03-29-1995 Women of Achievement and Herstory

      "Ancient historians marveled at the Amazons.  Greek chroniclers
could not accustom themselves to the presence of the regiments of women
in the army of Mithridates V, King of Pontus, who came warring upon the
Roman colonies in Asia Minor at the beginning of the Christian era.  
      "Scythian auxiliaries in the persons of these women supported him
bravely.  
      "The Roman historians expounded fully and long upon the Gothic
captives which the Emperor Aurelian led back to the Eternal City in 174
A. D. These heroines, powerful of arm, deep of chest and thick of thigh,
swung along in the triumph of the conqueror, wearing their armor like
Knights.  
      "The Caucasian Mountains for centuries contained various
independent bands of women fighters who subsisted on the game they
killed and upon the villages they conquered.  
      "Civilized countries put them down as unexplained mysteries."      
            -- Dorland, W. A. Newman. _The Sum of Feminine Achievement_. 
Boston: The Stratford Company, 1917.  (Don't you just love that last line:
"Civilized countries put them down as unexplained mysteries."  Why don't
they EVER ask women??

03-29 Anniversaries ...............................................

      B. 03-29-1843, Frances Wisebart Jacobs began the kindergarten
movement in Colorado.  She is the only woman among the 16 Colorado
pioneers recognized in stained glass portraits at the state capitol.

      B. 03-29-1880, Rosina Lhevinne, outstanding artist and doyenne of
piano teachers during her long tenure at Juilliard. She disciplined many
of the top musical geniuses of her day including Van Cliburn, John
Browning, and Misha Dichter, emphasizing personal interpretation.        

      Event 03-29-1932, Theodora Chan Wan is elected president of the
newly formed Chinese Women's Association.

      B. 03-29-1936, Judith Guest, author.  Her novel, _Ordinary People_
was the first unsolicited manuscript accepted by Viking Publishers in 30
years.  The movie version won four Academy Awards, including best
picture.

      Event 03-29-1937, the US Supreme Court effectively reverses itself
by approving a Washington State minimum wage law for women after
havomg reversed a similar law for New York the year before.

      B. 03-29-1954, Karen Ann Quinlan, irreversibly comatose, she "lived"
for ten years on artificial feedings and medical breathing machines and
brought into focus the right to die with dignity without medical "miracles"
that prolong the *appearance* of life.  Federal law now enables people to
determine whether they should be hooked into life-supports and for how
long but many judges refuse to consider a woman's decision as binding,
often implying that women's decisions are "whims." Make sure your
decisions are certified.

Quotes du jour ...............................................

      "Now nothing shatters the myth of the angel in the house, the
fragrant spirit in the garde so fundamentally as the appearance of the
independently passionate woman, who chooses her mate, her partner, her
lovers, for reasons of her own, and according to the needs and wants of
her own chemistry. The myths of Victorian prudery and purity have been
history's most dependable means of social control. Class-bound and gender-
related, obscured by privets and closets and vanishing documents,
establishment lust has followed the dictates of establishment culture;
traditionally for men only."
            -- Blanche Wiesen Cook author of _Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume
One 1884-1933_, New York: Viking Press. 1992. This book is MUST reading,
a true telling of the age and the life of women.


(C) 1995 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.