WOW2 is a monthly sister blog to This Week in the War on Women. Here, we learn about and honor women of achievement, including many who’ve been ignored or marginalized in most of the history books, and also mark moments and great events in women’s history.
This Week in the War on Women will post a little later, so be sure to go there next and catch up on the latest dispatches from the frontlines: www.dailykos.com/...
February is Black History Month, and African American women from all walks of life are well represented here. Some are household names, and others have almost been forgotten, but all of them have expanded the view of what women can accomplish, and remind us that discrimination of any kind can rob our world of such amazing talents and achievements.
If you’re singing the blues about the never-ending attacks on women’s rights, I also did a profile of singer-songwriter-record producer Victoria Spivey for the Black History Month project entitled Queen of the Black Snake Blues, which includes several of her recordings — www.dailykos.com/...
February – Women Trailblazers and Events in OUR History
- February 1, 1857 – Lucy Wheelock born, pioneer in kindergarten education and teacher training, founded Wheelock College
- February 1, 1878 – Hattie Wyatt Caraway born, 1st woman elected to the U.S. Senate (1932, D-AR), 1st woman to preside over Senate (1943)
- February 1, 1910 – Ursula Nordstrom born, children’s book editor at Harper & Brothers, director of Department of Books for Boys and Girls (1940) where she edited landmark books, including Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight, Moon, E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web and Stuart White, Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, and Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are
- February 1, 1930 – Ruth Ross born, magazine editor, left her job as assisstant editor at Newsweek to be the first editor-in-chief of “Essence” (1970), a magazine aimed at 18-to-40-year old African-American women, which included articles by leading African-American scholars and writers; however fears of advertising losses because some content was controversial caused her removal; also a founding member of Black Perspective, support group for black journalists and advocate for inclusion of African-American viewpoints in ‘mainstream’ media
- February 1, 1972 – Leymah Roberta Gbowee born, Liberian leader of grassroots women’s peace movement which helped end 2nd Liberian Civil War, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner
- February 1, 1978 – First postage stamp to honor a black woman, Harriet Tubman, is issued in Washington, DC.
- February 1, 1979 – Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst released from prison after President Jimmy Carter commuted her sentence
- February 1, 1987 – National Girls & Women in Sports Day * is founded in remembrance of Olympic volleyball player, Flo Hyman, and to celebrate the success of Title IX in expanding access to sports for girls and women
- February 1, 1998 – Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne becomes the 1st African American woman to be promoted to rear admiral
- February 1, 2009 – The first cabinet of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is formed in Iceland, making her the country’s first female prime minister and the world’s first openly LGBT head of state
- February 2, 1841 – Sarah Ann Hackett Stevenson born, American MD, 1st female American Medical Association member
- February 2, 1901 – United States Army Nurse Corps established as a permanent organization.
- February 2, 1931 – Judith Viorst born, journalist and author, ‘Lulu’ and ‘Alexander’ children’s books series, ‘Forever Fifty’ and subsequent decades for adults
- February 3, 1821 – Elizabeth Blackwell born, 1st fully accredited female doctor in the U.S. (1849), co-founder with her sister Emily of 1st medical school for women and the NY Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, which also serves as a nursing training facility, sending a number of nurses to Dorothea Dix while she was Superintendent of Army Nurses during the Civil War
- February 3, 1874 – Gertrude Stein born, author, art critic and influential collector, famous for her phrase, “A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose”
- February 3, 1909 – Simone Weil born, French philosopher, labor activist, and mystic; in spite of frail health, she spent a year working factory jobs to better understand laborers she organized. Escaped France during WWII German occupation, worked in London for the French resistance, refusing to eat more than rations of resistance agents in France, she died of malnutrition and tuberculosis at age 34
- February 4, 1865 – Lila Valentine born, Southern suffrage leader, introduced kindergartens and vocational training into public education in Virginia, recognized health needs with the Visiting Nurse Association fighting tuberculosis, supported the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and the National American Woman Suffrage Association, after visiting England and realizing that many health issues required women’s voices, made 100 speeches in Virginia
- February 4, 1913 – Rosa Parks born. Her arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparked a bus boycott, eventually leading to a Supreme Court decision that expanded Brown v. Board of Education decision to segregation on buses as a denial of equal protection and due process of the 14th Amendment.
- February 4, 1918 – Ida Lupino born in England, pioneering woman director and actor, born in England, emigrated to Hollywood in 1930’s, made movies dealing with social issues, bigamy, polio, unwed mothers, and rape over 40 years before topics were widely discussed publicly
- February 4, 1921 – Betty Friedan born, author and activist, her book, The Feminine Mystique (1963), helped launch Feminism’s “Second Wave,” cofounder of National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966
- February 4, 1952 – Jenny Shipley born, New Zealand’s first woman Prime Minister (1997-1999)
- February 5, 1848 – Belle Starr born, American outlaw
- February 5, 1903 – Joan Whitney Payson born, American businesswoman and philanthropist, co-founder of NY Mets baseball franchise
- February 5, 1905 – Mirra Komaroysky born in Russia, fled to the U.S., studied effect of male unemployment in families and conflicts in women’s lives, wrote Women in the Modern World (1953), predating Betty Friedan by 10 years
- February 5, 1914 – Hazel Smith born, Mississippi journalist, 1st woman to win Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing (1954). Although a segregationist, she supported rule of law, writing society must follow the law on integration, which led her to bankruptcy and extreme poverty
- February 5, 1919 – Mary Pickford with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists
- February 5, 1939 – Jane Bryant Quinn born, American financial journalist and author; Making the Most of Your Money; advisor on the development of Quicken Financial Planner
- February 6, 1577 – Beatrice Cenci born, victim of ongoing incestuous assault by her father Francesco, who beat the rest of the family; she reports him to authorities, but they do nothing, so she, her mother and two brothers plot his murder, but carry it out so ineptly they are quickly arrested, tried, found guilty and all but the youngest son are executed, his entire inheritance going to the Pope’s family while he is condemned to life at forced labor. Beatrice became a heroine to Rome’s common people for her courage in reporting her father, seen as symbol of resistance against an arrogant aristocracy
- February 6, 1842 – Mary Rudge born, English chess master, first woman accepted as a member of the Bristol Chess Club; winner of first Women’s International Chess Congress (1897)
- February 6, 1866 – Annie Warburton Goodrich born, American nurse and educator, chief nursing inspector for US Army hospitals, organized the US Army School of Nursing, first Dean of Yale School of Nursing
- February 6, 1887 – Florence Luscomb born, architect and reformer, 1st woman graduate from MIT (1909), gave 222 speeches for woman suffrage in 14 weeks, learned to drive and repair her party’s touring car, sold copies of “The Woman’s Journal,” outdoorswoman, joined ACLU in 1919, helped to derail anti-communism crusade in Massachusetts, NAACP official (1948), ardent Vietnam War opponent
- February 6, 1913 – Mary Leakey born, British paleoanthropologist, flint point authority, scientific illustrator, discoverer of fossils Proconsul africanus, Australopithecus boisei, Homo habilis, and early human footprints which proved humans were bipedal 3.6 million years ago
- February 6, 1918 – The Representation of the People Act 1918 grants British women over the age of 30 the right to vote if they “were either a member or married to a member of the Local Government Register, a property owner, or a graduate voting in a University constituency.” Because over 700,000 British men were killed in WWI, this meant that the women who qualified under the act became 43% of the electorate
- February 6, 1937 – Kuma Elizabeth Ohi becomes the first Japanese American woman lawyer when she receives her degree from John Marshall Law School in Chicago IL
- February 6, 1942 – Sarah Brady born, American gun control activist
- February 6, 2000 – Foreign Minister Tarja Halonen is elected as Finland’s first woman president
- February 7, 1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder born, author of beloved Little House books
- February 7, 1907 – The Mud March,1st large procession organized by National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) in the UK. Over 3,000 women representing more than 40 organizations, from textile workers to titled ladies, trudged through London’s wet, cold and very muddy streets from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall, for a public meeting advocating suffrage. By 1913, UK’s last suffrage march had 40,000 participants
- February 7, 1918 – Ruth Sager born, scientist, University of Chicago graduate, worked on corn genetic research in plants, studied cancer research after 1975, became Harvard Medical School professor of cellular genetics and chief of Cancer Genetics Division
- February 7, 1979 – Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman born, Yemeni journalist and politician, recipient of 2011 Nobel Peace Prize
- February 7, 1983 – Elizabeth Dole sworn in as first woman Secretary of Transportation
- February 8, 1850 – Kate Chopin born, pseudonym of Katherine O’Flaherty, pioneering feminist writer, The Awakening
- February 8, 1879 – Maud Slye born, pathologist, received American Medical Association gold medal, American Radiological Society honor for cancer research. Developed new care and breeding regimens for lab mice – so devoted to her mice that she cared for them personally, buying their food with her own money when times were lean, and taking them to conferences with her. Her work was critical in establishing that genetics play a part in some forms of cancer. Also a historian of women in science.
- February 8, 1911 – Elizabeth Bishop born, writer and painter, Library of Congress Consultant in Poetry 1949-50, won Pulitzer Prize in 1956 for Poems: North & South/A Cold Spring, struggled with depression, alcoholism and asthma, best-known work is Geography III
- February 8, 1920 – Swiss men vote against woman's suffrage. Swiss women did not get to vote in federal elections until 1971
- February 8, 1964 – Representative Martha Griffiths (D-MI) makes an address to the House which helps sway votes to add civil rights protection for women to the 1964 Civil Rights Act
- February 9, 1819 – Lydia Estes Pinkham born, abolitionist and businesswoman, best known for her commercially successful “women’s tonic”
- February 9, 1849 – Laura Clay born, anti-slavery and woman’s rights advocate, president of Kentucky Woman Suffrage Association (1881) and Kentucky Equal Rights Association, popular lecturer for suffrage but states’ rights position led her to oppose 19th amendment in Tennessee in 1920. Her name was placed into nomination for U.S. presidency at 1920 Democratic National Convention
- February 9, 1864 – Miina Härma born, Estonian woman composer and organist
- February 9, 1865 – Mrs. Patrick Campbell born, major English actor-manager, who made notable appearance in plays by Shakespeare and Shaw – her sharp wit enlivened the letters she exchanged with Shaw
- February 9, 1874 – Amy Lowell born, American poet, posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926 for What’s A Clock
- February 9, 1911 – Bessie Stringfield born, “Motorcycle Queen of Miami”, 1st African-American woman solo rider across US, WWII US Army dispatch motorcycle rider
- February 9, 1944 – Alice Walker born, writer, 1st African-American woman to win Pulitzer Prize for fiction, for The Color Purple (1983)
- February 10, 1842 – Agnes Mary Clerke born, Irish astronomer and author; wrote biographies of famous scientists for the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica; A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century is her best known work
- February 10, 1870 – The first U.S. branch of the YWCA is founded in New York City, Philanthropist Grace Hoadley Dodge was the New York YWCA’s 1st president, and Mabel Cratty was 1st general secretary; they initiate typewriter and sewing machine instruction for women, and the first employment bureau for women
- February 10, 1883 – Edith Clarke born, first woman to earn an M. S. in electrical engineering from MIT (1919), 1st woman professor of electrical engineering (1947), invented Clarke Calculator, device for solving power transmission line equations
- February 10, 1901 – Stella Adler born, acting coach, family fled Russia in 1892 when Yiddish plays prohibited, she debuted in 1922 in NY, developed 2-year curriculum at NY/L.A. Stella Adler Acting Studios, Marlin Brando and Robert De Nero are graduates
- February 10, 1907 – Grace Hamilton born, Atlanta Urban League Executive Director (1943-60);1st African-American in Deep South state government, elected to Georgia General Assembly 1966-84; credited with Andrew Young’s 1980 victory in Georgia Congressional election
- February 10, 1927 – Leontyne Price born, Grammy Award winning operatic soprano
- February 10, 1944 – Frances Lappe Moore born, vegetarian author, Diet for a Small Planet
- February 11, 1802 – Lydia Maria Child born, American journalist, poet - “Over the River and Through the Wood." Abolitionist, woman’s- and Native American rights activist
- February 11, 1869 – Else Lasker-Schüler born, Jewish German poet and playwright, one of the few women affiliated with the Expressionist movement; fled Nazi Germany. living the rest of her life in Jerusalem
- February 11, 1872 – Hannah Mitchell born, English suffragette, socialist and pacifist. After WWII, elected to Manchester City Council and worked as a magistrate
- February 11, 1916 – Emma Goldman is arrested for lecturing on birth control
- February 11, 1925 – Virginia E. Johnson born, American psychologist, pioneer in study of human sexuality
- February 11, 1925 – Aki Kurose born, interned in 1942, American Friends Service Committee funded her college work, anti-war projects; treated cancer victims of Hiroshima, taught peace education in Seattle schools where she used Martin Luther King’s nonviolent example
- February 11, 1934 – Mary Quant born, English-Welsh fashion designer and 1960s Mod icon
- February 11, 1939 – Jane Yolen born, American author, sci-fi/fantasy; The Devil’s Arithmetic
- February 11, 1989 – Rev. Barbara Harris becomes 1st woman bishop in American Episcopal Church and in Anglican Communion worldwide.
- February 12, 1831 – Myra Colby Bradwell born, editor, publisher, suffragist and political activist, founded Chicago Legal News; studied law in her husband’s law office, but denied admission to Illinois bar because she was a woman, and as a married woman, she was not legally allowed to enter into contacts. Although her case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the decision was 8-1 in favor of Illinois, she was eventually granted a state license to practice law, after she worked tirelessly to change laws that discriminated against women
- February 12, 1855 – Fannie Barrier Williams born, African American educator, political and women’s rights advocate
- February 12, 1869 – Utah Territorial Legislature passes a bill allowing women to vote
- February 12, 1881 – Anna Pavlova born, Russian prima ballerina, a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev
- February 12, 1884 – Alice Roosevelt Longworth born, “Princess Alice,” became 1st 20th Century “political celebrity” when her father Theodore Roosevelt was asked why he could not discipline her, and said he could do that or rule the country but he couldn’t do both. As adult, espoused America First isolationism
- February 12, 1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded. Charter members include Ida Wells-Barnett, Mary Church Terrell, Anna Garlin Spencer, and Mary White Ovington.
- February 12, 1926 – Joan Mitchell born, abstract painter, very large canvasses with animals, her poetry also included nature and animals subjects.
- February 12, 1934 – Anne Krueger born, American economist, former World Bank Chief Economist, 1st deputy managing director of International Monetary Fund, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
- February 12, 1938 – Judy Blume born, author, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
- February 12, 1983 – Pakistan Women’s Day – Two hundred women protest in Lahore, Pakistan against military dictator Zia-ul-Haq’s proposed Law of Evidence, which declares that the testimony of two women in a lawsuit is equal to the testimony of one man; the women, carrying only petitions to the Lahore High Court, are tear-gassed, baton-charged and thrown into jail, but are ultimately successful in repealing the Law of Evidence and the infamous Hudood Ordinance (bringing back stoning, lashing and amputation as punishments and making adultery and fornication criminal offences, with no distinction between rape and consensual sex, so rape victims jailed for fornication or adultery), in 2006 by the Women’s Protection Bill
- February 13, 1879 – Sarojini Naidu born, Indian author, poet, activist and politician, 1st woman President of Indian National Congress
- February 13, 1906 – Pauline Frederick born, journalist, 1st woman network radio correspondent (1939), 1st woman to moderate a presidential debate (1976)
- February 13, 1943 – Elaine Pagels born, biblical scholar, author, Princeton professor of religion, known for work on Nag Hammadi manuscripts, won a National Book Award for The Ghostic Gospels; also wrote Adam, Eve and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity
- February 13, 1943 – 1st women to sign up for non-clerical duties enlist in Marine Corps Women’s Reserve at Camp Lejune, North Carolina, inducted into specialties ranging from cooks to transport personnel and mechanics. One-third of the women served in aviation-related fields. Almost 18,000 women went through training at Camp Lejune, but the entire women’s reserve was discharged in March 1946.
- February 14, 1838 – Margaret E. Knight born, American inventor, including a machine to fold and glue paper bags with flat bottoms
- February 14, 1847 – Anna Howard Shaw born, woman suffrage leader, exceptionally fine orator, licensed as Methodist Protestant minister in 1880, graduated as M.D. in 1886, organizer with Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association 1888-92, lectured in every state, beloved president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (1904-15), awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for her work during World War I.
- February 14, 1870 – Esther Hobart Morris, suffragist, begins tenure as 1st female U.S. Justice of the Peace. Appointed after previous Justice resigned in protest over Wyoming’s December 1869 passage of a women’s suffrage amendment to the state constitution!
- February 14, 1871 – Marion Mahoney Griffin born, American architect and artist, designer for Frank Lloyd Wright of murals, mosaics, furniture, leaded glass, and lighting fixtures, as his primary delineator, her drawings were instrumental in enhancing Wright's early reputation.
- February 14, 1891 – Katherine Stinson born, 4th licensed U.S. woman pilot (1912), 1st woman to “loop the loop” (1915), 1st woman to fly in Asia, drawing crowd of 25,000 to watch in Tokyo
- February 14, 1898 – Angela Bambace, union organizer and a Vice President of International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union
- February 14, 1904 – Jessie O’Connor born, journalist, reported textile strikes in North Carolina and coal strikes in Harland Co., Kentucky, helped those accused of communism, Vietnam anti-war opposition, and anti-Reagan protests
- February 14, 1914 – Nancy Love born, pilot, ferried planes to Canada during World War II as Commander of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) 1940-42, group later absorbed into WASPs
- February 14, 1920 – The League of Women Voters is founded in the U.S. by Carrie Chapman Catt; Maude Wood Park becomes its first president
- February 14, 1941 – Donna Shalala born, Secretary of Health and Human Services, awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom University of Miami President
- February 15, 1820 – Susan B. Anthony born, inspirational leader of 19th century women’s right movement, national suffrage strategist, lecturer, activist
- February 15, 1836 – Sarah Fuller born, educator, promoted A.G. Bell techniques to teach deaf children to speak; founded Home for Little Deaf Children
- February 15, 1879 – President Rutherford B. Hayes signs bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before U.S. Supreme Court
- February 15, 1910 – Irena Sendler born, head of children’s section of Żegota, a Polish underground resistance organization which smuggled about 2,500 Jewish children out of Warsaw Ghetto, and gave them false identity papers to save them from the Holocaust
- February 15, 1921 – The Suffrage Monument, depicting Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott, sculpted by Adelaide Johnson, is dedicated at the U.S. Capitol
- February 15, 1923 – Yelena Bonner born, human rights activist in former Soviet Union, married to Andrei Sakharov
- February 15, 1935 – Susan Brownmiller born, writer, novelist, historical researcher; Against Our Will: Men, Woman and Rape (1975) and a memoir, In Our Time
- February 15, 1982 – Agatha Barbara takes office as Malta’s first woman President
- February 15, 2011 – Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduces the Susan B. Anthony Birthday Act, to make Susan B. Anthony’s birthday a U.S. national holiday, but it has never been enacted
- February 16, 1838 – Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under limited conditions
- February 16, 1870 – Leonora O’Reilly born, labor organizer, founding member of Woman’s Trade Union League, helped found NAACP
- February 16, 1898 – Katharine Cornell born, Broadway actor, producer, theatre owner, received 1st New York Drama League Award (1935) for performance as Juliet
- February 16, 1900 – Mary Elizabeth Switzer born, public administrator, social reformer, worked on Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1954
- February 16, 1905 – Louise Leung Larson born, 1st Chinese American and 1st Asian American reporter in mainstream daily paper The Los Angeles Record (1926), later worked for Chicago Daily Times and L.A. Times. Received many awards, memoir Sweet Bamboo (1989)
- February 16, 1906 – Vera Menchik born, Russian-born, 1st Women’s World Chess Champion (1927-44), until she was killed in a WWII bombing raid
- February 16, 1920 – Anna Mae Hays, American Brigadier General, 1st U.S.woman promoted to rank of General (same day Elizabeth Hoisington also promoted), chief of Army Nurse Corps
- February 17, 1848 – Louisa Lawson born, Australian writer, women’s rights activist; took over as publisher of radical pro-federation newspaper The Republican and later launched The Dawn, Australia’s first journal produced by an all-woman staff; leading figure in the Australian woman suffrage movement, ‘The Mother of Suffrage in New South Wales’
- February 17, 1858 – Margaret Warner Morley born, author, educator, nature photographer and biologist
- February 17, 1877 – Isabelle Eberhardt born,, Swiss explorer and author, traveled extensively in North Africa often as a man for the freedom it allowed her; died in a flash flood in the desert
- February 17, 1877 – Isidora Sekulić born, Serbian author, adventurer and polyglot, known for her extensive travels, strong female characters in her fiction
- February 17, 1879 – Dorothy Canfield Fisher born, author, education reformer, social activist, brought Montessori Method to U.S.
- February 17, 1881 – Mary Carson Breckinridge born, American nurse-midwife founded the Frontier Nursing Service, and Appalachian family care centers
- February 17, 1888 – Dorothy Kenyon born, American attorney, feminist and civil liberties activist; in 1950, accused of communist affiliations by Senator McCarthy, she called him “an unmitigated liar” and “a coward to take shelter in the cloak of Congressional immunity” then responded, “I am not, and never have been, a supporter of, a member of, or a sympathizer with any organization known to me to be, or suspected by me, of being controlled or dominated by Communists.” A NY Times editorial and support from Eleanor Roosevelt and other respected public figures made McCarthy back off, and the charges were dismissed; also served on United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (1946-50)
- February 17, 1897 – Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst hold the first convocation of the National Organization of Mothers (later renamed the Parent Teacher Association AKA the PTA), 2,000 people attend.
- February 17, 1912 – Andre Norton born, writer, Alice Mary Norton used “Andre” as more salable pen name in science fiction and fantasy, 50 years later she was named “Grand Dame of Science and Fantasy”
- February 18, 1851 – Ida Husted Harper born, American author, educator, journalist and suffragist; documented the woman suffrage movement; History of the Movement for Woman Suffrage in the United States (1907); wrote of one the first biographies of Susan B. Anthony
- February 18, 1922 – Helen Gurley Brown born, author, publisher, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine
- February 18, 1922 – Connie Wisniewski born, American baseball player, starting pitcher and outfielder in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
- February 18, 1931 – Toni Morrison born, Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, first African-American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1993)
- February 18, 1934 – Audre G. Lorde born, essayist, poet, fought sexism and homophobia, civil rights and feminist activist, co-founder Kitchen Table Women of Color Press (1988)
- February 19, 1871 – Lugenia Burns Hope born, American social reformer, founder of Neighborhood Union, the first woman-run social welfare agency for African Americans in Atlanta Georgia.
- February 19, 1902 – Kay Boyle born, writer, political activist, involvement in anti-Vietnam war demonstrations led to jail sentence in Oakland, CA
- February 19, 1917 – Carson McCullers born , author, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The Member of the Wedding
- February 19, 1952 – Amy Tan born, novelist, The Joy Luck Club, now in 35 languages, The Kitchen God’s Wife (1991), and The Bonesetter’s Daughter (2001)
- February 19, 1963 – Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique published, reawakens the feminist movement in U.S.
- February 20, 1805 – Angelina Grimké born, abolitionist, joined Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835 and addressed “mixed” audiences in 1837, wrote An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South criticizing slavery in 1836, after which a price was placed on her head should she return to South Carolina
- February 20, 1893 – Elizabeth Holloway Marston born, American psychologist, inspiration for her husband Charles Moulton’s comic book creation “Wonder Woman”
- February 20, 1902 – Katharine Way born, Ph. D. in nuclear theory at University of North Carolina (1938), developed Way-Wigner formula for fission produced decay, concern for health of retirees led to Durban Seniors for Better Health in the City of Medicine
- February 20, 1918 – Leonore Annenberg born, American businesswoman, philanthropist, former U.S. Chief of Protocol
- February 20, 1941 – Buffy Sainte-Marie born, Canadian-American Cree singer-songwriter, producer, educator and social activist, founder of Cradleboard Teaching Project
- February 21, 1846 – Believed to be the 1st US woman telegrapher, Sarah G Bagley becomes superintendent of the Lowell, MA telegraph office. Previously, she was the organizer and president of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association
- February 21, 1855 – Alice Freeman Palmer born, educator, founded predecessor organization to the American Association of University Women (AAUW- in 1881) Wellesley College President
- February 21, 1903 – Anaïs Nin born in France of Cuban parents, writer, began 69 volumes of journals with letter to her father, novels Delta of Venus and Little Birds
- February 21, 1927 – Erma Bombeck, humorist and columnist, began writing obituaries and columns on gardening, eventually wrote books of humor, supported the Equal Rights Amendment, appeared on “Good Morning America” for 11 years
- February 21, 1933 – Nina Simone born, iconic singer, songwriter, arranger and civil rights activist. Her song, "Mississippi Goddam," in response to Medgar Evers’ murder and the Birmingham Alabama church bombing that killed 4 pre-teen black girls and blinded a 5th, was boycotted in parts of the South
- February 21, 1936 – Barbara Jordan, politician, served in Texas state legislature 1962-72, elected to House of Representatives 1973-78 where she sponsored expanding coverage of the Voting Rights Act and voted to impeach Nixon, taught 17 years at University of Texas, awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom (1994)
- February 21, 1947 – Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) House 1979-1995, Senate 1995-2013, centrist Republican, health care access and abortion rights advocate
- February 22, 1822 – Isabella Beecher Hooker born, suffragist, lecturer, wrote and presented a bill that gave property rights to married women to Connecticut General Assembly, every year until it passed.
- February 22, 1876– Gertrude Bonnin (Zitkala-Sha) born, writer; Sioux Indian activist, founded National Council of American Indians (1926)
- February 22, 1892 – Edna St. Vincent Millay born, 1st woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1923)
- February 22, 1900 (1996) – Meridal LeSueur born, poet, short fiction writer, essayist on unfair labor conditions and land rights of Southwest and Minnesota Native American tribes
- February 22, 1917 – Jane Bowles born, American playwright-novelist, In the Summer House
- February 22, 1937 – Joanna Russ born, American author primarily scifi, academic and feminist, The Female Man, The Zanzibar Cat
- February 23, 1900 – Elinor Warren born, composer, gifted pianist, wrote art songs, major orchestral works: “The Harp Weaver”, “The Legend of King Arthur” and “Crystal Lake”
- February 23, 1901 – Ruth Rowland Nichols born, American aviation pioneer, only woman to simultaneously hold speed, altitude, and distance world records
- February 23, 1904 – Helen Nearing born, determined to live a more simple life, she and husband Scott learned better techniques for surviving independently, lectured on ‘The Good Life’ practices, based on their Maine homestead and organic garden
- February 24, 1887 – Mary Ellen Chase born, American educator, scholar and author, Windswept, and Edge of Darkness.
- February 24, 1912 – Henrietta Szold founds Hadassah, the largest Jewish organization in American history, focus on healthcare and education in Israel and U.S.
- February 24, 1967 – Jocelyn Bell Burnell makes 1st discovery of a pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star
- February 25, 1842 – Idawalley Zorada Lewis born, American lighthouse keeper and heroine, saved over 18 lives, 1st woman to receive Congressional medal for lifesaving
- February 25, 1907 – Mary Chase born, American playwright, Harvey; feature writer for the Denver Times and Rocky Mountain News
- February 25, 1910 – Millicent Fenwick born, fashion editor, member of New Jersey General Assembly (1969-73), earned nickname “Outhouse Millie” for her fight for better working conditions for migrant workers (including portable toilets), won seat in Congress in 1974 and served three terms, turned up in comic strip “Doonesbury” as “Lacey Davenport,” champion of gun control, campaign spending limits, and ERA
- February 25, 1986 – Corazon Aquino is sworn in as 1st woman President of the Philippines.
- February 26, 1858 – Lavinia Lloyd Dock born, American nurse, educator, feminist and social activist; wrote 4-volume history of nursing and a nurse’s manual of drugs
- February 26, 1859 – Louise Bowen born, Chicago philanthropist, saved Hull House financially in 1935, funded the Woman’s Club building, demanded removal of health hazards from Pullman Company, obtained minimum wage for women at International Harvester Company and raised $12,000 for families of strikers
- February 26, 1869 – Alice Hamilton born, American academic, 1st woman appointed to faculty of Harvard University, pioneer in field of toxicology
- February 26, 1921 – Wilma Heide born, educator and women’s studies pioneer, president of NOW (1971- 72), spearheaded sex discrimination charges against ATT
- February 26, 1944 – 1st female US navy captain, Sue Dauser of nurse corps, appointed
- February 27, 1847 – Ellen Terry born, British stage actress, leading Shakespearean actress of her day; gave lectures on Shakespeare’s women characters
- February 27, 1869 – Alice Hamilton born, American academic, first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University, pioneer in the field of toxicology
- February 27, 1872 – Charlotte E. Ray becomes 1st woman graduate from Howard University School of Law, and the 1st female African American lawyer
- February 27, 1890 – Mabel Staupers born,1917 graduate of Freedman’s Hospital of Nursing (now Howard University), led Harlem Committee of NY Tuberculosis and Health Association, organized health education, public lectures, free exams and dental care for school children fought for full racial integration with help of Frances Bolton, integrated Army and Navy nurses
- February 27, 1897 – Marian Anderson born, opera singer,1st African-American member of NY Metropolitan Opera (1955)
- February 27, 1922 – U.S. Supreme Court upholds the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees women the right to vote - Leser v. Garnett
- February 27, 1933 – 1st female in US Cabinet: Frances Perkins appointed Secretary of Labor
- February 27, 1950 – Julia Neuberger born, Baroness Neuberger, 2nd English woman rabbi, first to become senior rabbi of congregation, liberal politician, appointed DBE (2003). Life peer as Baroness Neuberger, of Primrose Hill in London Borough of Camden (2004); served as a Liberal Democrat health spokesperson (2004-07) resigned when appointed senior rabbi
- February 28, 1797 – Mary Lyon born, American educator, founder Wheaton Female Seminary (now Wheaton College) and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College)
- February 28, 1898 – Molly Picon born, Yiddish actor, entertained troops in Korea and Japan during World War II, renowned for somersaults and flips well into her seventies, wrote one-woman show, “Hello, Molly” (1979), and an autobiography, Molly (1980)
- February 29, 1736 – Ann Lee born, American religious leader, founded the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing (Shakers)
- February 29, 1892 – Augusta Savage born, American sculptor associated with Harlem Renaissance, teacher of other artists, advocated for African-American equal rights in the arts
- February 29, 1916 – Dinah Shore, singer/actress, entertained USO troops during World War II (12,000 at Versailles), won 10 Emmy Awards for “Dinah Shore Show.” ANA Inspiration Dinah Shore Tournament, an LPGA major tournament, celebrates its 46th anniversary in 2017. Only the Masters at Augusta National has had a longer continuous run at a single venue
- February 29, 1940 – Hattie McDaniel becomes 1st African American to win an Academy Award, for Mammy in Gone with the Wind. She had also been a key participant in the 1945 case which voided the 1902 restrictive covenant of L.A.’s West Adams “Sugar Hill” area. Presiding Judge Thurmond Clarke said: "It is time that members of the Negro race are accorded, without reservations or evasions, the full rights guaranteed them under the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution…”
Sources:
www.nwhp.org/...
todayinwomenshistory.saintssistersandsluts.com
www.history.com/...
www.biography.com/…