| 10-16 TABLE of CONTENTS:
Women in the U.S. President's Cabinets
Throughout History
First Birth Control Clinic in U.S.
Contraceptive Museum
First Woman Mayor of San Juan
Texas Right Wing Activists Censor
YOUR School's Books
Gaea or Gaia, the Earth Goddess -
and the Earth
The Gaia Hypothesis
TONY AWARD FEATURED ACTRESSES
Origins of Some Women's Bondage Through
the Ages
DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
QUOTES by
Simon de Beauvoir and Senator Arlen Specter.
Women in the U.S. President's Cabinets
Throughout History
Attorney General:
Janet Reno 1993-present
(Clinton)
Secretary of Commerce:
Juanita Kreps 1977-79
(Carter)
Barbara Franklin 1991-93 (Bush)
Secretary of Labor:
Frances Perkins 1933-45
(Roosevelt) (first woman to serve in a U.S. President's cabinet)
Ann McLaughlin 1987-89 (Reagan)
Elizabeth Dole 1989-90 (Bush)
Lynn Martin 1990-93 (Bush)
 Secretary
of Health and Human Services until 1980 when the department name was
changed to Health, Education, and Welfare:
Oveta Culp Hobby 1953-55 (Eisenhower)
Patricia R. Harris 1979-81 (Carter) (at
right)
Margaret Heckler 1983-89 (Reagan)
Donna E. Shalala 1993-present (Clinton)
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development:
Carla A. Hills 1975-77 (Ford)
Patricia R. Harris 1977-79 (Carter)
Secretary of State:
Madeline Albright 1995-present (Clinton)
Secretary of Transportation:
Elizabeth Dole, 1983-87 (Reagan)
Secretary of Energy:
Hazel O'Leary 1993-97 (Clinton)
Secretary of Education:
Shirley M. Hufstedler 1979-81 (Carter)
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
First Birth Control Clinic in U.S.
Event 10-16-1916 - The first
birth control clinic in U.S. estoria opened by Margaret Sanger, Fania
Mindell, and Ethel Byrne in New York City. 
The circular announcing its opening was printed in
English, Yiddish, and Italian.
A near riot occurred when hundreds of women lined
up before dawn and the police almost closed the clinic before it opened
because of the crowd.
Sanger, Mindell, and Byrne all went to jail at various
times for their birth control efforts, which were considered immoral and
obscene under the patriarchal laws that were expressed in the U.S by the
Comstock law.
Between no birth control and no abortion, the average
life span of married women was below 30 years since she had no right
(under church, societal, and legal strictures) to refuse her husband's
sexual pleasures even if such intercourse and resultant pregnancy would
cause her death. A man had his needs that transcended his wife's life.
"The so-called Comstock
Law of 1873, which had been adroitly pushed through a busy Congress on
the eve of adjournment, the Post Office had been given authority to decide
what might be called lewd, lascivious, indecent, or obscene, and this extraordinary
man had been granted the extraordinary power, along of all citizens of
the United States, to open any letter or package or pamphlet or book passing
through the mails, and if he wished, lay his complaint before the Post
Office.
"So powerful had his society become that anything
to which he objected in its name was almost automatically barred; he had
turned out to be sole censor for ninety million people.
"During some 40 years, Comstock had been damming
the rising tide of new thought, thereby causing much harm and only now
was his hopeless contest against September Morn (the painting) making
him absurd and an object of ridicule."
-- Margaret Sanger in her Autobiography.
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
Contraceptive Museum
The world's only contraceptive
museum is located at the Janssen-Ortho Pharmaceutical Company, manufacturer
of contraceptive products, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. An article about
it was featured in Salon magazine www.salon.com/07/features/contra.html.
Another article about the museum is www.desires.com/1.6/Sex/Museum/museum1.html
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
First Woman Mayor of San Juan
Dofia Felisa Vida deGautier
was city manager of San Juan, Puerto Rico for 22 years, 1946-1968.
She had been number five in 1929 registering to vote
when women's franchise went into effect. After all, she was of the upper
class.
That time she only had to contend with her father's
objections. When she was asked to run the city of San Joan, her father
was joined by her husband in loud objections. She listened for two years
until shutting her ears, she accepted the post.
Her administration was earth mother-like, holding
open meetings and listening to citizens. Her special concern was the city's
many poor. She often expressed hope that the middle-class women would take
more interest in society's problems, for they were the ones to solve them.
She and Luis Mufioz Mann founded Puerto Rico's Popular
Party in 1940. Mann became Puerto Rico's first elected governor.
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
Texas Right Wing Activists Censor YOUR School's
Books
When Mel and Norma Gabler
appointed themselves as the keepers of school textbook morality, they also
effectively became the censors of the textbooks in your local schools.
That's because Texas purchases a significant percentage
of textbooks and sales to their school system(s) is necessary for profit.
The Gablers screened content of the proposed texts
to be used in Texas schools for adherence to far right religious principles
such as creationism, male domination, and other ultra-conservative, anti-woman
beliefs.
When the Texas Textbook Committee accepts some of
their objections and refuses to purchase already printed texts, the companies
suffer devastating losses.
Therefor, to prevent being black-listed in Texas,
some (most!) textbook companies censor IN ADVANCE along the ultra-right
religious lines in attempts to stay on the approved list for Texas classroom
use.
In one year the Gablers filed more than 550 PAGES
of protests on Texas textbooks.
The pre-publication censoring has become self-perpetuating
so the even with "watchdogs" like the Gablers, chances are strong
that the texts your children are using are in keeping with the ultra-right
conservatives of Texas that portray women as helpless, dependent, and obedient.
"04-08-2000 OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- All science
textbooks adopted by the State Textbook Committee would contain 'acknowledgment
that human life was created by one God of the universe' under legislation
passed unanimously by the House of Representatives.
"Three amendments, including the creation statement,
were added Wednesday to a bill dealing with the membership of the textbook
committee.
"Most legal scholars opine that the bill will
not pass constitutional muster."
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
Gaea or Gaia, the Earth Goddess - and the Earth
Gaea - jee'-uh - In Greek
mythology, Gaea or Gaia) was the goddess of Eath and the daughter of CHAOS.
She was regarded as the mother of all creation, preceding Zeus and the
other Olympic gods.
She gave birth to Uranus, the sky and with Uranus
she produced the Titans.
"Gaia - or Gea,
'Mother Earth', primordial force risen from Chaos, the goddess of life,
death, and fertility, is one of the most ancient Greek divinities, a mother
who must save her children from being devoured by the father she herself
created."
Out of Chaos came Gaia,
the Earth who brought forth Uranus, the star-filled sky, to cover and protect
her.
Gaia gave birth to the mountains and to Pontos, the
ocean. Pontos fathered the marine divinities, while from Uranus and Gaia
came the Titans.
Uranus feared Gaia's children by him would challenge
his rule and imprisoned Gaia's children on earth. Gaia's child Cronus listen
to his mother who sought violence to the Uranus. She forged a metal sickle
so when Uranus attempted to cover her and impregnate Giai, Cronus seized
Uranus' testicles, cut them off then threw them into the sea. (That's why
the left hand is bad luck.)
Drops of Uranus' blood impregnated the earth (Giai)
and the Furies, giants, and nymphs were conceived. Gaia has been "relegated
to the underworld. There she continued to rule over the birth, death, and
rebirth of nature.
-- From Sabrini Marvin and Carol
Prunhuber Women Around the World and Through the Ages.
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
The Gaia Hypothesis
The Gaia hypothesis, named for the
Greek Earth goddess Gaia (Gaea), holds that the Earth should be regarded
as a living organism.
According to this view, the GIOSPHERE, or totality
of life on the planet, influences Earth processes so as to sustain and
advance life. The hypothesis was first advanced by British biologist James
Lovelock in 1969.
It was further developed by U.S. biologist Lynn Margulis.
Lovelock subsequently modified his views to be in
closer agreement with Margulis whose advanced thinking threatened to take
the theory away from him. Lovelock agreed to homeostatis concepts of the
maintenance of equilibrium in biological systems.
Margulis continues to work on the Gaia hypothesis.
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
|
TONY AWARD FEATURED ACTRESSES
Helen Gallagher won the 1952 Tony award for distinguished supporting
or featured actress in a musical for her work in Pal Joey;
 Marian
Winters (at left) won the 1952 distinguished
supporting or featured dramatic actress Tony award for her work in I
Am a Camera;
Zena Walker won the 1968 best supporting actress for her work in
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg;
Elizabeth Wilson won the 1972 Tony Award as best supporting actress
in a play for her work in Sticks and Bones;
Ann Wedgeworth won the 1978 Tony award for the best featured actress
in a Broadway play for her work in Chapter Two;
 Irene
Worth (right) won the 1991 Tony
award for outstanding featured actress in a Broadway play for her work
in Lost in Yonkers.
|
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
Origins of Some Women's Bondage Through the Ages
England got her first written
code of laws from Aethelbert of Kent in 597. It became a cornerstone of
English Common law that became the basic law of the United States.
On the subject of women's property rights Aethelbert's
law says, "If she [the wife] bear a live
child, let her have half the property, if the husband die first. If she
wish to go away with her children, let her have half the property. If the
husband wish to have them, [let her portion be] as one child."
The Franks which dominate present-day northern France,
Belgium, and western Germany also contribute a large portion of the common
law. The Franks generally exclude women from the courts, barred them from
inheriting certain ancestral lands, even kept them out of family counsels.
The Franks decreed that a woman had to have the consent
of her father to marry and eventually the daughter would become part of
the familial lands with both her person and title used to purchase military
loyalty).
Under Franks law, adultery in a wife was punishable
by death, bit NO penalty or scorn was given to the adulterous husband.
|
A phonetic alphabet, the Hiragnan alphabet,
was developed among Japanese women (fl.860 AD). The Hiragnan women's alphabet
was then further simplified and reduced to 51 basic characters (not that
the women were given much credit). The women's alphabet, simplified, would
officially supplement the Konji (Chinese) alphabet of thousands of characters.
|
|
Georgeann Wells, in 1984 became the first
woman to dunk a basketball in an NCAA game. Wells, 6'7" played for
the University of West Virginia. Dunking is when a player's hand is above
the goal rim. With the height of men basketball players, often over seven
feet tall, dunking is rather simple. For shorter women not trained to body
building in their youth, it is more difficult - but women are learning.
In the final eight, one woman almost dunked - or did dunk, depending on
the observor.
|
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
10-16 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
B. 10-16-1753, Elizabeth Inchbald - British novelist, playwright,
and actor. EI's novels published in the last part of the 18th century
and beginning of the 19th, are early examples of the so-called novels of
passion or romances.
EI wrote 20 plays, most of which were successful.
EI also contributed to a number of periodicals of her day.
B. 10-16-1848, Cassie Ward Mee - U.S. labor organizer for the
Knights of Labor.
B. 10-16-1857, Lilian Leland - U.S. lecturer.
LL often explored freethinking. Her mother Mary A
Leland was one of the first women to study medicine in the U.S.
At age 25, LL traveled around the world - by herself.
DIED 10-16-1891, Sarah Winnemucca - Potute Native American leader.
During SW's lifetime, her tribe which had been thriving
on tribal lands in Nevada was forced to move its lands twice, both times
to less desirable properties.
In 1860 the tribe was moved to Oregon and then later
to Washington State under starvation conditions. When she campained and
finally got a U.S. Presidential order for her tribe to move back to Oregon
where they could raise food, the U.S. army refused to honor it.
The treatment and deliberate genocide of the Native
peoples in both North and South America boggles the mind. Some estimate
the genocide EXCEEDED 167 million in North and South America by the European
and African invaders.
B. 10-16-1898, William O. Douglas - U.S. Supreme Court Judge.
Douglas is held most responsible for the Roe v Wade
Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion in the U.S. The court's
declared that a fetus is not a human being in the legal sense. Since
then anti-women forces have been trying to have fetuses recognized as "pre-born
human beings" so that their rights are equal or superior to those
of the woman bearing them. The anti-abortion, anti-woman forces also use
the phrase "unborn child."
 B.
10-16-1902, Beryl Markham - British-African pioneer professional pilot
and author (left). She wrote several autobiographical
books including West With the Night that is still in publication.
B. 10-16-1919, Kathleen Winsor - U.S. author. KW had a million-copy
best-seller in Forever Amber (1946).
B. 10-16-1923 (probably 1919), Louise Day Hicks - U.S. activist and
politician. LDH objected to forced school busing in Boston although
she claimed she was not a bigot.
"No one in their right
mind is against civil rights, against intergration, only let it come naturally.
What will Negroes learn by sitting in class with white children?"
She then ran as "the white hope" in the
1967 Boston mayoral race and lost by only 10,000 votes. LDH was elected
to Boston city council 1969, and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
(1970). She lost her congressional seat in 1972 after redistricting. Her
official government biography is at http://clerkweb.house.gov/womenbio/
B. 10-16-1921, Linda Darnell - U.S. actor. LD was a sultry actor
known for her portrayals in such period movies as Blood and Sand
(1941) and Forever Amber (1947).
 B.
10-16-1924, Lauren Bacall - U.S actor.
As a young actor fresh from a successful modeling
career, LB became famous for her roles opposite Humphrey Bogart. Following
his death from cancer, she moved to Broadway where she became one of the
royalty of Broadway. She won the Tony for Applause and raves in
many others. She went on to play mature women in movies and TV. She has
aged into a role model. Her biographies are marvels.
B. 10-16-1925, Angela Lansbury - Anglo-American actor of stage,
screen and television.
AL won Tony awards in 1966, 69, 74, and 79 for her
many wonderful musicals and plays on Broadway and garnered multiple Emmys
for her work on TV in the long running Murder she Wrote. AL was
nominated for three Academy Awards and set the standard for evil mothers
in Manchurian Candidate (1962). Truly one of the great actors of
her generation(s).
B. 10-16-1936, Goldie Vernice Thomas - U.S. activist. GVT is
a major force in HIV/AIDS prevention and education programs in New Jersey.
She has assisted in the founding of many community organizations, including
Somerset County Housing Coalition, Minority Economic Development Corp.,
Middlesex County Alliance for Justice, and African-American Youth Cultural
Arts Collective..
B. 10-16-1946, Suzanne Somers - U.S. actor.
B. 10-16-1956, Melissa Belote - U.S. Olympic swimmer.
Event 10-16-1975, the First Bank of New York, headed by Madelaine
McWhinney, declared it would not discriminate against women (or men)
when it opened. Almost 1,000 women who had been treated unfairly by the
prevailing economic rules became its first customers, the very first day.
In those days banks almost always refused loans or credit to women, even
requiring some women to obtain permission to borrow from ex-husbands or
their fathers regardless of their ages or financial conditions. Women's
earnings were also NOT counted as part of the family's income. Regardless
of a woman's age, finance officers believed she would quit work to have
children.
B. 10-16-1985, Allison Stuber - one of the primary reasons for
Women of Achievment and Herstory. A straight A student and first baseplayer
and pitcher of several softball teams, including her school. Women of Achievement
and Herstory guarantees that she won't have to grow up asking (as her grandmother
did) weren't there any women back then who did anything?
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
QUOTES DU JOUR
 DE BEAUVOIR,
SIMONE:
"Distortion
begins when the religion of Maternity proclaims that all mothers are saintly."
-- Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex.
Dismantling a Woman's Right to Choose...
From A TO Z
A statement by Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania)
(Unfortunately, Sen. Specter has turned a "bit"
to the right since this 1995 speech, but his words make a good summation
of the everlasting battle by men to control women's bodies and lives. Quoting
Sen. Specter is not an endorsement of his other policies.)
"A nationwide campaign is currently underway
to dismantle a woman's right to choose. And at no time will this threat
be greater than over the next few moths. Anti-choice forces, frustrated
with their failed attempts to outlaw abortion, will be asking members of
Congress to amend various pieces of legislation to impose burdensome obstacles
to abortion by adding restrictive language and funding bans.
"Those changes are far-reaching and will have
a devastating impact on a woman's right to choose.
"Amendments are being proposed to cut off funding
to clinics that provide prenatal and preventative family planning services
necessary to protect the health of the mother and child, and restrict medical
research. A battle cry has also been sounded to repeal the Freedom of Access
to Clinics Act signaling that it is permissible to harass, intimidate and
terrorize women and health care providers at health care clinics around
this nation.
"Now is not the time to sit back and let choice
opponents get the upper hand. The rights women have fought hard to gain
are being chipped away.
"How extensive is the threat?
"To demonstrate, I have compiled the following
list of actions -- from A to Z -- sought by anti-choice forces to dismantle
women's rights:
"Amend the Constitution to abolish a woman's
right to choose.
"Ban federal funding for abortions for women
in federal prisons.
"Cut off Title X family planning funds to organizations
providing abortions with non-Federal dollars.
"Deny federal funding for United State representatives
to attend the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women.
"Eliminate United States funding for international
family planning assistance provided by the United Nations Population Fund.
"Forbid the Legal Service Corporation from handling
abortion-related litigation.
"Gag medical providers at Title X family planning
clinics to prevent them from discussing abortion as a legal medical option
for women facing an unintended pregnancy.
"Hand over to the states the decision as to whether
low income rape or incest victims are eligible for Medicaid-funded abortions.
"Impose restrictions on human embryo research.
"Jeopardize the protections afforded by the Freedom
of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
"Kill nominations of pro-choice government officials.
"Limit the sale and production of mifepristone
(RU-486)
"Mandate that federal employees' insurance exclude
abortion coverage.
"Notify parents if minors seek 'sensitive' health
services such as contraception at Title X family planning clinics.
"Overrule the decision of a graduate medical
education accrediting organization to require most ob/gyn residents to
be trained in abortion procedures.
"Promote the appointment of federal judges opposed
to choice.
"Quash the ability of the District of Columbia
to use its own revenue to fund abortions for poor women -- a right of every
other jurisdiction in the United States.
"Restrict fetal tissue research.
"Slash funding for domestic and international
family planning programs.
"Terminate funding for international family planning
programs that either provide abortions with non-U.S. funds or advocate
a position on abortion.
"Undermine the ability of military women stationed
overseas to access abortion service by prohibiting military hospitals from
performing the procedure, even if paid for with private funds.
"Violate the right of a doctor and patient to
determine whether a certain late-term abortion procedure is appropriate
and necessary.
"Whitewash the true political agenda -- eliminate
access to abortion for all American women.
"X-out Title X,the cornerstone of Federal family
planning programs.
"Yield to the anti-choice agenda that rolls back
the hard-won reproductive rights of American women.
"Zero out the tax deduction for expenses incurred
for pregnancy termination --
"The voices of the anti-choice
movement are loud and have gained in volume since the last election. But
your voices, the voices who have fought the battle and won the fight, can
sustain the great strides made in the reproductive rights arena. Speak
out, get involved, let your voices be heard."
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
|
