02-19 TABLE of CONTENTS: ...the way women are ignored and consequently removed from HIStory. Anti-suffragist, founder of Barnard College, conflicted woman DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS QUOTES by Edna O'Brien and Eleanor Smeal. Women in Military Service, addenda The Women of Achievement and Herstory recent entry about the Women in Military Service for America Memorial reminded one of our readers from Britain of something that happened in her home country, Norway. It is a dramatic representation of the way women are ignored and consequently removed from HIStory. I'm sure what happened in Norway happened in every country in Europe following the defeat of Germany. Remember how women were ignored in the remembrance of D-Day last year? "After World War Two was over and the Government came home from English exile with the Norweigan royal family, there was an enormous victory parade in Oslo, Norway's capital.       "All the military men who had been away for the duration of the war were in it. All the men who had been in the Home Front were in it. And on the pavements (sidewalks)? Everyone else - including the women of the Home Front, though they had done the same kind of dangerous, illegal jobs. A significant number of Home Front women were killed in Ravensbruck concentration camp after they were (captured by the Germans in several raids.) A large number of the women were active in the underground press - statistically a lot more dangerous than merely sitting out the war in the woods, occasionally sabotaging a train line, which made the men heroes... (The men from the underground press WERE in the parade.)       "My source: I've come across this several times - most recently in a magazine interview a few years ago with Randi Bratteli, the widow of Labour Prime Minister Trygve Bratteli. They were both active during the war - he paraded and she cheered at the parade..."             [Contributed by Heidi Lyshol] | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | Annie Nathan Mayer       Born Feb. 19, 1867, Annie Nathan Mayer, publicist, writer, antisuffragist, a founder of Barnard College. Her older sister Maud Nathan was a prominent suffragist and president of the New York Consumers League. ANM dropped out of Columbia's collegiate course after refusing to answer questions on courses that women were barred from attending.       Married to a wealthy physician, she set about creating Barnard College feeling the trustees of Columbia would cooperate with a separate women's college if it didn't cost them any money. She actively supported black students and recruited them for Barnard.       Although she wrote and traveled extensively, she opposed mothers who worked and campaigned against the 19th Amendment and in a complete dichotomy was bitter about a woman being expected to give up her career when she married. PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | 02-19 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS B. 02-19-1841, Elfrida Andree, the first woman telegraphist in Sweden, pioneer-activist of the Swedish women's rights movement, elected Swedish Academy of Music (1879), elected Cathedral organist in G”teborg and directed more than 800 concerts. B. 02-19-1877, Gabriele Munter, German painter. B. 02-19-1902, Kay Boyle, short story wrier, novelist, and journalist, authored The Underground. B. 02-19-1903, Clare Boothe Luce, playwright, war correspondent and Representative to Congress. In 1959 she was confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, but bowing to pressures opposing her strong anti- communist position that many feared would offend South Americans, she resigns before serving. B. 02-19-1911, Merle Oberon, born in Tasmania, mother moved with her to Bombay where her mother was swindled out of her money and sought refuge with her brother in Calcutta. The uncle took MO to London where she went to school and then onto the stage. She dared to "appear" in her own home-grown eyebrows in 1930s instead of highly plucked, arched, and painted eyebrows then fashionable in films. Although she made more than 20 films, she will always be Cathy on the moors of England in Wuthering Heights (1939). B. 02-19-1917, Carson McCullers, writer, novelist and playwright. her Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) made her famous at age 23. She also authored Reflection in a Golden Eye (1941), The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and the much praised play The Member of the Wedding. Ill health, an unsatisfying marriage, and depression over the death of a female love aided her in depicting the inner thoughts of lonely people. B. 02-19-1841, Elfrida Andree, the first woman telegraphist in Sweden, pioneer-activist of the Swedish women's rights movement, elected Swedish Academy of Music (1879), elected Cathedral organist in Goteborg and directed more than 800 concerts. Her opera Fritiofs Saga had a libretto by Selma Lagerloff, Nobel Prize winner for literature. B. 02-19-1946, Karen Silkwood, documented safety infractions at Kerr-McGee Corp. Cimarron Facility involving the misuse of radioactive materials. Her mysterious death rather than covering up the infractions prompted congressional hearings. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | QUOTES DU JOUR O'BRIEN, EDNA:       "The vote, I thought, means nothing to women. We should be armed."             -- Edna O'Brien, Irish novelist as an epigraph to Fear of Flying by Erica Jong. SMEAL, ELEANOR:       "If there is to be registration (for military draft), it must include women. Let's face it - women are an established part of the modern military.       "We are a key part of the trained and trainable pool of young people required to operate today's military, which is more in need of brains than brawn... NOW is against the registration of both young men and young women because it is a response which stimulates an environment of preparation for war. But if there is a draft, it must include women."             -- Eleanor Smeal speaking as president of the National Organization for Women 02-08-1980. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE |