04-08-95 Women of Achievement and Herstory

      "Women are economically deprived and this has consequences; it
is patently obvious that less than 10% of the world's wages and less
than 1 per cent of the world's worth is simply not enough to go around
more than half the world's population, so women must turn to those who
control the resources if they are to survive.  Women must turn to men:
as Cicely Hamilton stated in 1909, `women must trade themselves in
order to eat their bread.'
      "While many women, if free to choose might choose not to trade,
might choose to defy patriarchal order and to validate women's
experience rather than seek the approval of men, in practice few women
have the privilege of choosing the rules by which to live their lives. 
      "The choices for women are often constrained by the necessity to
earn their bread and they are obligated to cultivate the good will of
their masters, to support the view of the males as the superior sex, to
be `agreeable' to employer, husband, father. 
      "This pattern of behavior is one which girls have been taught for
centuries and it is a pattern which helps perpetuate patriarchy. Part
of the structure of male power and female subservience is that for most
women who want their supper there is the requirement that they must
first sing.
      "To be `disagreeable', to defy patriarchy under these
circumstances, to look to women rather than men is `to bite the hand
that feeds you' - and could well lead to being deprived of your supper.
      -- Spender, Dale, revised edition. _Man Made Language_. London:
Pandora Press, 1985.  Spender in this book which was her doctorate
thesis also hits hard at grammarian claims that the English language
developed "accidentally" into male dominance of terms. 

04-08 Anniversaries ...............................................

      B. 04-08-1865, Albion Fellows Bacon, instrumental in drafting and
getting passed a model state law in Indiana which regulated tenement
dwellings, also one that allowed the condemning of unsafe or unsanitary
dwellings.

      B. 04-08-1886, Margaret Ayer Barnes, her novels and plays explore
the theme of women choosing marriage and the traditional role of wives
over feminist principles, facing a crisis and resolvINGt by returning to
the socially accepted roles.  Divorce, problems with children, sex, and
adultery are discussed honestly.  She had been influenced to write
while at Bryn Mawr by its feminist president M. Carey Thomas.  _Years
of Grace_ (1930) won the Pulitzer Prize.

      B. 04-08-1905, Ilka Chase, actress and author, daughter of
_Vogue_ editor, fashion doyen Edna Woolman Chase. 

      B. 04-08-1913, Sonja Heinie, Norwegian innovator of the
performance style in ice figure skating, won world championship figure
skating for ten years starting in 1927, won seven European
championships and the Olympics in 1928, 1932, and 1936 before becoming
a Hollywood film star.  Blonde, dimpled she was also a ranked tennis
player in Norway.  Her autobiography _Wings on My Feet_, 1940.

      B. 04-08-1918, Betty Ford, acknowledged as a working partner to
US President Gerald. Went public with her mastectomy to bring the
procedure out of the closet as well as admitting to drug and alcohol
addiction. 

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

      "Neither birth nor sex forms a limit to genius."  
             -- Charlotte Bronte              


(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.