appellate state judge (California). She was named assistant United States
Attorney for the northern district of California and then became assistant
attorney general in Washington, D.C., the first woman to hold the rank.
Following the Republican victory, she returned to California where she
practiced law and continued working for women's rights. She campaigned for
Franklin Roosevelt and turned down the federal judgeship that went to
Marion Harron. She successfully prosecuted Standard Oil winning a seven
million dollar judgement. In 1942 she won election to the California
appellate court and became the first woman to sit on the State Supreme
Court for a special case. 

     B. 03-12-1912, Kylie Tennant, Australian novelist, playwright,
novelist, and biographer. KT wrote realistically about vile Australian
slums during the depression and yet made them affirmative depictions of
the people's spirits and ambitions. She explored conditions first-hand,
even spending a week in jail. Several of her books won S. H. Prior Prizes.
Several of her children's books also were award winners. She was awarded
the Order of Australia. 

B. 03-13-1892, Janet Flanner, American expatriate who was the Paris
correspondent for _The New Yorker_ magazine for 30 years, writing under
the name "Genet."  JF returned to U.S. in 1939, returned to Paris in 1944
and reported the aftermath of World War II from various places in Germany
including Buchenwald. JF published a number of books. Her paternal
grandmother who served as JF's inspiration whom she described as a "fine
botanist" collecting for Asa Gray and who corresponded with John Muir
about glaciers. JF's biography _Genet_ by Brenda Wineapple not only
describes the American expatriate's life but also introduces the large
cadre of American and European lesbians who lived and visited there during
that period along with Ernest Hemingway and others of the "lost
generation." 

     B. 03-13-1914, Nancy Wilmot Borlase, Australian artist and critic,
winner of numerous awards. 

     B. 03-13-1931, Rosalind Elias, Metropolitan opera singer.

B. 03-14-1923, Diane Arbus, American photographer with a cult following.
After a career of orthodox mother and housewife as well as doing the
lengthy and demanding creation and planning of fashion shoots with her
husband who did the technical work of taking the pictures, DA left her
husband in 1960 and began photographing the unusual, the flawed, and the
fantastic - from drag queens to cripples - capturing the inner spirit of
people as no one else had ever done.  She committed suicide at 48 and she
rapidly evolved into a cult figure. 

     B. 03-14-1946, Hana Umlauf Lane, American editor of various almanacs
including the _World Almanac_. 

     B. 03-14-197?, Trish Asher, an email friend who exposes the men's
rights movement. See http://www.igc.apc.org/onissues/w97paranoia.html for
"Will Paternal Paranoia Triumph? The organization of angry dads," an _On
The Issues_ article. 

==

Event 03-15-1848, from the documents of the Assembly of the State of New
York. 71st session, vol. 5, document 129. Albany, 1848: On March 15, 1848,
four months prior to the first woman's rights convention in Seneca Falls,
forty-four women of Genesee and Wyoming County declared to the New York
State Assembly that they owed no allegiance to the government since they
were deprived of their political rights. Their petition states: When women
are allowed the privileges of rational and accountable beings, it will be
soon enough to expect from them the duties of such. (WOA has not been able
to get the names of the signers of this statement. HELP???)

     B. 03-15-1868, Lida Gustava Heymann, noted German feminist and peace
advocate, one of the founders of the German female suffrage movement.
Inheriting a fortune from her Protestant family, she became active in
various charities and good works such as day nursery and a woman's home.
Together with Minna Cauer (1841-1922) she formed a radical women's reform
organization that even battled police over regulated prostitution. Met
Anita Augsburg in 1902 when an organization was formed for women's
suffrage. They stayed together until both died in 1943 in Switzerland.
Their memoirs "Erlebtes-Erschautes" were not published until 1972. Heymann
and Augsburg took a pacifist positions in World War I and lost most of
their support and after attending the Women's League for Peace and Freedom
in 1915 at the Hague (See Jane ADDAMS and Carrie Chapman CATT), their
suffrage league was banned by authorities and the two had to remain in
hiding for the rest of the WWI. The two increasingly became a minority in
the women's movement which grew more nationalistic as Hitler's party rose
in influence. They were on vacation outside of Germany when Hitler came to
power and were not allowed to return. They spent the rest of their lives
in Switzerland where they worked with the international women's movement
as well as aiding German refugees. 

     B. 03-15-1907, Maura Laverty, Irish author.

==

B. 03-16-1891, Irita Van Doren, editor _New York Herald Tribune_'s review
section _Books_ (1926). Before their divorce, assisted husband Carl in the
research and writing of HIS noted biographies. 

     B. 03-16-1900, Eveline H. Burns, British-born American-economist who
helped design the U.S. Social Security system, professor of economics,
Columbia University, member of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
Committee of Economic Security and other "brain trust" boards. EHB openly
criticized the American Medical Association for opposing Medicare. 

     B. 03-16-1902, Lucie Rie, Austrian-born British studio potter. Her
unique and complex slip-glaze surface treatment and inventive
kiln-processing influenced an entire generation of younger British
ceramists. 

==

B. 03-17-1863, Anna Williams, American physician and bacteriologist
isolated the diphtheria bacillus and developed an effective diphtheria
immunization against a disease that ravaged millions throughout history.
Her sister's miscarriage and near death as the doctor did not intervene
led her to study medicine. She then became the first woman in the
diagnostic laboratory at the New York City Department of Health and
although her supervisor, William Hallock Park was on vacation, he received
credit when Williams isolated the diphtheria bacillus, now known as
Park-Williams #8 or, usually, the Park strain. By late that same year,
1894, the anti-toxin was made available to physicians. Because of her
discoveries, diphtheria is now a rare disease. She developed an easy
method of straining brain tissue to diagnose rabies. 

     B. 03-17-1873, Margaret (Grace) Bondfield, trade-union leader and the
first woman to attain Cabinet rank in Great Britain. 

     B. 03-17-1898, Ella Winter, Australian-born journalist who wrote
extensively about Communist Russia, specializing in the human aspects of
life there. By premarital agreement, her marriage to the much older
Lincoln Steffans was dissolved after five years. 

==

Baptized 03-18-1634, Marie Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, La Fayette,
Comtesse de, credited with writing France's first historical novels and
its first analytical novels. Like most women of the era, she never signed
her works fiction because of social prejudices and if they were signed at
all it was under the name of her friend Jean Segrais. _La Princess de
Cleves_ is considered the first true historical novel. Many of her works
are credited to Segrais and LaRochefoucauld who are said to have
influenced her greatly.  She, of course, did NOT influence them. 

     B. 03-18-1929, Christa Wolf, East German writer who after World War
II became a dissident of the East German government and idealized Marxist. 
Her books which were widely accepted in the West have fallen out of favor.
Her _Cassandra_ (1984) is a feminist novel and several of her books
question the Marxist state and the position of its workers. Is said to
have admitted being a collaborator with The East Germany secret police. 

     B. 03-18-1964, Bonnie Blair, American speed skater, the most
decorated Olympic winter athlete in U.S. history. BB is the record holder
for the most Olympic gold medals (5) won by an American woman in any
sport. Blair consecutively broke records in the 500 and 1000 meter
speedskating events. 

Quote of the Week:

     "Many feminists are *too* generous. We rush to give up the meager
protections we have before we've gained anything approaching equality that
might make such protections unnecessary. A woman who has taken herself off
the job market, put her husband through college or graduate school,
serviced and served him, raised his children, and failed to develop her
own marketable skills, is most certainly entitled to alimony, lots of
it--every penny she can get. 
     "I am deeply puzzled and alarmed to hear some young feminists
denounce alimony. It seems they have no knowledge or understanding of the
plight of many older women, nor do they seem to recognize that even the
woman who has good job skills earns less than a man with the same
training, seniority, and competence. A feminist wouldn't think of giving
up alimony until women have truly achieved equal pay for equal work, as
well as a genuine co-division of child care and household responsibility
in the family." 
          --Barbara Seaman, noted feminist writer.

        .  .  .  .  .  .  .^w^o^a^  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
     WOA salutes volunteers Jennifer Gagliardi for posting Women of
Achievement and Herstory and Catt's Claws through her listserv. To receive
Women of Achievement and Herstory by email, write <[email protected]>
and in the body of the note <subscribe WOAH-Herstory>.
     ....................... * ........................

     Don't let anyone tell you there weren't notable and effective women
throughout history.  They were always there, but historians failed to note
them in our histories so that the women of each generation have had to
reinvent themselves. 
               -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>>(C) 1997, All Rights Reserved, Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs
National Park, AR 71902, email [email protected] with comments,
suggestions and any corrections. Distribute verbatim copies freely with
copyright notice for non-profit use. We are accepting donations to help
offset the costs of posting and archiving of WOA at
http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html which because of cost and space
only contains a fraction of the more than 20,000 women in Ms. Stuber's
files.<<

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Week of 03/19 - 03/25, #12 - 1997, Women of Achievement and Herstory

Compiled and Written by Irene Stuber - [email protected] 
who is solely responsible for all content. Archives of more than 800
episodes are being located at http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

The growing number of women athletes is a gold mine - for men.  Although
women now make up almost 40% of all athletic programs in college and high
school, it is men who are reaping the dollar benefits because they are now
coaching at least 50% of the college women's teams and 80% of the high
school women's teams. 
     This is particularly worrisome to some women because the traditional
woman gymn teacher with whom girls could discuss their physical concerns
going into womanhood has been replaced by a win-at-all-costs attitude. 

         .  .  .  .  .  .  .^w^o^a^  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Dr. Nancy Vickers has been chosen unanimously by the trustees of Bryn Mawr
College to replace Mary Patterson McPherson who will join the Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation. Dr. McPherson led Bryn Mawr to a resurgence of
popularity and record financial endowments. 
     Dr. Vickers is dean and professor of French, Italian and comparative
literature at the University of Southern California. 
     She is an advocate of women's colleges, having graduated from Mount
Holyoke College in 1967. Bryn Mawr has received more than 1,600
applications for its new class of 350 and has an endowment of $310
million. 
   Dr. McPherson said in newspaper reports, "It seemed to me to be the
right time to step down. 
   "With the institution in very good shape, the trustees, faculty and
students had the luxury of picking someone who really engaged their
interests. I think Nancy Vickers is going to challenge and enliven and
amuse this place." 
     Dr. Vickers is at home with Madonna and George Michael as she is with
Dante and Shakespeare, according to newspaper reports. Although most
recently at Southern California, she earned her doctorate in French
literature at Yale in 1976, taught at Dartmouth from 1973 to 1987 before
moving to USC. 

         .  .  .  .  .  .  .^w^o^a^  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

B. 03-19-1844, Minna Canth, Finnish playwright, novelist and essayist. MC
was a feminist who fought for women's rights. She is best known for the
plays _A Workingman's Wife (1885) in which she questions how a drunken man
can legally drink away his wife's hard-earned money with the law on his
side. Her short story "According to the Law" (1889) questions the
standards of morality.  Widowed with seven children, she turned to writing
to support her family and also assisted her father in saving his business
from bankruptcy. [1844-1897] {Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature,
edited by Claire Buck}

     B. 03-19-1882, Minnie Fisher Cunningham, one of the imortals of
American feminism was educated by her mother. MFC graduated with a degree
in pharmacy, but became the president of Texas Suffrage Association. Under
her leadership, in the third year of her administration, the Texas
constitution was amended to give women the vote, Carrie Chapman Catt
called on MFC to head the Congressional Committee during the final stages
of the national suffrage battle. She used the same lobbying techniques
that were successful in Texas. MFC became executive secretary of the
National League of Women Voters, later the executive secretary of the
Woman's National Democratic Clubs. She remained a force in Texas politics
even as her finances foundered. She retired to her farm, ran a roadside
garden stand, and took care of her small herd of cattle by herself. 

     B. 03-19-1907, Elizabeth Maconchy, English composer of Irish parents
who studied music in Prague. Her music is smooth and melodious. She
composed operas, ballets, chamber music and symphonic pieces. 

B. 03-20-1920, Marian McPartland. Seldom does anyone become a legend in their
own time, but McPartland has done it. Not only is this national treasure a
fabulous pianist, but she is a music expert whose profound influence on
modern jazz surpassed many of the richer, better known jazzmen of our era. 

     B. 03-20-1940, Mary Ellen Mark, American photojournalist who
specialized in startling works about people on the edge such as drug
addicts, the elderly, people dying in hospices, families living in abject
poverty and starving in Calcutta, and Bombay prostitutes. 

     Event 03-20-1991, in a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
in _Automobile Workers_ v. _Johnson Controls_ that excluding women from
jobs in which toxic substances exposure could injure a woman's ability to
safely conceive was unconstitutional. Medical experts had testified that
men exposed to toxic substances, not women, were more likely to cause
birth defects because men_s reproductive glands and fluids were more
exposed than women's. Men's sperm is affected on a daily basis by toxic
substances, etc., while a women's eggs are already formed at birth. 
     
B. 03-21-1857, Alice Henry , Australian journalist who promoted trade
unionism, women's suffrage, and social reform in Australia and the United
States. Educated by her mother who was a seamstress. AH began earning her
living by teaching and at 27 became a journalist with a noted 20-year
career. She wrote under pseudonyms as well as her own name because of her
reform positions on women's rights and social problems. AH edited the
_National Women's Trade Union_s _Life and Labour_ in the United States
from 1915-1933. Miles Franklin, noted Australian feminist and writer,
assisted the work. On her return to Australia in 1933, she compiled a
bibliography of Australian women in addition to continuing her writing. 

     B. 03-21-1866, Antonia Caetana De Paiva Pereira Maury , American
astronomer. Her earliest studies of the spectra of stars ran into the
prejudices of authorities at the Harvard observatory. She taught at other
universities for twenty years in the shadows until a (male) Danish
astronomer Ejnar Herzsprung lauded her classification system and its
accuracy. Finally, 46 years after her catalog was first published, she
received the Annie J. Cannon Prize (1943).  Her sister Carolott Joaquina
(1874-1938) was a noted paleontologist. 

     Event 03-21-1943, Cornelia Fort is the first American WOMAN pilot to
die on active MILITARY duty. She and a group of Women Air Service Pilots
were flying near Loredo, Texas, when a male pilot decided to have fun with
the "girls" and pulls out of formation. Not the pilot he thought he was,
his wing tip sliced into Fort's canopy and strikes her. 
     The Air Force reacts swiftly (in a way familiar to military women in
50 years later). It restricts women pilots to lighter, less powerful
planes and to order them to always fly in different directions than the
men. They are also NEVER to co-pilot with a male. No record has surfaced
of what happened to the male pilot who caused Fort's death. 
     Unlike the male civilian pilots who had military insurance, the women
did not and the WASPs took up a collection to send Fort's body home and
bury her. 

B. 03-22-1808, Caroline (Elizabeth Sarah) Norton, prolific English poet
and novelist whom some claim was not a feminist because she said women
should only act when men were irresponsible. Regardless, she changed
British law several times in favor of married women's rights. CN had begun
writing and publishing even as a child and continued her craft into her
marriage, becoming an editor of the _English Annual_ (1834-38). Her
husband sued for divorce, claiming adultery. Even though his case
collapsed, EN lost custody of her three sons because just the *charge*
under English law condemned her as unfit.  EN wrote the pamphlet _A Plain
Letter to the Lord Chancellor on the Infant Custody Bill_ (1839) under a
male pseudonym Pearce Stevenson. It was influential in the passage of the
Infant Custody Bill (1839). Her husband from whom she had long been
separated then claimed her copyrights and all her money from writing since
married women had no legal standing under British law. It bankrupted her.
She published "English Laws for Women" (1854) and "A Letter to the Queen"
(1855) which supported the Divorce Bill and Married Women_s Property Bill
that allowed women some control over their own affairs after marriage. 

     B. 03-22-1892, Grace Longwell Coyle, American social worker and
educator who was self-described as "a group worker with great concern for
social actions especially in the field of industrial problems." Devoted to
her housemate and longtime Friend Abbie Graham, biographer of YWCA leader
Grace Dodge. 

     B. 03-22-1899, Ruth Page, American dancer, choreographer, and
director who pioneered ballet in Chicago. Joined the Chicago Opera in 1934
and the Chicago Lyric Opera in 1954. Established the Ruth Page's
International Ballet, the Page-Stone Ballet and was president of the Ruth
Page Foundation School of Dance 1971-1991.  Created a number of ballets. 

B. 03-23-1429, Margaret of Anjou, queen consort of Henry VI of England to
whom she was married as part of the Anglo-French peace settlement in 1445. 
Strong where her husband was weak, she led the Lancastern resistance to
the "claims to power of Richard, duke of York" in the War of the Roses.
When the Yorks won, she and Henry fled to Scotland from which she sought
alliances and aid with France. In 1471 her husband and son both died and
she was captured by the Yorkists but freed to retire to France where she
lived for six years before her death in 1482. 

     B. 03-23-1814, Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, Cuban-born playwright,
novelist, and poet who settled in Spain. AG is considered one of the
foremost Romantic writers of the 19th century. She wrote three novels
including _Dos Murjeres_ (1842) which openly criticized marriage customs
and laws for women. Her plays, however, were foremost in expressing her
anti-slavery views and her stance that women were victimized by society's
mores and laws. 

     B. 03-23-1882, (Amalie) Emmy Noether, German mathematician recognized
as the most creative abstract algebraist of modern times. Best known for
her contributions in abstract algebra, she did vital work in invariants
which led to formulations for several concepts of Einstein's theory of
relativity.  In 1933, she lost her teaching position in Germany because of
the Nazi and fled to the U.S.  She taught at Bryn Mawr College and
lectured at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. 

B. 03-24-1811, Fanny Lewald, popular German novelist and feminist who
wrote mainly on family, marriage, and social problems. Born Jewish, she
converted to Lutheranism to marry, but her fiance died before the wedding
and she is said to have spent 17 years mourning. She then produced two
novels which are viewed as important analyses of women's position in
society and marriage. She did marry and write more novels and articles but
it is her autobiography _Meine Lebensgeschichte_ (1861) that is still read
for its insights into life of the period. 

     B. 03-24-1855, Olive Schreiner, South African novelist, feminist, and
pacifist.  Her first semi-autobiographical novel _The Story of An African
Farm_ (1883) - authored by Ralph Iron - brought her instant fame for her
unorthodox view of religion and marriage. The protagonist decides to have
a child without marriage and dies in childbirth, still holding to her
dreams of freedom and self-fulfillment. OS became the toast of radical
thinkers of Europe. Her most important feminist book is _Women and Labour_
1911, considered a major landmark in the pioneering philosophy of
feminism. She was anti-racist and opposed Christian conventions. Returning
to South Africa, she married and her husband added her name to his. She
returned to England where she faced problems because of her
German-sounding name during WWI and she went back to South Africa to die
thinking she was a failure as a writer. Simplistically stated, she saw the
problems of women as problems of all civilization and she sought ways for
universal equality. Ill health plagued her entire life and her only child
died shortly after birth. 

     B. 03-24-1890, Agnes Campbell MacPhail, first woman elected to the
Canadian House of Commons where she served from 1921 to 1940.  She was a
member of the Canadian delegation to the League of Nations (1929) and sat
in the Ontario legislature for five years. 

B. 03-25-1921, Simone Signoret, French actor and writer. SS appeared in
the classic _La Ronde_ (1950), and won the 1958 Academy Award for her work
in _A Room at the Top_. One of the great actors of her era, was noted for
conveying courage and deep, smoldering emotions. 

     B. 03-25-1925, (Mary) Flannery O'Connor, American author. Although
her work was limited to only two short novels and 19 stories, her impact
on American letters has been a major one. Her eeriness and studies of
damaged people in the context of the American South. She was concerned
with alienation of individuals while seeking religious redemption. A
devoted Roman Catholic, MFO suffered from Lupus, a disease that killed her
father. Drugs helped but the disease killed her at 39. She lived in rural
Georgia with her mother and raised chickens and peacocks. She was confined
to crutches for much of her life. Her fame and popularity continues to
grow. 

     Event 03-25-1931, Jackie Mitchell, 17, is the first woman hired to
play professional baseball when she signs a contract with the AA
Chattanooga Lookouts. On April 2, 1931, JM, a lefthanded pitcher, struck
out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game and then was taken out
of the game. She played off and on until 1937 but was never allowed to
develop. 

         .  .  .  .  .  .  .^w^o^a^  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

     "...Any demand that women write the same kind of moral, distilled
narrative we usually get from men implies a belief that women share the
same kind of reality as men; clearly, this is not the case." 
     --Annette Kolodny in _Contemporary Literature_ (Autumn 1976) 
 
        .  .  .  .  .  .  .^w^o^a^  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

     WOA salutes volunteers Jennifer Gagliardi for posting Women of
Achievement and Herstory and Catt's Claws through her listserv, and Sam
McMillan who maintains the WOA and Claws web pages. To receive Women of
Achievement and Herstory by email, write <[email protected]> and in the
body of the note <subscribe WOAH-Herstory>. The WOA archives are located
at http://www.imageworld.com/woa.html#index

     ....................... * ........................
     Don't let anyone tell you there weren't notable and effective women
throughout history.  They were always there, but historians failed to note
them in our histories so that the women of each generation have had to
reinvent themselves. 
               -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>>(C) 1997, All Rights Reserved, Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs
National Park, AR 71902, email [email protected] with comments,
suggestions and any corrections. Distribute verbatim copies freely with
copyright notice for non-profit use. We are accepting donations to help
offset the costs of posting and archiving of WOA at
http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html which because of cost and space
only contains a fraction of the more than 20,000 women in Ms. Stuber's
files.<<

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Week of 03/26 - 04/01, #13 - 1997, Women of Achievement and Herstory

Compiled and Written by Irene Stuber - [email protected] 
who is solely responsible for all content. Archives of more than 800
episodes are being located at http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

      "During March, 1965, Alice Hertz, an activist for peace, stood on a
street corner in Detroit at rush hour. She set herself on fire, an act of
self- immolation, to protest the war in Viet Nam. She was 85 years old. I
could find no words from Alice Hertz, no explanation, in my searching -
only silence. I haven't even been able to pin down the exact date. 
      "During the Viet Nam war, five people attempted (only one did not
succeed) this, all of them ostensibly in protest of the war. There were
three women and two men. In my research, i have been able to find an
abundance of information about both men including dates, locations, family
responses, obituaries and the like, BUT I CAN FIND LITTLE OR NOTHING ABOUT
THE THREE WOMEN: Alice Hertz, Florence Beaumont and Celene Jankowski." 
      -- From <[email protected]>.

      WOA would appreciate ANY information on the women who sacrificed
their lives in a symbolic cry peace and then have been erased from HIStory
while the men who did the same thing have their lives and motives
remembered in detail. 

-=-=-=-=-= March 26 through April 1 Anniversaries =-=-=-=-=-

B. 03-26-1863, Bertha Van Hoosen, American surgeon, feminist, and
researcher in better methods of prenatal care, pioneered the use of
scopolamine-morphine anesthesia

            B. 03-26-1930, Sandra Day O'Connor, first woman to be
appointed an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. Judge
O'Connor, born in El Paso, Tx., was an Arizona lawyer and judge before her
elevation to the high court. SDO was a member of the Arizona state senate
from 1969 to 1974 rising to Republican majority leader, the first woman to
hold that position.  She was elected to the Arizona supreme court in 1974
where she served until 1979 when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of
Appeals in Phoenix. In 1981 when a vacancy occured in the U.S. Supreme
Court, President Ronald Regan was committed to filling it with a woman.
SDO was sworn in 09-25-1981. Believed to be ultra-conservative and a safe
vote for the anti-abortion view, she confounded everyone by being the
deciding vote in upholding Roe v Wade. A confirmation that even one
woman's vote can make a difference. 

      B. 03-26-1944, Diana Ross, American lead singer of the Supremes, a
highly sucessful quartet of women pop singers, went with a solo career in
1969. Her portrayal of Billie Holiday in the movie _The Lady Sings the
Blues_ netted her an Oscar nomination. 

B. 03-27-1868, Patty Smith Hill, American kindergarten pioneer and the
first woman named professor emeritus at Columbia University. Inventor of
the Patty Hill light-weight construction blocks with which children can
build structures large enough to play in. Introduced flexible natural
methods of teaching. By concentrating on teaching teachers the new
methods, she caused extensive permanent change in our educational system,
making it more humane for small children. 

      B. 03-27-1953, Annemarie Proell, Austrian ski racer, winner of the
women's World Cup ski championship five times, a recored for men or women. 

      Event 03-27-1964: Thirty-seven good citizens of a middle class
neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., watched the murder of Kitty Genovese on the
street outside their homes and did nothing about it. Some just turned
their televisions on louder to drown out her screams. 

B. 03-28-1515 St. Teresa of Avila, a Spanish Carmelite and mystic.
Reformed the relaxed Carmelite houses into strict observers of austere
living and devotion. Wrote some of the greatest mystic works of the church
and is considered the first woman doctor of the Roman Catholic church. 

      B. 03-28-1743, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, second only to Empress
Catherine II of Russia in power and influence. The Princess helped the
coup d'etat that seated Catherine. ED had a reported 900 volume library at
the time of her marriage. Made director of the Russian Academy of Sciences
and the first president of the Russian Academy and supervised the writing
of the first Russian dictionary. She was a close friend of the Empress
Catherine and then became estranged. Many historicans claim that it was
because of jealousy, promulagating the rumor that they had the same lover,
but most likely it was her power need since after her banishment she had a
number of passionate friendships with younger women. HIStorically,
arguments over men is inevitably used to explain any fallings out between
women. ED never wore makeup and did a lot of manual labor on her estate. 

      B. 03-28-1922, Grace Hartigan, abstract expressionist who used bold
images with slashing brushstrokes and vivid colors. Her mother was a real
estate agent. 

B. 03-29-1840, Isabella Thoburn, American religist was the first woman
sent to India by the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist
Church. The Women's College in India bears her name. 

      B. 03-29-1843, Frances Wisebart Jacobs, a leader in charity works in
Denver, she is revered as Colorado's Mother of the Charities. The Denver
climate drew many with tuberculosis who became indigent. Locally organized
charities to take care of them started in 1872. She became president of
the Hebrew Benevolent Ladies Aid Society but quickly - because of her
organizational skills - she became a leader of Denver-wide Charity
Organization Society which she served as secretary for years. She
organized a home for working women and began the kindergarten movement in
Colorado. FWJ was noted for her hands-on efforts. She made more than ten
personal calls a day, often slogging through mud on foot to personally
assist those in need and to distribute needed supplies. At her death,
Christian clergy joined in her funeral service and her memorial service
drew ever important political, religious and socially prominent person
from the state. She is the only woman among the 16 Colorado pioneers
recognized in stained glass portraits at the state capitol. 

      B. 03-29-1880, Rosina Lhevinne, outstanding artist and doyenne of
piano teachers during her long tenure at Juilliard School of Music. She
disciplined many of the top musical geniuses of her day including Van
Cliburn, John Browning and Misha Dichter, always emphasizing personal
interpretation.  Russian-born, she gave up her career in favor of that of
her husband Josef. Although she participated with him in double piano
concerts, she always made sure he performed solos in those concerts and
received the most applause. Emigrated to U.S. after World War I and the
Russian revolution. 

B. 03-30-1820, Anna Sewell, English Quaker author who died before the
publication of her _Autobiography of a Horse_, better known to millions of
readers as _Black Beauty_ (1877). 

      B. 03-30-1867, Jessie Donaldson Hodder, when her common-law husband
rejected her and their two children she found work in the New York State
prison system working with women prisoners. She developed reforms that
became the model for the nation by giving women prisoners dignity, a
chance to reform, education, etc. Many of her "reforms" were simply giving
the women the same opportunities and conditions that had been available to
men prisoners for years. 

      B. 03-30-1882, Melanie Klein, Vienese-born, British psychanalysist
invented play therapy for analyzing children, noting that free play
provided insights into a child's life that they couldn't articulate. It is
now a standard methodology. MK extended the Freudian theory to emphasize
the mother's role in child development and revealed the concept of breast
envy in men. She believed that cruelty against the mother affected the
child much more than Freud or others would recognize, to serve as a model
for their maturity, if nothing else. 

B. 03-31-1823, Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, American Southern diarist known
for her _A Diary from Dixie_ (1905) with the complete text being reprintd
as _Mary Chestnut's Civil War_ in 1981 when it won the Pulitzer Prize for
history. She sympathized with blacks in slavery but favored state's
rights. Her insightful views have been adopted as the definitive view of
the southern woman during that period although she was of a certain class
and of a certain location that was not at all common for the rest of the
South. Her father was U.S. Senator and Governor of South Carolina. She
held soirees attended by major political and social figures at which the
war and social issues were discussed. She compared the oppression of
blacks with those suffered by women. After the Civil War, MBC worked as a
translator to earn a living. 

      B. 03-31-1889, Muriel Hazel Wright, American historian and writer
who helped organize the Choctaw Advisory Council in 1934. She fought for
just recompense for Native Americans following Oklahoma statehood. 

      B. 03-31-1895, Lizzie Miles, popular black singer in New Orleans and
Los Angeles in the 1920's and 30's, developed a style known as "gumbo
French." 

B. 04-01-1872, Aleksandra Mikhaylovna Kollontay , Soviet diplomat became
the first woman in the world to formally serve as a minister or ambassador
to a foreign country. She was an original Bolshevik leader. Her public
affairs with a several men caused the United States to formally refuse her
passage *through* this country when she was on her way to Mexico as a
representative of the Soviet Union. NO MAN has ever been so marked, even
those traveling with female retinues. Some authorities credit her with
being the primary mover for International Women's Day. She fought for
women's rights and was shunted aside in the Bolshevik movement for it. Her
birthdate is also given as 03-31-1872. 

      B. 04-01-1872, Kersten Hesselgren, Swedish sociologist, first woman
factory inspector and first woman to be member of both houses of the
Swedish Riksdag, first elected 1921. In 1931 when she introduced the
subject of the legal status of women in the League of Nations, it "caused
no little amusement among the men." She prevailed, however, and the
committee studied such things as women's right to vote, education, access
to professions, and the status of a married woman's right to their
earnings, a separate name, ability to sign contracts - none of which were
(and some of which are still not) universal. 

      B. 04-01-1877, Dr. Aurelia Henry Reinhardt, elected first woman
moderator, Unitarian Association (1940), President Mills College (1916),
received her Ph.D. from Yale in 1905. 

                     -=-=-=-=-= Quote de jour =-=-=-=-=-

      "A man can be an honest man, but a woman to be an honest woman must
be married after an illicit affair."
      -- author unknown (?)  

                     . . . . . . .^w^o^a^ . . . . . . .
      WOA salutes volunteers Jennifer Gagliardi for posting Women of
Achievement and Herstory and Catt's Claws through her listserv, and Sam
McMillan who maintains the WOA and Claws web pages. To receive Women of
Achievement and Herstory by email, write <[email protected]> and in the
body of the note <subscribe WOAH-Herstory>. The WOA archives are located
at http://www.imageworld.com/woa.html#index
      Laurie Mann with her wonderful Women on Line pages filled with
interesting things about women has always included the latest edition of
Women of Achievement. Do stop by at http://www.city-net.com/~lmann and be
prepared to stay and stay. We never say thank you enough to Laurie. 

      ....................... * ........................
      Don't let anyone tell you there weren't notable and effective women
throughout history. They were always there, but historians failed to note
them in our histories so that the women of each generation have had to
reinvent themselves. 
                  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>>(C) 1997, All Rights Reserved, Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs
National Park, AR 71902, email [email protected] with comments,
suggestions and any corrections. Distribute verbatim copies freely with
copyright notice for non-profit use. We are accepting donations to help
offset the costs of posting and archiving of WOA at
http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html which because of cost and space
only contains a fraction of the more than 20,000 women in Ms. Stuber's
files.<<

Meant to mention this before ... guess you could say this is
history in the making.

http://www.worldflight.org

World Flight 1997 tracks and provides info about Linda Finch's
attempt to recreate and complete the journey first attempted by 
Amelia Earhart in 1937.  She's flying a restored/modifed Lockheed
Electra 10E, the same model used by Earhart.  Finch took to the
skies on March 17, sixty years after Earhart's takeoff.  She's 
currently on her way to Dubai, U.A.E. (they update the map on
the site continuously when Finch is in the air).

It's a cool site -- nice interface, a ton of info, including an
educational outreach program called "You Can Soar", developed
for middle-school kids; press releases; technical info on the
plane and engine (well, Pratt & Whitney *are* sponsoring); a
bit on women in aviation; good bio of Earhart; and so on.

    Rose Will Monroe, "Rosie the Riveter" Died Saturday, May 31.  Monroe
    was featured in posters and promotional films about women in the WWII
    war effort, with her name becoming synonomous with women working
    "men's" jobs during the war.  
    
    After the war, Monroe continued working, unlike many women who left the
    workforce after the war.  She was a cab driver, ran a beauty shop and
    started a contrcution firm in Indiana called Rose Builders, which
    specialized in customer homes.  
    
    

    Remind me to wear my "Rosie the Riveter" T shirt in her memory.
    
    /Charlotte