Conference turris::womannotes-v3

			Prehistory, 500,000 to 2500 BC.


500,000 to 15,000 BC.  In Western and Northern Europe, as elsewhere, 
	religious and priestly functions belonged originally to women.  
	The earliest places of worship have been found in the Ukraine 
	in Russia.  Evidence exists that as far back as 30,000 BC. 
	worshipers gathered there to honor the Goddess.  Small stone 
	statuettes of Mother Goddesses found from Russia to Spain, 
	sculptured as early as 25,000 BC., attest to the Great-Mother 
	Goddess worship.


			Antiquity, 2500 BC. to 400 AD.


Sumeria, 2500 to 1750 BC.  One of the first poets of Western 
	civilization is Enheduanna, the daughter of Sargon.  Her influence 
	was so great that she later seems to have been regarded as a god 
	herself.

Babylonia, 1900 to 1000 BC.  No women are recorded in history by name.  
	However, women as priestesses, business managers, midwives, scribes, 
	and textile workers actively contributed to the rich commercial 
	civilization of Babylonia.

Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt, 1503 to 1482 BC.  First woman pharaoh to rule
	Egypt, breaking a 2000-year tradition of masculine rule.  She 
	ruled for 20 years, from 1489 to 1469.  She was one of Egypt's 
	most successful rulers.  Though rulers before and after her 
	are noted for building up Egypt's military strength, Hatshepsut's 
	reign is noted for its peaceful prosperity.  According to 
	Egyptologist James Henry Breasted, Hatshepsut was "The first great
	woman in history of whom we are informed."

Nefertiti, Egypt, 1379 to 1362 BC.  According to contemporary 
	archaeologists, Queen Nefertiti, wife of Pharaoh Akhenaton, may
	have wielded the major political and religious power of her day.
	If this is true, she was influential in establishing what was the
	world's first monotheistic religion, the worship of the sun-god
	Aton.  Nefertiti was the only queen addressed in prayers and,
	therefore, was accorded divinity while her husband was still alive.

Judea, 1300 to 60 BC.  Deborah, a Jewish prophetess and a judge in Israel, 
	together with Barak, led 10,000 men to defeat the Canaanite 
	King,  Jabin.  Rachel and Leah, Jewish women, were referred to as 
	the "builders of Israel."  Esther, the Queen of King Ahasueras, 
	saved the Jews when the king ordered them killed by revealing that 
	she was a Jewess.

Makeda, Arabia, c 960 to 930 BC.  Legendary Queen of Sheba; Queen of both
	Ethiopia and Saba.  During a six-month visit to King Solomon of
	Israel, Makeda was so impressed with the wisdom of Solomon that
	she gave up her religion and adopted Judaism.  She later bore his
	child and fulfilled her promise to Solomon to crown their son King of
	Ethiopia -- a not insignificant promise since Makeda's reign was
	preceded by matriarchal rule.  The reign of Queen Makeda, one
	of the most beautiful and richest African monarchs, was an important
	part of East African history and culture.

Assyria, 900 to 600 BC.  Queen Sammuramet ruled as Queen-Mother for
	three years, 811 to 808 BC., built temples, participated in the 
	military, and is said to have led troops into battle.   Queen Naqi'a, 
	705 to 681 BC., wife of Sennacherib, with her son, helped to rebuild 
	the Babylon her husband had ruined.  

	Summuramet and Naqi'a are notable exemplars of the capacity of 
	women to take leadership in one of the most intensely militaristic 
	societies known to date.

Rome, 753 BC. to 400 AD. Sibyls, wise priestesses of the god Apollo, were 
	prophetesses responsible for creating the book of divinely inspired
	answers to worldly questions.  The books were consulted only for
	major decisions by the government at the time.

	Cornelia, Rome's favorite woman, was a writer who deliberately
	educated her two sons to lead a reform movement of the plebians
	against the patricians.  She became a major international figure, 
	visited by men of affairs and letters.

	Hortensia, in 42 BC., was the leader of 1400 women who forced their 
	way into the Forum to protest their male relatives' deaths which 
	resulted in their widows then being taxed into poverty.

	Helena, later named St. Helena, was Emperor Constantine's mother and 
	must have exerted her religious influence on her son who became the 
	first Christian emperor in 323 AD.

	Lady Fabiola founded a hospital and revolutionized health care in Rome.

	Pelegia "passed" as a hermit in a cell on the Mount of Olives and was 
	widely venerated as Pelagius.  It was not discovered until her death 
	that she was a women.

	Macrina claimed to be the author of the Rule of St. Basil which is 
	supposed to be the first formally enunciated monastic rule.

Sappho, Greece, c 650 BC.  Head of a girls' school on the island of Lesbos. 
	She is credited with inventing the personal lyric style of poetry.
	One of the great poets of ancient times, she was admired by both her 
	contemporaries and subsequent generations.  The ancients regarded her 
	as the tenth Muse.

Aspasia, Greece, c 400 BC.  Companion of Pericles, is credited with having 
	taught Socrates the art of rhetoric and having trained some of the
	Athenian orators.

==============================================================================

Historical Influences:

In the 4th Century, BC.  Aristotle (Greece, 384 to 324 BC.) was a scientist 
	whose "scientific" opinions were accepted for about 1500 years after 
	his death -- among them that the female is a defective male, and that,
	in human reproduction the woman is merely the vessel, holding the
	embryo which is totally the male's.  Also, because the female is
	passive, and the male is active, the female is not fit for freedom
	or political action.

==============================================================================

Queen Cleopatra, Egypt, 69 to 30 BC.  Was an astute politician.  It is 
	claimed that she preferred death to sharing her throne with a 
	conqueror or being taken captive.  She remains the most famous and 
	glamorous woman of the ancient world.

Mary the Jewess, Egypt, c 50 AD.  The water-bath -- or bain-marie -- is
	said to have been invented by Mary the Jewess.  The bain-marie is
	known to all domestic cooks as the double-boiler.  She is one of
	the early alchemists who at the time was working in Alexandria
	on the chemistry of metals.  She devised many apparatus for
	distillation and sublimation.

Boudicca, Britain, d 61 AD.  Warrior queen who raised 80,000 soldiers from
	the tribes of Britain and, after sacking the Roman city of 
	Colchester, defeated the Roman commander, Petillius Cerealis, 
	before marching against London, which she also sacked and set on 
	fire.

Hypatia, Egypt, c 370 to 415 AD.  One of the most popular and admired 
	teachers of the Hellenistic world.  She was a mathematician,
	astronomer and philosopher, and professor in Alexandria, teaching
	the views of Plato and Aristotle.  Her advice was sought by
	magistrates and others.

			  Medieval, 400 to 1400 AD.


Hypatia, Alexandria, 385 to 415.  Non-Christian mathematician, 
	philosopher, and scientist whose works are listed in every 
	history of science study.  She was murdered in 415 at the age of
	thirty by Christian monks.

Pulcheria, Greece, b 398.  Regent of the Eastern Roman Empire at the age
	of sixteen; ruled thirty-three years.  Very religious, devoted
	her life to service, and was canonized by the Greek Orthodox
	Church after she died.

Eudocia, Greece, c 400.  Helped reorganize the University of 
	Constantinople, was a writer and orator.  May have written the
	law codes attributed to her husband, Emperor Theodosius II.

================================================================================

Historical influences:

In the 5th Century,  theories of churchmen were generally hostile to women.  
	Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, denied that women had souls. 

================================================================================


Theodora I, Eastern Roman Empire, c 527.  Founded hospitals and 
	convents and was active in politics.  "Made and unmade popes."
	Sometimes she countermanded her husband, Emperor Justinian,
	often to the advantage of the state.

St Brigid, Ireland, c 540.  Worked unceasingly to persuade the pagan
	Druids to convert to Christianity.  Founded the Church of the 
	Oak Tree which developed into a nunnery, a monastery, and a 
	school.  Noted for her brilliance at law.  Her influence lasts 
	to this day.

Hilda of Whitby, England, c 600.  Built a double monastery and took
	in both monks and nuns.  It became a center for learning.  She
	was on the council when the highest religious body in England
	met in Whitby.

Balthid, France, c 600.  As ruler of France, she forbid the sale of
	Christians as slaves and helped to link the convents of France
	with those of England.  Because of her efforts, many convents
	were opened, thereby increasing educational opportunities in
	Europe.  She generally turned a turbulent kingdom into a 
	peaceful one.

Dahia al-Kahina, North Africa, c 667 to 702.  Queen Dahia al-Kahina,
	became the guiding spirit of North African resistance to Arab 
	invaders and Islam, led by Hassan al-Numan, after the fall of
	Carthage.  The fierce attacks led spearheaded by Kahina made
	some Arab politicians seriously doubt whether North Africa
	could be conquered.  Kahina's energy, bravery, and determination
	made a considerable impact on African history.  Some contemporary
	historians have compared Kahina to the courageous Joan of Arc.

Irene, Eastern Roman Empire, c 765.  During her rule, 775 to 780, she
	quietly ended the enforcement of Iconoclast edicts and
	permitted monks to return to their monasteries.  She lowered
	taxes, helped the poor, and established charitable hospitals.
	People loved her but the army did not like being ruled by a
	woman more capable than most men.

================================================================================

Historical influences:

In the 9th Century, the Cult of Virgin Mary began in Western Europe 
	during the Age of Charlemagne which intensified in the 12th century
	as a reaction to the strict authority of the church.  The Cult
	spread rapidly.  People made pilgrimages to the Virgin's shrines
	and made claims of her healing.  

	Her popularity came from the people, not from the fathers of the
	church, who had been generally hostile to women and who had 
	preached against women as temptresses to sin.  Interestingly,
	women as a whole benefited little from this emphasis on Mary.


================================================================================


Zoe and Theodora III, Eastern Roman Empire, c 1000.  Jointly governed
	the Eastern Roman Empire through the rule of four emperors.
	These royal sisters discovered and reduced corruption in both
	government and the church and impartially sat as judges.

Trotula, Italy, c 1000.  Teacher at the University of Salerno.  She
	wrote medical books including The Diseases of Women and Their
	Cure, and The Compounding of Medicaments.  This profession for
	women was difficult because the Church, male doctors, and the
	universities united to disqualify them.

St Hildegarde, Germany, 1098 to 1178.  Abbess of St Ruper in Bingen.
	She believed that wealth and corruption in the Church was the
	result of masculine weaknesses and that women had to take more
	Church responsibility.  Referred to as the "Sibyl of the Rhine,"
	she was also a poet, scientist, and writer.  Though she was
	a scholar of her time, she is also known for her great support
	in getting followers to join the Second Crusade.

Ermengarde, France, c 1100.  Countess of Narbonne.  For fifty years, 
	she governed her lands and soldiers and led the French loyalist
	party in southern France against the English.  She fought
	numerous wars in defense of her territories, was a patron of
	troubadours, a protector of the Church, and had a great reputation
	as an arbiter and judge in difficult cases of feudal law.

Eleanor of Aquitane, France and England, 1122 to 1202.  She joined her
	lands in France to England when she married Henry II.  She
	ruled England for 50 years.  Her courts in France and England
	were virtually learning centers for courtly manners and customs
	which were copied all over Western Europe.  At eighty years old,
	she lead military defenses for her son when his lands were
	threatened.

Blanche of Castile, France, c 1200.  Regent of France.  During the 
	persecution of the Jews, she treated the Jews with wisdom and
	quelled anti-Semitism.  She championed the poor when many
	people were imprisoned for failure to pay a special tax.  When
	these people were dying from prison heat, she open the prison
	doors herself to free them.

Christine de Pisan, France, c 1363 to c 1431.  Writer.  While she was not
	a feminist, she was concerned about women's educational situation
	and wrote manuscripts about the need for women to be educated.
	(Contemporary views proffered that educating women would "heighten 
	her natural depravity.")  She also wrote on military strategy, 
	international law, and the political problems of France.  

			Renaissance, 1400 to 1700 AD.

Joan of Arc, French, 1412 to 1431.  Religious peasant girl who heard 
	"voices" telling her to lead the French soldiers against the
	English, who were invading part of France.  With the King's
	support, she led several successful battles, fighting after
	she was wounded.  She was praised by her people.  She was 
	eventually captured by the English and tried for witchcraft:
	when she refused to say that the pope had more authority than
	the "voice" of God, she was judged guilty of heresy by 40
	theologians and burned at the stake at the age of nineteen.

Isabella of Castille, Spain, 1451 to 1504.  Known as Isabella, the
	Crusading Warrior Queen, she was extremely religious and 
	dreamed of uniting Spain under Catholicism.  She personally
	directed major battles against the Moors as well as supervised 
	the extermination of Jews in Spain, and established the
	Inquisition.  Isabella's martial success lay partly in the 
	fact that she had the physical stamina to live on horseback.

Isabella D'Este, Italy, 1474 to 1539.  Presided over one of the richest
	and most brilliant courts of the Renaissance.  Formed an efficient 
	spy network and her entertainments were the occasion of much 
	political intrigue.  Attracted the great artists of the day to her 
	palace, including Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, and the author 
	Castiglione.

Oliva Sabuco de Nantes, French?, b 1532.  At the age of twenty-five, 
	wrote the seven volume Nueva Filosofia (1587) -- the biology,
	psychology, and anthropology of the day to medicine and 
	agriculture.

Heroines of Vienna, Italy, 1554.  A 3000-woman army which fought in three 
	regiments.  No women's names were recorded.

Elizabeth, Queen of England, 1558 to 1603.  An example of independence and
	leadership.  She supported Sir Francis Drake who defeated the
	Spanish Armada and set the patter for England as ruler of the 
	waves.  The "Elizabethan Age" is named after her.

Marie de Gournay, French, 1565 to 1655.	 Feminist, intellectual and 
	writer on education and public affairs.  Her translations of 
	Virgil, Ovid, Sallust, and Tacitus sold easily.  She spoke out 
	against unfair treatment of women in her two documents, Equality
	of Men and Women, and Grief of Women.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Italy, 1593 to 1652.  Considered by many to be
	the greatest Italian woman artist.  She worked in Rome, Florence,
	Genoa, Naples, and London and was a primary influence in the
	development of the Neapolitan School of Painting.

Margaret Fell, England, 1614 to 1702.  Established her home as the world
	center for Quakerism:  missions to all continents went out from
	there; all correspondences and reports were sent there.  In 
	addition to being an organizer, she was also a minister and 
	interpreter of the faith.

	     Modern Times - Women Born in the 18th Century


Phillis Wheatley, Unknown Origin, 1753 to 1784.  Pioneer in literary
	history, a poetess of the American Revolution, and the first
	Black female poetess in the U.S.  In 1773, the first book of
	poems by an American Black woman -- Phillis Wheatley -- came off
	the press, titled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and 
	Morale.  Just before she died, she wrote a long poem entitled
	Liberty and Peace.

Nicole-Barbe Clicquot, France, 1777 to 1866.  Famous wherever champagne
	is drunk, and deservedly so, not merely for the quality of the
	wine which bears her name, but because she devised the remuage
	and degorgement which are, to this day, the means by which champagne
	in the bottle is freed from its impurities without losing 
	the gas which give it its sparkle.

Mary Reibey, Australia, c 1777 to 1855.  An orphan who became Australia's
	first woman tycoon by assuming her husband's business on his death.
	She ran coastal ships, built, purchased and managed property.
	She was both kind and eccentric and did a great deal for charity.

Mary Somerville, Britain, 1780 to 1872.  Although lacking any formal 
	education -- her one year of schooling ended at the age of 11 --
	she established herself as a mathematician and astronomer of
	international standing.  One of only two women -- the first of their
	gender -- to be elected to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1835.
	Her book, Physical Geography (1848), went into seven editions and
	won her a gold medal from the Royal Geographic Society.

Sacajawea, Shoshoni Indian Tribe, 1786 to 1812.  Guided the Lewis and Clark 
	expedition through the Northwest Territories from 1805 to 1806.

Dr. James Barry, Britain, 1795? to 1865.  Originally Miranda Stuart, she 
	successfully disguised her sex all her life and had a long career as 
	a doctor with the British army.  As a Colonial medical inspector in 
	Cape Colony (now South Africa) in 1821, she led inquiries into the 
	conditions of the public jail, the leper colonies, and the Robben 
	Prison Island.

Sojourner Truth, America, 1797 to 1883.  First Black woman orator to 
	lecture against slavery and fervent women's rights activist.  She
	was a self-styled prophetess and orator, and it is thought that she
	produced some mystical effect on her audiences, whether at a 
	religious camp or an anti-slavery rally.  The highlight of her life
	was when she was received by President Lincoln in the White House.

	         Modern Times -- Women Born in the 19th Century


Historical influences:

During the 19th Century, marriage was a civil bond for men and an indissoluble
	sacrament for women.  A married woman had no legal existence; she
	had no legal rights of property ownership; everything she owned, 
	earned, or inherited belonged to her husband; she could not 
	determine where her children lived or how they were to be educated;
	she had no divorce opportunities; she had no rights either to keep
	or have access to her children in the event of being divorced by
	him or separated from him:  the father's rights were absolute and
	paramount.

================================================================================


Milla Granson, America, birth and death dates unknown.  Slave woman who
	started a "school" during a time when slaves were punished
	severely for learning to read and write.  "School" began in Milla's
	cabin at 11:00 at night and lasted until midnight.  Strict security
	was observed to prevent discovery.  Milla taught many slaves how
	to read and write.  After they had learned to write, some of the
	slaves wrote false passes so they could leave the plantation and
	escape to freedom in the North.

Maria W. Stewart, America, 1803 to 1879.  Generally acknowledged as the 
	first American-born woman to lecture in public.  She is best
	known for speeches that addressed issues of Black economic
	advancement, the abolition of slavery, and African pride.
	Although her speeches addressed world matters, she typically
	spoke in biblical tones.  She made her first speech in Boston in
	1832.

Abigail Kelley Foster, America, 1810 to 1887.  Abolitionist, and suffragist,
	she grew up in Worcester and joined William Lloyd Garrison 
	in the abolitionist cause in 1835.  She gave speeches at the 
        anti-slavery conventions of 1837 and 1838.  Her election to the 
        business committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840 
        caused a split in the ranks.  She continued to lecture until the end 
        of her life; she also refused to pay taxes as a protest against not 
        being allowed to vote. 

Mary Ellen Pleasant, America, 1814 to 1904.  A financial genius and the
	"mother of the civil rights struggle in California."  In 1849,
	she opened and successfully operated a string of fashionable 
	boardinghouses and restaurants in San Francisco.  She aided and 
	hid fugitive slaves; was instrumental in the passing of a 
	legislative act in 1863, giving Blacks the right of testimony in
	court, and filed suit bringing action against two trolley lines
	whose conductors had refused her passage.

Maria Mitchell, America, 1818 to 1889.  Astronomer.  Born and raised on
	Nantucket, she became the first	female professor of astronomy 
        (at Vassar College, 1865-88).  In 1847, she established the orbit
        of a comet that was named for her.  

Harriet Ross Tubman, America, 1820 to 1913.  The greatest Underground
	Railroad conductor of her time.  (The Underground Railroad was
	a network of concerned people across the country who devised
	an escape route interstate, promoting freedom for slaves.)  
	During the eight years she conducted the Railroad, she made 19
	perilous trips in the deep South and guided over 300 slaves to
	freedom.  In 1863, she led the Union Army on a raid which 
	resulted in the freedom of over 750 slaves.

Liluokalani, Hawaii, 1838 to 1917.  She became queen of Hawaii in 1891.  
        She resisted American colonialism, although the islands were 
        annexed in 1898.

Sarah Winnemucca, Paiute Indian Tribe, 1844 to 1891. She was an educator, 
        lecturer and an interpreter for the U.S. Army and Indian agents.  

Susan Smith McKenny Steward, America, 1847 to 1918.  Physician.  She was
	the first black female medical doctor in the United States.

Sofya Kovalevskaya, Russia, 1850 to 1891.  A mathematician whose work on
	partial differential equations earned her a place as one of the great
	Russian mathematicians of the 19th Century.  Her nursery walls were
	papered, to save money, with equations and, by the age of six, Sofya
	was inventing problems herself.  In 1888 in Stockholm, her work on
	the rotation of a solid body around a fixed point won her the French
	Academy's Prix Borodin.

Hertha Ayrton, Britain, 1854 to 1923.  A physicist, suffragist, and an
	inventor.  She invented a line-divider, which is still used by
	architects, and also worked on the electric arc -- solving problems
	to do with lack of stability and noise -- and her book on this
	subject, published in 1902, led to defense work for the Admiralty
	on searchlights.  In 1889, she became the first female full
	member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers.  During World
	War I, she invented the Ayrton Fan for dispersing poisonous gas.

Ida B. Wells Barnett, America, 1862 to 1931.  Co-founder of the NAACP, an
	anti-lynch crusader, and a most courageous woman journalist.
	In 1895, she published "A Red Record," a serious statistical
	treatment of tragic lynchings in the U.S., which could not be
	refuted.  She is cited as one of the 25 outstanding women in 
	Chicago's history, and one of its housing projects bears her name.

Marie Curie, Poland, 1867 to 1934.  The first world-famous woman scientist.
	She discovered the element radium.  She twice won the Nobel Prize:
	the first, with her husband on physics, then alone in chemistry.
	Her work led directly to the treatment of cancer with radium and,
	by way of her daughter and son-in-law, to the splitting of the atom.

Gertrude Bell, Britain, 1868 to 1926.  Traveler, letter writer, and Arabist
	who had great influence on Middle Eastern politics.  First woman to 
	obtain a first-class degree in history at Oxford in 1888.

Emma Goldman, America, 1869 to 1940.  "Red Emma" was the most flamboyant
	and influential feminist and pacifist at the center of the 20th
	Century American radicalism.  She urged unemployed men that it was
	their "sacred right" to steal if they were starving; she told women to
	keep "their mouths open and their wombs shut."

Ch'u Chin, China, 1875? to 1907.  Active revolutionary:  debated at
	public meetings; preached revolution and the liberation of women; 
	opened a branch of the Restoration Society (China's main revolutionary 
	movement); made bombs; founded a feminist newspaper; and organized the 
	rebellion of an entire province against the rule of Empress Tzu Hsi, 
	which eventually led to Chin's execution.  Occupies an honored place 
	in Chinese history.

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, America, 1875 to 1955.  An outstanding educator,
	a giant of race relations, advisor to U.S. presidents, and the first
	Black woman in the U.S. to establish a school that became a 
	four-year accredited college.

Lise Meitner, Austria, 1878 to 1968.  Eminent physicist who pioneered the
	splitting of atom, but refused to help make the atom bomb.  One of
	the first women to receive a doctorate in Vienna in 1906 with a 
	dissertation on radioactivity.

Nancy Astor, America, 1879 to 1964.  Although not British by birth, Lady
	Astor was the first woman to sit in the House of Commons at Westminster
	where she was elected in 1920 and served for 25 years.

Jeanette Rankin, America, 1880 to 1973.  She was the first female member 
        of the U.S. House of Representatives, (1916) from Montana.  She 
        was a lobbyist for women's suffrage in Montana, which became law 
        in 1914, 6 years before the federal law went into effect.  A life-long 
        pacifist, she opposed the U.S.'s entry into both world wars and 
        organized the Jeannette Rankin Brigade in 1968 to oppose the Vietnam 
        War.  Her plan to run again for Congress at the age of 88 to oppose 
        a potential third world war was thwarted by illness.

Margaret Sanger, America, 1883 to 1966.  The pioneer of birth control in
	the U.S.  Despite imprisonment and other setbacks, she campaigned 
        internationally for birth control and birth control clinics -- 
        by 1938, 300 clinics were in operation in the U.S.  She was a
	founder of the International Planned Parenthood Federation in 1953.

Karen Horney, America, 1885 to 1952.  First Freudian psychologist to
	reject Freud's view of feminine psychology as a defective version of 
	masculine psychology.  She attacked Freud's theory of penis envy as 
	early as 1922 and postulated the theory of "womb envy" since men
	seemed to need to depreciate women more than vice versa.  She also
	differed with Freud over the importance of the libido and the death
	wish.

Ella Phillips Stewart, America, b 1893.  Nationally known woman pharmacist
	and noted contributor to American life and international affairs.
	She has been inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame; was 
	elected to a four-year term as President of the National Association 
	of Colored Women (1948) and authored its book, Lifting as They Climb;
	was placed on the Women's Advisory Committee of Defense Manpower by 
	the U.S. Department of Labor; and has served as the goodwill
	ambassador for the U.S. State Department, touring 23 countries for
	the Education Exchange Service.  In 1963, Secretary of State,
	Dean Rusk, appointed her the Executive Board of the U.S. Commission
	of United Nations Educational, Social, and Cultural Organization.

Golda Meir, Israel, 1889 to 1978.  Born in the Ukraine, she emigrated to 
	Milwaukee in 1906.  Trained as a teacher, she then emigrated to Israel
	in 1921, where she became active in government work.  She was a signer
	of Israel's Declaration of Independence in 1948 and was the new 
	country's first envoy to the U.S.S.R.  She was elected to the Knesset
	in 1949 and was Israel's delegate to the United Nations from
	1953-1966.  She was elected Prime Minister in 1969, served through
	the October War of 1973, and resigned in 1974.

	      Modern Times -- Women Born in the 20th Century


Barbara McClintock, America, b 1902.  Geneticist.  She discovered genes 
	could move around on plant chromosomes and cause changes in heredity.  
	She won a Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology in 1983.

Dorothy Schiff, America, b 1903.  The New York Post was personally 
	owned and managed for nearly 40 years, 1939 to 1976, by Dorothy
	Schiff, who also, for some years, wrote a weekly column.  This 
	newspaper had become the only crusading liberal daily, with a
	circulation of around 375,000, when it was acquired by Rupert
	Murdoch in 1977.

Rose Hum Lee, America, 1904 to 1964. Sociologist who became the first
        woman of Chinese ancestry to chair a department at an American 
        university, Roosevelt University in Chicago in 1956.

Rachel Carson, America, 1907 to 1964.  Marine biologist whose analysis
	of the harm done to the cycle of nature by pesticides led, after her
	death, to the banning of the use of DDT in the U.S. and alerted both
	scientists and the general public all over the world to the necessity
	of protecting the environment.  Mother of the environmental movement.

Chien-shiung Wu, China, b 1912.  Became professor of physics at Columbia
	University in 1944.  Her most important contribution to the field
	is her experimental proof of the theory advanced by two Chinese
	scientists that, contrary to accepted theory, similar nuclear
	particles do not always act similarly.  In 1975, she became President
	of the American Physical Society.

Rosa Parks, America, b 1913.  Her legendary refusal to give up her seat to
	a white male on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus in 1955 sparked the
	municipal bus boycott that was led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
        and lasted for 382 days until the bus system was desegregated.  This
	event also thrust Dr. King into the leadership of the civil rights
	movement.

Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka, b 1916.  First woman Prime Minister
	of modern times.  Nominated in 1960.

Fannie Lou Hamer, America, 1917 to 1977.  Founder and vice-chairwoman of
	the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which was successful in
	unseating the all-White Democratic Party in 1968.  She earned the
	sobriquet "First Lady of Civil Rights."  Realizing a life-long
	dream, she raised over one million dollars for Sunflower County
	in Mississippi, and established a 680-acre complex -- Freedom
	Farmer Cooperative -- to house and feed the poor of all races.

Ella Grasso, America, 1919 to 1981.  She was a state legislator, member
	of Congress, member of the Democratic National Committee and Governor
	of Connecticut from 1974-1981.  She was the first woman to be elected
	governor of a state in her own right rather than as a widow of a
        governor.  Her failing health caused her to resign two months before
	her death during her second term of office.

Shirley Chisholm, America, b 1924.  Elected to the New York State Assembly
	in 1964 and to Congress for Brooklyn in 1969.  In 1972 she ran 
	unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for President.  Total 
	racial and sexual equality is her ambition.

Dorothy McClendon, America, b 1924.  Microbiologist.  This black scientist 
	developed methods to prevent organisms from contaminating fuel and 
	storage materials.

Mary Wells, America, b. 1928.  In the 1960's, became the highest paid woman 
	executive in the U.S.  After a meteoric career with several
	advertising firms, she formed her own agency in 1966 in the capacity 
	of president and chief administrator:  it has been the most
	spectacularly successful advertising agency of the last 25 years.

Winnie Mandela, South Africa, b 1935.  One heroine of the Black activist
	movement against the apartheid policies of the South African 
	Government.  Since 1969, she has had exactly 8 months free of 
	imprisonment or banning orders:  she used that time to speak out, 
	fearlessly and tirelessly, for the justice she believes must come.

Buffy Sainte-Marie, Cree Indian Tribe, b 1941. This folksinger, poet and
        champion of Native American rights was born in Saskatchewan, 
        Canada, and graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1962.  

Here are the sources we used:


The American Eve in Fact and Fiction, 1775 - 1914, Ernest Earnest,
	University of Illinois Press, 1974.


Black Women in Nineteenth-Century American Life, Their Words, Their
	Thoughts, Their Feelings, Edited by Bert James Loewenberg
	and Ruth Bogin, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976.


Enterprising Women, Caroline Bird, W.W Norton & Company, Inc., 1976.


Liberty's Women, Robert McHenry, Ed., G.&C. Merriam Co., 1980.


Notable American Women: The Modern Period, Barbara Siderman and Carol Hurd
	Green, Eds., The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1980.


Particular Passions, Talks With Women Who Have Shaped Our Times, Lynn
	Gilbert and Gaylen Moore, Clarkson N. Potter, Inc./Publishers,
	1981.


Significant Sisters, The Grassroots of Active Feminism, 1839 - 1939,
	Margaret Forster, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1984.


Ten Notable Women of Latin American, James D. Henderson and Linda Roddy
	Henerson, Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1978.


This Country Was Ours: A Documentary History of the American Indian,
	Virgil J. Vogel, Harper and Row, 1972.


Unsung Champions of Women, Edited by Mary Cohart, University of New Mexico
	Press, 1975.


Women of Achievement, Thirty-Five Centuries of History, Susan Raven and
	Alison Weir, Harmony Books of Crown Publishing, Inc., 1981. 


Women of Courage, Margaret Truman, Wm. Morrow and Co., 1976.


Women's Roots, Status and Achievements in Western Civilization, June
	Stephenson, 1981.

    great list.
    
    The only _real_ quibble I have is the reference to St. Brigid.  I
    should probably have a look at the source before letting fly, but ...
    
    Brigid's Well and the religious community surrounding it are indeed
    still extant, but there's been a lot of revisionism put about
    surrounding Brigid herself.
    
    She is one of those personages of legendary proportion [rather akin to
    Arthur and Morgaine] who have valid historical existence, yet are
    difficult to get the truth of in light of what came before and after.
    An historical nexus.