[****PNEWS CONFERENCES****]
From: IRENESTUBER@delphi.com
Subject: 10-24-94 Women of Achievement and Herstory

10-24-1994 Women of Achievement and Herstory
B. 10-24-1788, (date estimated) Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of _Godey's
Lady's Book_, an unbelievable accomplishment for the times!  She
convinced Abraham Lincoln to proclaim Thanksgiving Day in 1863. For
more than 40 years she coedited the fashion and literary magazine
_Godey's Lady's Book_, 150,000 circulation,  which vigorously promoted
women's causes, particularly college for women and women doctors, but
advised women to stay clear of politics. She never allied with the
women's rights movement although she, like many of her distinguished
women contemporaries, believed in strong women.  Her other writings
include the monumental _Women's Record, Sketches of Distinguished
Women_, (1853, 1869, and 1876), and the poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb." 
Widowed at 33, she did all this while raising five children. She retired
at 89.
B. 10-24-1830, Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood, found the doors shut to her
at two law schools, finally got her law degree in 1871, admitted to the
bar of the District of Columbia. Became one of the most effective voices
in women's rights. She is responsible for the equal pay for equal work
in the US government. After being refused the right to practice before
the US Supreme Court because of her gender, she wrestled a bill
through Congress to allow women to argue before the high court and
became the first woman to argue before the high court (1879).  She ran
for president twice for a small women's party.  She was effective in the
drive to get equality for married women in the District of Columbia. 
Previously, all a married woman's property and her children were under
the control and guardianship of the husband.  She was an ardent
suffrager but died three years before the right to vote was confirmed.
B. 10-24-1882, Dame Sybil Thorndike, legendary British stage actor who
was probably the inspiration for Shaw's St. Joan.
Event, 10-24-1901, Annie Edson Taylor, a 42-year old _employed_ school
teacher in a desperate bid to free herself from abject poverty became
the first person to go over Niagara Falls and live.  She used a self-
designed barrel.  She died penniless after her manager cheated her out
of the money she made.  A public collection paid for her burial.
B. 10-24-1923, Denise Levertov, Anglo-American poet, professor of
English at Tufts University.
Event 10-24-1956, Rev. Margaret E. Towner, is ordained the first woman
minister in the Presbyterian Church. 
Quote du jour -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    "Women are the cowards they are because they have been semi-
slaves for so long."
    -- Doris Lessing, _A Small Personal Voice_.
    "The minute a woman's age is known she is not see for what she
is -- or for what her fantasies are -- but quickly tagged by others
with a certain mental set. She is pinioned by her years, able to go
neither backward or forward."
    --Naomi Thornton
 (C) 1994 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR
71902, irenestuber@delphi.com. Distribute verbatim copies freely with
copyright notice for non-profit use. Don't let anyone tell you there
weren't notable and effective women throughout history.  They were
always there, but historians failed to note them in our histories so that
each generation of women has had to reinvent themselves.
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10-25-1994 Women of Achievement and Herstory
Anniversaries -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
B. 10-25-1798, Sister/Mother Superior Theodore Guerin, French-born nun
who established Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in Indiana.
B. 10-25-1837, Anna M. Richardson Harkness, inherited $50 million from
her husband, managed it up to $85 million and by her death she had
given away $40 million.  Her endowments included the Commonwealth
Fund, Yale and Columbia Universities, the New York Public Library, and
the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
B. 10-25-1912, Minnie Pearl, (Sarah Ophelia Colley Carmon) entertainer,
part of Nashville's Grand Ole Opry since 1940, elected to the Music Hall
of Fame, 1972.
B. 10-25-1930, Hanna Holborn Gray, as president of the University of
Chicago (1978) she became the first woman to head a major
coeducational university in the US. Dr.Gray had taught history at Bryan
Mawr, Harvard, University of Chicago, and was dean of the Arts and
Sciences College at Northwestern University. She was named provost of
Yale University (1974), the first of her gender, and became acting
president of Yale in 1977. During the search committee's deliberations
for the permanent Yale president in which Dr. Gary was alleged to be
the leading candidate, she accepted the presidency at Chicago instead.
Yale has since labeled her term as "president" rather than acting
president in an attempt to dispel its sexist image for not allowing
women students until 1969.
B. 10-25-1931, Anne Tyler, novelist, won the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in 1989. 
B. 10-25-1941, Helen Reddy, singer of I am Woman fame
B. 10-25-1971, Midori, Japanese-born violinist.  Her mother was also a
concert violinist.
Quote due jour -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
    "Do women not notice how eager men are to degrade the sex from
whom they pretend to receive the chief pleasure in life? 
    --Mary Wollstonecraft, 1792
 (C) 1994 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR
71902, irenestuber@delphi.com. Distribute verbatim copies freely with
copyright notice for non-profit use. Don't let anyone tell you there
weren't notable and effective women throughout history.  They were
always there, but historians failed to note them in our histories so that
each generation of women has had to reinvent themselves.