Herstory and Sheroes: The Women of WSR

This is my last Herstory post, so I wanted to make it a special one.  I will be graduating next week which means that I will also be leaving Women's Services for the final time.  It breaks my heart to say goodbye to the women I've worked with and the women I've served over the years, but I'm excited to move on to new projects and see what the future, and the Lord, have in store for me.  So, I wanted to share with you a few of my Sheroes: The Women of WSR.

LaNae Valentine

LaNae has been my mentor, boss, and friend for over 3 years and it makes me teary-eyed to think that I won't be under her tutelage any longer.  She is the world's best boss (seriously, Michael Scott would even concede his mug to her) and one stellar human being.  She treats each one of us like her own daughters and has a bigger heart than most large mammals.  If you need a loving shoulder to cry on, come in to WSR and meet with LaNae, because she has one of the purest, loveliest souls in the universe.  She will make you feel at home in an instant.  Aside from being wonderfully loving and kind, she is also fiercely passionate about women's issues and she's fabulously intelligent.  BYU has no idea how blessed it is to have LaNae at the helm of WSR and her praises don't get sung nearly as often as she deserves.  But each person that has worked for her, each student she has helped, and everyone that has met with her will sing her praises all day long.  Seriously, I could write another six or seven paragraphs about how much I love LaNae.  For now, I will simply end with what a privilege it has been to learn from her and grow as a therapist, a woman, and a person because I know her.

Ashleigh Adkins

Ashleigh is a fiery ball of awesome.  She has an unlimited amount of passionate energy for women's issues and she channels that energy into action.  I have never met anyone with a better go-getter attitude than Ash.  When something needs to be done at WSR, Ash is the first one to start working out how to get it done and how to do it well.  If WSR were a body, she would be the arms and the legs because she makes things happen, no matter how insurmountable they may seem.  She's also ridiculously funny, friendly, and fashionable.  She's usually the first face people see when they walk in to our office and she makes you feel instantly welcome.  Also, I am perpetually jealous of her outfits and her sassy style.  I'm pretty sure WSR won the Office Manager lottery when we hired her.

Kathleen Baxter

I'm pretty sure that Kathleen and I were unconventional twins separated at birth (yes, I know that we're not the same age and have different parents, but work with me on this one).  When she started working at WSR as my MFT counterpart, we hit it off right away.  Kathleen is one of the most brilliant, passionate, hilarious women I have ever met in my life.  She is as real as real can be and isn't afraid to be exactly who she is.  She's also a wicked awesome therapist, so if you ever need to recommend someone in the Layton, Utah area for therapy, send them to her with no hesitation.  I can spend hours talking to Kathleen and never get bored.  The things she says are educated, well thought out, and sincere.  Holy crap, we miss her around here!  If I have daughters, I want them to grow up to be Kathleen.

Kelsi Seaman

Kelsi is one of the few people in the world who was born genuinely sweet and has somehow figured out how to hold on to it into adulthood.  I have never heard Kelsi utter an unkind word.  Period.  She has such a sweet presence and is incredibly mature for her tender age.  If anyone I know came here to earth with a halo, it would be Kels.  She is also amazingly talented and did fantastic things for WSR in the time she served as our graphic designer.  She is getting married soon and we are thrilled for her and wish her a lifetime of happiness with her fella!

All Our Other Ladies

We have had so many awesome people that have worked at WSR and that currently work at WSR that I could fill a book with these profiles.  Instead, I'll mention the rest of these wonderful women in a combined blurb.  Erin is always eager to do good things and to make the people around her happy.  She has a thoughtful heart and is stronger than she even realizes.  Erica is a bubbly presence with an infectious laugh.  She has her feet planted firmly on the ground, but lets her head soar above the clouds and imagine all of the good things she can do for the world.  Emily is our new graphic designer and I have the pleasure of working with her each morning.  She is an incredibly hard worker, a brilliant designer, and such a chill girl.  She is sweet and smart and rocks her scooter-riding skills through the crazy construction each day on her way to work.  Brooke, Bianca, Sarah, Kimi, and anyone else that I'm forgetting from my first time at WSR, are all equally wonderful, unique, and beautiful.  It's been a blessing to know all of you!

YOU

I have had the absolute pleasure of meeting hundreds and hundreds of amazing women through my years of service at WSR.  You never cease to amaze me, ladies.  Even with all of the things you face, the struggles that you have, the doubts and troubles, you always find a way to rise above.  You have all blessed my life in ways that you can never quite imagine and I am grateful for each and every one of you.  Keep you heads up, keep pushing forward, and know that Women's Services and the amazing women who work here will always be here to support you, empower you, and love you.

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Herstory: Female Innovators

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Mary Earhart was born in Kansas on July 24, 1897 to Samuel "Edwin" and Amelia "Amy" Earhart.  During her childhood, Amelia, nicknamed "Millie," and her younger sister, Grace, nicknamed "Pidge," grew up very different than other young girls of their time.  Amy didn't believe in raising her girls to be "nice little girls," so she allowed them to run around in bloomers, set off on adventures around the neighborhood, and to engage in rough-and-tumble play usually reserved for boys.  Amelia was home-schooled and became an avid reader.  Always eager to have a career, Amelia kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about women in male-dominated fields.  After high school, she enrolled in Junior College, but never finished her program.  During World War I, she trained and served as a nurse's aid at Spadina Military Hospital.  She caught the Spanish Flu during the pandemic in 1918 and suffered from painful sinus issues and headaches for the rest of her life.  

In 1920, she visited an airfield with her father and a pilot took her up for her first flight.  She later reported, "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground, I knew I had to fly."  Working a variety of jobs to save money, she eventually saved the $1,000 it would cost her to take flying lessons.  In order to get to the airfield where she learned to fly, she had to take a bus and then walk 4 miles.  Her teacher was Neta Snook, a pioneer for women in aviation.  In 1928, she accompanied Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon on a flight across the Atlantic, becoming the first woman to make the trip in an airplane.  She wasn't trained to fly the plane they took, so she went with them as a passenger, humbly and sarcastically remarking that she might as well have been a "sack of potatoes" for all the work she did.  But she did express interest in one day making the trip herself alone.  After this highly publicized flight, she became a popular public figure and used these endorsements to fund her flying.  On her return, she became the first woman to fly across North America and back.

She then developed an interest in competitive flying, entering the Women's Air Derby 1929.  During the last leg of the race, Amelia was tied for first place with her friend Ruth Nichols.  Ruth was set to take off before Amelia on the last day of the race, but Ruth crashed her plane into a tractor at the end of the runway and flipped over.  Rather than take off, Amelia immediately raced over to Ruth's plane and pulled her friend out.  Not until she was sure that Ruth was going to be okay did she take off and fly to the end of the race, finishing third because of her selfless sacrifice.  Always humble, she rarely spoke of the incident in later years.  On the personal front, Amelia married George Putnam in 1931 (although he had to propose to her 6 times before she accepted) and she insisted on having an egalitarian relationship, keeping her own last name and supporting equal breadwinning.

In 1932, Amelia finally achieved her goal to become the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic.  She later became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California and set seven women's speed and distance records between 1930 and 1935.  Her next project was her biggest, and most dangerous, venture yet; she decided to circumnavigate the globe.  The first attempt she made ended in mechanical failure, so she began a second attempt starting from Oakland, California heading east.  Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, successfully completed about 22,000 miles of the trip when they took off from Lae, New Guinea on July 2, 1937 to complete the remaining 7,000 miles.  As they approached Howland Island, a small island in the Pacific, Amelia sent out several radio signals that were received but she was unable to hear the radio signals sent back to her from the island.  Amelia reported that she and Fred thought they were "right on top" of Howland Island, but they couldn't see it and they were running low on gas.  Their last confirmed radio signal was received at 8:43 a.m.  They never landed on Howland and they were never heard from or seen again.  The USCGC Itasca launched an immediate search from Howland Island, where it was stationed, but the search was unsuccessful.  The U.S. Navy and Coast Guard conducted a $4 million air and sea search and rescue mission and Amelia's husband, George, funded a private search of the surrounding islands.  While several theories exist as to what happened to Amelia and Frank, the most widely accepted theory is that the plane crashed and sank into the Pacific and both Amelia and Frank were killed.  However, with both the plane and the bodies undiscovered to this day, the mystery of Amelia Earhart lives on. 

Marie Curie

Maria Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867.  She was educated at a boarding school during her younger years, but was unable to enroll in higher education because she was a woman.  So, she and her sister, Bronislawa, enrolled at The Flying University, a clandestine educational facility that admitted women and taught a Polish curriculum against Russian rule.  In order to help fund her sister's medical studies, she took a job as a governess.  Although she had to wait a year and a half to earn enough to put herself through school further, she continued to educate herself through reading, correspondence, and tutoring.  She also started working with her cousin, Josef, at a chemical laboratory.  She moved to Paris and lived with her sister temporarily while she began her studies at the Sorbonne (the University of Paris) in chemistry, physics, and mathematics, where she eventually earned two degrees.  She met Pierre Curie as they worked together in the sciences and developed a mutual attraction for one another.  Pierre proposed to Marie, but she hesitated, intending to return to work in her native Poland.  She moved back to Warsaw, but was denied a position at Krakow University because she was a woman.  Pierre then wrote to her, encouraging her to return to Paris to get a PhD, which she did.  They were married in 1895 and enjoyed bicycling and traveling together.  Their daughter, Irene, was born two years later and a second daughter, Eve, was born seven years after that.

During their examination of scientific elements, Marie created a hypothesis regarding the nature of radiation being due to the interaction of the atom itself, which was an important step in the discovery that atoms were not indivisible.  She spent countless hours distinguishing which elements were radioactive.  Pierre became so intrigued by her work, that he abandoned his own and began to work with her.  Marie was emphatic that she receive credit for the work as her own original thought, not just as her husband's companion because she knew the world would be disbelieving that a woman could come up with these ideas on her own.  The Curies discovered polonium and radium and coined the term "radioactivity."  Marie published her work quickly because the scientific world was quick to credit discoveries to whomever published first, even if they were not the first to truly discover something.  In a 4 year span, Marie and Pierre published, conjointly and separately, 32 scientific papers including one that revealed that tumor-growing cells were killed faster than healthy cells when exposed to radium.  

In 1903, Marie and Pierre were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.  Marie was the first woman ever to be nominated for a Nobel Prize.  In 1906, Pierre was killed when he was struck by a horse-drawn vehicle during a rainstorm and he fell beneath the wheels and was run over.  The Sorbonne, where he was teaching at the time of his death, had offered him a professorship and the physics chair.  After his death, they decided to offer the position to Marie instead.  Devastated by Pierre's death, she accepted and planned to create a library in honor of Pierre.  Marie became the first female professor to teach at the Sorbonne.  In 1911 she was awarded a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry, becoming the first person to be awarded two Nobel prizes.  She also lived to see both her daughter, Irene, and her son-in-law win Nobel prizes for their work with the Radium Institute Marie had established.  She died in 1934 from aplastic anemia, a result of years of working with radioactive material without protection.  Her original papers, and even her cookbook, are kept in lead-lined boxes due to their level of radiation exposure.

Gertrude Elion

Gertrude Belle Elion was born in New York in 1918 to Robert and Bertha Elion.  When she was 15 years old, her grandfathered died of cancer, instilling in her a vigorous desire to find a cure for the disease.  She received a Bachelor's degree in 1937 and a Master's degree in 1941.  She worked as a lab assistant with George Hitchings at Burroughs-Wellcome pharmaceutical company (now GlaxoSmithKline) and rather than using the typical trial-and-error approach at developing drugs, together they studied the differences in biochemistry between normal human cells and disease-causing agents (pathogens).  They attempted to design drugs that would kill the pathogen without harming the host cells.  Elion invented 7 major pharmaceutical drugs: Purinethol (the first treatment for leukemia), Imuran (the first immuno-suppressive agent, used for organ transplantation), Zyloprim (for gout), Daraprim (for malaria), Septra (for meningitis and other bacterial infections of the urinary and respiratory tracts), Zovirax (for viral herpes), and Nelarabine (for cancer treatment).

In 1988, she received a Nobel Prize in Medicine and in 1991, she became the first woman inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.  She served for a time as a research professor at Duke University and worked for the National Cancer Institute, American Association for Cancer Research, and the World Health Organization.  She never married and never had children.  She died in 1999.  

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Herstory: Civil Rights Activists

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alambama in 1913 amidst the implementation of the Jim Crow laws, the infamous "separate but equal" segregation of public facilities for whites and blacks in the Southern States.  Rosa recalled watching buses taking the white children to school while the black children had to walk, "...we had no choice but to accept what was the custom.  The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world."  She recounts in her memoirs how her grandfather guarded the front door with a shotgun in hand when the Ku Klux Klan marched down her street and how her school, a school founded by white northerners for black children, was burned down by arsonists twice.  She married Raymond Parks in 1932, a barber and active member of the NAACP who encouraged her to finish high school.  She did, becoming one of only 7% of African Americans to complete a high school degree at the time.  She also became a registered voter, though she had to try three separate times to accomplish the feat.  She became the only female member of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and attended the Highlander Folk School, a school set up to train activists for worker's rights and racial equality.

Public transportation was no different in terms of segregation.  Although whites and blacks were permitted to ride the same bus, there were changeable sections for whites and blacks.  Although a law did not permit people to be required to give up a seat they already occupied, it became customary for bus drivers to force blacks to give up their seats to white passengers when the white section became full.  Additionally, if white people were already aboard the bus in the front sections, black passengers were required to board through the front to pay their bus fare, then exit the bus and reboard through the back doors to get to their seat.  Rosa experienced this discrimination firsthand one day in 1943 when she tried to walk from the front of the bus back to her seat after boarding through the front door and paying her fare.  The bus driver told her to get off the bus and re-enter from the back door and when she tried to comply, the driver drove off without her, leaving her to walk in the rain.  

On December 1, 1955, Rosa was riding the bus home from work, sitting in the first row of the "colored section."  When the white section filled up and more passengers boarded, the bus driver came back and told Rosa and 3 other black passengers to give up their seats.  The three others complied, but Rosa told the bus driver no.  "People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, that that isn't true.  I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day.  I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then.  I was forty-two.  No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."  The bus driver told her to give up her seat or he would call the police and she told him that he could call the police.  He did, and Rosa was arrested for Disorderly Conduct.  She was found guilt in her court case but she appealed the decision and formally challenged the legality of segregation.  In response to Rosa's arrest, the black citizens of Montgomery enstated a 381 day boycott of the bus sytem, creating a huge strain on the busing industry as black riders made up about 75% of their ridership.  Rosa's case eventually made it to the Supreme Court under the case Browder v. Gayle and segregation was declared unconstitutional.  For her bravery, Rosa is often heralded as the first lady of civil rights.  She spent the remainder of her years fighting for Civil Rights and died at the age of 92.

Sojourner Truth

Born Isabella Baumfree in 1797, Sojourner was born into slavery in New York.  She was bought and sold, separated from her family, four times by the time she was 13 years old.  When she was 20, her owner forced her to marry one of his older slaves and she had 5 children; one who died shortly after birth.  In 1826, after false promises from her owner to be set free, she escaped with her youngest daughter, Sophia.  She could not legally bring her other children with her because they could not be freed until they had served as bound servants into their twenties.  She was taken in by the Van Wagener family and they offered to buy her services until the end of the year when the state's emancipation order would take effect.  After finding out that her old owner had illegally sold her five year old son, she went to court with the help of the Van Wageners and fought for months to get him back.  She eventually won the case, becoming the first black woman to win a case against a white man, and she got her son back.  She became a devout Christian and in 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and went around preaching the abolition of slavery.  She devoted the rest of her life to the abolition of slavery and the creation of women's rights.  She also spent time recruiting black troop for the Union Army during the Civil War.  When Sojourner died in 1883, over 3,000 people came to pay their respects to the ardent civil rights activist.

Harriet Tubman

Perhaps one of the most famous famous of the abolition movement, Harriet was born into slavery in Maryland in 1820.  She was constantly beaten by masters she was rented out to and subsequently sustained a head injury that caused narcoleptic attacks and seizures throughout the rest of her life.  In 1849, she escaped slavery and ran to Philadelphia.  Almost immediately after achieving freedom for herself, she went straight back to Maryland to rescue her family.  Her knowledge of the area and the her utilization of the Under Railroad, a network of freed slaves, current slaves, and white abolitionists that hid and guided escaping slaves to freedom.  Harriet repeatedly took routes to free other slaves, making at least 19 separate trips and rescuing over 300 slaves.  Later in her life, she said, "I was conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say--I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger."  Despite efforts to capture her and the slaves she lead to freedom, Harriet was never captured and neither was a single one of the slaves she freed.  When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, Harriet began leading her passengers up into Canada to safety, which had abolished slavery in the 1830's.  She was a key figure during the Civil War, helping Union forces as a nurse, spy, and even leading a raid to rescue slaves in the Combahee River Raid.  In her later years, she also became a supporter for women's suffrage, working with other women like Susan B. Anthony.  Harriet died in 1911 of pneumonia, but her legacy as the fearless leader of the Underground Railroad lives on.  

Susan B. Anthony

Susan was born in Massachusetts in 1820 in a Quaker, abolitionist family of 9.  Susan learned to read and write at the age of 3 but when a teacher refused to teach her long division because of her gender, Susan's father pulled her out of school and began to home school her and several other children with the help of other teachers.  Mary Perkins, a teacher at the group home school, taught Susan progressive ideas about womanhood and women's equality.  During her early adulthood, Susan began teaching but eventually gave it up to move to New York to take part in the temperance movement.  As she became more and more active in the anti-slavery movement and women's suffrage movement, she was introduced to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, another feminist, and they toured the country giving speeches and fighting for women's rights.  Although a strong, confident women in her her ideals, Susan was always self-conscious of her appearance and worried that she wasn't eloquent enough to make an impact when speaking in public.  Despite her anxieties, she became a renowned public presence and gave successful speeches all across the country.  Along with Elizabeth, she formed the National Woman Suffrage Association and created "The Revolution," a magazine dedicated to women's rights.  "Where, under our Declaration of Independence, does the Saxon man get his power to deprive all women and Negroes of their inalienable rights?"

In 1869, the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), headed by Frederick Douglass, voted to support the 15th Amendment which gave black men the right to vote but denied women of both races the same right.  Having spent her whole life fighting for both racial equality and gender equality, Susan began to question why she should support the rights of black men when they weren't willing to support women's rights as well.  From that point forward, she focused her energies exclusively on women's rights.  In 1872, she was arrested for voting in the presidential election which lead to a Supreme Court case.  The judge presiding over the case refused to allow Susan to testify in her own defense, explicitly told the jury to return a guilty verdict, and at the end of the case, read an opinion statement that he had written before the case had even started.  She was told to pay a $100 fine, she flat out refused the judge to his face, and she never did pay a penny of the fine for the rest of her life.  The U.S. government, embarrassed by the judge and the decision he made, never went after Susan to collect on the fine.  Susan died at the age of 86, stating, "[Women's suffrage] will come, but I shall not see it."  Fourteen years after her death, women were granted the right to vote when the 19th Amendment was passed, an Amendment that Susan and Elizabeth wrote themselves.    

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Herstory: Never Too Young to Make an Impact

Anne Frank

Anne Frank was born June 12, 1929 in Germany to Otto and Edith Frank, liberal Jews living in Frankfurt.  After the Nazi party won the election of 1933, antisemitic demonstrations began and the Franks, fearing for their safety, left Frankfurt and eventually settled in Amsterdam where Otto ran a company that sold fruit extract pectin.  When Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, governmental restrictions on Jewish activity were implemented including segregation, curfews, and registration.  In 1942, Anne's older sister Margot received a call-up notice from the Central Office for Jewish Emigration that ordered her to relocate to a work camp.  Otto realized the time had come for his family to go into hiding and relocated his family to rooms above and behind the company he had owned before restrictions of Jewish-owned businesses forced him to sell his company to a trusted partner.  While in hiding, Anne kept a detailed diary recounting events of the war and her deepest thoughts, feelings, and ambitions.

After an informant tipped off the SS, Anne and her family were arrested and sent to Auschwitz.  Otto was separated from his family and Edith, Margot, and Anne were forced to do slave labor.  Anne and Margot were transferred to another camp while their mother was left behind, later to die of starvation.  Both Anne and Margot died of a typhus epidemic that swept through camp in March of 1945, mere weeks before British soldiers liberated the camp in April.  Otto survived Auschwitz and returned to Amsterdam, sheltered again by Jan and Miep Gies, his former employees who sheltered the family during their time in hiding.  Miep, who had discovered Anne's diary after the family was arrested, returned the diary to Otto after Otto learned that his whole family had died in the camps.  Moved by her wish to be an author, Otto decided to have her diary published.  Over time, it received international acclaim and is now a part of many high school curricula across the U.S.  Anne wrote, "I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met.  I want to go on living even after my death!" 

Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane)

Elizabeth Cochrane was born in May of 1864 in Pennsylvania.  She was an independent and rebellious child and always dreamed of being a writer.  Her father died when she was 6 years old, leaving her mother to raise and support her children alone.  Elizabeth's mother remarried, unable to financially support them alone, but later sought a divorce because her new husband was an abusive alcoholic.  While in her mid-teens, Elizabeth enrolled in school to become a teacher, but had to drop out a semester later because they could not pay for her education.  Her family relocated and Elizabeth helped to run a boarding school to earn money.  When she was 18 years old, she wrote a letter to the editor of the Pittsburg Dispatch denouncing a sexist article that said working women were a monstrosity.  The editor was intrigued, so he put a request in the paper to have the girl identify herself.  Elizabeth went to his office and was hired immediately.  She took on the pen name Nellie Bly, a common practice in those days for female authors.  She began writing articles for the paper on issues of social justice such as labor laws to protect working girls, reform of Pennsylvania's divorce laws that greatly favored men, and eventually an article as a foreign correspondent about political corruption in Mexico that kept most people in poverty.

After her trip to Mexico, she became frustrated with the "fluff" pieces the Pittsburg Dispatch was having her write, so she moved to New York when she was 23 and was almost immediately hired by Joseph Pulitzer to write for The New York World.  She continued writing about issues regarding social justice, but began to go undercover to learn more about the issues firsthand (a practice that we now call investigative journalism).  She pretended to be mentally ill to report on the appalling conditions of the Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum, arranged to be thrown in jail to report on treatment of female inmates, and worked in a sweatshop to report on the treatment of poor workers.  Her most famous exploit was in following the path written about in Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.  She made it in 72 days, 6 hours, and 11 minutes.  While still in her twenties, she married a 72 year old industrialist, and when he died, she took over his businesses and turned them into multi-million dollar companies and created incredible employee benefits.  She died of pneumonia in 1922 at the age of 58.

Ruby Bridges

Ruby Bridges was born in September of 1954, the same year that the U.S. Supreme Court ordered all schools to desegregate in the landmark Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education ruling.  Ruby went to school at a segregated kindergarten but Louisiana put desegregation into effect right before Ruby's first grade year.  Along with five other African American girls, Ruby was offered the opportunity to attend a school made up of all Caucasian students.  Her father, Abon, was hesitant to agree, worried that it would make his family a target, but Ruby's mother, Lucille, was adamant that Ruby attend.  On November 14, 1960, 6 year old Ruby was escorted by Federal Marshals to William Frantz Elementary School, the only African American student offered the chance that dared to take it.  She walked with dignity past people screaming vicious, derogatory things at her.  She remained in the principal's office for the whole of the first day due to the chaos that ensued in the school.  Barbara Henry was the only teacher who was willing to take Ruby into her class and she spent the whole first year as a class of one.  Ruby and her teacher were inseparable at recess and neither one of them missed a single day of first grade.

However, the Bridges suffered for their courageous decision.  Abon was fired from his job, Lucille was refused as a customer at her local grocery store, and her grandparents were evicted from the farm they had lived on for over 25 years.  Ruby and her family paved the way for desegregation and Ruby continues to champion the cause of eliminating racism through her foundation, The Ruby Bridges Foundation.  Their motto is, "We believe racism is a grown-up disease and we must stop using our children to spread it."

Sources: Wikipedia.org, http://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/youngandbrave/

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Herstory: First Ladies of the U.S.

Martha Washington

 

Martha Washington was born in 1731 near Williamsburg, Virginia.  She received very little formal education, but was trained well in domestic and social skills.  When she was 18, she married Daniel Custis and she had four children; two died in infancy and the other two children were very young when Daniel died in 1757, leaving Martha a young widow and single mother.  She married George Washington in 1759 and devoted her life to the happiness and well-being of her husband and children.  Although she was a very private person, she was very supportive of the moral duties George catered to as he became a famous figure of the Revolutionary War and eventually the first President of the United States of America.  Of her own circumstances, she wrote to a friend, "I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."  As First Lady, her warmth, generosity, and kindness made all of her guests feel welcome.  After the end of George's presidency, they retired to their home in Mt. Vernon.  Both of Martha's remaining children died, her son at age 26 leaving behind his own children, whom George and Martha helped raise.  Martha died in May of 1802 and is buried next to her husband in Mt. Vernon.

Abigail Adams

 

Abigail was born in 1744, and although she was denied a formal education, she had a keen intellect and was an avid reader.  She married John Adams in 1764, a man that was her intellectual equal and the love of her life.  Their marriage happily endured for more than half a century despite his extensive travels because of his chosen career.  While he traveled, she stayed at home running the estate and educating their young children.  When John became the Minister to Great Britain, Abigail accompanied him and helped him handle his affairs with dignity and tact.  After the end of his term, the Adamses moved to Quincy and were able to enjoy 17 blissful years together that John's political ambitious had previously denied them.

Lucy Hayes

 

Lucy was born in Ohio and after her father died when she was two, her mother took her three children to Delaware to be educated.  Lucy graduated from Wesleyan Female College when she was 18, unusually well educated for a woman of her time.  She married Rutherford Hayes in 1852 and she helped him develop a deeply religious belief that slavery was wrong as the Civil War interrupted their domestic felicity.  Lucy and "Rud" had 8 children over a period of 20 years, only 5 of whom grew to adulthood.  She was given the affectionate nickname "Mother Lucy" from the men of the 23rd Ohio Infantry, the men who served under her husband's command during the Civil War.  She would often visit their camp to cheer up the men and to comfort the sick and the dying.  As First Lady, she showed poise, confidence, intelligence, culture, and a cheerful spirit in performing her duties.  She banned the consumption of alcohol during their term in the White House, later earning herself the nickname "Lemonade Lucy."  She died in 1889 after spending 8 lively and happy years with her husband after the end of his Presidency.

Grace Coolidge

 

Grace was born in Vermont in 1879, an only child.  As a young girl, she heard that a school existed that taught deaf children and she resolved to work there after her education.  True to her word, after she graduated from the University of Vermont, she went to teach at the Clarke School for the Deaf.  She married Calvin Coolidge in 1905 and she was a frugal homemaker, managing the small expenses of a struggling new lawyer.  Grace was a hearty advocate for her husband's rise in politics and was often celebrated as friendly and obliging.  She had two sons and could be often found in the backyard playing baseball with them.  While Calvin was the Vice President, Grace quickly became one of the most popular women in Washington due to her charm and zest for life.  She continued as a trustee of the Clarke School and a delighted grandmother until her death in 1957.

Eleanor Roosevelt

 

Eleanor was born in New York in 1884 and was sent to live with her grandmother when both of her parents died young.  At 15, she attended school in England and began to build her self-confidence.  She married Franklin Roosevelt in 1905 and went on to have six children, of which one son who died in infancy.  As her husband developed his political career, she too began to develop keen political savvy.  For Franklin's long political career, Eleanor served as a constant helpmeet and when he was too stricken with polio to do things alone, she stepped up to help him personally and professionally.  She was a fanatic champion for the underprivileged and had a better understanding of social conditions than most others in Washington.  She set the current precedent of First Ladies espousing issues and championing causes during their husbands' time in office.  After the death of her husband, she became a spokeswoman for the United Nations until her death in 1962.


If you want to learn more about the wonderful women companions to the presidents, read more here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/first-ladies/ ADSENSE HERE

Herstory: Women of the Civil War

Mary Bowser

As a freed slave, Mary Bowser was utilized by the Union as a spy during the Civil War.  She was sent to work in the Confederate White House and as a servant there, she discovered and overheard many secret plans and military strategies that she passed on to Union spies.  Jefferson Davis knew that there was a spy in the household, but could never discover who was leaking his military plans to the Union.  Since Mary was merely a servant in the household, one whom the Confederates thought of as less than a person because of the color of her skin, they severely underestimated her skills and intelligence.  Her devotion to the Union cause and bravery serving in the belly of the beast won the Union untold amounts of vital information.  She was one of the highest-placed and most successful, productive spies of the Civil War.

Mary Edwards Walker

Mary earned a medical degree during the Victorian Era when it was positively scathing for a woman to have a career outside the home.  When the Civil War broke out, she volunteered as a surgeon for the Union Army.  At first, she was only allowed to practice as a nurse because she was a woman, but later acted as an unpaid surgeon on the front lines in battles such as Fredericksburg and Chattanooga.  In 1863, she was finally employed as a surgeon, making her the first female surgeon to to be employed by the U.S. Army.  She frequently crossed into enemy territory to treat soldiers and civilians alike.  In 1864, she crossed into Confederate territory to assist a Confederate surgeon in performing an amputation and was captured and arrested as a spy.  She was later released in a prisoner exchange and then continued her work until the end of the war.  After the Civil War, she devoted her life to the women's rights movement.  She is the only woman to ever receive the Medal of Honor.

SOLDIERS

Women were allowed to be nurses and spies, but were forbidden from enlisting as soldiers.  However, many women fought for what they believed during the Civil War as well.  Historians estimate that anywhere between 400-1,000 women disguised themselves as men and enlisted in the army for both the Union and the Confederacy.  It's impossible to know the true number for sure because, out of necessity, these women had to fiercely guard their true identities.  Here are the stories of several of those courageous women.

Frances Clalin Clayton (Jack Williams)

    

Frances enlisted in the Union Army alongside her husband, Elmer, in 1861 because she couldn't bear to be separated from him.  In order not the be discovered, she perfected soldierly habits like drinking, swearing, smoking, and walking like a man.  She was deadly with a sword and her superiors revered her as a model soldier.  During the Battle of Stones River, she saw her husband shot and killed just a few feet in front of her.  Even through her agony, she stepped over his body and continued the charge when she was given the order.  By the end of her military career, she had fought in 18 battles, was wounded 3 times, and was even taken prisoner once.

Sarah Emma Edmonds (Franklin Thompson)

  

Sarah enlisted in the Second Michigan infantry and, disguised as a male, served as a nurse and dispatch carrier.  She also spent some time serving as a spy, occasionally "disguising" herself as a woman.  At one point, she contracted malaria and knew that she would be discovered if she went to a military hospital, so she checked into a private hospital to receive treatment.  Once she was better, she went to return to the army under her male persona, but found out that Frank Thompson had been listed as a deserter.  So, she served as a nurse in Washington D.C. under her true identity.  She is one of the very few women who were given a government pension for her service in the war.  She later wrote, "I could only thank God that I was free and could go forward and work, and I was not obliged to stay at home and weep."

Jennie Hodgers (Albert Cashier)

Jennie, an Irish-born immigrant, enlisted in the Union Army, specifically the 95th Illinois Infantry, when she was 19 years old.  Her regiment fought in approximately 40 battles under the command of Ulysses S. Grant over a four year period. Her fellow soldiers just thought that "he" was a small soldier who liked to keep to himself.  Regardless of her size, she was incredibly strong.  She was once captured by the Confederates but was able to escape by overpowering a prison guard.  After her military career was over, she returned to Illinois and spent the rest of her life living as her male persona.  Because she lived as a man, she was allowed to vote, own land, and receive a veteran's pension.  After her death, she was buried in her Union uniform and her tombstone lists her under both of her names.  

The Unnamed New Jersey Soldier

A "young and good-looking" corporal from New Jersey fought fiercely and bravely during the battle of Fredericksburg and was promoted to the rank of sergeant for it.  Honored by fellow soldiers as a "real soldierly, thoroughly military fellow," the soldier had fought in other battles like Antietam and the Seven Days Battle.  The newly promoted sergeant shocked the entire regiment when, a month later, she gave birth to a baby boy in the middle of camp.  This brave soldier's name has been lost to history, but what an inspiration to know that this incredible woman, great with child, fought for what she believed, against unthinkable odds, and survived.

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Herstory: Russian Rulers

Russian Ruling Women

Catherine II (a.k.a Catherine the Great)

Catherine was the most renowned and longest ruling Russian female ruler (Empress Regnant).  She came to power when her husband, Peter III was assassinated.  During her reign, Russia was revitalized after the Seven Years' War, growing larger and stronger and eventually becoming of the world's most powerful nations.  She created the role of peacekeeper for Russia as the international mediator of disputes that may eventually lead to war, a role that was later taken over by Great Britain.  She developed a reputation as a patron of the arts, literature, and education.  She wrote a manual on how to educate children as well as writing comedies, other fiction, and her own memoirs.  She fervently believed that a good education could change the hearts and minds of the Russian people and foster in them a sense of civic responsibility.  She inherited rule during serfdom, but created a system for serfs to file complaints against the nobles they worked for, giving them a legitimate bureaucratic status.

The Romanovs: Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, & Anastasia

Alexandra Feodorovna

Alexandra was the wife of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, making her the Tsarina.  She was married relatively late for her position because she had refused an earlier proposal from a man she did not love, which was unheard of at the time.  Her grandmother, Queen Victoria, often said how proud she was that Alexandra stood up for something when many others would not have the courage to do so.  She struggled to attain the approval of the Russian people, partly because she was German-born and there was a strong anti-foreign sentiment during that time.  Additionally, she came across as haughty and cold to her subjects, but those close to her reported that it was only because she was so shy and nervous in front of the Russian people.  She gave birth to 4 daughters and then a son.  When it was discovered that her son, Alexei, had hemophilia (a blood clotting disease that made even a simple fall potentially fatal), she devoted all her time and energy to his care.  She became a nurse during World War I, treating sick and wounded soldiers.

Olga Nikolaevna Romanova

Olga was the eldest child of Alexandra and Nicholas.  She was known for having a compassionate heart and a strong desire to help others.  As a nurse during World War I, she helped treat wounded soldiers for the Red Cross.  She loved to read and truly enjoyed her schoolwork.  According to one of her tutors, she had a "quick brain," sound reasoning abilities, lots of initiative, independence, and a quick wit.  In a letter she wrote during her captivity in Tobolsk she wrote, "...remember that the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but only love..."  When she was twenty, she took a sizable portion of her enormous wealth and began to respond independently to requests for charity.  While out driving one day, she came across a child on crutches.  After learning that the child was sick and the parents couldn't afford his treatment, she set aside an allowance to pay for the child's medical bills.

Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova

Tatiana was the second child born to Alexandra and Nicholas.  During her lifetime, she was better known by the people than her sisters due to her service heading Red Cross Committees during World War I.  Like her sister, she served as a nurse for 3 years during the War until her family were arrested during the Russian Revolution.  Tatiana was known for her natural leadership ability and her practicality.  Whenever the children wanted a favor from their parents, she was sent to seek it.  She was more reserved and well-balanced than her older sister, Olga.  Her tutors said that she was generally less talented than Olga, but worked hard and showed great dedication to finishing projects.  She was a favorite of her mother because of the kind attentions Tatiana paid to the often sickly Tsarina.

Maria Nikolaevna Romanova

Maria was the third child of Alexandra and Nicholas.  Since she was too young to become a nurse like her mother and two older sisters during World War I, she spent her time visiting with sick and wounded soldiers.    She went out of her way to learn about the lives of the soldiers she visited with.  She had an ardent desire to marry and have children one day, a wish that she would never have a chance to see fulfilled.  Maria was the sweetest-natured of her sisters and was often teased for being the "stepsister" because she hardly ever got in trouble like the rest of them did.  She was incredibly close to her "Papa" and would often try to escape her nurses to seek him out.  Once, when she got into trouble and her mother wanted to punish her, Tsar Nicholas said of his angelic daughter, "I was always afraid of the wings growing.  I am glad to see she is only a human child."  Maria had a talent for drawing and was surprisingly strong, often demonstrating how she could lift her tutors off the floor.  Even during the family's captivity, she befriended guards and talked to them about their families and wives.

Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova

Anastasia was the fourth and final daughter of Alexandra and Nicholas.  She is, by far, the most famous of the Romanovs due to her alleged escape from the execution of the rest of her family.  She was to believed to have escaped because her remains and the remains of her little brother, Alexei, were not discovered with the remains of the rest of the family.  Several women claimed to be the escaped princess and several movies have been made based on the mythology of Anastasia (including a Disney movie of the same name).  However, in 2008, Russian scientists and archaeologists discovered the remains of Anastasia and Alexei and matched them with the rest of the family.  During her life, she was known as a "shvibzik" which means "imp" in Russian "for in naughtiness she was a true genius."  She was the most mischievous, vivacious, and energetic of the children.  However, her nurses and tutors also reported that she was one of the most charming children they had ever met.  She was also too young to be a nurse during the War, so she visited the soldiers with her sister, Maria, playing checkers with them and telling jokes.  Even during their captivity, she found ways to have fun and lift the spirits of her family members by performing plays and comic mimes for them. ADSENSE HERE

Herstory: The Greek Intellectuals

Aspasia

"Aspasia Surrounded by Greek Philosophers"

Aspasia was a highly educated woman in ancient Greece who was far more independent than most women of her time.  She paid taxes and participated in symposium where her opinions were listened to and highly respected by men.  At the time, most women were traditionally confined to their homes, but Aspasia participated in the public life in the city because of her status.  Instead of being revered for her physical beauty alone, as most women were in those days, she was respected as a great conversationalist and adviser.  The home of Aspasia and Pericles, her companion/husband, became a center for intellectual discourse, attracting some of the greatest minds of the time, including Socrates.  Some scholars believe that she was the only woman in ancient Greece who was able to distinguish herself as a public figure, that she inspired and helped write many of Pericles' speeches, and that she may have even opened an academy for young women.

Hypatia

Hypatia was a Greek philosopher and mathematician, she headed the Platonist school at Alexandria, and she taught philosophy and astronomy.  People traveled great differences to receive instruction from her.  She often appeared in public before the magistrates and didn't hesitate to go into discourse with men.  At the end of her life, a Christian sect claimed that she was a pagan Satan-worshiper that created strife between two political figures of the time and she was subsequently murdered for it, whether it was true or not.  A scholar remarked that her murder "effectively marked the downfall of Alexandrian intellectual life."

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Herstory: Queens of Egypt

Hatshepsut

 

Hatshepsut was the fifth Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty in Egypt and arguably the one of the most successful Pharaohs.  In the history of ancient Egypt, it was incredibly rare for a woman to become Pharaoh; only 3 or 4 other women were thought to serve in the position.  Hatshepsut served as Pharaoh for 22 years, longer than any other female ruler of Egypt.  According to Egyptologist James Breasted, she is "the first great woman in history of whom we are informed."  She re-established the trade networks that had been disrupted during the Hyksos occupation of Egypt, which brought great wealth to Egypt.  She lead successful military campaigns in the early part of her reign, but also brought much peace and prosperity to her people during the majority of her reign.
 

The Temple of Hatshepsut

She also ordered the construction of hundreds of projects throughout Upper and Lower Egypt, including the Temple of Pakhet and structures at the Temple of Karnak.  After her death, it is thought that her nephew Thutmose III destroyed many of her images, cartouches, and statues.  Some historians believe this was done not because he disliked her, but simply because she was a woman.  Joyce Tyldesley suggests Thutmose III feared that the example of a successful female Pharaoh could demonstrate that a woman was as capable of ruling Egypt as a traditional male Pharaoh, which could persuade "future generations of potentially strong female kings" to not "remain content with their traditional lot as wife, sister, and eventual mother of a king.".   

Nefertari

Queen Nefertari was one of the Great Royal Wives of Ramesses the Great.  She is depicted as participating in many important religious ceremonies next to her husband.  She was a prominent figure in court and is documented as being in correspondence with other kings and queens of the time.  She is also depicted in another scene leading the royal children.  Nefertari herself had 6 children (possibly an additional 3 that have not been substantiated).  She has a statue at the great temple and the small temple in Abu Simbel is dedicated entirely to her and the goddess Hathor, who is the goddess of joy, feminine love, and motherhood.  Her deliberate linking to the goddess Hathor is possibly an indication that she was celebrated as a wife and a mother as well as a queen.

Nefertiti

Queen Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten.  Nefertiti and her husband are credited for a religious revolution in Ancient Egypt where they began worshiping only one god, Aten, instead of the many gods previously worshiped.  She is depicted in many scenes throughout Ancient Egypt as fulfilling the roles of both queen (standing behind her husband supporting him during worship) and king (smiting her enemies in battle).  There is evidence that she may have served as co-regent with her husband, allowing them equal ruling status.  Some historians believe that she ruled briefly between the death of her husband and the reign of Tutankhamun, although this is the subject of much debate.  

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