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May 4

05-04 TABLE of CONTENTS: No Talking Permitted While at Work Manufacturers Decline to Safeguard Women Mill Workers Disguises Herself as a Male Soldier to Find Her Husband DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS QUOTE by Eleanor Smeal, Amelia Barr, Minna Antrim, Clemence Dane, and Margaret Atwood. No Talking Permitted While at Work       Some typical regulations for girls and women working in the early 19th century New England mills: "The bell to call the people to work will be rung 5 minutes and tolled 5 minutes; at the last stroke the entrance will be closed and a fee of 12 cents exacted of anyone for whom it may be opened... No person can be allowed to leave work without permission of the overseer... No talking can be permitted. while at work, except on business." | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | Manufacturers Decline to Safeguard Women Mill Workers       The Massachusetts Committee on Manufactures headed by Lowell Courier owner William Schouler hears testimony from Sarah Bagley, Eliza Heming- way, Judith Payne, and other textile-mill workers in 1845 about the evils of the 14-hour work day at low wages in unhealthy conditions.       The women give the example of 150 people working in one large room lighted by 293 small lamps and 61 larger lamps, with as many as 30 girls per day overcome by the fumes of the lamps.       It is the first investigation into working conditions in U.S. history. The employer committee issues a report stating that the factory girls are healthy:       "The remedy [for long hours] does not lie with us," it says. "We look for it in the progressive improvement in art and science, in a higher appreciation of man's destiny, in a less love for money, and a more ardent love for social happiness and intellectual superiority." But the women press for the defeat of Shouler, and even though women cannot vote he is defeated in his bid for reelection in the fall. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | Disguises Herself as a Male Soldier to Find Her Husband       According to her book The Female Soldier that was published in 1741, Hannah Snell, at 27, left her child and family disguised as a man to find her sailor husband.       She joined the army and was part of the loyalist regiment that fought the supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie. She deserted the army life after being whipped for an infraction and took a ship to India.       She wrote that she was wounded in the groin in a battle with the French and found a woman who did doctoring as well as midwifery to remove the shot.       Later, in Portugal, she heard her husband had died in Italy and she returned to Britain. As part of the theatrical promotion of her book, she performed the military drill in full dress uniform. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | 05-04 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS B. 05-04-1749, Charlotte Smith - English novelist and poet who raised 12 children withthe proceeds of her writings.       Her accomplishment is all the more remarkable since the prejudices against women publishing was so strong that one man could write with impunity during that period (describing the poetry of Anne Bradford) "Your printing of a Book beyond the customs of your Sex, doth rankly smell."       CS was highly praised by Sir Walter Scott and did very well although modern critics dismiss her as being in the romantic tradition of women. (What is the difference between senseless shot 'em up violence that appeals only to some men and something that only appeals to women? But one is treated with respect by male critics and the latter with contempt.)       She dared write about the love of a man for a married woman and the equality of people. Her husband was a ne'er do well who escaped England to avoid his debts. She got him out of hock, he came back, and then left him when he started the same spendthrift way again B.05--04-1820, Julia Tyler - U.S. First Lady, the second wife of John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States. Chosen/bought by the older Tyler for her youth, glamour, and extravagance, she is roundly criticized for what she was while Tyler never suffers criticism for his old man ego that believed a younger, glamorous woman chose him for his charms. JT became an ardent supporter of the Confederacy. B. 05-04-1884, Agnes Morgan - U.S. biochemist amd nutritionist who did major researched toxicity of pesticides.       While she was at the University of California (1915-1954) she developed the nutrition, home economics, and food science departments. She was also a biochemist for the Agricultural Experiment Station 1938-1945 examining agricultural imports for vermin and pests. B. 05-04-1896, Mary Ellis Peltz - U.S. journalist, author, lecturer, opera promoter, publications director of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and first editor of Opera News (1936-1957).       In "retirement," MEP organized the archives of Metropolitan Opera Association; co-wrote Opera Guide (1930) and wrote Behind the Gold Curtain (1950), as well as a history of the Met, among other books. B. 05-04-1898, Joy Bright Hancock - U.S. naval officer.       JBH was director of the United State Women's Auxilliary Naval service (WAVES).       On June 12, 1948 when the Armed Services Integration Act went into effect, she became a permanent Lieutenant Commander, sworn in as one of the first eight women commissioned in the regular Navy.       She had enlisted in the women's naval reserve in World War I (all women discharged at the end of the war). She continued to work for the Navy in various capacities. In 1928 she qualified for the civil pilot's license and joined the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics.       In 1942 at the beginning of World War II, JBH joined the new women's naval reserve, the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) as a lieutenant. She became a lieutenant commander in 1943, and a commander in 1945.       In 1946, after a five months stint as assistant director of the WAVES, she became director with the rank of captain.       Although the WAVES actually passed out of existence under the provisions of the Women s Armed Services Integration Act of June 12, 1948, she continued as ex officio director of the WAVES while she was officially assistant chief for women of the Bureau of Personnel in the U.S. Navy. Her autobiography is Lady in the Navy (1972). She married in 1924 and her Naval aviator husband was killed in a dirigible accident within the year.       (See Hallaren below.) B. 05-04-1903, Anna Bidder - co-founder and first president of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, UK.       Lucy Cavendish is the only college at either Oxford or Cambridge dedicated to mature women students.       The following dates are correct... it's hard to believe, but they are correct. Women's rights - even the right to an education in a "modern" country - are young and tender.       The Electronic Telegraph's obituary read:       "Anna Bidder became convinced of the need for a new women's college partly as a consequence of her own experiences as an undergraduate at Newnham in the 1920s. Newnham was one of only two women's colleges at Cambridge at the time, the other being Girton.       "Anna Bidder went up to Cambridge in 1922 after spending a year at University College, London, and found to her dismay that attitudes to women students left much to be desired: 'Individually, male undergraduates were beautifully polite,' she recalled, 'but collectively, they were often atrociously rude. In some subjects, if a girl came in late to a lecture, they would stamp their feet in time for every step she took and then slam their notebooks on to their desks as she sat down.'       [WOAH note: Such descriptions of real actions of men destroys the legends that men before today's generation with polite and decent. Men have always treated women who went outside their prescribed boundaries and challenged men's absolute power with utmost rudeness and even violence. Also, any women who were not under the care or a man were also fair game.]       The obituary goes on, "This was in marked contrast to University College, where there had been two women to every three men, and 'a happy, co-educational atmosphere'. 'It's difficult to convey just how disagreeable some male attitudes in Cambridge were by contrast,' she recalled.       "Prejudice against women was not confined to male undergraduates. For decades the university authorities refused to accept women as full members of the university or to award them degrees.       "But the achievement of membership in 1948 had a galvanising effect, encouraging women academics to press for improved representation. In 1951 Anna Bidder suggested to her close friends, the medievalist Katherine Wood Legh and the philosopher Margaret Braithwaite that they should form a dining club as an 'embryo' high table for a new women's college. The group, which became known as 'the high table in search of a college', soon attracted new members.       "With a grant of 2,000 pounds from Anna Bidder's father, they raised enough to put down a deposit on a house; but they made little headway with the university authorities to whom they wrote at intervals asking for recognition: 'They said in effect 'run away little girls, run away until your little legs are longer and your little wings are stronger',' Anna Bidder recalled.       "For more than a decade, the university continued to ignore their applications, and by the time approval was finally given, in 1965, another women's college, New Hall, had already opened its doors. Even then, though, only 10 per cent of Cambridge undergraduates were women.       "The university insisted that Lucy Cavendish should not be a traditional college; instead, it was initially established as a college for women employed at the university and given the 'experimental' designation of an Approved Society.       "In its early years, the college was desperately short of funds and could not afford to pay its president a salary. As Anna Bidder had private means, she agreed to become president as an unpaid stop-gap. She ended up doing the job for five years.       "Under Anna Bidder and her successors, Lucy Cavendish College established its academic reputation and, in 1972, admitted its first undergraduates. The College now occupies a three-acre site in central Cambridge and remains one of only two colleges in Cambridge to exclude men from membership altogether. In 1997 it acquired full collegiate status and a Royal charter."       The obituary goes on to say, "Among various publications, she co-wrote a study of the Cephalopods of Grasse's Traite de Zoologie. On two occasions she travelled round the world researching cephalopods at various zoological institutions. She was curator of Mollusca at Cambridge University's Zoology Department from 1963 to 1970.       "An active Quaker throughout her life, in the early 1960s Anna Bidder contributed to Towards a Quaker View of Sex, a book which was considered to be a breakthrough in its frankness. Over 30 years it sold 500,000 copies." B. 05-04-1903, Bernice Goetz - U.S. explorer.       Saving as much of her salary as possible and using her vacation time, at age 19 BG took her first exploration trip to the ancient Maya ruins in the jungles of Mexico.       Lecturing and writing about her exploration earned her money for further explorations that included Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Brazil, and Guatamala.       Although her fame and demand as a lecturer and travel writer grew with each trip, she still augmented her resources by working for the Red Cross and an oil exploration company.       All her her explorations were self-financed. Her artifacts were donated to the Cleveland Public Library and the Cleveland Museum of National History. B. 05-04-1904, Irene Silva de Santolalla - Peruvian political leader and educator.       IsdS was the first woman elected to Peruvian Senate (1956). She was an active suffragist and instrumental in campaigns that enabled women to finally gained enfranchisement in Peru on 09-07-1955.       She was an internationally recognized expert on family education and founded (1952) the Preparation for Marital and Family Life school. B. 05-04-1905, Anna Chandy - Judge of the High Court of Kerala, India.       Chandy was the first woman in India and probably the second in the world to reach a high state court judgeship (1959).       She had been admitted to the bar in 1928 and became the first woman judge in India, 1937. Her widowed mother supported her two daughters and herself by teaching school. B. 05-04-1907, Mary Agness Hallaren - U.S. military commander.       With the rank of captain MAH commanded the first WAC battalion of women to go overseas in WWII. Became director of the WACS in May, 1947.       On June 12, 1948 when the Armed Services Integration Act went into effect and the WACS became a component of the Regular Army, Col. Hallaren became the first women to receive a commission in the Regular Army.       She retired from the army in 1960 and in 1965 she became director of the Women in Community Service division of the U.S. Labor Department.       (See Hancock above.) B. 05-04-1916, Jane Jacobs - U.S.-Canadian author specializing in studies about cities and urban life.       Her Downtown is For People in the Exploding Metropolis 1959) and The Economy of Cities (1969) are just two of her several books that have been translated into all the major languages of the world including Japanese. B. 05-04-1919, Heloise - widely read columnist who specialized in tips for domestic living and home keepers. B. 05-04-1922, Dr. Eurgenie Clark - ichthyologist and research director of the American Museum of Natural History. B. 05-04-1928, Betsy Rawls - U.S. golfer who won the U.S. Women's Open a record four times - a record that was tied by Mickey Wright in 1964. [Brit Encly] click on image to see full size B. 05-04-1929, Audrey Hepburn - U.S.-Dutch actor.       AH is truly one of the most beloved stars of Hollywood who spent her last years as an advocate for UNICEF. Even when dying of cancer, she traved ceaselessly in Third World countries, always for the children, never stinting, giving everything she had.       Answering a reporter's question about why she worked so hard for UNICEF, she answered simply, "I do not want to see mothers and fathers digging graves for their children."       One can only guess that she saw too much of that when as a girl she was accidentally trapped in Holland during World War II. She suffered extreme hardships during the war and several of her relatives and friends were executed by the Nazis. AH acted as a courier for the underground.       She even had to eat tulip bulbs when food supplies ran out or they were confiscated by the Germans just before the Allied troops freed the Netherlands.       While playing a minor part on the London stage, she was discovered by the French novelist Colette who said that she was the embodiment of Gigi and insisted she move to New York to star in the Broadway production. AH electrified Broadway in the role and then the nation fell in love with her in her screen performance in Roman Holiday for which she won an Academy Award. (Like many Broadway actors, she was not allowed to play Gigi on film.)       AH won the Tony for her performance in Ondine (1954). She went on to create the delightful Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and a permanent place in the hearts of filmgoers.       She received Oscar nominations for Sabrina, The Nun's Story, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Wait Until Dark.       Her boyish haircut plus her wardrobe of oversized men's shirts worn with amazing feminity set a worldwide fashion trend. Her elfin personality peeking out from under her gentile sophistication made her a star.       Her mother was a Dutch baroness. B. 05-04-1930, Roberta Peters - U.S. sopra acutissima (very high) soprano.       The embodiment of feminity, she took up body-building to strengthen herself for her operatic career. She received the coveted Metropolitan Opera contract in 1950 at age 20 after turning down a half dozen other lesser offers.       While still in training, she was suddenly called upon to perform the role of Zelina in Mozart's Don Giovanni on five hours notice. She had never performed professionally on a stage before. It was a rousing success.       She calls Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor "one of the most difficult, most challenging, (and) most rewarding." B. 05-04-1942, Ellen Stiskin Hurwitz - president Albright College, Reading, PA. B. 05-04-1956, Ulrike Meyfarth - West Germany winner of the gold at the 1972 Olympics. B. 05-04-1956, Pia Zadora - U.S. singer-actor. Event 05-04-1960: the birth control pill was approved by the FDA in the U.S. It was developed at the Worcester Center for Experimental Biology. The work was financed by Katherine McCormick who gave the center $150,000 a year from 1953 on to develop an oral contraceptive. McCormick was the second woman graduate of M.I.T. She married into the McCormick family and took over the International Harvester business when her husband became hopelessly insane. Event 05-04-1964: Jerrie Mock - received the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency's Decoration for Exceptional Service for her record 29-day around the world solo trip in a single engine plane. right, Dawn Staley    B. 05-04-1970, Dawn Staley - U.S. athlete.       At 5'6", 125 pounds, DS is probably one of the last "short people" to star in basketball. As a guard she led the U.S. team to the gold at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.       She founded the Dawn Staley Foundation to help inner city kids of her native Philadelphia with positive input, a project of such importance to the community that they painted a seven-story portrait of DS overlooking her neighborhood of Eighth and Market Streets, B. 05-04-1972, Gretchen Ulion - U.S. athlete.       GU contributed eight points and was the only U.S. player to score a point in each of the six games on the way to the U.S. gold victory in ice hockey at Nagano, Japan. She stands 5'2" and weighs 130 pounds.       She resigned from full-time teaching (she has a masters degree) to train with the U.S. team. She returned to teaching after her Olympic career. B. 05-04-1972, Silvia Aleksieva - Bulgarian international grandmaster of chess. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | QUOTES DU JOUR SMEAL, ELEANOR:       "If there is to be registration (for military draft), it must include women. Let's face it - women are an established part of the modern military. We are a key part of the trained and trainable pool of young people required to operate today's military, which is more in need of brains than brawn... NOW is against the registration of both young men and young women because it is a response which stimulates an environment of preparation for war. But if there is a draft, it must include women."             -- Eleanor Smeal speaking as president of the National Organization for Women February 8, 1980. BARR, AMELIA E.:       "ln my (entire) life I have been sensible of the injustice constantly done to women. Since I have had to fight the world single-handed, there has not been one day I have not smarted under the wrongs I have had to bear, because I was not only a woman, but a woman doing a man's work, without any man, husband, son, brother or friend, to stand at my side, and to see some semblance of justice done me. I cannot forget, for injustice is a sixth sense, and rouses all the others."             -- Amelia E. Barr (1831 1919), Scottish-born- U.S. author writing in All the Days of My Life (1913).       Her husband and three children had died of Yellow Fever and she was left widowed, nearing 40 with three daughters to support. She had with no income other than what she earned herself. One daughter was sent to her grandnmother but AB moved the other two to New York where against all odds, she became a successful writer and poet. ANTRIM, MINNA:       "Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills."             -- Minna Antrim (1856-1950). U.S. writer. DANE, CLEMENCE:       "...when conditions are evil it is not your duty to submit... when conditions are evil, your duty, in spite of protests, in spite of sentiment, your duty, though you trample on the bodies of your nearest and dearest to do it, though you bleed your own heart while, your duty is to see that those conditions are changed.       "If your laws forbid you, you must change your laws. If your church forbids you, you must change your church. And if your God forbids you, you must change your God."             -- Clemence Dane (1861-1965). ATWOOD, MARGARET:       "Men are not to be told anything they might find too painful; the secret depths of human nature, the sordid physicalities, might overwhelm or damage them. For instance, men often faint at the sight of their own blood, to which they are not accustomed. For this reason you should never stand behind one in the line at the Red Cross donor clinic."             -- Margaret Atwood, Canadian novelist, poet, and critic. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE |