""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" November 22, 1995 - Episode 481 - Women of Achievement and Herstory compiled by Irene Stuber """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Lest we forget how young and tender women's rights are in the United States: Event Nov. 22, 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in _Reed_ v _Reed_ that it was unconstitutional to give preference to men as executors of estates. Argued by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who herself would become a Supreme Court judge 22 years later, the decision marked the *FIRST* time a high court decision overturned a law based on sex, according to Justice Ginsburg. Event: 11-20-1961, the Supreme Court upholds the Florida law which exempts women from jury duty, unless they volunteer. In all, 18 states allowed the jury duty exemption while three states - Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina - outright barred women from jury duty. However, on 02-07- 1966, a federal court rules that such laws should end on June 1, 1967, because such laws "deny to women the equal protection of the laws in violation of the 14th amendment." In January of 1975, the Supreme Court ruled a Louisiana law forbidding women serving on juries is unconstitutional. (Louisiana continued its Napoleonic Code "Lord and Master" laws for another five years.) 11-22 Anniversaries ........................................... B. Nov. 22, 1819, George Eliot, one of England's foremost novelists of the 19th century, Mary Ann (Marian) Evans, wrote under the masculine penname of George Eliot. She wrote realistically of English country and village life in her novels _Silas Marner_ and _The Mill on the Floss_. Her _Middlemarch_ explored new ideas that were changing the English lifestyle. Raised mostly in boarding schools, she took charge of her home, the Griff House. Relations with her family were never good and when she began to openly live with G. H. Lewes (who could not get a divorce), her family stopped all contact and many of her friends were alienated. After Lewes' death, she married a man 20 years her junior. Died Nov. 22, 1825, Ann Bailey, (1742-1825). Legend has it that after her husband was killed, this former indentured servant changed to male dress and became a noted frontier scout, messenger, spy, and Indian fighter. Known as the White squaw of the Kreanawha, her exploits became the stuff of legends. In 1791 she broke through a siege of Fort Lee by Indians, rode 100 miles, and returned on the third day with gun powder. Widowed a second time, she retired to live with her son. B. Nov. 22, 1844, Abigail Adams - She was born 11-11 under the old calendar and 11-22 under the new. See 11-11-95 Women of Achievement. B. Nov. 22, 1857, Marian Griswold Nevins MacDowell*, patron, musician who spent a great deal of her inheritance in supporting her husband composer Edward MacDowell. After MacDowell's death from syphilis, she created the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, where artists could live and work inexpensively. Among those using the facilities were Willa Cather, DuBose Heyward, Thornton Wilder, and Elinor Wylie. Her close companion Nina Maud Richardson* (1885-1969) served as her assistant and was her heir. B. Nov. 22, 1883, Ruby Claudia Davy, the first Australian woman to receive the degree of Ph.D. in Music, was a pianist, conductor, and composer. B. Nov. 22, 1889, Dorothy Tuckerman Draper won the largest decorating contract ever awarded a woman before the feminist movement of the 1970's, that of New York's Hampshire House. B. Nov. 22, 1898, Sarah Gibson Blanding. After 85 years, Vassar, the all- female college, gets its first women president. She served 1946-64. B. Nov. 22, 1943, Billie Jean Moffitt King*, American tennis player. The first woman professional athlete to be paid more than 100,000 dollars in a single year (1971). A feminist, she helped to organize the Women's Tennis Association and to establish a women's pro tour in the early 1970s in which women insisted on equal prizes to those paid men. Gained personal notoriety when a female lover sued her for palimony. Quotes du jour ................................................ "If (women) knew how to moan, they would hear us on the moon." -- Williamson, Marianne. _A Woman's Worth_. New York: Random House, 1993. ....................... * ........................ 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 the women of each generation have had to reinvent themselves. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>(C) 1995, All Rights Reserved, Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR 71902, voice mail or fax, 501-624-5262 ID #300, or email istuber@cswnet.com or irenestuber@delphi.com with comments and suggestions. 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