Today is International Women's Day (actually the 100th anniversary!), and March is actually Women's History Month in the U.S. I wish this was a day we celebrated more!
I've been pretty busy lately with Kimball, lots of babysitting, and helping to raise awareness about a poorly advertised increase in rent that will hit students with families in our complex disproportionally hard. Whew! So I haven't had a lot of time to blog, but wanted to say something in honor of this day, so I will direct you to this link, which says it all very well.
I am glad to be a woman, but especially glad to be one in this day and age, thanks to the forward thinking, progressive, and brave women of history and of today. Women can work, stay home, do both, and be and do whatever they choose. The ability and freedom to be a business woman, a scientist, a journalist, a doctor, a professor, the president, or a homemaker is what is important to me. That we have that choice. Of course there is always the opportunity for further equality with men (while simultaneously embracing our distinct and beautiful femaleness--yes, that is a word), and I've seen some things in the news this past month that seem so counterproductive to that. Yet, we have it pretty good here, but I'm always excited to hear about and sympathetic with women's causes and advancements around the world.
Who are some of your favorite women of courage?
8 comments:
A couple of my favorites:
I salute the women of the early Relief Society I have been reading about recently. Lula Greene Richards and Emmeline B. Wells were the editors of a newspaper called the Woman's Exponent. Women met to organize their political influence, and were described by the press as "quite equal to the women's rights women of the east". In 1870, the women of Utah became the second body of women in a U.S. territory to be given the right to vote. Twenty-five of them voted in the first election in 1870.
I also salute Roslind Franklin, who was a biophysicist and chemist who used x-ray techniques to reveal the shape of DNA in the early 1950s. Her photographs and documents were taken and shared without her permission with Watson and Crick, who used her work to discover the double helix, which has since revolutionized the world of science and genetics. Roslind got very little credit from her colleagues and the academic community until after her death at age 37 of ovarian cancer. She died before the Nobel Prize was awarded to Watson and Crick, yet her work was certainly essential to the discovery that revolutionized modern science.
Also, the mom from Mary Poppins:
"Have you put the spoiled eggs in my carryall?"
"Yes ma'am."
"After our meeting at the Albert Hall, we're all going to Downing Street to throw things at the Prime Minister!"
That's a quote I never noticed as a kid!
Most of all I'd like to honor my wife who is the most self sacrificing individual I know. She loves her family fiercely. She is a geniuses who chooses to spend her time with her two-year-old son and smelly husband. I can't stop loving her more and more everyday.
My mom, whose love and patience was the single biggest factor in where I am today. I never would have learned to love reading without the countless hours she spent reading the great classics in bed with me (sometimes until way too late at night).
Emma Goldman is one of my favorite characters in history. An anarchist, woman's rights advocate, and Russian refugee, Emma fought tirelessly for the rights of working men, women, and children. Many historians believe that without her inspirational interventions child labor laws, women's suffrage, and legal contraception would have taken decades longer to gain public traction. I also love that she was an incredibly dynamic and flawed individual. She was a contradictory figure who spoke out against US involvement in WWI, yet sometime advocated violence. I think like almost any historical figure there is a lot in Emma Goldman to love and be repulsed by. That's why I'm fascinated by her. She still defies description.
For an incredible outrageous look at hopefully how far we've come take a look at this vintage advertisement about women:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/07/stuffed-girls-heads_n_832621.html
We have a lot further to go, but hopefully this will give perspective to just how far we could roll back without constant awareness for women's rights and civility.
Jordan, I am a geniusES? YES!
Haha, Ashley, I think you are smart enough to be several geniuses. :)
I am researching a paper about the Civil War using archival sources, and I'm focusing primarily on the efforts of women at home in Wisconsin during the war. There was a group called the Ladies Union League who acted as an advocate for soldiers' families, sent food to soldiers in hospital, and corresponded with soldiers to let them know their efforts were appreciated.
The letters sent by the soldiers back to the League are heartbreaking: thanking them for the letters and food, giving updates on their injuries, and asking (practically begging) for more letters. Clearly the work that these women did made a huge impact on these men who were so far from home.
Ash. I know I'm a terrible speller and I never reread what I write. Agh.
Rachel, That's really cool. I bet it's pretty powerful to see those documents up close and personal. I'm also working with archival material right now, mostly from the early 20th century, and I always get such a tangible sense of history when I hold those documents. It's amazing how they wrote those journals, letters, or what not without ever thinking "I wonder if some student with pour through them looking for something that will increase their knowledge of history?" It's pretty humbling. It also makes me want to write in a journal more often.
Jordan, there really is something incredible about holding the actual letters. I feel like pinching myself when I realize that I'm reading an actual letter written by a soldier in the Civil War!
I've never been a very good journal writer, but it does make me wish I corresponded more frequently, and that I kept all the letters I've received over the years. Some of the sources I'm using are huge stacks of letters from a single family. They offer a great view of what life was like for them in the 19th century.
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