Hello everyone! Yes, we're starting another series! That's right, March 1st kicks off...Women's History Month! Claire who has 3 amazing blogs, one of which is Claire's Random Blog) and Em Noor(who has written countless beautiful stories on Wattpad, one of which is Everything and Nothing) gave me the amazing suggestion to cover Women's History Month! It will be the same thing as my Black History Month posts, but if you need a refresher or are new to my blog, basically I will be writing about an amazing female figure in history every day for the month of March. This time, I'm going to start doing the latest ones on top so it's easier to read and you won't have to scroll down.
If you would like to suggest a female figure to be included in one of my posts, fill out this Google Form.
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March 31st:
Hey! Happy 31st and last day of WHM 😭! Today's important figureS are Malala Yousafzai & Mother Teresa!
Malala Yousafzai was born in Mingora, Pakistan on July 12, 1997. Her father was determined to give her every opportunity a boy would have. Her father was a teacher and ran a girls’ school in our village, but sadly the Taliban took control of her town in Swat Valley. The extremists banned many things — like owning a television and playing music — and enforced harsh punishments for those who defied their orders. They said girls could no longer go to school. In January 2008 when she was just 11 years old, she left her home. In October 2012, on her way home from school, a masked gunman boarded her school bus and asked, “Who is Malala?” He shot her on the left side of her head. She woke up 10 days later in a hospital in Birmingham, England. After months of surgeries and rehabilitation, she joined her family in our new home in the U.K. With her father, she established Malala Fund, a charity dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity to achieve the future she chooses. In recognition of their work, she received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2014 and became the youngest-ever Nobel laureate. She travels to many countries to meet girls fighting poverty, wars, child marriage, and gender discrimination to go to school. The Malala Fund is working so that their stories, like hers, can be heard around the world. They invest in developing country educators and activists, like her father, through Malala Fund’s Education Champion Network. In 2020, she graduated from Oxford!
Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, the current capital of the Republic of Macedonia. The following day, she was baptized as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. In 1919, when Mother Teresa — then Agnes — was only eight years old, her father suddenly fell ill and died. Agnes attended a convent-run primary school and then a state-run secondary school. Six years later, in 1928, an 18-year-old Agnes Bojaxhiu decided to become a nun and set off for Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto in Dublin. It was there that she took the name Sister Mary Teresa after Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.A year later, Sister Mary Teresa traveled on to Darjeeling, India, for the novitiate period; in May 1931, she made her First Profession of Vows. Afterward, she was sent to Calcutta, where she was assigned to teach at Saint Mary's High School for Girls, a school run by the Loreto Sisters and dedicated to teaching girls from the city's poorest Bengali families. Sister Teresa learned to speak both Bengali and Hindi fluently as she taught geography and history and dedicated herself to alleviating the girls' poverty through education. On May 24, 1937, she took her Final Profession of Vows to a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. As was the custom for Loreto nuns, she took on the title of "Mother" upon making her final vows and thus became known as Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa continued to teach at Saint Mary's, and in 1944 she became the school's principal. In October 1950, she won canonical recognition for a new congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, which she founded with only a handful of members—most of them former teachers or pupils from St. Mary's School. After several years of deteriorating health, including heart, lung and kidney problems, Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997, at the age of 87.
This is the end of the ✨activity✨ on my blog until June, so goodbye people!!! And enjoy the last day of WHM!
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March 30th:
Hi! Happy 30th day of WHM! Only 1 more day left 😭😭😭😭 Anyway, today's important figure is Anandi Gopal Joshi!
She was born as Yamuna in Kalyan of the Thane district in present-day Maharashtra to an orthodox Hindu family. As was the practice at that time, Yamuna married at the age of nine to Gopalrao Joshi, a widower almost twenty years older than her, due to pressure from her family. After marriage, her husband renamed her Anandi. Gopalrao worked as a postal clerk in Kalyan. Later, he was transferred to Alibag, and then, finally, to Calcutta (today, Kolkata). He was a progressive thinker and supported education for women, which was not very prevalent at the time. He helped her receive an education and learn English. At the age of fourteen, Anandi gave birth to a boy, but the child lived only for ten days because the medical care necessary for his survival was unavailable. This situation proved to be a turning point in Anandibai's life and inspired her to become a physician. Gopalrao encouraged Anandibai to study medicine. In 1880, he sent a letter to Royal Wilder, a well-known American missionary, stating Anandibai's interest in studying medicine in the United States, and inquiring about a suitable post in the US for himself. Wilder offered to help if the couple would convert to Christianity. This was not acceptable to the Joshi couple. Wilder published the correspondence in Princeton's Missionary Review. Theodicy Carpenter, a resident of Roselle, New Jersey, happened to read it while waiting to see her dentist. Anandi's desire to study medicine and Gopalrao's support for his wife impressed her, and she wrote to them offering Anandi accommodation in America. While the couple was in Calcutta, Anandi's health was declining, but her husband sent her to America anyway to study medicine, despite her condition. Anandi addressed the community at Serampore College Hall, explaining her decision to go to America and obtain a medical degree. She discussed the persecution she and her husband had endured. She stressed the need for Hindu female doctors in India and talked about her goal of opening a medical college for women in India. She also pledged that she would not convert to Christianity. Her speech received publicity, and financial contributions started pouring in from all over India. Anandibai traveled to New York from Calcutta by ship with two English female acquaintances of the Thorborns. In New York, Theodicia Carpenter received her in June 1883. Anandibai wrote to the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, asking to be admitted to their medical program, (which was the second women's medical program in the world). Rachel Bodley, the dean of the college, enrolled her and Anandi began her medical education at age 19. In America, her declining health worsened because of the cold weather and unfamiliar diet. She contracted tuberculosis. Nevertheless, she graduated with an MD on 11 March 1886; the topic of her thesis was "Obstetrics among the Aryan Hindoos". On her graduation, Queen Victoria sent her a congratulatory message. In late 1886, Anandibai returned to India, receiving a hero's welcome. The princely state of Kolhapur appointed her as the physician-in-charge of the female ward of the local Albert Edward Hospital Anandibai died early the next year on 26 February 1887 before turning 22. Her death was mourned throughout India. Her ashes were sent to Theodicia Carpenter, who placed them in her family cemetery in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Thanks for reading!
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March 29th:
Hey! Happy 29th day of WHM! I am SO sorry that I didn't post the last 2 days; I was a bit busy. To make up for it, I am going to be doing 3 short paragraphs about Rani Chennamma and Sylvia Rivera!
Kittur 'Rani' Chennamma, or the Queen of Kittur, was one of the first Indian rulers to lead an armed rebellion against the British East India Company in 1824, and against the implementation of the Doctrine of Lapse. She was born in 1778 and became one of the first women freedom fighters to have fought against British rule in India.
Sylvia Rivera was a veteran of the 1969 Stonewall uprising. She also was a tireless advocate for all those who have been marginalized as the “gay rights” movement has mainstreamed. Sylvia fought hard against the exclusion of transgender people from the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act in New York and was a loud and persistent voice for the rights of people of color and low-income queers and trans people.
I will not be doing Angie Craig because she is not a woman of history; she's a representative.
Thanks for reading!
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March 26th:
Hi! Happy 26th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Winona LaDuke!
I can't find a lot of information about her, so this will probably be really short.
She is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) which is an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg. She attended Harvard, where she met Jimmy Durham, a Native American activist, who inspired her to begin activism. At age 18, she spoke to the United Nations regarding Native American concerns. After graduating, she moved to the White Earth Ojibwe reservation in Minnesota, where she became principal of the reservation high school. She quickly became involved in a lawsuit to recover lands promised to the Anishinaabeg people by an 1867 federal treaty. After 4 years, the case was dismissed, which prompted her to found the White Earth Land Recovery Project. The project centers on land recovery, preservation and restoration of traditional practices, and the strengthening of spiritual and cultural heritage. In 1985, she established the Indigenous Women’s Network, a group devoted to increasing the visibility of Native Women and empowering them to participate in political, social, and cultural processes. She is also the program director of the Honor the Earth Fund, a national advocacy group that seeks to educate and create public support and funding for native environmental groups. In 1988, she was named Woman of the Year by Ms Magazine. She was also nominated by Time Magazine as one of the country’s fifty most promising leaders under the age of 40. In 1996 and again in 2000 she was a vice-presidential candidate, joining Ralph Nader on the Green Party ticket. A mother of three, LaDuke has written extensively on Native American and environmental issues.
Yay, it's not terrible I guess...thanks for reading!
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March 25th:
Hey! Happy 25th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Mary Jones!
She was born on August 1, 1837, in County Cork, Ireland. She immigrated to Toronto, Canada before the potato famine.
She first worked as a teacher in a Michigan Catholic school and then as a seamstress in Chicago. he moved to Memphis for another teaching job, and in 1861 married George Jones, a member of the Iron Molders Union. They had four children in six years. In 1867, tragedy struck when her entire family died in a yellow fever epidemic; she dressed in black for the rest of her life.
When she came back to Chicago, she went back to sewing but lost everything she owned in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. She started attending Knights of Labor meetings, and in 1877, took up the cause of working people. She focused on the rising number of working poor during industrialization, especially as wages shrunk, hours increased, and workers had no insurance for unemployment, healthcare, or old age.
She also took part in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 in Pittsburg. She also published The New Right in 1899 and a two-volume Letter of Love and Labor in 1900 and 1901. A beloved leader, the workers she organized nicknamed her “Mother Jones.”
Starting in 1900, she focused on miners and organizing in the coal fields of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. For a few years, she was employed by the United Mine Workers but left when the national leadership disavowed a wildcat strike in Colorado. After a decade in the West, Jones returned to West Virginia, where, after a violent strike in 1912-1913, she was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. Public appeals on her behalf convinced the governor to commute her twenty-year sentence. Afterward, she returned to Colorado and made a national crusade out of the tragic events during the Ludlow Massacre, even lobbying President Woodrow Wilson. Later, she participated in several industrial strikes on the East Coast between 1915 and 1919 and continued to organize miners well into her nineties.
Sadly, she did not support women's suffrage, saying that “you don’t need a vote to raise hell.” She also considered suffragists unwitting dupes of class warfare. Jones argued that suffragists were naïve women who unwittingly acted as duplicitous agents of class warfare.
In 1925, she published her Autobiography of Mother Jones. She is buried near miners in Virden, Illinois.
Thanks for reading!
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March 24th:
Hi! Happy 24th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Wilma Mankiller!
Wilma Mankiller is remembered as the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Her life was also filled with activism from the beginning.
She was the 8th of 11 kids. Her father was a Cherokee and her mother was Dutch-Irish. She became involved in San Francisco’s Indian Center and was captivated by Native American efforts to reclaim Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
She got married for the 1st time and had 2 daughters, but the marriage was difficult since her husband wanted her to stay a housewife instead of pursuing social activism after some Native American students gained control of the abandoned Alcatraz prison in San Francisco’s harbor. After divorcing him in 1977, she moved back to Oklahoma to build a life for herself and her family on the Cherokee reservation. In 1979 she was seriously injured in an automobile accident that took the life of her best friend, and after recovering, she was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a chronic neuromuscular disease that made it difficult to speak, hold a pencil, or brush her hair.
Then, she moved to Bell, Oklahoma, which was a small village on the Cherokee reservation where most of the residents were poor and spoke only Cherokee. Most were living in unsafe, run-down housing without running water. Using money from grants and the government, she organized a community self-help project where volunteers from Bell constructed an 18-mile-long water system and repaired the dangerous housing. This gained recognization as she was named the Ms Magazine Woman of the Year in 1987.
After that, she married Charlie Soap, a Cherokee. She became deputy principle chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1983 and when the principle chief resigned in 1985, Wilma became the first female Principle Chief of the modern Cherokee Nation, the second largest tribe in the United States. As chief, Mankiller focused on education, job training, and healthcare for her people. She was a consensus builder, working with the federal government to pilot a self-government agreement for the Cherokee Nation and with the Environmental Protection Agency.
She died from pancreatic cancer in 2010.
Thanks for reading!
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March 23rd:
Hey! Happy 23rd day of WHM! Today's important figure is Stephanie Murphy! I'm kinda busy soo this is gonna be really short.
Stephanie Murphy, a part of the Democrat party, is a member of the U.S. House and is representing Florida's 7th Congressional District. She took office on January 3, 2017, and her current term ends on January 3, 2023. She currently serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, where she is a member of the Subcommittee on Trade and the Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support. She also serves on the House Armed Services Committee, where she is vice-chair of the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations and is a member of the Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces.
Yeah, so this is the absolute worst WHM post I have ever done. I am sorry. I have failed you. Thanks for reading this mess.
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March 22nd:
Hi! Happy 22nd day of WHM! Today's important figure is Lyda Conley!
Eliza Burton Conley was born sometime in1868 and 1869 to a member of the Wyandotte tribe and descendant of a chief who was an English farmer in Kansas. Conley was one of four sisters. She and one of her sisters would row across the river every day to attend school at Park College.
She is mostly known for attempting to protect the Huron Indian Cemetery located in downtown Kansas City, Kansas. As the city developed, the cemetery’s land became prime real estate, but many of Conley's tribesmen were buried there. Because of this, she decided she would fight for her land. She entered the Kansas City School of Law in preparation to fight for its protection. She graduated as one of the only women in her class and was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1902. In 1906, when Congress approved legislation to sell the land and move the bodies buried there, she filed a permanent injunction against the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Indian Commissioners in U.S. District Court to prevent the sale. Sadly, she lost in court but she won the battle to protect the cemetery.
Unfortunately, Conley was murdered during a robbery in 1946. She is buried in the Huron Indian Cemetery next to her sister, Helena.
Thanks for reading!
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March 21st:
Hey! Happy 21st day of WHM! I am SO sorry about not posting yesterday! I was a bit busy. Also, I sadly will not be able to do Autism Awareness Month posts next month just because I want to focus on school for a bit. I will most likely be on a hiatus from March-May, but I should be back in full swing in June. Sorry to those looking forward to that. I will probably write a post about AAM anyway. Regardless, to make up for yesterday, I will write a short paragraph about Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit as well as Lucy Hicks Anderson.
Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit was the first woman to be elected president of the United Nations General Assembly. She was elected in 1953. She was also the first Indian woman to hold a cabinet position in pre-independent India. She also served as ambassador to the Soviet Union, the United States and Mexico, Ireland, and Spain, and high commissioner to the United Kingdom.
Lucy Hicks Anderson was an American socialite, chef, and prohibition-era entrepreneur and was born as a male. From a young age, she knew that she was a girl, and insisted on wearing dresses and going by the name Lucy when she started school. She married Clarence Hicks in 1920 and divorced him in 1929. She eventually owned and operated a brothel in Oxnard, CA in 1945. In 1944, Lucy Hicks married Reuben Anderson When an outbreak of the venereal disease in Oxnard was said to have originated from Hicks’s establishment, the employees were ordered to undergo a medical physical examination where it was revealed that Lucy was assigned male at birth. Upon discovery, the Ventura County District Attorney voided the marriage and arrested Lucy for perjury, justifying the charge by saying she had signed the marriage license stating there were “no legal objections to the marriage.” She was placed on ten years probation as an alternative to prison. When the government concluded that Lucy had been illegally receiving Anderson’s allotment checks as the wife of a member of the U.S. Army, the couple was tried and convicted of fraud. After her release from prison, Lucy Hicks Anderson was banned from moving back to Oxnard. She relocated to Los Angeles where she lived until her death in 1954.
Thanks for reading!
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March 19th:
Hi! Happy 19th day of WHM! Today's important figure, suggested by my friend who would like to remain anonymous, is Rosalind Franklin!
Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born on July 25, 1920, in London. She was born into an Anglo-Jewish family and was the 2nd of 5 children. Her parents were also active in charity events. Franklin attended St. Paul's School for Girls. At a young age, she showed that she was good at math, science, and learned foreign languages easily. She also loved music. Her mother once said that Rosalin always knew what she was going to do after school.
She left St. Paul's in 1938 to enter Newnham College, one of two women's colleges at Cambridge University. There, she majored in physical chemistry. Her undergraduate years mainly consisted of WWII. She received her BA in 1941 and was awarded a scholarship for a year of research, and a research grant from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. She spent that year in the laboratory of R. G. W. Norrish, a pioneer in photochemistry.
In 1942, she began work with the recently organized British Coal Utilisation Research Association (BCURA). She worked 'to elucidate the micro-structures of various coals and carbons and explain why some were more permeable by water, gases, or solvents and how heating and carbonization affected permeability' for the next 4 years. Her work got her a doctoral thesis and she received her Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1945. Then, she got a position in Jacques Mering's lab at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimique de l'Etat in Paris. In 1950, she was awarded a three-year Turner and Newall Fellowship to work in John T. Randall's Biophysics Unit at King's College London.
Meanwhile, Francis Crick and James Watson were working on a theoretical model of DNA. Though not close with Rosalind, in January 1953 they gleaned crucial insights about DNA's structure from one of her x-ray diffraction photos shown to them by Wilkins, and from a summary of her unpublished research submitted to the Medical Research Council. Watson and Crick never told Franklin that they had seen her materials, and they did not directly acknowledge their debt to her work when they published their classic announcement in Nature that April. Crick later admitted that Franklin was two steps away from realizing the correct structure in the spring of 1953.
By then, she transferred her fellowship to J. D. Bernal's crystallography laboratory at Birkbeck College.
In the fall of 1956, Franklin was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She died in London on April 16, 1958.
Thanks for reading!
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March 18th:
Hey! Happy 18th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Christine Jorgenson. Also, if you haven't already, I would love for you to read my PAL - Protect Asian Lives post. It is a very serious topic.
Christine Jorgenson was an American trans woman who was the first to have gender reassignment surgery.
She was born George William Jorgensen, Jr., on May 30, 1926. She knew from a young age that she was a female. As a teenager, she was confused about the genders. Near the end of high school, she fell in love with photography. Her father was an amateur photographer and two set up a darkroom at home. She also took classes at the New York Institute of Photography.
Unfortunately, she had to stop her photography when she joined the military in 1945. When she was discharged in 1945, she went around before finally starting her transition into a woman in 1950. Her story became public in 1952 while she was still in a Copenhagen hospital, making big news in the United States.
As she got more famous, she started opening up, telling her story to American Weekly and The New York Times. She also worked in a nightclub. Soon, she became a lecturer and author of 1967’s Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Biography.
Sadly, people did not accept her, so when she announced she was engaged, she was not allowed to marry because her birth certificate said, male.
She died of bladder and lung cancer on May 3, 1989.
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March 17th:
Hey! Happy 17th day of WHM and St. Patrick's Day! Today's important figure is Savitribai Phule!
Savitribai Phule was born in a small village in Maharashtra, India. Sadly, she was a child-bride at the age of 9 and got married to Jyotirao Phule. Then, she moved to Pune. Jyotirao taught her how to read and write, which led her to take teachers’ training at Ahmednagar and in Pune. She became a qualified teacher after she passed her 4th exam in 1847.
She was determined to change the condition of women in the country, so she and Jyotirao opened a school for girls and became the 1st female teacher in India. Sadly, this was not met by acceptance. People abused and threw dung at her, but she was unphased. In 1853, Savitribai and Jyotirao established an education society that opened more schools for girls and women from all classes, in the surrounding villages.
Then, in 1854, she established a shelter for widows. The next year, she built a large shelter for widows and child brides cast aside by their families and educated them. Because the oppressed were forbidden from drinking water, she built her own well, which, again, was not met by acceptance.
She was also a key part of forming The Truthseeker’s Society, a brainchild of Jyotirao’s. It aimed at eliminating discrimination and the need for social order. She started the practice of Satyashodhak Marriage, where couples take an oath of education and equality. Sadly, in 1890, Jyotirao passed away. She defied social norms by lighting his pyre.
She was declared to be the best teacher in the state by the British government in 1852. She received further praise from the government in 1853 for her work in the field of education.
Sadly, when the bubonic plague hit, she contracted the disease while helping a child to the clinic. On March 10, 1897, she passed away.
PLEASE GO AND READ THIS INTERACTIVE THINGY ABOUT HER IT'S AMAZING: https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/savitribai-phule-zubaan/UwKCW6eHcTWSLg?hl=en
I know I have done 16 other powerful women before this one, but for some reason, this one empowered me this most. A woman, in a time of extreme prejudice against women, fought for her country and fellow females. If you haven't read any of my other posts, I would say to please read this one out of all.
Thank you for reading!
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March 16th:
Hello! Happy 16th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Kalpana Chawla!
Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, India on July 1, 1961. She was the youngest of 4 children. She got her degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College before immigrating to the United States and becoming a citizen in the 1980s. She then earned her master's degree from the University of Texas and doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado. She then started working at NASA's Ames Research Center, working on power-lift computational fluid dynamics.
In 1994, Chawla was selected as an astronaut candidate. After a year of training, she became a crew representative for the Astronaut Office EVA/Robotics and Computer Branches, where she worked with Robotic Situational Awareness Displays and tested software for the space shuttles. She first flew on the space shuttle Columbia on flight STS-87. Her second mission was as a mission specialist on STS-107 and was the first Indian-born woman to fly into space.
Sadly, on February 1st, 2003, the entire crew died when a small piece of insulation broke off and damaged the thermal protection system, including Kalpana. Rest in peace.
Thanks for reading!
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March 15th:
Hey! Happy 15th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Jane Goodall!
Jane Goodall was born on April 3, 1934, in London. She was fascinated with animal behavior in her childhood. She observed native birds and animals, making extensive notes and sketches, and read widely in the literature of zoology and ethology. Then, she attended the Uplands private school, receiving her school certificate in 1950 and a higher certificate in 1952. She went on to find employment as a secretary at Oxford University, and in her spare time also worked at a London-based documentary film company to finance a long-anticipated trip to Africa.
After that, visited South Kinangop, Kenya, in the late 1950s. She soon met the famed anthropologist Louis Leakey who hired her as a secretary and invited her to participate in an anthropological dig at the now-famous Olduvai Gorge, a site rich in fossilized prehistoric remains of early ancestors of humans. She also was sent to study the vervet monkey.
In July 1960, she was accompanied by her mother and an African cook when arrived at Lake Tanganyika in the Gombe Stream Reserve of Tanzania, Africa, with the goal of studying chimpanzees. Goodall's first attempts to closely observe the animals failed; she could get no nearer than 500 yards before the chimps fled. After finding another suitable group to follow, she established a non-threatening pattern of observation, appearing at the same time every morning on the high ground near a feeding area along the Kakombe Valley. The chimpanzees soon tolerated her presence and, within a year, allowed her to move as close as 30 feet to their feeding area. After two years of seeing her every day, they showed no fear and often came to her in search of bananas. Using this technique, she was able to find out many things about the chimps and make many observances.
Then, she received a Ph.D. in ethology from Cambridge University in 1965 and was the eighth person in the university's history allowed to pursue a Ph.D. without first earning a baccalaureate degree.
She also published books. Her first major success was In the Shadow of Man which appeared in 1971. She also founded the Jane Goodall Institute.
She was introduced to the public with Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees, which was first broadcast on American television on December 22, 1965. In 2017, additional footage from the Miss Goodall shooting was pieced together for Jane, a documentary that included recent interviews with the famed activist to create a more encompassing narrative of her experiences with the chimps.
Some of her accolades include:
- Gold Medal of Conservation from the San Diego Zoological Society
- Wildlife Conservation Prize
- Schweitzer Medal of the Animal Welfare Institute
- National Geographic Society Centennial Award
- Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences
- Messenger of Peace by the United Nations
- Dame of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II of England
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March 14th:
Hi! Happy 14th day of WHM and PI DAY! I am SO sorry I forgot to post yesterday. It honestly slipped from my mind. I will be doing a short paragraph for Sharice Davids and we have a wild card for today! Today's important figure, suggested by Em Noor, is Coco Chanel!
Sharice Davids:
Sharice Davids is a Representative for the state of Kansas. She one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress. She was raised by a single mother who served in the army. After graduating from Leavenworth High School, she worked her way through Johnson County Community College and the University of Missouri-Kansas City before earning a law degree from Cornell Law School. She is fighting to limit the influence of special interests and make health care more affordable and accessible to everyone.
Coco Chanel:
Coco Chanel was a fashion designer famous for her timeless designs, trademark suits and black dresses. She launched the first ever perfume eventually introduced the Chanel suit and the black dress, with an emphasis on making clothes that were more comfortable for women. She herself became a much revered style icon known for her simple yet sophisticated outfits paired with great accessories, such as several strands of pearls.
She was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France. At age 12, after her mother’s death, Chanel was put in an orphanage by her father, who worked as a peddler. She was raised by nuns who taught her how to sew. During her brief career as a singer, Chanel performed in clubs in Vichy and Moulins where she was called “Coco.”
At age 20, became involved with Etienne Balsan, who offered to help her start a millinery business in Paris. She soon left him for one of his wealthier friends, Arthur “Boy” Capel. Both men were instrumental in Chanel’s first fashion venture. She started out making hats, but her first clothing success was from a dress she fashioned out of an old jersey. Soon, Chanel became a popular figure in Parisian literary and artistic worlds. She designed costumes for the Ballets Russes and Jean Cocteau’s play Orphée, and counted Cocteau and artist Pablo Picasso among her friends.
In the 1920s, he launched her first perfume, Chanel No. 5, which was the first to feature a designer’s name, and took her thriving business to new heights. In 1925, Chanel introduced the now legendary Chanel suit with collarless jacket and well-fitted skirt. Her designs were revolutionary for the time—borrowing elements of men’s wear and emphasizing comfort over the constraints of then-popular fashions. She helped women say goodbye to the days of corsets and other confining garments. Another 1920s revolutionary design was Chanel’s little black dress. She took a color once associated with mourning and showed how it could be for evening wear.
The international economic depression of the 1930s and the started of WWII caused her to close her business. She was forced to fire her workers and shut down shops.
During the German occupation of France, Chanel got involved with a Nazi military officer, Hans Gunther von Dincklage. She got special permission to stay in her apartment at the Hotel Ritz in Paris, which also operated as German military headquarters.
After the war ended, Chanel was interrogated about her relationship with von Dincklage, but she was not charged as a collaborator. Some have wondered whether friend Winston Churchill worked behind the scenes on Chanel’s behalf.
While not officially charged, Chanel suffered in the court of public opinion. Some still viewed her relationship with a Nazi officer as a betrayal of her country.
NOTE: I do not support this behavior and if she was indeed a Nazi agent, we should not dismiss it. Many died at the hands of Nazis and that must have meant she was extremely anti-semetic(anti-Jewish). Coco Chanel should be held accountable. If I had known she was a Nazi, I promise I would not have taken this request. If someone feels uncomfortable with this, please tell me and I will take this post down. Thank you.
Then, at the age of 70, she returned to the fashion world. Chanel died on January 10, 1971, at her apartment in the Hotel Ritz. A little more than a decade after her death, designer Karl Lagerfeld took the reins at her company to continue the Chanel legacy. Today her namesake company is held privately by the Wertheimer family.
(please do not smoke)
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March 12th:
Hello! Happy 12th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Indira Gandhi!
Indira Gandhi was born on November 19, 1917. She attended schools in India, Switzerland, and England, including Somerville College, Oxford as she was a highly intelligent young woman. Her father was among the leaders of the Indian independence movement, so she struggled when he got imprisoned. Then, her mother died of tuberculosis in 1936. She went to Feroze Gandhi, but their relationship was a controversial one due to his Parsi heritage. Eventually, the couple earned Nehru's approval, and they got married in 1942.
After Nehru became India's first prime minister in 1947, Gandhi started learning to navigate complex relationships of diplomacy with some of the great leaders of the world. Indira Gandhi joined the Congress Party's working committee in 1955, and four years later she was elected the party's president. Following the death of her father in 1964, she was appointed to Rajya Sabha, the upper level of Indian parliament, and was named minister of information and broadcasting. When her father’s successor, Lal Bahadur Shastri, died abruptly in 1966, she ascended to the post of prime minister. Despite many advancements she made, Gandhi was criticized for authoritarian tendencies and government corruption under her rule. In 1975, the Allahabad High Court found her guilty of dishonest election practices, excessive election expenditure, and of using government resources for party purposes. Instead of resigning, Gandhi declared a state of emergency and imprisoned thousands of her opponents. Unable to permanently stave off challenges to her power, Gandhi stepped down with her defeat in the 1977 election. She was briefly jailed in 1978 on charges of corruption, but the following year she won election to the Lok Sabha, the lower level of parliament. In 1980, she returned to power as prime minister. That same year, Gandhi's son Sanjay, who had been serving as her chief political adviser, died in a plane crash in New Delhi. The prime minister then began preparing her other son, Rajiv, for leadership.
During the early 1980s, Gandhi faced increasing pressure from secessionist factions, particularly from Sikhs in Punjab. In 1984, she ordered the Indian army to confront Sikh separatists at their sacred Golden Temple in Amritsar, resulting in several hundred reported casualties, with others estimating the human toll to be significantly higher. On October 31, 1984, Gandhi was shot and killed by two of her bodyguards, both Sikhs, in retribution for the attack at the Golden Temple. She was immediately succeeded by son Rajiv, who was left to quell deadly anti-Sikh riots, and her body was cremated three days later in a Hindu ritual.
Thanks for reading!
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March 11th:
Hi! Happy 11th day of WHM! Today's important figure, suggested by Claire(go fill out the Google Form at the top to suggest a woman), is Eliza Hamilton!
Hamilton References beyond this point !!!
Elizabeth Eliza Schuyler was born on August 7, 1757, in Albany, New York, and was the ScHuYlEr SiStEr of wealthy landowner and Revolutionary War general Philip Schuyler. At first, she courted a young aid at George Washington's headquarters. Then she met Alexander Hamilton and fell in love. In one of Alexander Hamilton's letters, he wrote, "I meet you in every dream, and when I wake I cannot close my eyes for ruminating on your sweetness." WhY dO yOu WrItE lIkE yOu'Re RuNnInG oUt oF tIme. The two got married at the Schuyler home on December 14th of that year. There is also evidence of Angelica writing to Eliza that she loved Hamilton "very much and, if you were as generous as the old Romans, you would lend him to me for a little while." We do not know if this was written jokingly or if it was something more serious.
Eliza gave birth to their first child, Philip, in 1782, and seven more would follow over the next two decades. The Hamiltons also raised the orphaned daughter of a friend for 10 years. She made sure her children had a religious upbringing and supposedly ran the household so efficiently that an associate told Hamilton she "has as much merit as your treasurer as you have as treasurer of the wealth of the United States." She was present at such historic moments as when Hamilton began to write The Federalist and composed his defense of a national bank. Elizabeth also spent many months separated from her husband. In the summer of 1791, Hamilton began an affair with Maria Reynolds SaY nO tO tHis that, when publicly revealed six years later, exposed Elizabeth to humiliation by both Hamilton's insistence on 'airing the adultery's most lurid details and a hostile press that asked, "Art thou a wife? See him, whom thou has chosen for the partner of this life, lolling in the lap of a harlot!!"' Ashamed of his conduct, Hamilton began to pay closer attention to his family. Then, she suffered many losses, as her sister (AnD) Peggy died after a long illness. Then, Phillip, her firstborn son, died in a duel, and Hamilton followed soon after. She was able to support herself with an inheritance from her father and money raised from Alexander Hamilton's friends.
After Alexander Hamilton died, she did not waste time grieving. Instead, she immersed herself in charitable work. She founded New York's first private orphanage in 1806(canishowyouwhatimproudestof? the orphanageeeee) and embarking on a decades-long campaign to ensure Alexander received the historical credit she was sure he deserved. She recruited biographers to do a proper work on her husband (the task eventually fell to a son), hired assistants to organize his papers, even wore a little bag around her neck with pieces of a sonnet he had composed for her in 1780. She moved to Washington, D.C. in 1848 to live with a daughter, became a celebrated guest at the White House, and died just a few months after her 97th birthday(she had more time 😭).
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March 10th:
Hello! Happy 10th day of WHM and Harriet Tubman day! Today's important figure is Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu!
Chien-Shiung Wu is a pioneer and pivotal figure in the history of physics. She is an immigrant to the United States from China and she did important work for the Manhattan Project and in experimental physics.
Chien-Shiung was born on May 31, 1912, and was raised in a small fishing town north of Shanghai, China. She had two brothers and was the middle child. Although relatively uncommon for girls to attend school, Chien-Shiung went to Mingde Women’s Vocational Continuing School. It was founded by her father, who believed that girls should receive an education. In 1934, Chien-Shiung graduated at the top of her class with a degree in physics from the National Central University in Nanking, China (now known as Nanjing University). After graduation, she worked in a physics lab in China. Her mentor, Dr. Jing-Wei Gu, another woman working in the field of physics, encouraged Chien-Shiung to continue her education in the United States. Chien-Shiung took a ship to San Francisco with financial aid from her uncle. She most likely went through Angel Island Immigration Station located in San Francisco Bay. She enrolled at the University of California Berkeley in 1936. Her academic advisor was Ernest Lawrence. In 1939, while Chien-Shiung was still his student, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing the cyclotron particle accelerator. In 1940, Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu graduated with her Ph.D. in physics.
According to www.nps.gov, "After World War II, Dr. Wu continued on at Columbia University, becoming a full professor in 1958 and the Michael I. Pupin Professor of Physics in 1973. In 1975, her pay as a professor was raised to be equal to that of her male colleagues. Among her important contributions to physics was the first confirmation of Enrico Fermi’s 1933 theory of beta decay (how radioactive atoms become more stable and less radioactive). She also played a crucial role in an important advancement in atomic science. In 1956, physicists Tsung-Dao Lee (at Columbia University) and Chen Ning Yang (Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton) asked Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu to create an experiment. The purpose was to test their theory that the conservation of parity did not apply during beta decay. The conservation of parity is the scientific principle that identical nuclear particles act alike. Dr. Wu agreed to design the experiment. She carried it out at laboratories at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Washington, DC. To test the theory, she put cobalt-60 (a radioactive variety of cobalt) into a strong electromagnetic field at temperatures near absolute zero. The cold helped eliminate the effect of temperature on the atoms. If the conservation of parity held true, particles expelled by the cobalt-60 as it decayed from radioactive to stable should fly off in all directions. What she observed was that more particles flew off in one direction (the direction opposite to the spin of the nucleus). Therefore, conservation of parity did not happen during beta decay. The experiment, known as the Wu Experiment, is named for her. Yet, in 1957, Lee and Yang were awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. Like the contributions of many women in science at the time, Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu’s work was not acknowledged. In 1964, at a symposium at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she asked her audience “whether the tiny atoms and nuclei, or the mathematical symbols, or the DNA molecules have any preference for either masculine or feminine treatment.”Chien-Shiung Wu continued to be a leader in the field of physics, and her work even crossed over to biology and medicine. Some of her research included looking at the molecular changes in red blood cells that cause sickle-cell disease. Although denied recognition with the Nobel Prize, Dr. Wu received many honors during her career. These include being only the seventh woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1958); the Comstock Prize in Physics given by the National Academy of Sciences; the first woman to be president of the American Physical Society (1975); the first person to receive the Wolf Prize in Physics (1978); and the first honorary doctorate awarded by Princeton University to a woman. In 1990, she had an asteroid named after her (2752 Wu Chien-Shiung)."
She retired from Columbia in 1981 and died of a stroke in New York City on February 16, 1997. Her ashes were buried in the courtyard of the Mingde School in China that she had attended as a girl.
Harriet Tubman Day!
Today is Harriet Tubman Da, an American holiday in honor of the anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman observed on March 10 in the whole country and especially New York. Observances also occur around Maryland. If you would like to read about Harriet Tubman, I copied and pasted this from day 5 of BHM!
That's it! Thanks for reading!
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March 9th:
Hello! Happy 9th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Patsy Mink!
Patsy Matsu Takemoto was born on December 6, 1927, in Paia, Hawaii. When she was a junior at Maui High School, she won her first election as class president. She graduated in 1944 as a valedictorian. After graduation, she went on to attend Wilson College in Pennsylvania and the University of Nebraska but transferred after facing racial discrimination In addition, she was diagnosed with a thyroid condition that needed surgery. She decided to move to Honolulu to finish her schooling at the University of Hawaii with hopes of becoming a doctor. At her new school, she became a member of the varsity debate team and was elected president of the Pre-Medicine Students Club. She graduated in 1948 with majors in zoology and chemistry. She applied to several medical schools after graduating but none of her applications were accepted. Instead, Mink decided to apply to law school and was accepted at the University of Chicago Law School. While there, she met John Mink, and the two got married.
Patsy graduated from Law School in 1951 but kept her job at the University of Chicago Law School library. The next year, they moved to Hawaii after having their daughter Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn would grow up to be an author and advocate for women’s issues. While in Hawaii, Patsy Mink registered for the bar exam to be able to practice law in the territory. Unfortunately, even after she passed, Mink was unable to find a job because of her interracial marriage. She decided to start her own practice instead and founded the Oahu Young Democrats in 1954. She became the first Japanese-American woman to practice law in her home state of Hawaii. Mink also worked as a private attorney for the House of Representatives in that territory. When Hawaii became a state in 1959, Mink immediately began campaigning to be elected as a congresswoman. Although Mink’s first attempt was unsuccessful, she returned to politics in 1962 when she won a seat in the Hawaii State Senate. She continued to campaign for a seat in the U.S. Congress even after the Democratic party decided to support another candidate. In 1964, a second position was created in the U.S. House of Representatives. With the help of her husband and several unpaid volunteers, Mink won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, making her the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress. As a congresswoman, Mink fought for gender and racial equality, affordable childcare, bilingual education, and became a supporter of Title IX. She was one of the authors and sponsors of the Title IX law that stated that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” While she worked in Washington, D.C., she also traveled back to Hawaii every other week to make sure she was connected to the issues and concerns of the Hawaiian people. She successfully served on many committees while in congress including; the Committee on Education and Labor, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, and the Budget Committee. Through these committees, she was able to voice the concerns of groups that were discriminated against. In 1974, she was able to pass the Women’s Educational Equity Act to promote gender equality in schools. Recognized for her work, Mink was asked by the Oregon Democrats to run for United States President with the support of their party. Their focus on the anti-war movement attracted Mink, and she decided to run for president. Unfortunately, she only received 2 percent of the vote. After this, Mink remained active in politics and served as the president of the Americans for Democratic Action. She also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. In 1990, Mink was reelected to Congress and served six terms in the House of Representatives. During this time she also formed the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. In August of 2002, Mink was hospitalized for pneumonia. A month later, Patsy Mink died in Honolulu, Hawaii. Due to the upcoming election, her name was still on the ballot in November even though she passed away a month before. She won the election by a landslide but was replaced by Ed Case. After her death, the Title IX law was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.
Thanks for reading!
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March 8th:
Hi! Happy International Women's Day and happy 8th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Chevalier d’Eon!
Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d'Éon de Beaumont was born on October 5 1728, in Tonerre, a city in central France. She was born a man in a poor yet noble family.
They excelled in school and moved to Paris in 1743, graduating in civil law and canon law from the Collège Mazarin in 1749. By 1756, d'Eon had joined le secret du Roi, King Louis XV's secret spy network which operated without the knowledge of government and on occasion contradicted official policy. This period of history is evoked in the heroic writings of Alexandre Dumas in The Three Musketeers.
One legend about d'Eon's clandestine adventures sees them sent on a secret mission to conspire with Empress Elizabeth of Russia. To infiltrate the court and avoid detection, d'Eon assumed the identity of the lady Lia de Beaumont and served as a maid of honor to the Empress.
After their time as a spy and a period as the French Ambassador to Russia, d'Eon returned to France to become a captain of Dragoons, in the later stages of the 7 year-war, serving at the Battle of Villinghausen in July 1761. D'Eon was sent to London in 1763 to help draft the peace treaty that ended the conflict. They were rewarded for this service with the honorific title Chevalier which is roughly equivalent to a knight in English.
Despite this illustrious career, the Chevalier fell foul of the French government after being posted to London as chargé d'affaires in April 1763. D'Eon felt dishonored when a new French Ambassador arrived in London and demoted them. When recalled to France, D'Eon disobeyed orders and refused to leave. As leverage, D'Eon began publishing secret diplomatic correspondence.
D’Eon was now essentially blackmailing the French government with this collection of embarrassing correspondence, some of which was penned by King Louis XV himself. Fearful of revealing further intel, d’Eon was paid off with a 12,000-livre annuity. The once-celebrated soldier, diplomat, and spy was now a political exile in a foreign land, discarded by their own country.
Also, today is International Women's Day, so make sure to appreciate all the women in your life!
Thanks for reading!
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March 7th:
Hello! Happy 7th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Lozen!
Lozen, nicknamed "Apache Joan of Arc" was a Native American warrior, a Chihenne Chiricahua Apache medicine woman, a skilled fighter and strategist on the battlefield, the sister of a prominent Apache chief and an ally to the famous Geronimo.
As a child, she was a proven warrior, and instead of being interested in her home and community as most women were at the time, she was more into the art of war. She soon became a medicine woman and warrior — a role not very common (although not unheard of) among her people.
As an adult, she often fought alongside her brother Victorio as his right-hand man to protect their people from the U.S. government encroaching on their lands. She could ride, shoot, and had a gift for strategy. Lozen’s talents soon became the stuff of legend. Whenever the Apache needed to know how to plan an attack, she seemingly had a supernatural ability to predict where the enemy was going to be and she would often pray to the Apache’s highest deity, Ussen, for guidance — hence, why she is so often compared to her European counterpart, Joan. The Chiricahua Apache endured unimaginable hardships due to raids and invasions from the U.S. military and her tribe often had to move from place to place for survival. Even during these times, she sacrificed everything to protect her community. One enduring legend is that she once delivered a baby in the middle of the desert while U.S. cavalry was chasing after their tribe. In 1877, she and her people fled the San Carlos Reservation where they had been living in intolerable conditions. This place was so bad, it was called “Hell’s Forty Acres.” Between 1877 and 1880, Lozen and Victorio had lost nearly half of their people in skirmishes with the U.S. and Mexican armies that had taken over the surrounding lands. After the raids, Lozen spent six years with another famous Apache leader, Geronimo, until he surrendered to the U.S. government in 1885. Lozen and other Apache leaders were imprisoned at a military arsenal in Alabama. She passed away from tuberculosis in 1887.
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March 6th:
Hi! Happy 6th day of BHM! You may have seen that I have made a LOT of changes to my blog, including its appearance and its name, so if you'd like to see why, check out my posts! Even though a lot of my blog changed, all of my content is still posted so you can go back and read it if you'd like.
Anyway, today's important figure is Pramila Jayapal!
Pramila Jayapal is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, where she serves as Vice-Chair of the Immigration Subcommittee and is also on the House Education & Labor and Budget Committees. She is also the elected Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which represents approximately 40% of the entire Democratic caucus; the Immigration Subcommittee Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific Asian Caucus; and a Vice-Chair of the Congressional LGBTQ Equality Caucus.
She was born in India and grew up in India, Indonesia, and Singapore. She came to the United States by herself at the age of 16 to attend college at Georgetown University. She later received her MBA from Northwestern University and worked in a number of industries, both in the public and private sector. She also published her first book in 2000, Pilgrimage to India: A Woman Revisits Her Homeland.
She is married to Steve Williamson, a long-time labor leader, and strategist, and is the proud mother of a gender non-conforming child Janak, step-son Michael, and 65-pound labradoodle, Otis.
Thanks for reading!
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March 5th:
Hello! Happy 5th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Sarah Winnemucca.
Sarah Winnemucca was born around 1844. She was born a Thocmetony (Shell Flower) among the Numa (known among whites as the Northern Paiute or “digger” Indians). As a child, she was taught to be afraid of the 'white'(blue) eyed people. As she grew up, she came to understand that the settlers were not leaving and she began adopting Anglo-American habits, such as taking the Christian name Sarah and mastering English and Spanish. At her grandfather’s request, she and her sister went to a convent school in San Jose, California, but they were only there a few weeks when “complaints were made to the sisters by wealthy parents about Indians being in school with their children.”
She worked toward getting American and Native cultures to help the Northern Paiutes. When her land was being destroyed and given to colonizers, many Paiutes died of starvation at Pyramid Lake. They were only given supplies the first year, with the government pocketing the money intended for them for the following 22 years (a practice common on many reservations). After the first winter, she was hired as a military interpreter and her father and their band moved to the military camp. She ended up translating for the government in order to attain a better life for her people.
According to https://www.smithsonianmag.com/, "Winnemucca fared better in the military camps, where her knowledge of Paiute life garnered some respect. In 1878, she worked as a messenger, scout and interpreter for General O. O. Howard during the Bannock War, a skirmish between the U.S. military and the Bannock Indians. “This was the hardest work I ever did for the government in all my life … having been in the saddle night and day; distance, about two hundred and twenty-three miles. Yes, I went for the government when the officers could not get an Indian man or a white man to go for love or money. I, only an Indian woman, went and saved my father and his people,” she later wrote. Her courageous actions landed her on the front page of The New York Times in June 1878, but sowed mistrust between her and local tribes."
She died in 1891.
Thanks for reading!
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March 4th:
Hello! Happy 4th day of WHM! Today's important figure is Grace Lee Boggs!
Boggs was a prominent activist and a daughter of Chinese immigrants. She studied at Barnard College and Bryn Mawr and got her Ph.D. in 1940. She studied philosophy and the writings of Marx, Hegel, and Margaret Mead which led her to a lifetime of social activism.
Here are some of her accomplishments!
- Joined the movement for tenants' rights, and then the Workers Party, a splinter group of the Socialist Workers Party.
- Involved with the March on Washington.
- Founded Detroit Summer
- She wrote many books, including Living for Change.
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- Attended Oberlin College
- Declined the “honor” of writing a commencement speech that would be read by a man.
- Part of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and wrote and delivered abolitionist speeches, while also becoming active in women’s rights.
- Organized the first national Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts.
- Traveled throughout the US and Canada on the lecture circuit.
- Served on the executive committee of the American Equal Rights Association.
- Broke with suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and others over the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, which granted voting rights to black men but not to women.
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March 2nd:
Hello! Happy 2nd day of Women's History Month! Today's important figure is Nanye-Hi or Nancy Ward!
Nanye-Hi was a Beloved Woman and political leader of the Cherokee. She advocated for peaceful coexistence with European Americans and spoke out for Cherokee retention of tribal lands.
She was born in 1738 in the Cherokee town called Chota. She was born into her mother's clan which was the Wolf Clan and was the niece of an important chief of the Cherokees. When she was 17, she joined the Cherokee Nation. She was already married and had 2 children before joining. Unfortunately, her husband was killed while on a campaign and she took his spot. After the campaign, she became a Beloved Woman of the Cherokee Nation. She was also given a seat next to the war and peace chiefs at the ceremonial fire in Chota. Then, married an English trader named Bryan Ward, and took the anglicized name, Nancy Ward. After that, she worked toward the English and Cherokee becoming friends and she said women were the only ones who could get everyone to see clearly. She dedicated most of her life to this cause and died in 1822.
Sorry for the kinda short post today! Thanks!
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March 1st:
Hello! Happy 1st day of Women's History Month! Today's important figure is Sarojini Naidu!
Sarojini Naidu was an Indian poet, feminist, and nationalist leader. She was important in India's struggle for independence from Britain.
She was born on February 13,1879 in Hyderabad, India. Her parents were supportive of her creativity from a young age. At age 12, she achieved the highest rank in the Madras presidency matriculation exams which earned her a scholarship to Girton College, Cambridge. There, she became friends with famous authors. Then, she married Govindarajulu Naidu.
Afterward, she gave speeches showing her nationalism toward India and also feminism. She spoke in places such as the Framji Cowasji Institute and addressed the INC about women's education, which allowed her to speak to the Indian Social Conference there. She also was associated with Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mahatma Gandhi, and a friend of Rabindranath Tagore and Sarladevi Chaudhrani. She pleaded to many organizations for women's rights. She also joined Gandhi's movement and participated in the campaign. Later, she became the president of the INC. She was also jailed twice, once by the British, and again by the Quit India movement. Then, she was appointed governor of Uttar Pradesh. She died in 1949.
Here are a few of her accomplishments!
- 1st book: The Golden Threshold
- First Indian woman President of the Indian National Congress Party
- First woman Governor of Uttar Pradesh
- Played a key role in the establishment of the Women’s Indian Association
- Awarded the colonial Kaiser-I-Hind
- Founding member of the All-India Women's Conference
- Led the WIA delegation to Secretary of State Edwin Montagu
- Urged a Muslim-Hindu dialogue
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Days:
March 1st: Sarojini Naidu
March 2nd: Nanye-hi
March 3rd: Lucy Stone
March 4th: Grace Lee Boggs
March 5th: Sarah Winnemucca
March 6th: Pramila Jayapal
March 7th: Lozen
March 8th: Chevalier d’Eon
March 9th: Patsy Mink
March 10th: Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu + Harriet Tubman Day!
March 11th: Thanks to Claire(seriously, go check out her blog: Claire's Random Blog), I will do Eliza Hamilton! (previously a wild card)
March 12th: Indira Gandhi
March 13th: Sharice Davids
March 14th: Thanks to Em Noor(seriously, go check out her Wattpad stories), I will do Coco Chanel! (previously a wild card)
March 15th: Jane Goodall
March 16th: Kalpana Chawla
March 17th: Savitribai Phule
March 18th: Christine Jorgenson
March 19th: Thanks to Anonymous(they literally wrote a paragraph about why I should write a post about her), I will do Rosalind Franklin! (previously a wild card)
March 20th: Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
March 21st: Lucy Hicks Anderson
March 22nd: Lyda Conley
March 23rd: Stephanie Murphy
March 24th: Wilma Mankiller
March 25th: Mary Jones
March 26th: Winoa LaDuke
March 27th: Thanks to Kranlo, I will do Rani Chennamma! (previously a wild card)
March 28th: Sylvia Rivera
March 29th: Angie Craig
March 30th: Anandi Gopal Joshi
March 31st: Malala Yousafzai + Mother Teresa
*** If you didn't notice, there are four days in the month where I wrote OoO WiLd CaRd ***. For those days, I will be taking suggestions of who to write about. Please fill out this Google Form to suggest a woman in history. If more than 4 people are suggested, I will do my best to do more than one in a day.
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Credits:
Native American Women Learned in History Class
5 Powerful and Influential Native American Women
51 of the Greatest Women in India's History
10 Inspiring Indian Women From History Whose Lives Continue To Influence The Way We Think
This Women’s History Month, We’re Celebrating LGBTQ Women and Allies in the Fight for Equality
5 Asian American Women Who Changed History
Historic LGBTQ Activists and Artists that Changed the World
9 Amazing Transgender Women Who Changed History
12 Trans Women and Non-Binary Activists You Should Have Learned About in History Class
100 Most Important Women in World History
Nanye-Hi - Social Welfare History Project Ward
Lucy Stone - National Women's History Museum
Lozen: The Fearless Apache Warrior Woman You've Probably Never Heard Of
Patsy Mink - National Women's History Museum
Ivanka - I wasn't writing a paragraph on why you should put her, it was long because I was trying to tell you the basics so you wouldn't need to research her too much.
ReplyDeleteLOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL I thought it was your argument for why I should put her. I will certainly use the information you put in your paragraph, but I will have to do additional research anyway. Thanks for being considerate!
DeleteYou are very welcome.
DeleteAHAHHA conceited much
DeleteYou know me
Delete😉
DeleteI am aware that I know you thank you very much.
DeleteThis is amazing Ivanka! I'm glad to see that all of your hard work is paying off and that you're doing great. Hope Rhea doesn't make you write about dogs after womens month lmao.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Hopefully not!
Delete