11-18-1994 Women of Achievement and Herstory

    Martina Navratilova who officially retired from professional tennis

November 15, 1994, has earned more money on the pro tennis tour than

any other player, has won more tournaments than any other man or

woman, has been lauded for her sports dignity - and has not received

one endorsement contract because of her up-front stance as a lesbian. 

    Yet multi-million dollar advertising contracts go to male athletes

who throw baby-tantrums during play and engage in wild drunken and

sexual antics...even illegal activities such as drug use.  Oh, well,

everyone has her own opinion of what a role model should be.

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    B. 11-18-1825, Susan Lincoln Tolman Mills, educated at Mount

Holyoke College, she used the training methods in a school in Hawaii

where she taught with her husband.  Back in California, the couple

opened a school that became Mills College, again using the Mount

Holyoke philosophy as well as several of its teachers.  At her husband's

death in 1884 she was principal and for a time acting president.  She

was finally named president (after two male presidents) in 1890.  Mills

was the first woman's college on the west coast and under her guidance

it became one of the major colleges of the nation.  In 1991 an effort to

convert it to admit men was defeated by the students and it continues

to be an all-woman college.

    B. 11-18-1857, Rose M. Knox, managed the Knox Gelatine Company

for more than 40 years. Following her husband's death she changed the

business emphasis to nutrition and within seven years had developed

it into a multi-million dollar firm.  On the first day of her management,

she locked the back door and ordered everyone from president to

janitor to use the front door.  Her management style was pro-worker

and layoffs were unheard of.  

    B. 11-18-1870 (1861), Dorothy Dix, (Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer),

called "sob sister," which translated into non-sexist language meant she

was a superlative writer of features and could get anyone to give an

interview.  Later in her life she became an advice columnist whose fame

outranks even the Ann and Abbey duo and drew 2,000 letters a week.

While raised to be an ornament in true southern womanhood style, she

had to earn a living when her husband became seriously mentally ill.

B. 11-18-1871, Jessie Bonstelle, developed the Detroit Civic Theatre

during her noted career of directing, managing, and producing plays.

    Event 11-18-1992, the growing schism in the U.S. Catholic Bishops'

ranks was evident when for the first time in history a proposed

pastoral letter failed to receive the necessary votes.  The letter on the

role of women in the church had started off in 1983 as favoring women

as priests but after ultra-reactionary Pope John Paul II's intervention 

it underwent a number of changes before falling short of ratification. 

 (C) 1994 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR

71902, irenestuber@delphi.com. Distribute verbatim copies freely with

copyright notice for non-profit use. Don't let anyone tell you there

weren't notable and effective women throughout history.  They were

always there, but historians failed to note them in our histories so that

each generation of women has had to reinvent themselves.