07-13 TABLE of CONTENTS: Woolley Revamped Mount Holyoke into a Major College DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS QUOTE by Linda Zwiren. Strong Leadership Made Mt. Holyoke a Major College Mary Woolley, president of Mt. Holyoke College for 36 years. MW was named one of the twelve greatest living women in America in 1931. B. 07-13-1863, Mary Emma Woolley, president of Mt. Holyoke College (1900-1937) who under strong leadership expanded it to a major learning institution.       She was voted one of the 12 most influential women in America.       MEW was active in the suffrage movement, held more than 20 honorary degrees, and was a noted peace advocate. When a man was chosen to succeed her at Holyoke, a woman-only college, she never set foot on the campus again. MW not only increased the size and endowment of Holyoke but she dramatically advanced the academic program to make it one of the finest colleges in the nation by increasing both the number and quality of the teaching staff.       She eliminated the housekeeping required of the women-only students and instituted student government.       She was active in numerous groups for peace and disarmament such as the American Peace Society and after World War II made certain women had a say in post- war affairs.       She held a number of government advisory positions such as being the only woman member of the American delegation to the Geneva Arms Conference in 1932. She was president of the American Association of University Women (1927-1933), first woman chair of the College Entrance Examination Board, and active in the ACLU.       Jeannette Marks, head of the Holyoke English Literature Department lived with MW for 52 years; they'd met at Wellesley. Marks established the noted Laboratory Theatre and published some 20 books. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | 07-13 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS B. 07-13-1875, June Etta Downey - U.S. psychologist who changed from professor of English to professor of psychology at the University of Wyoming and went on to become one of the nation's most gifted experimenters in psychology.       One of her projects was measuring other facets of human nature and attempting to calibrate them as is done with intelligence. B. 07-13-1922, Dr. Elisabetg Blunschy-Steiner was elected president of the Swiss National Council May 2, 1977. She served for a year in the rotating office of the Council, Switzerland's equivalent of the U. S. House of Representatives.       She was first elected to the Council in 1971- the year women were finally granted the vote in Switzerland's federal elections.       An attorney who specialized in marital problems, she became a leader in the efforts to repeal Switzerland's oppressive patriarchal laws that authorized men to exercise complete rule of their wives' assets, income, right to work, and the guardianship and control of their children. B. 07-13-1922, Sister M. Rosalina Abejo - Filipino musician. She received special Papal dispensation by Pope John XXIII to become the first nun in the world to direct and conduct a symphonic orchestra, Cagayan de Oro (1957) and Davao City (1960).       She was awarded the Tangang Soro and named as one of the five outstanding women of 1975 during the International Women's Year. She composed more than 400 works. B. 07-13-1927, Simone Veil - president 1979-1981 of the European Community Parliament. A French attorney, she went on to become France's Minister of Health, Social Affairs, and Urban Affairs (1993). She chaired the parliament's legal affairs committee 1982-84.       A Jew, Veil was imprisoned at Auschwitze concentration camp from 1944-45. Both her parents and her brother disappeared into Nazi death camps.       She worked in the French Ministry of Justice in various capacities before becoming minister of health, family, and social security. In 1974 she pushed a bill through the French parliament that legalized abortion. (Simone Veil is not to be confused with French mystic Simone Weil, b. 02-03-1909.) DIED 07 13-1934, Kate Sheppard who was instrumental in obtaining the vote for the women of New Zealand, the first country in the world to officially lift the ban against women voting.       Her picture appears on the New Zealand ten pound note. She distributed petitions asking that the definition of elector be changed to include women.       When in 1893 almost a third of the adult population of NZ signed the fifth set of petitions she distributed, both houses of the parliament passed it and the governor agreed on 09-19-1893:       "New Zealand women are electors! It is time that the 'doll' era has passed away, and the 'womanly' period has dawned," she wrote. B. 07-13-1947, Denise Reinke Johnson - U.S.judge and attorney. Associate justice, Vermont Supreme Court 1990-. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | QUOTES DU JOUR ZWIREN, LINDA:       "I can see no reason why a woman can't throw as effectively as a man. There are a lot of statements about anatomical differences, but there is not much documented evidence. Maybe we're really talking about poorly skilled people. People with poor athletic skills tend to throw poorly."             -- Linda Zwiren, director of Human Performances Laboratory, Hofstra University, 1976. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE |