04-29 TABLE of CONTENTS: After 2000 Years of University Education for Men, Women Get Their Rights; Wait in U.S. "Only" 201 Years A. Ellen Shippy - Appointed U.S. Ambassador to Malawi DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS QUOTES by Ann Lewis, Diane Ackerman, Paula Gunn Allen, and Dorothy Allison. After 2000 Years of University Education for Men, Women Get Their Rights; Wait in U.S. "Only" 201 Years       Mount Holyoke College in the United States was opened in 1837 by Mary Lyon as the first school-college in the United States that offered near comparable-to-men- formal-education to women and it is extant today.       Sixteen years before, the Troy Female Seminary was opened by Emma Willard. It produced hundreds of teachers - albeit without the type of education men got - who were instrumental in awakening women to their rights and demand broader women's education. Emma Willard went out of her way in speeches and books to tell the male leaders that her "girls" learned domestic arts first and that advanced book learning was only a sideline. Ms. Emma was perhaps the most duplicitous educator in the history of the world.       Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, was founded in 1836 and became the first college in the world that was initially chartered to award women college degrees. It granted baccalaureate degrees for the first time in 1842 to 11 women.       The religious school, St. Mary's-of-the-Woods in Indiana was founded in 1840 but did not become a college for many years.       (Male only universities such as Harvard opened in 1636 almost as soon as the British invasion of North America occurred. Yale University was founded in 1701 at New Haven, Connecticut. In 1746, Princeton University in New Jersey received its charter. The University of Bologna in Italy opened its doors in 1088. England's Oxford University's first college opened in the 1100s, Cambridge opened in 1209. Sweden's Lund University was founded in 1666. Germany's "Nuremberg" University predecessor opened about 1701.)       The first women's college at Oxford in England was Lady Margaret Hall founded in 1878 (878 years after Oxford's founding), incorporated in 1926 as was St. Hilda's college that was founded 1893.       Girton College at Cambridge - and the education of women at Oxford - was the direct result of the activism of Emily Davis (B. 04-22-1830). She and friends opened a college in 1869 and in 1873 moved it to Cambridge as Girton. She believed, and her view prevailed, that women should be admitted to college on the same basis as men and not forced into lesser women's seminaries.       Emily Davis was responsible for women taking the examination for Cambridge University and responsible for women being admitted to British universities on an equal footing rather than getting segregated education. She was responsible for University College, London, admitting women to classes in 1870.       ED was one of the organizers of the first woman's suffrage petition offered in 1866 and in 1906 led the delegation to Parliament demanding the vote.       A woman's seminary was opened in Benicia, California, in 1852 and was purchased in 1865 by Susan and Cyrus Mills who moved it to Oakland and renamed it Mills College.       There were a number of women's seminaries that opened on a regional level and did extremely well but they were all taken over by larger universities and lost their emphasis for women. There were also a number of men's colleges that accepted women students earlier in the 19th century, such as Ohio's Antioch in 1852. However, many of these "equal" colleges actually barred women from some courses that were too difficult for their delicate natures - and they were required to clean the men's rooms and do their laundry.       Swarthmore College was founded in 1864, the first graduating class was 1873. Wellesley opened in 1870, Vassar in 1865. Ursaline College in Cleveland is listed as opening in 1871.       Wellesley College opened in 1875 just 24-hours before Smith College. Radcliffe, as the women's annex of Harvard, opened in 1879 when Harvard was almost 250 years old. Radcliffe was rechartered in 1894 as a separate entity.       Bryn Mawr College received its first students in 1885 and is believed to be the first all-woman's college to have the same academic requirements as Harvard had for its men.       Goucher in Maryland is listed as starting in 1885. Barnard opened in 1889.       Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, FL, is noted as opening in 1872, but that was as Cookman, a school for black MEN.       The unbelievably powerful and dedicated Mary McLeod Bethune opened her school for black children in 1904 (five girls and one boy who was her son). Bethune College merged with Cookman in 1923 with Bethune as president. So for the purposes of a women's college listing, Bethune-Cookman must be listed as being founded in 1904.       It is almost inconceivable to most modern American woman that for thousands of years, men were so insecure that they forbade - by force - equal education for women. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | A. Ellen Shippy - Appointed U.S. Ambassador to Malawi       A. Ellen Shippy of Washington was appointed the new U.S. Ambassador to Malawi by President Bill Clinton in 1995. Both Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made pledged to promote career, experienced state department professionals on the basis of ability not sex.       Ambassor Shippy"s official state department biography reads:       "Ambassador Shippy began her international work in 1966 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador, and joined the Foreign Service in 1970. She has served overseas as Consular Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala (1970-l972), Principal Officer in the U.S. Consulate in Zanzibar (1977-l979), Political Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon, (1979-1982), Political Counselor in the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka (1986-1988), Deputy Principal Officer in the U.S. Consulate General in Karachi (1988-l991), and Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. Embassy in Kampala (1991-1994).       "Ambassador Shippy has also served in Washington as Information Officer in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs (1972-1973), Assistant Political/Economic Officer in the Bureau of InterAmerican Affairs (1973-1975), Desk Officer for Kenya and Tanzania in the Bureau of African Affairs (1975-1976), Senior Watch Officer in the Operations Center (1984-1985), Deputy Director of the Secretariat staff (1985-1986), and Director of the Office of Science, Technology and Health in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. She has also served in a Pearson Assignment in the Office of Inter-Governmental Affairs in the City Government of Seattle, Washington (1982-1984) where her primary responsibilities were international trade and tourism promotion.       "Ambassador Shippy earned a B.S. degree from the University of New Mexico in 1966 and a J.D. degree from George Washington University in 1977. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Swahili."       Reference: http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/biography/shippy _malawi.html | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | 04-29 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS B. 04-29-1867, Margherita Hamm - U.S. journalist B. 04-29-1913, Tania Long - U.S. journalist. TL covered the London blitz, following Allied troops across Europe to Berlin during World War II, and the Nuremburg trials of Nazi war criminals afterward.       In London, she wrote of the city's poor during the blitz and of the bombing of the Hotel Savoy while she was living there. "I was sitting in my third-floor room ready to get into bed when I heard the bombs coming," she wrote. "Only a split second later the next bomb hit the cornice of the hotel and went off, and almost immediately after that the other one hit the rear of the building. When one hears bombs coming that close, there is not time to do anything. One hasn't time to be afraid; that comes later."       TL was foreign correspondent (1938) for New York Times (1938-1946). Her coverage of the bombings of London won her the Newspaper Women's Club award.       When Allied troops invaded Europe, TL folllowed France. She followed the Allied troops in Berlin, apparently the first female correspondent to do so, according to her obitiuary.       She was born in Berlin of a Russian mother and British father, educated in Germany, France and England, and studied economics, Russian literature and European history at the Sorbonne in Paris. She became an American citizen in 1935.       Her background stands in huge contrast to more modern journalists who often only have minimal education with many moving from the sports department to news coverage without any further education.       She warned of American troops being taken in by the false humility of the Germans after World War II and being taken into their camp of thinking regarding racial purity and militarism. Many Nazis found refuge in the U.S. techno-military establishment in spite of her warnings. B. 04-29-1917, Maya Deren - Russian-born American film maker, called the mother of U.S. Avant Garde experimental film, first woman and first American to receive the Cannes Grand Prix Internationale for Avant- Garde Film.       Deren believed film was an art form. Many of her works involved dance. Unsuccessful attempts have been made to have Deren's work and theories studied as seriously as those of men film makers. Her mother had received a strong education in Russia and taught in the U.S. B. 04-29-1919, Celeste Holm - U.S. actor. Event 04-29-1925: Florence Sabin is the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences. B. 04-29-1927, Betsy Ancker-johnson- U.S. physicist and auto company executive. B. 04-29-1935, Carole Hyatt - U.S. writer and women's rights advocate. B. 04-29-1937, Jill Paton Walsh - U.S. author. Event 04-29-1945: in a Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun, his mistress of many years. He then shot her and committed suicide. EB would have been able to confirm rumors of Hitler's sexual inadequacies. Event 04-29-1945: Marguerite Higgins (B. 09-03-1920) that remarkable journalist who witnessed the opening of the German death camps at the end of World War II, won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 1951.       What we didn't know until we read Reporting World War II part 2, ISBN 1-883011-05-1 is that Maggie was the FIRST American to enter the Dachau death camp on 04-29-1945, in advance of military troops.       From her dispatch filed that day: "Tattered, emaciated men, weeping, yelling and shouting `Long Live America' (in about 16 languages) swept toward the gate in a mob. Those who could not walk limped or crawled... at least a thousand prisoners were killed the night before... the barracks like those at Buchenwald (which Maggie had also entered early) had the stench of death and sickness... the starving and dying lay virtually on top of each other in quarters where 1,200 men occupied a space intended for 200...in the crematorium itself were hooks on which the S.S. men hung their victims when they wished to flog them or to use any of the other torture instruments... Many of the living were so frail it seemed impossible they could still be holding on to life."       (Lest we forget. More women were killed by the Germans in the concentration camps than men - and women were subjected to rape and other sexual tortures as well. So many of the Nazi doctors seemed fascinated by women's reproductive abilities and performed unspeakable horrors on pregnant women.) B. 04-29-1951, LeAnne Howe - U.S.- Native Indian writer. LAH wrote:       "Half-breeds live on the edge of both races. You feel like you're split down the middle. Your right arm wants to unbutton your shirt while your left arm is trying to keep your shirt on.       "You're torn between wanting to kill everyone in the room, or buying `em all a round of drinks.       "Our erratic behavior is often explained away by friends and family as 'trying to be.' If you're around Indians, you're trying to be white. If you're around white friends, you're trying to be Indian.       "Sometimes I feel like the blood in my veins is a deadly mixture of Rh positive and Rh negative and every cell in my body is on a slow nuclear melt-down."             -- From LeAnne Howe's "An American in New York"       LAH is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. B. 04-29-1955, Kate Mulgrew - U.S. actor.       KM is best known as Kathryn Janeway, captain of the federation starship Voyager during its long journey through the multi-civilization permeated ???? quadrant.       Her stage resume is impressive but until being tapped for Star Trek after the first choice had to step aside, KM's movie and TV presence was unremarkable. B. 04-29-1958, Michelle Pfeiffer - U.S. actor.       After her start in TV commercials, MP developed into one of Hollywood's best actors, starring in roles opposite the top male actors who choose their own female stars such as Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert Redford, and Harrison Ford. B. 04-29-1970, Uma Thurman - U.S. actor. B. 04-29-1974, Alana Blahoski - U.S. athlete. Alana Blahoski competed in all six games at the XVIII Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan as the U.S. women's team unexpectedly won the gold.       Blahoski is a two-time member of the U.S. Women's National Team (1996 and 1997) Also appeared on U.S. Women's Select Teams in 1995, 1996 and 1997. Event 04-29-1981: Truck driver Peter Sutcliffe admitted in a London court to being the Yorkshire Ripper, the killer of 13 women in northern England . Event 04-29-1992: State Farm Insurance Co. , was ordered to pay $157 million to hundreds of California women who were not offered or given jobs as State Farm agents because of their sex.       It was the largest sex-discrimination settlement in US history to that time. The settlement was shared by more than 814 women. The case that began in June, 1979 when Muriel Kraszewski sued because she was turned down repeatedly for agent jobs at State Farm offices in South California because she was a woman.       As a result of the suit, the ratio of women agents with State Farm has increased from less than 1% in 1979 to more than 50% today. Women make up more than 50% of the population. DIED 04-29-2000 , Gertrude A. Barber - U.S. advocate for people with disabilities.       A week before her death, the Pennsylvania governor presented Barber with a $2 million check for Project 2000, a $7.5 million plan to build a national institute for education, research and new services for people with disabilities.       Barber was a civic leader who used her political clout to improve the lives of mentally disabled people. The center named for her operates group homes and other centers throughout Pennsylvania.       She was honored following her death by the renaming of the U.S. post office located in Erie, Pa ``Gertrude A. Barber Post Office Building" in a U.S. Congress resolution recommended by Congressional Representative Phil English.       Part of English's announcement reads:       "Dr. Barber touched so many lives," English said. "Her special gift and passion was reserved for the mentally disabled, but through that she touched the lives of an entire community. For years, she gave all she had and more, and she asked no less of the community in which she lived. Even if you met Dr. Barber just once, that encounter lasted a lifetime."       "Dr. Barber died April 29 at age 88. During her life, she impacted an entire community and even reached beyond which is reflected in the fact that she was recognized by world leaders including Pope Jon Paul II and Presidents John F. Kennedy and George Bush.       "The naming of a post office, which requires and act of Congress, reflects her national reputation," English said. "Dr. Barber and the Center always reached out to us on issues that effected the disabled."       "Dr. Barber, a teacher, opened the center that now bears her name in 1952. The center has since blossomed and flourished under her gentle hand and watchful eye. She and her staff have worked with mental health professionals from 33 countries. The Barber Center has opened other group homes in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas. Dr. Barber served on countless local, state and federal committees including those that formed legislation promising those with special needs had equal rights including the American's with Disabilities Act. She even established a number of local branches of national advocacy groups for people with mental retardation and related developmental disabilities.       "She was one of the most recognized advocated of people with special needs for generations," English said. "It is largely through her efforts that northwestern Pennsylvania has developed such a strong reputation for taking care of those with special needs."       "'She saw a need in our community and turned that into an opportunity to help those with special needs,' English said. 'She made it her mission. Gertrude was truly called to her life's work. She dedicated her life to the thousands of children and adults whom others often treated with disregard.'" | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE | | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | QUOTES DU JOUR LEWIS, ANN:       "The Glass Ceiling isn't actually made of glass... it's a very thick layer of men."             -- Ann Lewis, Democratic political consultant. ACKERMAN, DIANE:       "I don''t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well."            -- Diane Ackerman, published poet, teacher, cowhand, and pilot. ALLEN, PAULA GUNN:       "In the Native American tradition ... a man, if he''s a mature adult, nurtures life. He does rituals that will help things grow, he helps raise the kids, and he protects the people. His entire life is toward balance and cooperativeness. The ideal of manhood is the same as the ideal of womanhood. You are autonomous, self-directing, and responsible for the spiritual, social and material life of all those with whom you live.             -- Paula Gunn Allen, U.S./Native American author. ALLISON, DOROTHY:       "Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside. - - -       "There is a place where we are always alone with our own mortality, where we must simply have something greater than ourselves to hold onto God or history or politics or literature or a belief in the healing power of love, or even righteous anger... A reason to believe, a way to take the world by the throat and insist that there is more to this life than we have ever imagined. "            -- Dorothy Allison , U.S. author and lesbian feminist. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE | | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE |