Welcome to WOW2!
WOW2 is a twice-monthly sister blog to This Week in the War on Women. This edition covers women and events from July 17 through through July 31.
The biggest event in Women’s History for July is the Seneca Falls Convention, which launched American Feminism’s ‘First Wave’ — the long fight for the right to vote. We all owe a huge debt to Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martha Wright, Mary Ann McClintock and Jane Hunt, who conceived and organized these two days of revelation for the 200+ women who came together.
At a time when women had no public voice; when married women were legal nonentities; when control of where and how a woman was to live; of how her children were to be brought up; of her property; of any wages she earned — all these decisions rested with a father, husband or brother . . .
Women came together.
And they spoke up. In public.
Some of them stood on the platform and gave speeches.
Women discussed and argued and hammered out, and they voted — for the first time in their lives — on how the convention would be run, on how much men would be allowed to participate in their convention, and finally, for a Declaration which would change not only their lives, but the lives of all the generations to come. They voted for a proclamation of the changes necessary so women would be no longer beholden even to the good men in their lives, and to end their subservience to the abusive ones.
Oh yes, it was a Revelation. And the start of a Revolution just as profound as America’s break with England — the ripples from Seneca Falls continue to spread in the world today.
What a long way we have come. How very far we still have to go.
This Week in the War on Women is up, so be sure to go there next and catch up on the latest dispatches from the frontlines: www.dailykos.com/...
NOTE: Beginning in August, the format of WOW2 will change. Because the lists have become so lengthy, far exceeding my original expectations, a link will be
provided in each blog to that period’s full list, but only newly discovered women and events will be featured on the current blog page. Readers who want to see the whole story can click the link, but the new format will accommodate those Readers who are pressed for time.
Late July’s Women Trailblazers and Events in Our History
Note: All images and audios are below the person or event to which they refer
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- July 17, 1762 – Catherine II becomes Tsar of Russia after her husband is murdered
- July 17, 1794 – Sixteen Carmelite nuns, lay sisters and externs become the Martyrs of Compiègne, and are executed ten days prior to the end of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror for refusing to obey the Civil Constitution of the Clergy of the Revolutionary government, which mandates the suppression of monasteries and convents
- July 17, 1898 – Berenice Abbott born, photographer, artist, teacher, and writer, famous for documenting New York City’s architecture, and for her science photography
- July 17, 1902 – Christina Stead born, Australian novelist and short-story writer known for her wit and insightful psychological characterizations; she left Australia in 1928, and worked in Paris for a time at a bank (1930-1935), where she also published her first novel, Seven Poor Men of Sydney (1934); she became a Marxist, and spent time in Spain just before the Spanish Civil War broke out; she returned to Australia in 1968; her best-known book is The Man Who Loved Children
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July 17, 1908 – Carmelita Maracci born, dancer, choreographer, and teacher, created a blend of ballet and Spanish dance techniques
- July 17, 1917 – Christiane Rochefort born, French journalist and author, press attaché to the Cannes Film Festival; bestselling novel Le Repos du guerrier (The Warrior’s Rest)
- July 17, 1921 – Toni Stone born, first of three women to play Negro league baseball; played professionally from 1949 to 1953 when she quit to be a nurse and care for her ill husband
- July 17, 1923 – Jeanne H. Block born, American psychologist who researched sex-role socialization; with her husband Jack, she created a person-centered personality framework; fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
- July 17, 1924 – Olive Ann Burns born, American author and journalist, wrote for Atlanta Journal ; pseudonym Amy Larkin; novel Cold Sassy Tree
- July 17, 1935 – Diahann Carroll born, American stage, film and television actor-singer, starred on Broadway, in early films casting black actors, and in Julia, one of the first television series starring an African American woman; recipient of many awards and honors; co-founder of Celebrity Action Council for the Los Angeles Mission; co-organizer with James Garner of Hollywood’s large-scale turn-out for the 1963 March on Washington, in spite of attempts by J. Edgar Hoover to intimidate Hollywood’s elite with phone calls claiming the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement were all Communists
- July 17, 1954 – Angela Merkel born, German chemist and politician; Chancellor of Germany since 2005; leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 2000
- July 17, 1956 – Julie I. Bishop born, Australian politician; Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2013; Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party since 2007
- July 17, 1957 – Wendy L. Freedman born in Canada, Canadian-American astronomer and astrophysicist, best known for her measurement of the Hubble constant (the rate at which astronomical objects are receding from Earth’s position because of the expansion of the universe); currently Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago; initiated and served on the board of directors of the Giant Magellan Telescope Project (2003-2015); member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; co-recipient of the 2009 Gruber Cosmology Prize, and honored with the 2016 Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics
- July 17, 1958 – Thérèse Rein born, Australian founder of Ingeus, an international employment and business psychology services company; married to Kevin Rudd (Prime Minister of Australia (2007-2010), the first Prime Minister’s wife to maintain a separate career during her husband’s time in office; long-time activist for human rights, especially for people with disabilities, and patron of numerous charities and rights groups; awarded the 2010 Human Rights Medal by the Australian Human Rights Commission
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July 17, 1959 – Mary Leakey, British paleoanthropologist, discovers the partial skull of new species of early human ancestor, Zinjanthropus boisei or ‘Zinj’ (now called Paranthropus boisei) who lived in Africa around 2 million years ago
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July 17, 1959 – Manzila Pola Uddin born in what is now Bangladesh, Baroness Uddin of Bethnal Green; non-affiliated British politician, and community activist; Life Peer since 1998, the youngest woman on the benches and the only Muslim woman to be appointed to the House of Lords; advocate for women’s equal rights, and people with disabilities rights, and campaigns for increasing opportunities for Asian women to learn skills, founding the Jagonari Centre, which offers education and training programmes
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- July 18, 1702 – Maria Clementina Sobieska born, granddaughter of King John III of Poland, arrested by King George I of Great Britain on the way to her wedding in an attempt to prevent her marriage to James Francis Edward Stuart (the ‘Old Pretender’), but she escapes, to be quickly married by proxy
- July 18, 1724 – Duchess Maria Antonia of Bavaria born, Electress of Saxony, singer, composer and harpsichordist; her operas were well received, and her harpsichord performances admired
- July 18, 1821 – Pauline Viardot born, French mezzo-soprano, pianist, educator and composer; Franz Liszt considered her a “woman composer of genius”
- July 18, 1850 – Rose Hartwick Thorpe born, American author and poet, known for her poem “Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight”
- July 18, 1867 – Margaret Brown born, American philanthropist, socialite, advocate for women’s education and aiding poor children; after she survived the sinking of RMS Titanic, she was known as “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”
- July 18, 1892 – Doris Fleischman Bernays born, first married woman to gain a U.S. passport in her maiden name (1925), writer and editor for the “New York Tribune,” and publicist
- July 18, 1895 – Olga Spessivtseva, Russian ballerina, considered one of the outstanding ballerinas of the 20th century; partnered with Nijinsky at the Ballet Russes 1916-1918 and on tours in 1921 and 1923; étoile (prima ballerina) at the Paris Opera 1924-1932, but still performed occasionally with the Ballet Russes; her mental health and career began a long decline 1934-1943; her last performance was in 1939; beginning in 1943, she spent years in mental hospitals
- July 18, 1900 – Nathalie Sarraute born, French lawyer and author of Russian Jewish origin; she was forced by the Vichy regime’s anti-Jewish laws to quit practicing law in 1941, and went into hiding, dedicating herself to writing; recipient of the Prix international de littérature for her novel The Golden Fruits
- July 18, 1902 – Jessamyn West born, American novelist; The Friendly Persuasion
- July 18, 1908 – Mildred L. Norman born, American mystic who adopted the name ‘Peace Pilgrim’; pacifist activist and vegetarian; between 1953 and 1981, she walked across the United States at least six times, and died on her seventh cross-country journey at age 72
- July 18, 1908 – Beatrice Aitchison born, American academic, civil servant, mathematician, statistician, and transportation economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1936-1939) and the Interstate Commerce Commission (1942-1951); consultant for the Office of Defense Transportation (1942-1944). She was head of the U.S Department of Commerce’s Office of Transportation (1951 to 1953, when it disbanded), then moved to the U.S Postal Service as Director of Transportation Research in its Bureau of Transportation, first woman in the Postal Service appointed to a policy level position. In 1961, was one of the first to be awarded the U.S. Civil Service Commission’s Federal Woman’s Award, and used her recognition to pressure President Johnson to sign an executive order banning sex discrimination in U.S. government. Aitchison retired in 1971 as one of the highest ranking women in federal service
- July 18, 1915 – Roxana Cannon Arsht born, the daughter of a Russian immigrant, American lawyer and judge. After graduating from law school and passing the bar in 1939, as a married woman she was unable to find work as a lawyer, so she worked for women’s reproductive rights, and helped with the development of Planned Parenthood’s Delaware office. In 1962, she began volunteering as a ‘master’ (hearing civil cases where common law applies) for Delaware Family Court. In 1971, she became the first woman in Delaware to be appointed as a judge, in Delaware Family Court. Arsht retired in 1983, and became the first woman to serve on the Medical Center of Delaware board (1993-1997)
- July 18, 1926 – Margaret Laurence born, Canadian author, founder of the Writers’ Trust of Canada; The Stone Angel and The Diviners; recipient of two Governor General’s Awards, and Companion of the Order of Canada
- July 18, 1976 – Nadia Comăneci is first person to score a perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics
- July 18, 1989 – The shooting death of actor Rebecca Schaeffer by an obsessed fan prompts the California legislature to pass the first anti-stalking law in the U.S. in 1990)
- July 18, 2005 – An anti-abortion terrorist was sentenced to life in prison for the bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham Alabama which killed a police officer and gravely injured a nurse
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- July 19, 1759 – Marianna Auenbrugger born, Austrian pianist and composer, a student of Joseph Haydn and Antonio Salieri; Salieri publishes her Keyboard Sonata in E-flat at his own expense
- July 19, 1817 – Mary “Mother” Bickerdyke born, served in the Civil War as a Union hospital nurse and administrator, working during nineteen battles in field hospitals
- July 19-20, 1848 – Opening Day of the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention, held in Seneca Falls, New York. It was the joint vision of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, both abolitionists, who met at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. When women were barred from the convention floor, their common indignation at this discrimination became the impetus for their founding of the women’s rights movement in the United States. Organizers for the Seneca Falls convention included Martha Wright, Mary Ann McClintock and Jane Hunt. The first day was women-only. Resolutions were read, discussed, and amended. The resolution which some felt was too radical, and required the most discussion before passing was: “Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.” The struggle for The Vote took 72 years. American women finally saw our right to vote become part of the Constitution when the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, although some local voting rights had been won before that, and Wyoming territory in 1869 began the process of gaining voting rights state by state
Resolutions
Whereas, the great precept of nature is conceded to be, "that man shall pursue his own true and substantial happiness," Blackstone, in his Commentaries, remarks, that this law of Nature being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this, and such of them as are valid, derive all their force, and all their validity, and all their authority, mediately and immediately, from this original; Therefore,
Resolved, That such laws as conflict, in any way, with the true and substantial happiness of woman, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and of no validity; for this is "superior in obligation to any other.
Resolved, That all laws which prevent woman from occupying such a station in society as her conscience shall dictate, or which place her in a position inferior to that of man, are contrary to the great precept of nature, and therefore of no force or authority.
Resolved, That woman is man's equal—was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such.
Resolved, That the women of this country ought to be enlightened in regard to the laws under which they -live, that they may no longer publish their degradation, by declaring themselves satisfied with their present position, nor their ignorance, by asserting that they have all the rights they want.
Resolved, That inasmuch as man, while claiming for himself intellectual superiority, does accord to woman moral superiority, it is pre-eminently his duty to encourage her to speak, and teach, as she has an opportunity, in all religious assemblies.
Resolved, That the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and refinement of behavior, that is required of woman in the social state, should also be required of man, and the same tranegressions should be visited with equal severity on both man and woman.
Resolved, That the objection of indelicacy and impropriety, which is so often brought against woman when she addresses a public audience, comes with a very ill grace from those who encourage, by their attendance, her appearance on the stage, in the concert, or in the feats of the circus.
Resolved, That woman has too long rested satisfied in the circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted application of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and that it is time she should move in the enlarged sphere which her great Creator has assigned her.
Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.
Resolved, That the equality of human rights results necessarily from the fact of the identity of the race in capabilities and responsibilities.
Resolved, therefore, That, being invested by the Creator with the same capabilities, and the same consciousness of responsibility for their exercise, it is demonstrably the right and duty of woman, equally with man, to promote every righteous cause, by every righteous means; and especially in regard to the great subjects of morals and religion, it is self-evidently her right to participate with her brother in teaching them, both in private and in public, by writing and by speaking, by any instrumentalities proper to be used, and in any assemblies proper to be held; and this being a self-evident truth, growing out of the divinely implanted principles of human nature, any custom or authority adverse to it, whether modern or wearing the hoary sanction of antiquity, is to be regarded as self-evident falsehood, and at war with the interests of mankind.
- July 19, 1875 – Alice Dunbar Nelson born of mixed-race parents, American novelist, poet, and essayist; civil rights and woman’s suffrage activist; part of the Harlem Renaissance; co-editor of the Wilmington Advocate (1920-1921), a progressive black newspaper in Delaware, where she began writing regular columns and articles for many publications, but often had to fight to get attribution and payment for them
- July 19, 1902 – Anna Marie Rosenberg born, Assistant Secretary of Defense (1950-1953), served in many other government positions
- July 19, 1909 – Balamani Amma born, prolific Indian poet who wrote in Malayalam; some of her poems were translated by her daughter, Indian English-language author Kamala Surayya, who often used the pen name Madhavikutty
- July 19, 1916 – Eve Merriam born, American poet and playwright, noted for poetry for children, recipient of the Yale Younger Poets Prize for her first book Family Circle
- July 19, 1921 – Rosalyn Sussman Yalow born, American medical physicist, 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine (second American woman laureate in the category) for her part in developing the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique with co-laureates Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally. RIA is a radioisotope tracing technique allowing measurement of tiny quantities of biological substances in human blood and other aqueous fluids
- July 19, 1921 – Elizabeth Spencer born, American novelist, short story writer; Fire in the Morning, The Light in the Piazza, Starting Over; 2007 PEN/Malamud Award for Short Fiction; 1992 John Dos Passos Award for Literature
- July 19, 1922 – Rachel Isum Robinson born, African American registered nurse; in 1957, went back to school for a master’s degree in psychiatric nursing from New York University; researcher and clinician in the Department of Social and Community Psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Assistant Professor at Yale School of Nursing; Director of Nursing at the Connecticut Mental Health Center; married to baseball great Jackie Robinson from 1946 until his death in 1972; founder of the Jackie Robinson Development Corporation, a low-to-moderate housing development company, and its president (1972-1982); founder in 1973 of the Jackie Robinson Foundation a non-profit providing educational opportunities for minority students
- July 19, 1941 – Neelie Kroes born, Dutch People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) politician, served in the Netherlands House of Representatives (1981-1986), and as Undersecretary (1977-1981), then Minister (1982-1989), of Transport, Public Works and Waste Management. Chancellor of Nyenrode Business University (1991-2000). European Commissioner for Competition (2004-2010), which is the merger authority for the European Economic Area, responsible for upholding anti-trust laws; European Commissioner for Digital Agenda (2010-2014)
- July 19, 1945 – Paule Baillargeon born, French Canadian film director and actor; co-founder of the experimental theatre group Le Grand cirque ordinaire; nominated for a Genie Award (Canada’s Oscars) for Best Director for her 1993 film Le Sexe des étoiles (The Sex of the Stars); won the Genie award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Gabrielle in the 1987 film I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing
- July 19, 1952 – Jayne Anne Phillips born, American novelist, short story writer and academic; her 1976 short story collection Sweethearts won the Pushcart Prize; 1979’s Black Tickets won the American Academy’s Sue Kaufman Prize; her novels include Machine Dreams, Shelter (American Academy Award in Literature winner) and Quiet Dell
- July 19, 1970 – Nicola Sturgeon born, Scottish politician; current First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party, both since 2014; Depute (deputy) First Minister of Scotland (2007-2014); Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investments and Cities (2012-2014); Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing (2007-2012); Deputy Leader of the Scottish National Party (2004-2014); Scottish Parliament Member (since 1999); feminist, campaigner for women’s and LGBT rights, and gender equality. She received both criticism and praise for being the Honorary Grand Marshall of the Glasgow Pride Parade during the July 14-15 2018 weekend instead of meeting with Donald Trump, especially since she mentioned in her speech at the march that she was “a wee bit tickled” by reports that Trump hates her and was “bitching” about her to Theresa May, adding “I suppose I should take it as a compliment. I certainly don’t spend that much time talking about him.” She also praised Blair Wilson, a 21-year-old gay man who was beaten up when he asked people who were shouting abuse at him, “Why?” Wilson posted an account of the attack with a selfie of his bloodied face smiling defiantly on Facebook. Sturgeon praised him for speaking up and said Wilson showed values that should define the country
- July 19, 1984 – Geraldine Ferraro, U.S Representative (D-New York), is chosen as the first woman to run for Vice President of the United States on the Democratic Party ticket with Walter Mondale (D-Minnesota)
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- July 20, 1591 – Anne Hutchinson baptized (birthdate not noted) in England; American colonial preacher, midwife, and notable figure in American colonial religious freedom. Her father, an Anglican cleric and teacher, gave her a far better education than most girls and even many boys received. She and her husband William became followers of the Puritan John Cotton, who preached simplicity, and doing away with ceremony and vestments of the Church of England; Cotton and his wife fled England for the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633. Anne and William Hutchinson with their 11 children followed the Cottons to Boston in 1634. She was greatly in demand as a midwife, and soon began having weekly women’s meetings in her home, commenting on recent sermons. Men started coming to the meetings as well. Then she accused local ministers, other than Cotton and her brother-in-law Reverend John Wheelwright, of preaching a “covenant of works” rather than a “covenant of grace,” and made other accusations against them, leading to increasing tensions between the minority Free Grace adherents and the majority of the colony’s ministers and magistrates. Hutchinson and others, including John Wheelwright, were put on trial. Hutchinson was banished from the colony when she claimed she possessed direct personal revelation from God. She and her remaining supporters founded the settlement of Portsmouth on Narragansett Bay in Providence Plantations (now Rhode Island), founded by Roger Williams, a staunch advocate for religious freedom
- July 20, 1848 – The second and concluding day of the Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls NY. On the second day, men were allowed to attend. The previous day’s resolutions were voted on, and accepted. The Declaration of Sentiments was read, speeches were made, and most of the attendees signed the Declaration. A larger meeting was held two weeks later in Rochester NY, beginning the tradition of annual national women’s rights conventions.
Declaration of Sentiments.
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled.
The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.
He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.
He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men—both natives and foreigners.
Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides.
He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead.
He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns.
He has made her, morally, an irresponsible being, as she can commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master—the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty, and to administer chastisement.
He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes of divorce; in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given; as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women—the law, in all cases, going upon the false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.
After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it.
He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration.
He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction, which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known.
He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education—all colleges being closed against her.
He allows her in Church as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church.
He has created a false public sentiment, by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated but deemed of little account in man.
He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and her God.
He has endeavored, in every way that he could to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.
Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation,—in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States.
In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions, embracing every part of the country.
Firmly relying upon the final triumph of the Right and the True, we do this day affix our signatures to this declaration.
- July 20, 1890 – Julie Vinter Hansen born, Danish astronomer; in 1915, she was the first woman to hold an appointment at the University of Copenhagen, as a ‘computer’ at the University’s observatory, then became an observatory assistant, and in 1922, she was promoted to observer. Editor of the Nordisk Astronomisk Tidsskrift (Nordic Astronomy Review), then Director of the International Astronomical Union’s telegram bureau. By 1939, she was the First Astronomer of the University of Copenhagen observatory, well-known for her accurate computation of orbits of minor planets and comets. She was awarded the 1939 Tagea Brandt Rejselegat Award, which enabled her to travel, and the 1940 Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy. In 1956, she was appointed a knight in the Order of the Danneborg
- July 20, 1919 – Jacquemine Charrott Lodwidge born to a British father and a French mother; English writer on crime and magic, TV and film art director, and bookseller. Her father died when she was nine, so she was raised primarily speaking French. During WWII, she served for two years with the Free French forces among the Bedouins in the Syrian desert. After the war, she studied architectural history and spent several years in Greece, then worked as a researcher for BBC television, and worked her way up to art director; in between film assignments, she started selling books to supplement her income, beginning in a gazebo, and calling the enterprise Pelekas Books. It was described by R. H. Lewis: “There are herons at the bottom of the terraced garden, and a river from which excellent rough fishing can be had; accompanying husbands or wives not interested in books are invited to bring fishing rods. The building has been redesigned with film-set type features such as a spiral staircase and a gazebo, where the books are now housed . . . when Jacquemine is not on location . . . so strictly by appointment.”
- July 20, 1921 – Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson (Republican-Oklahoma) becomes the first woman to preside over the U.S. House of Representatives – surprisingly, not a fan of feminists, considering she couldn’t have been a member of Congress without their untiring efforts
- July 20, 1921 – Simin Behbahani born as Simin Khalili, Iranian icon of contemporary Persian poetry, lyricist and activist, dubbed “the Lioness of Iran.” She was a major force in the struggle against censorship, and an outspoken advocate for civil, human and women’s rights. Behbahani brought the ghazal, a traditional Persian verse form somewhat like an ode, into modern usage; was a member of the Iranian Writers Association and served a term as its president; honored with many awards for both her poetry and her humanitarian and civil rights advocacy — for more about this remarkable woman, and samples of her poetry in translation, click here: flowersforsocrates.com/...
- July 20, 1927 – Barbara Bergmann born, notable feminist economist whose work covered arrange of issues from childcare to poverty and Social Security, using microsimulations and macrovariables; she argued that discrimination is a pervasive characteristic of labor markets, and against traditional economic methodology as fraught with unrealistic assumptions leading to faulty conclusions. Co-founder and president of the International Association for Feminist Economics, and a trustee of Economists for Peace and Security; honored with 2004 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award for increasing status of women in economics and showing how women can advance in the academic field
- July 20, 1936 – Barbara Mikulski born, Democratic U.S. Senator from Maryland, former member and longest-serving woman in U.S. House of Representatives. First woman chair, Senate Appropriations Committee. Aerves on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Select Committee on Intelligence, until her announced retirement at the end of the 114th Congress in 2017
- July 20, 1938 – Dame Diana Rigg born, British stage, television and screen actor; former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company; memorable as Mrs. Emma Peele in the British television series The Avengers, and as Olenna Tyrrell in Game of Thrones. When she discovered after making 12 episodes of The Avengers that the cameraman was earning more money than she was, “I made a bit of a stink. At the time, it was considered very bad form.”
- July 20, 1939 – Judy Chicago born, American artist, feminist and author, known for large collaborative art installations; her masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now at the Brooklyn Museum, consists of three ‘wings’ with place settings for remarkable female figures in legend and history
- July 20, 1942 – First class of Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) at Fort Des Moines, Iowa
- July 20, 1962 – Julie Bindel born, English writer, extreme radical feminist; co-founder of the law-reform group Justice for Women, which has helped women prosecuted for killing violent male partners; in addition to non-fiction books, she is a regular contributor to The Guardian, New Statesman, and The Sunday Telegraph
- July 20, 1964 – Terri Irwin born in the U.S., American-Australian naturalist, conservationist and author; owner of the Australia Zoo in Beerwah, Queensland. Co-starred with her husband, Steve Irwin, in The Crocodile Hunter, from 1997 until his death in 2006
- July 20, 1975 – Birgitta Ohlsson born, Swedish Liberal politician, Swedish Minister for European Union Affairs (2010-2014); Swedish Parliament member (2002-2010); chair of the Federation of Liberal Women (2007-2010); chair of the Liberal Youth of Sweden (1999-2002)
- July 20, 1981 – Viktoria Ladõnskaja born, Estonian Pro Patria party politician; elected to the Riigikogu (parliament) in 2015; previously worked as a journalist and freelance writer
- July 20, 1989 – Aung San Suu Kyi put under house arrest by Burma’s ruling junta. She was General Secretary of the National League for Democracy, when it won 81% of the seats in Parliament that year, but the junta refused to hand over power, and nullified the election. She remained under house arrest for almost 15 years, released November 13, 2010. Today, she’s the first State Counsellor and Leader of the NLD. Also first female Minister of Foreign Affairs of Myanmar
- July 20, 2007 – Elena Kagan is approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, 13-6, as the Supreme Court’s fourth female justice
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- July 21, 1653 – Sarah Good born, one of the first three women accused and executed during Salem witch trials
- July 21, 1656 – Elizabeth Key Grinstead wins her lawsuit gaining freedom from slavery for herself and her baby son, arguing that her father was an Englishman and she is a baptized Christian. Virginia House of Burgesses later passes laws changing children’s status to that of the mother, not the father, abandoning English Common Law, which determines a child’s status based on the father, for the Roman partus sequitur ventrem, condemning all children born of enslaved women in Virginia to slavery for life, regardless of the status of their father
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July 21, 1856 – Louise Bethune born, first American woman to work as an architect; designed the Hotel Lafayette in Buffalo NY; first woman admitted to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1888; she refused to compete in a design competition for the Women's Building at 1891 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago because men were paid $10,000 to design buildings for the fair but women were only paid $1,000
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July 21, 1896 – Sophie Bledsoe Aberle born, American anthropologist, author, physician and nutritionist who worked with Pueblo people in New Mexico; employed by the Bureau of India Affairs (1935-1944),then for the National Research Council (1944-1949), and for the University of New Mexico (1949-1954); she was a strong advocate for Pueblo land rights in her 1948 book, The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, Their Land, Economy and Civil Organization, and served on many boards and committees for land allocation and healthcare; she was one of the first two women appointed to the National Science Board by President Truman(1951-1957); Chief Nutritionist at the Bernalillo County Indian Hospital (1955-1966); professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico (1967-1970)
- July 21, 1900 – Isadora Bennett born, theatrical and dance publicity agent, Martha Graham was her client from 1939 until 1970, and other clients included José Limón, José Greco, American Ballet Theatre, Royal Danish Ballet, and the Joffrey Ballet; she is credited with bringing much attention to modern dance, helping to establish its popularity with American audiences
- July 21, 1905 – Diana Trilling born, literary critic and author, compiled her feminist essays in We Must March My Darlings (1977)
- July 21, 1938 – Janet Reno born, first woman to serve as U. S. Attorney General (1993 – 2001, under President Clinton), attorney
- July 21, 1944 – Onyebuchi “Buchi” Emecheta born in Nigeria, British novelist and children’s author; The Bride Price, The Slave Girl (1978 New Statesman Jock Campbell Award winner), and The Joys of Motherhood
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July 21, 1945 – Wendy Cope born, English poet for both adults and children; has also edited several poetry anthologies
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July 21, 1949 – Christina Hart born, director, producer, playwright and actress; known for plays Women Over the Influence and Birds of a Feather
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July 21, 1950 – Susan Kramer born, Baroness Kramer of Richmond Park; British Liberal Democratic Politician; Minister of State at the Department for Transport (2013-2015) Member of Parliament for Richmond Park (2005-2010)
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July 21, 1957 – Althea Gibson wins the U.S. Open, becoming the first black woman to win a major U.S. tennis title
- July 21, 1960 – Sirima Babsaranaike takes office as Prime Minister of Ceylon, becoming first female head of government in the modern world
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July 21, 1966 – Sarah Waters born, Welsh author known for award-winning novels set in the Victorian era, often featuring lesbian protagonists; Tipping the Velvet won a 1999 NY Times Notable Book Award, and the 2000 Lambda Literary Award for Fiction; Fingersmith won the 2002 Crime Writers’ Association Ellis Peters Historical Dagger
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July 21, 2007 – J.K. Rowling’s concluding book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows, is released
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- July 22, 1849 – Emma Lazarus born, poet, novelist and translator, wrote “The New Colossus,” (1883); later inscribed in base of the Statue of Liberty
- July 22, 1881 – Augusta Fox Bronner born, American psychologist, specialist in juvenile psychology; assistant director of the Psychopahtic Clinic of the Juvenile Court (1914-1917); beginning in 1917, at the Judge Baker Foundation of Boston, a child guidance clinic attached to Boston juvenile court, Bronner handled most of the psychological examinations, first as assistant director, and from 1930 on as co-director; co-author with William Healy of the influential Manual of Individual Mental Tests and Testing, a comprehensive guide to assessing a patient’s mental state, published in 1927; Bronner and Healy developed a team approach to help psychologists, physicians and social workers coordinate their treatment of patients; Bronner was president of the American Orthopsychiatric Association in 1932
- July 22, 1886 – Hella Wuolijoki born in Estonia, Finnish politician and writer using the male pen name Juhani Tervapää, best known for her Niskavuori series; served in the Finnish Parliament (1946-1947), and as director of YLE, the Finnish national broadcasting company (1945-1949)
- July 22, 1898 – Miriam Underhill born, mountaineer and environmentalist, on the first all-women ascent of the Matterhorn in 1932, developed “manless climbing,” all-women climbing groups
- July 22, 1908 – Amy Vanderbilt, American author and etiquette expert; Amy Vanderbilt’s Complete Book of Etiquette
- July 22, 1910 – Ruthie Tompson born, American animator; noted for her work on the Walt Disney animated classics Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Dumbo, andFantasia; one of the first three women to be admitted to the International Photographers Union; she retired from Disney in 1975, after working there for almost 40; she is the oldest member of Women in Animation
- July 22, 1913 – Licia Albanese born in Italy, American operatic soprano, noted for roles in Verdi and Puccini; founder of Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, sponsor of an International Vocal Competition, and offers study grants and scholarships to young singers
- July 22, 1915 – Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah born, Pakistani politician, diplomat and author, Ambassador to Morocco, delegate to the United Nations; wrote works in both Urdu and English including Behind the Veil: Ceremonies, Customs and Colour and From Purdah to Parliament
- July 22, 1936 – Geraldine C. Darden born, American mathematician, the 14th African American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics, from Syracuse University in 1967; co-author of papers on pre-calculus
- July 22, 1940 – Judith Walzer Leavitt born, American historian, professor of history of medicine, history of science and women’s history; author of books on the history of childbirth in America, and public health in Milwaukee; member of the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- July 22, 1954 – Ingrid Daubechies born, Belgian physicist (doctorates in quantum mechanics and theoretical physics) and mathematician; Professor of Mathematics at Duke University since 20011; Professor of Applied Mathematics at Princeton (2004-2011), the first woman to be a full professor of mathematics at Princeton; first woman president of the International Mathematical Union (2011-2014); known for her work on wavelets in image compression, the orthogonal Daubechies wavelet is named for her,and digital signal processing. Among other applications, she used these two fields to unequivocally identify forged Van Goghs; recipient of the 1994 American Mathematical Society Steele Prize for Exposition for her book Ten Lectures on Wavelets, and the 1997 AMS Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize; member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences since 1998, and has received numerous other awards and honors
- July 22, 1958 – Eve Beglarian born, American composer
- July 22, 1967 – Lauren Booth born, English broadcaster, journalist, anti-war activist and supporter of Palestinian rights; she began her writing career in 1997 at the London Evening Standard, writing the column ‘About Town,’ then moved to the New Statesman (1999-2002) and The Mail on Sunday, which sent her to report on the 2005 Palestinian elections; she was a presenter on In Focus at the UK’s Islam Channel (2006-2008), and started Between the Headlines at the Iranian-owned Press TV in 2008; senior producer at Al Jazeera in Doha, Qatar, since 2014
- July 22, 1973 – Ece Temelkuran born, Turkish journalist and author; columnist for the Istanbul daily newspaper Milliyet (2000-2009) and the Ciner Media Group’s newspaper Habertürk (2009-2012) and as a presenter on CMG’s Habertürk TV (2010-2012), which fired her because of her criticism of the Turkish government, especially after the December 2011 Uludere massacre of local villagers smuggling cigarettes on the Turkish border. She had been called Turkey’s “most read political columnist” and her work was been republished in The Guardian and Le Monde Diplomatique; she has published 12 books, including the non-fiction Turkey: The Insane and the Melancholy, and the novels, Muz Sesleri (Banana Sounds) and The Time of Mute Swans; awarded the 2008 Ayşe Zarakolu Freedom of Thought Award by the Human Rights Association of Turkey
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- July 23, 1721 – Anna Dorothea Therbusch born in Germany, Polish Rococo painter; elected to the Stuttgart Academy of the Arts, the Bologna Academy, the Académie Royale in Paris, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna
- July 23, 1844 – Harriet Williams Russell Strong born, American agriculturist, inventor, and conservation activist; pioneer of innovations in water storage and flood control; music composer; a leader of the West Coast woman suffrage movement; first woman member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
- July 23, 1889 – Anna Akhmatova born, Ukrainian-Russian poet and author
- July 23, 1892 – Icie Hoobler born, biochemist and physiologist, first woman to head a local section of American Chemical Society and to serve as its national president, Director of the Research Laboratory of the Children’s Fund of Michigan
- July 23, 1900 – Julia Davis Adams born, American author, social worker, journalist and playwright, known for historical and biographical novels, young adult books, and dramas; used the pen name F. Draco for Murray Hill mystery novels
- July 23, 1900 – Inger Margrethe Boberg born, Danish folklore researcher and author; first woman in Denmark to earn a Doctor of Philosophy, in folkloristics; worked as an archivist at Dansk Folkemindesamling (Danish Folklore Archive) from 1932-1957, but it didn’t become a full-time position until 1952, so she also took on temporary work as a school teacher. Recipient in 1945 of the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat, awarded to Danis women who make significant contributions in the sciences or arts, which enabled her to travel and further her studies; co-editor with Stith Thompson of the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature
- July 23, 1907 – Elspeth Grant Huxley born, British writer, journalist, broadcaster, magistrate and environmentalist; author of 30 books, the best known are based on her childhood on a Kenyan coffee farm; The Flame Trees of Thika
- July 23, 1917 – Barbara Deming born, American feminist and influential nonviolent activist, writer and poet, marched for peace, civil and women’s rights, and LGBT rights
- July 23, 1928 – Vera Rubin born, American astronomer; studied with Maria Mitchell at Vassar; she was the only graduate in astronomy from Vassar in 1948, then was barred from enrolling in the graduate program at Princeton, which didn’t allow women until 1975. Rubin got her Master’s at Cornell, and her PhD at Georgetown, in spite of having to battle sexism at almost every step. When the men at the Palomar Observatory told her, ‘It’s a real problem because we don’t have a ladies room,’ she cut a piece of paper into a skirt and stuck it on the male figure on the door to one of the men’s restrooms. She said, ‘Look, now you have a ladies room.’ Rubin did the pioneering work on galaxy rotation rates, uncovering the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion, by studying galactic rotation curves, which became known as the galaxy rotation problem, work that was compelling evidence of the existence of dark matter. Rubin’s results were met with great skepticism, but over subsequent decades, they were confirmed. She was a strong advocate and mentor of women in science; honored with numerous awards, including the Bruce Medal, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, and the National Medal of Science, but was never honored with a Nobel Prize
- July 23, 1928 – Ruth Whitney born, pioneering editor of “Glamour” magazine for 31 years (1967 – 1998), among first editors to introduce relevant social topics to a woman’s magazine, and featured the first African American on the cover (1968)
- July 23, 1931 – Te Arikinui (Paramount Chief) Dame Te Atairangikaahu born, Māori queen for 40 years, the longest reign of any Māori monarch; Te Atairangikaahu means ‘hawk of the morning sky’; in 1979, first Māori appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire; she was a strong supporter of Māori cultural events, and a spokesperson on indigenous issues
- July 23, 1940 – Danielle Collobert born, French author, poet and journalist; she worked at the Galerie Hautefeuille, a major art photography gallery, in Paris in the early 1960s while writing what would become her book, Meurtre (Murder), and her first published book, Chants des Guerres (War Songs); became involved in 1962 with the Front de libération nationale (FLN), Algeria’s nationalist movement, and wrote for the Algerian magazine Révolution Africaine until it stopped being published in 1964; joined the Writers’ Union in 1968, and traveled in Czechoslovakia, writing about the Prague Spring and its aftermath; committed suicide on her 38th birthday; her last work, Survie (Survival), published just three months before her death
- July 23, 1942 – Sallyanne Atkinson born, Australian Liberal Party politician and journalist; Lord Mayor of Brisbane (1985-1991), the first woman to be elected to the position; worked for the Brisbane Telegraph (1960-1962) and the Courier Mail (1963-1964); Alderman on the Brisbane City Council (1979-1985); since 2017, she has been the Chair of the Museum of Brisbane, and Council President of the Women’s College at the University of Queensland
- July 23, 1959 – Nancy Savoca born, American film director, producer and screenwriter; noted for True Love (which won the Sundance Film Festival 1989 Grand Jury Prize), If These Walls Could Talk, and The 24-Hour Woman
- July 23, 1970 – Thea Dorn born, German novelist and playwright; since 2004, also the TV host of Literatur im Foyer, a show featuring interviews with authors and book reviews
- July 23, 1976 – Judit Polgár born, Hungarian Grandmaster in chess, considered the strongest woman player of all time; achieved the Grandmaster title at 15 years, 4 months, breaking the Youngest Grandmaster record previously held by World Champion Bobby Fischer; she was also the youngest player to break into the FIDE Top 100 players rating list, ranking #55 in the world at the age of 12; in 2005, she became the first, and to date, only woman to qualify for a World Championship Tournament, to surpass a 2700 Elo, reaching a career peak of 2735, and to reach a world ranking of #8; she was the #1 ranked woman in the world from 1989 to 2014, when she was briefly overtaken by Chinese player Hou Yifan, but regained her #1 rank in 2015, shortly after announcing her retirement from competitive chess; only woman to win a game against a reigning World Champion, also defeated eleven current or former World Champions in at least one game. Currently coaching the Hungarian Men’s Team, which won silver at 2018 World Championships, crediting her in interviews for the team’s success
- July 23, 1978 – Lauren Groff born, American novelist and short story writer; known for The Monsters of Templeton, Delicate Edible Birds, and Arcadia
- July 23, 1999 – Colonel Eileen Collins becomes first woman to command a US spacecraft, Space Shuttle mission STS-93. In 1995, she was the first female shuttle pilot
- July 23, 2001 – Megawati Sukarnoputri becomes first female president of Indonesia after the President Abdurrahman Wahid is removed from office. She is given day-to-day control of the government beginning in August 2000 and serves as President from July 2001 to October 2004, but loses in the 2004 election
- Every July 23 — National Women in Engineering Day
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- July 24, 1868 — Marie Goegg-Pouchoulin founds the Association Internationale des Femmes, the first women’s organization in Switzerland, advocating for women’s rights and peace; she later leads a successful campaign for women’s admission to the University of Geneva in 1872
- July 24, 1889 – Agnes Meyer Driscoll born, American cryptanalyst, mathematician and physicist, who was fluent in French, German, Latin, Japanese and English; she enlisted in the U.S. Navy during WWI as a chief yeoman (highest rank available to women then) in the Postal Cable and Censorship Office, then was reassigned to the Code and Signal section of the Director of Naval Communications, where she became a leading cryptanalyst, and stayed on as a civilian, except for a two year stint working for the Hebern Electric Code Company on developing an early cipher machine. She returned to the Navy in 1924, where she was an early supporter of machine support to code cracking. Driscoll was a major player in breaking the Japanese Navy manual codes – the Red Book Code in 1926, and the Blue Book Code in 1930; early in 1935, she was a leading member of the team cracking the Japanese M-1 cipher machine used by the Japanese Navy for encrypting messages to their naval attachés in embassies around the world. In 1940, she was doing critical preliminary work on JN-25, the Japanese fleet’s operational code, before she was transferred to a U.S. team working on the German Enigma cipher, but their approach proved fruitless. She was reassigned in 1943 to a team already working on the Japanese Coral cipher, however, the code was broken by others shortly after her arrival. Driscoll was in the U.S. Navy contingent which joined the Armed Forces Security Agency in 1949, and then the National Security Agency in 1952. She retired in 1959
- July 24, 1892 – Icie Hoobler born, biochemist and physiologist; first woman to head a local section of the American Chemical Society and to serve as its national president; Director of the Research Laboratory of the Children’s Fund of Michigan
- July 24, 1897 – Amelia Earhart born, American aviator; first woman pilot to fly solo across the American continent (1928) and across the Atlantic (1932); in 1931, became an official of the National Aeronautic Association, promoted the establishment of separate women’s records; member of the Ninety-Nines (named for the number of charter members), a women pilots organization which promoted women in aviation; her plane went missing in the Pacific en route to Howland Island during an attempt to fly around the world in 1937; there have been numerous searches and theories about what happened, but no trace of the plane, Earhart or her navigator Fred Noonan has been found
- July 24, 1900 – Zelda Fitzgerald born, American author, poet and socialite; she and her husband F. Scott Fitzgerald became symbols of the Jazz Age in the 1920s. Her only published novel, the semi-autobiographical Save Me the Waltz (1932), was poorly received, but F. Scott Fitzgerald had insisted she make major alternations prior to publication, as much of what she had written overlapped events he was using in his as-yet unfinished novel Tender is the Night. It has since been reevaluated somewhat more favorably. She spent much of her life from the mid-1930s until her death in and out of sanitoriums. In 1948, she was locked in a room awaiting electroshock therapy when a fire engulfed the Highland Hospital’s main building in Asheville NC, killing her and eight other women
- July 24, 1920 – Bella Abzug born, lawyer, political activist, Democratic U.S. Congressional Representative from New York (1973-77), initiated proposal for Women’s Equality Day, wearing hats was her signature style
- July 24, 1953 – Claire McCaskill born, American Democratic politician; regarded as a “moderate,” she has frequently voted against her party’s positions, but has received a 100% favorable rating from Planned Parenthood on healthcare and abortion rights, and an “F” rating from the National Rifle Association; U.S. Senator from Missouri since 2007, and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee since 2017; served as Auditor of Missouri (1999-2007), Prosecutor of Jackson County (1993-1998),and in the Missouri House of Representatives (1983-1988)
- July 24, 1960 – Catherine Destivelle born, French mountaineer; first woman to complete a solo ascent of the Eiger’s north face (1992)
- July 24, 1966 – Aminatou Haidar born, Sahrawi (nomadic tribe of Berber-Arab heritage) human rights activist and advocate for the independence of Western Sahara, noted for non-violent protests; president of the Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA); imprisoned by Moroccan authorities in 1987-1991 and 2005-2006. In 2009, she was returning from a trip to the U.S. when her passport was confiscated, and she was expelled by Morocco for refusing to state her nationality as “Moroccan” which a Moroccan official called an “act of treason.” She staged a hunger strike after being forced back to her previous stop, the airport in the Canary Islands. The UN, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International all called on Morocco to allow her to return to her home, resulting in global headlines. After over four weeks, she was near death, and Moroccan authorities finally allowed her return, but she was placed under house arrest, and blocked from speaking to journalists. A month later, she returned to Spain for medical treatment, and was found to still be in poor health. Amnesty International reported that Haidar and her family were under constant surveillance by Moroccan security forces and were being harassed and intimidated. She has continued her non-violent struggle for the rights of the Sharawi people in spite of death threats and even physical attacks on herself and members of her family
- July 24, 1987 – Hulda Crooks, 91-years-old, becomes the oldest person to climb Japan’s Mount Fuji
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- July 25, 1291 – Hawys Gadarn born, “the Hardy” Lady of Powys; Welsh noblewoman whose father had the forethought to insure she was a subject of the crown of England in his will. When her father died in 1293, her brother was the heir, but when he too died in 1309, he designated Hawys as his heir, but she was still 17, so her four uncles became her guardians. They disputed her claim on the grounds that women could not inherit under Welsh law, and sought take the land for themselves, and force Hawys into a nunnery. She went to the Parliament of Shrewsbury to petition King Edward II of England in person, as an English subject loyal to the Crown. He asked her to nominate a champion of her rights, and she named John Charleton, who was one of Edward’s knights. Charleton led a company of English knights escorting her back to Powis Castle. The knights ably defended the lady’s claim, capturing three of her uncles. Hawys and John Charleton were married shortly thereafter, and she became known for her support of monasteries, including the building of the Franciscan monastery in Shrewsbury
- July 25, 1806 – Maria Weston Chapman born, America abolitionist and editor of the anti-slavery journal Non-Resistant and The Liberty Bell, an annual gift book featuring works donated by notable writers and used as a fundraiser for the cause; served on the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society (1839-1865)
- July 25, 1840 – Flora Adams Darling born, American author, historian, organizer, instrumental in the founding of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)
- July 25, 1871 – Margaret Floy Washburn born, American psychologist, known for her work in animal behavior and motor theory, first woman granted a PhD in psychology in the US, second woman to serve as American Psychological Association President
- July 25, 1873 – Anne Tracy Morgan born, American philanthropist and author, spearheaded and supplied funds for relief efforts to aid France during and after WWI and WWII; first American woman appointed a commander of Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur (French Legion of Honor)
- July 25, 1874 – Rose O’Neill born, American cartoonist, illustrator, writer and feminist; the first published American woman cartoonist (True magazine, 1896); creator of the popular comic strip Kewpies (debut 1909); she was the highest-paid woman illustrator of her day. Kewpies also became dolls, in several versions, first manufactured in 1912
- July 25, 1881 – Crystal Eastman, American lawyer, suffragist and writet
- July 25, 1896 – Josephine Tey born, Scottish author, known for mystery novels like Daughter of Time and historical plays written under the name Gordon Daviot
- July 25, 1898 – Kay Sage born, American Surrealist artist and poet
- July 25, 1900 – Zinaïda Aksentieva born, Ukrainian-Soviet astronomer, worked on mapping gravity and tidal deformation of the earth; Director of the Poltava Observatory (1951-1969)
- July 25, 1901 – Ruth Krauss born, American author, known for children’s book such as The Carrot Seed and poems for adults
- July 25, 1918 – Jane Frank born, American painter and sculptor, also known for work in mixed media and textile art
- July 25, 1920 – Rosalind Franklin born, British scientist, made contributions to understanding of the molecular structure of DNA which was foundational for work of Watson and Crick
- July 25, 1944 – Sally Beauman born, English journalist and novelist; worked for New York magazine, and was an editor at Queen magazine and The Sunday Telegraph magazine; also worked as an investigative journalist for several leading British publications; author of eight best-selling novels, including The Visitors
- July 25, 1954 – Sheena McDonald born, Scottish journalist and broadcaster; producer and presenter for BBC Radio Scotland (1978-1981), then worked for STV (a Scottish television channel – 1981-1986), then worked on several different programmes until she was struck by a police van responding to an emergency, and seriously injured in 1999, and was out of broadcasting for almost five years; currently presents a news programme for the cable channel Teachers’ TV
- July 25, 1955 – Iman born as Zara Abdulmajid, Somali fashion model, founder of an ethnic cosmetics company, and philanthropist; Super model active from 1976 to 1990, she went on to start her own cosmetics firm in 1994, specializing in difficult-to-find foundation shades for women, and expanding into the home shopping fashion market in 2007. She is actively involved with several children’s charities, including Keep a Child Alive, Children’s Defense Fund, and Save the Children’s East African programs. She played a key part in the Enough Project’s campaign against blood diamonds, including terminating her contract with the De Beers diamond conglomerate over ethics conflicts
- July 25, 1964 – Annie Applebaum born, American-Polish journalist and author; 2004 Pulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) for Gulag: A History; 2012 National Book Award Nonfiction finalist for Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956
- July 25, 1966 – Diana Johnson born, British Labour politician; Member of Parliament for Kingston Upon Hull North since 2005, Hull’s first woman MP; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools (2009-2010); Member of the London Assembly for the Labour Party (2003-2004); in 2014, she proposed a Bill that would require sex and relationships education, including discussions around issues such as consent, to be made a compulsory part of the National Curriculum
- July 25, 1967 – Ruth Peetoom born, Dutch Christian Democractic Appeal (CDA) politician, CDA Party Chair since 2011
- July 25, 1969 – Annastacia Palaszczuk born, Australian Labor politician; Premier of Queensland since 2015; Labor member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland since 2006; as Leader of the Opposition of Queensland (2012-2015), the first woman Premier of a state from an Opposition party; first Australian premier to have a majority of women ministers (8 out of 14); served as Minister for Disabilities (2009-2011), and for Multicultural Affairs (2009-2012)
- July 25, 1970 – Ariel Gore born, American author, editor-publisher of Hip Mama, alternative press publication covering the culture and politics of motherhood
- July 25, 1974 – Lauren Faust born, American animator, director, producer and screenwriter; known for creating the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- July 25, 1974 – Nisha Ganatra born in Canada of Indian subcontinent ancestry, film director, producer, screenwriter and actress, best known for her films Chutney Popcorn and Cosmopolitan
- July 25, 1984 – Svetlana Savitskaya becomes first woman to perform a spacewalk as a cosmonaut aboard Salyut 7
- July 25, 2007 – Pratibha Patil sworn in as India’s first female president (Indira Gandhi was India’s first woman Prime Minister)
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- July 26, 1745 – First recorded women’s cricket match takes place near Guildford, England. It was a match “between eleven maids of Bramley and eleven maids of Hambledon, all dressed in white,” according to The Reading Mercury
- July 26, 1869 – Donaldina Cameron born, social justice advocate in San Francisco. At age 25, she became head of the Presbyterian Mission Home for Girls, and began her battle to end the illegal smuggling of Chinese girls and young women by the Tongs to be used as prostitutes or slave labor. She rescued over 3,000 Chinese women held by the traffickers, developing a network of informers to discover the brothels and opium dens where they were held, then leading police to raid them, sometimes carrying an axe and chopping down doors or panels hiding the victims herself. The traffickers called her Fahn Gwai, “white devil.” Enlisting support from church and civil groups, as well as working with lawyers and legislators, she is credited with breaking the back of the early 20th century Chinese slave trade in the city
- July 26, 1900 – Sarah Kafrit born in the Russian Empire, Israeli teacher and politician; member for Mapai of the Knesset (Israeli legislature) between 1951 and 1959; a founding member in 1927 of the moshav (farmers’ collective) Kfar Yehoshua; member of the secretariat of Women’s Councils
- July 26, 1902 (?) – Gracie Allen born, actor and comedian, known as partner of her husband George Burns. Burns and Allen were inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1988. She always wore sleeves long enough to cover scars from a severe scalding accident in her childhood. Her birth year is uncertain, due to the loss of all records in San Francisco during the 1906 earthquake and fire
- July 26, 1923 – Jan Berenstain born, author and illustrator, co-author with her husband of children’s book series The Berenstain Bears
- July 26, 1923 – Bernice Rubens born, Welsh novelist; noted for Madame Sousatzka, and The Elected Member, winner of 1970 Booker Prize for Fiction
- July 26, 1925 – Ana María Matute born, Spanish author and member of the Real Academia Española; honored with the prestigious Miguel de Cervantes Prize for lifetime achievement Spanish letters in 2010; Fiesta al noroeste (Celebration in the Northwest) won the 1952 Café Gijón Prize
- July 26, 1945 – Dame Helen Mirren born, notable English actor, began her career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967; one of the few actors to achieve acting’s ‘Triple Crown’ – a 2007 Oscar and an Olivier Award for Best Actress as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen; and a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, for the same role in the play The Audience, which inspired the film
- July 26, 1950 – Anne Rafferty born, Lady Justice Rafferty, British justice; Lady Justice of Appeal of England and Wales since 2011, member of the Privy Council; first woman Chair of the Criminal Bar Association of England and Wales; also Chancellor of the University of Sheffield since 2015; High Court Justice 2000-2011; Deputy High Court Justice (1999-2000) Recorder (1991-1999), and Queen’s Council (1990-1991)
- July 26, 1969 – Tanni Grey-Thompson born, Baroness Grey-Thompson of Eaglescliff, British politician, and academic; born with spina bifida, she was a successful wheelchair racer (1984-2007), winning many gold and silver medals in the Paralympic Games and World Championships; after a stint as a BBC television presenter, she became Chancellor of Northumbria University (2015 to present); created a Life Peer in 2010, she took her oath of office for the House of Lords in English and Welsh
- July 26, 1980 – Jacinda Ardern born, New Zealand politician; Prime Minister of New Zealand, Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Mount Albert, and Leader of the Labour Party since 2017; Member of Parliament for the Labour Party List (2008-2017)
- July 26, 2016 – Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman nominee for U.S. President by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia
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- July 27, 1202 – Battle of Basiani: during the Georgian-Seljuk Wars, the army of Tamar, Queen regnant (1184-1213) of the Kingdom of Georgia wins a decisive victory over the army of Süleymanshah II, Sultan of Rum (Selijuqid ruler of Anatolia), north of Erzurum in what is now Turkey
- July 27, 1768 – Charlotte Corday born, Girondin assassin of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat; Marat was a key figure in the mass execution of the Girondins, who tried to stem the Reign of Terror
- July 27, 1841 – Linda Richards born, American nurse and educator, one of the first nurses professionally trained in the U.S.; establishes training programs in the U.S. and Japan, creates system for hospital medical records
- July 27, 1853 – Elizabeth Plankinton born, American philanthropist who inherited a fortune and a tradition of giving from her father, businessman John Plankinton; she never married because her engagement was broken when her fiancé ran off with a dancer whom he married instead; she gave $100,000 (equivalent to over $2.5 million USD today) for the building of the first YWCA hotel in Milwaukee Wisconsin, to provide affordable housing to unmarried working women
- July 27, 1853 – Lucy Maynard Salmon born, American historian and educator; pioneered the use of artifacts from everyday life – laundry lists, advertisements, bulletin-board notices, architectural plans, ledgers, packing slips – in historical research and in the teaching of history; first woman member of the executive committee of the American Historical Association; professor and founder of the history department at Vassar College. She was active in the National College Equal Suffrage League and on the Executive Advisory Council of the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage, and led the suffrage movement at Vassar, despite disapproval of the trustees and the college’s male president, James Monroe Taylor (1886-1914). His goals for Vassar’s graduates were characterized by his successor, Henry Noble MacCracken, as: “to be cultured . . . not leaders but good wives and mothers, truly liberal in things intellectual but conservative in matters social.” MacCracken continued, “Throughout Taylor’s term Vassar was a college for women developed by men.” Vassar students were finally given permission to form an on-campus suffrage club in 1914
- July 27, 1875 – Mary Olszewski Kryszak born, American educator and politician, Polish newspaper editor, librarian, and bookkeeper; served seven times as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly; in spite of her impressive list of accomplishments, when running for office, the national press stated that “Mrs. Kryszak ‘takes in’ hemstitching work at home when not engaged in lawmaking.”
- July 27, 1889 – Vera Karalli born, Russian ballerina, choreographer and silent film performer
- July 27, 1891 – Myrtle Lawrence born, sharecropper and labor organizer, worked within biracial Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union from 1936 to 1943, honored on the 1976 Bicentennial Freedom Train Exhibition
- July 27, 1906 – Helen Wolff born, editor and publisher, published many acclaimed translations under the imprint “A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book” at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, founded Pantheon Books with husband in 1942
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July 27, 1907 – Irene Fischer born in Austria, American mathematician and geodesist; she and her family fled Nazi Austria in 1939; she worked on stereoscopic projective geometry trajectories for John Rule at MIT; she then began her career (1951-1976) in the Geodesy Branch of the Army Map Service working on what became the World Geodetic System, rising through the ranks to branch chief; her contributions to geodetic science gave scientists a more accurate picture of the size and shape of the earth, and helped determine the parallax of the moon, crucial information for NASA’s Mercury and Apollo moon missions; National Academy of Engineering Member; Fellow of the International Geophysical Union, Inductee of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency Hall of Fame, and the third woman to be honored with the 1967 Distinguished Civilian Service Award, given by the U.S. Army to civilians for outstanding public service which aids accomplishment of the Army’s mission
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July 27, 1916 – Elizabeth Hardwick born, American author and literary critic, co-founder of The New York Review of Books; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; noted for her novel The Simple Truth, and four collections of her criticism
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July 27, 1930 – Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby born, British politician and scholar, one of the “Gang of Four” founders of the Social Democratic Party in 1981, served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords from 2001 to 2004, still active in the House of Lords and Professor Emerita at Harvard University
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July 27, 1930 – Joy Whitby born, English radio and television producer, director and writer of innovative children’s programmes for the BBC (1956-1967), including Play School and Jackanory; produced dramas for London Weekend Television (1967-1969); founded her own company, Grasshopper Productions (1970-1975); Head of Children’s Programmes for Yorkshire Television (1975-1985); since 1985, has produced animated films based on quality picture books; first TV producer to win the Eleanor Farjeon Award for contributions to children’s literature
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July 27, 1940 – Pina Bausch born, German dancer and choreographer, leading influence in modern dance, creator of the company Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
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July 27, 1951 – Roseanna Cunningham born, Scottish National Party politician, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform since 2016; Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs (2011-2014); Depute (deputy) Leader of the Scottish National Party (2000-2004); Member of the Scottish Parliament for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire Perth (1999-2011)
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July 27, 1955 – Cat Bauer born, American novelist; known for Harley, Like a Person (2002), which won an American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults award
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July 27, 1960 – Emily Thornberry born, British Labour politician and barrister who specialized in human rights law (1985-2005); Member of Parliament for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005; vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Choice and Sexual Health Group; advocate for affordable housing, the environment and gender equality, and an opponent of detention of terrorist subjects without charge for 90 days, and renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons programme
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July 27, 1968 – Sabina Jeschke born in Sweden, German academic and mechanical engineer; professor at the RWTH Aachen University; member of the management board of Deutschen Bahn AG, a railway company, for digitalization and technology since 2017, and involved with building the think tank “Strong Artificial Intelligence” at the Volvo Car Corporation in Göteborg
- July 27, 2006 – Peruvian president-elect Alan Garcia makes good on his campaign pledge to draw talent from across the political spectrum by appointing six women to his cabinet, including Peru's first female justice and interior ministers
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- July 28, 1609 – Judith Leyster born, Dutch painter during the ‘Golden Age’ of Dutch painting; her work was forgotten until 1893, when the Louvre bought a purported ‘Frans Hals’ painting which turned out to a Judith Leyster painting
- July 28, 1819 – Louise A. Knapp Smith Clappe born, American teacher and author, came to California in 1849; her letters to her sister giving her impressions of life in the gold-mining camps, were published as a serial in The Pioneer periodical, from January 1854 to December 1855; taught in San Francisco public schools (1854-1878)
- July 28, 1855 – Louisine Waldron Elder Havemeyer born, American philanthropist, art collector and patron, feminist and advocate for women’s suffrage, supporter of Alice Paul and patron of Edgar Degas
- July 28, 1866 – Beatrix Potter born, beloved English author-illustrator of Peter Rabbit and other children’s storybooks, naturalist and conservationist of the English Lake District
- July 28, 1866 – By a vote of Congress, Vinnie Ream receives a commission from the U.S. government for a statue of Abraham Lincoln. She was the first and, at the age of 18, the youngest woman to receive such a commission
- July 28, 1874 – Alice Duer Miller born, American author and poet, suffragist, known for satirical poems in her collection Are Women People? and the novel Come Out of the Kitchen
- July 28, 1879 – Lucy Burns born, American suffragist and women’s rights advocate, who formed the National Woman’s Party with Alice Paul; she attended Columbia University, Vassar College and Yale before becoming an English teacher at Brooklyn’s Erasmus High School (1904-1906), then, supported by her father, she continued her language studies in Germany at the Universities of Bonn and Berlin (1906-1909), and enrolled at Oxford to study English. It was during this time that she became involved with the woman’s suffrage movement after meeting the Pankhursts. She went to work for the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU – 1910-1912), and participated in organizing parades and demonstrations. She made numerous court appearances, charged with “disorderly conduct.” During one of her arrests in 1912, she met Alice Paul, also under arrest, at a London Police Station, and they decided to return to the U.S. and apply the tactics they had learned in England to the suffrage cause in America. Their partnership over the next eight years would make woman’s suffrage a national issue in the U.S., and pushed forward passage and ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Burns would endure more time behind bars and harsher treatment than any other American suffragist, including repeated violent forced feeding, and being chained overnight to her cell bars by her raised arms. She was one of the first people to define the term "political prisoner." By the time Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the Amendment, she was completely exhausted: “I don't want to do anything more. I think we have done all this for women, and we have sacrificed everything we possessed for them, and now let them fight for it . . . I am not going to fight anymore." She retired from political life, and devoted herself to Catholic charities and raising her orphaned niece
- July 28, 1908 – Dame Annabelle Rankin, Australian politician, second woman member of the Australian Senate, first woman from Queensland to sit in the Parliament, first woman appointed as Opposition Whip in the Senate, first Australian woman to have a feral portfolio (cabinet position) and first to head a foreign mission, to New Zealand
- July 28, 1929 – Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis born, American cultural icon; First Lady (1961-1963), started White House Historical Association; widow of John F. Kennedy, then married to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis; book editor for Doubleday; advocate for historic buildings preservation
- July 28, 1929 – Shirley Ann Grau born, American novelist and short story writer; her multi-generational novel, The Keepers of the House, won the 1965 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
- July 28, 1932 – Natalie Babbit born, American author-illustrator of children’s and YA books; Tuck Everlasting and The Eyes of the Amaryllis
- July 28, 1942 – Tonia Marketaki born, Greek film director and screenwriter; her first short film in 1967 resulted in her imprisonment by the Greek Military Junta (1964-1974); when released, she left Greece, and worked as an assistant editor in the UK, and director of educational films for farmers in Algeria. She came back to Greece in 1971, made three full-length films, Ioannis o Viaios (John the Violent), Krystallines Nyhtes (Crystal Nights), and I timi tis agapis (The Price of Love). She also directed a number of theatrical productions, and the TV series Lemonodasos. She died in 1994 at age 51
- July 28, 1946 – Fahmida Riaz born, Pakistani Urdu-language writer, poet, human rights activist, part of the progressive writers movement, and a feminist; she has published over 15 books of fiction and poetry, most considered controversial at the time, especially her second verse collection Badan Dareeda, regarded as too shockingly erotic and sensual for a woman poet. Founder and publisher of Awaz, a liberal and politically charged Urdu magazine, for which she was arrested and Awaz shut down. She was bailed out by a fan of her work, and sought asylum in India with her children and sister, where her husband, who had also been arrested, was able to join them after his release. They were in exile in India for seven years (1980-1987), before returning to Pakistan
- July 28, 1966 – Sossina M. Haile born in Ethiopia, Ethiopian-American chemist, whose family fled to America seeking asylum during the 1974 coup in Ethiopia, after her historian father was nearly killed. She is known for developing the first solid acid fuel cells, working in the field of sustainable energy technologies. Currently a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University and an editor for the Journal of Materials Research; previously at Caltech (1996-2015). NSF National Young Investigator Award (1994–99), Humboldt Fellowship (1992-1993), Fulbright Fellowship(1991-1992), AT&T Cooperative Research Fellowship (1986-1992), 2001 J.B. Wagner Award of the High Temperature Materials Division of the Electrochemical Society, 2000 Coble Award from the American Ceramic Society, and 1997 TMS Robert Lansing Hardy Award
- July 28, 1971 – Ludmilla Lacueva Canut born, Andorran author of fiction and nonfiction, columnist for the Catalan-language newspaper Bondia; her first published book, Los pioneros de la hoteleria andorrana, a history of the hotel industry of Andorra, won the Research Prize from the General Council of Andorra, and became a local best-seller for Saint George’s Day, when it is traditional for Andorran women to give men a book
- July 28, 2009 – Tanzania Women's Bank, under the leadership of Margaret Chaca, opens in Dar es Salaam. The idea started during the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair in 1999. Women participants petitioned Tanzanian President H.E Benjamin Mkapa, asking that the government facilitate establishment of a women’s bank, so women could open checking and savings accounts, and apply for loans, more easily than at traditional banks, which were not geared for small accounts and microloans. It took eight years to get the bank listed as a Registered Financial Institution with the Tanzania Central Bank, and two more years before it opened its first office. It now has three more branches
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- July 29, 1742 – Isabella Graham born in Scotland, American philanthropist and educator, leader in founding the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows, the Orphan Asylum Society and the Society for Promoting Industry among the Poor
- July 29, 1846 – Sophie Menter born, German pianist and composer; one of Franz Liszt’s favorite students, a piano virtuoso noted for her electrifying playing style
- July 29, 1884 – Eunice Tietjens born, American author, poet, lecturer, and WWI correspondent for the Chicago Daily News; editor at Poetry: A Magazine of Verse
- July 29, 1896 – Maria L. de Hernandez born, Latina activist, first Mexican female radio announcer. Helped start Asociación Protectora de Madres (1933) to help expecting mothers
- July 29, 1900 – Mary V. Austin born, Australian community worker and political activist; Regional Commandant of the Red Cross Society; National Vice President of the Australian Liberal Party (1947-1976); life member of the Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship
- July 29, 1903 – Diana Vreeland born, fashion icon, born in Paris, columnist (1936), then fashion editor at “Harper’s Bazaar” until 1962, editor in chief at “Vogue” (1962-71)
- July 29, 1905 – Mary Roebling born, first woman president of a major bank (1937), first woman American Stock Exchange governor (1958-1962), and helped establish first nationally-chartered bank founded by women (1978)
- July 29, 1918 – Mary Lee Settle born, American author; won 1978 National Book Award for her novel Blood Tie; founded PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
- July 29, 1932 – Nancy Landon Kassebaum born, U.S. senator from Kansas (1978-1997), first woman to represent Kansas in the U.S. Senate,instrumental in creation of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve; noted for co-sponsoring the bi-partisan Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act with Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy; was a strong supporter of anti-apartheid measures against South Africa in 1980s, and traveled to Nicaragua as an election observer
- July 29, 1936 – Elizabeth H. Dole born, American conservative Republican politician; first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from North Carolina (2003-2009), first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of Transportation (1983-1987), also served as U.S. Secretary of Labor (1989-1990), becoming the first woman to hold two different cabinet positions under two different presidents; president of the American Red Cross (1991-1999)
- July 29, 1940 – Betty W. Harris born, African American chemist, noted for work on chemistry of explosives at the Los Alamos National Laboratory; patented a spot test for detecting 1, 3, 5-triamino-2, 4, 6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) in the field; worked on hazardous waste treatment and environmental remediation; American Chemical Society member
- July 29, 1940 – Solita Collas-Monsod born, aka “Mareng Winnie,” Filipina broadcaster, economist, academic and writer; Director General of the National Economic Development Authority (1986-1989); Professor Emeritus at the University of the Philippines School of Economics, where she has taught since 1963; member of the UN Committee for Development Planning (UNCDP – 1987-2000)
- July 29, 1945 – Sharon Creech born, American author of children’s novels; first person to win both the American Newbery Medal, in 1996 for Walk Two Moons, and the British 2002 Carnegie Medal, for Ruby Holler; first American to win the Carnegie Medal
- July 29, 1946 – Ximena Armas born, Chilean painter, who lives in Paris; notable for the symbolism and mysterious quality of her artwork
- July 29, 1950 – Jenny Holzer born, American feminist artist, neo-conceptual art, often text-based in large-scale installations making use of billboards, projections on buildings, or illuminated electronic displays
- July 29, 1951 – Susan Blackmore born, British writer, lecturer and broadcaster, whose fields of research include memes, evolutionary theory, psychology, parapsychology, and consciousness; best known for her book, The Meme Machine; PhD in parapsychology – her thesis was titled “Extrasensory Perception as a Cognitive Process,” but after years of experiments, she has become a skeptic
- July 29, 1952 – Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou born, Greek politician; Member of the European Parliament (2004-2009) with the New Democracy, part of the conservative-centrist European People’s Party coalition; was Vice Chair of the EP’s Committee on Petitions, and seated on the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, and the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
- July 29, 1958 – Gail Dines born in Britain, radical feminist and academic; Professor Emerita of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Boston’s Wheelock College; an outspoken leader of the anti-pornography campaign, founding member of Stop Porn Culture, and author of Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality
- July 29, 1963 – Julie Elliott born, British Labour politician; Member of Parliament for Sunderland Central since 2010; vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on State Pension Inequality for Women; previously a regional organiser for the Labour Party (1993-1998) and for the National Asthma Campaign and the GMB Trade Union
- July 29, 1974 – “Philadelphia Eleven” deacons (Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Carter Heyward, Suzanne Hiatt, Marie Moorefield, Jeannette Piccard, Betty Schiess, Katrina Swanson, and Nancy Wittig) ordained as the first women Episcopal priests
- July 29, 1978 – Bidisha, born as Bidisha Bandyopadhyay, daughter of Indian emigrants; British filmmaker, broadcaster and journalist, covering international affairs, social justice issues, arts and culture, and international human rights; contributor to The Guardian and The Huffington Post, presenter for the BBC on Woman’s Hour, The Word and other programmes; author of Beyond the Wall and other nonfiction; does outreach work in UK prisons for the English affiliate of PEN International; launched her filmmaking career in 2017, directing a short, An Impossible Poison
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- July 30, 1751 – Maria Anna Mozart born, nicknamed “Nanneri,” older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, she was trained from the age of seven by their father Leopold to play the harpsichord and the fortepiano. She and her brother were taken on tour. She was a talented player, and sometimes received top billing in the early days, but her career was cut short when she reached the age of 18, the age her parents considered her marriageable. She was no longer permitted to perform in public. Dominated by her father, she was forced to turn down a marriage proposal from the man she loved, and was married instead to a magistrate, already twice a widower, with five children from his previous marriages. When she gave birth to her first child in 1785, she had returned to the Mozart home. Her father Leopold, for whom the boy had been named, took over the infant, raising him in the Mozart household until Leopold the elder died in 1787, and her son was finally returned to his mother. After her husband died in 1821, she returned to Salzburg, with her two children and four of her stepchildren, to work as a music teacher. In 1825, she became blind, and died in 1829 at the age of 78. Though she and her brother had been very close in childhood, their last visit was in 1783, and she received the last letter from him in 1788, three years before he died
- July 30, 1818 – Emily Brontë born, poet and author of Wuthering Heights
- July 30, 1852 – Emma Gillett born, American lawyer and women’s rights activist, co-founder of the Washington College of Law, the first law school founded by women
- July 30, 1893 – Fatima Jinnah born in British India, dental surgeon, biographer, stateswoman and one of the founders of Pakistan; she was a close advisor of her older brother Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who would become the first Governor General (1947-1948) of the new nation, and a leading member of the All-India Muslim League; after independence in 1947, she co-founded the Pakistan Women’s Association which did much to help the resettlement of women migrants. But after her brother’s death in 1948, she was banned from speaking on the radio until 1951, and her radio address to the nation then was heavily censored by Liaquat Ali Khan’s administration. She wrote a biography of her brother in 1956, but it wasn’t published until 1987 because of censorship, and accusations that she had written ‘anti-nationalist material.’ Even when it was finally published, several pages were left out. She came out of political retirement in 1965, to run for president against the military dictator Ayub Khan, but the military rigged the election. When she died in 1967, rumors spread that it was not a natural death, and her family demanded an inquiry, but the government quashed any inquiry. Honored by the people for her support of civil rights, her funeral was attended by almost half a million people. She is often referred to as Māder-e Millat (Mother of the Nation)
- July 30, 1939 – Eleanor “Ellie” Smeal born, women’s rights activist, co-founder and president of the Feminist Majority Foundation (1987) and publisher of Ms. Magazine, president of National Organization for Women (1977-1982 and 1985-1987)
- July 30, 1940 – Pat Schroeder born, U.S. Representative from Colorado (1973-1997), first woman to serve in U.S. Congress from Colorado, first woman on the House Armed Services Committee, promoted the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers (1997-2008)
- July 30, 1942 – President Franklin Roosevelt signs bill creating a women's auxiliary agency in the Navy known as Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (W.A.V.E.S.)
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- July 31, 1811 – Jane Currie Blaikie Hoge born, American nurse, welfare worker; fundraiser for the Union war effort; Chicago Home for the Friendless founder; Chicago Sanitary Commission co-administrator during U.S. Civil War; her Civil War memoir is The Boys in Blue
- July 31, 1816 – Lydia Moss Bradley born, businesswoman and philanthropist, managed her own fortune after the death of her husband, successful in real estate and banking, endowed the Bradley Polytechnic Institute, first woman member of a national banking board; first American woman known to draw up a prenuptial agreement to protect her assets
- July 31, 1831 – Sarah J. Thompson Garnet, American suffragist and educator, first African American woman school principal in the New York City public schools, founder of the Equal Suffrage League in Brooklyn
- July 31, 1833 – Amelia Stone Quinton born, American social activist, advocate for Native American rights, helped found the Women’s National Indian Association
- July 31, 1858 – Marion Talbot born; when she had difficulty gaining admission to Boston University in spite of her father being the dean of its School of Medicine, she became a tenacious supporter of higher learning for women, and campaigned against efforts to restrict equal educational opportunities; Dean of Women at the University of Chicago (1895-1925); established the first Midwestern regional meetings of college deans in 1902, and then Midwestern regional meetings for deans of women, beginning in 1911; co-founder of what became the American Association of University Women, and served as the organization’s president (1895-1897)
- July 31, 1860 – Mary Vaux Walcott born, American painter and naturalist, known for her watercolors of wildflowers, president of the Society of Women Geographers; her illustrations often published by the Smithsonian
- July 31, 1923 – Stephanie Kwolek born, American chemist whose career at the Dupont company lasted over forty years; best known as the inventor of Kevlar, for which she was awarded the company’s Lavoisier Medal for outstanding technical achievement, the first woman employee to receive this honor; also won numerous awards for her work in polymer chemistry, including the National Medal of Technology, and the Perkin Medal, given by the Society of Chemical Industry “for innovation in applied chemistry resulting in outstanding commercial development”
- July 31, 1879 – Margarete Bieber born, art historian and professor of art and archaeology, second female university professor in Germany (1919) before immigrating to the U.S., taught at Barnard College and Columbia University, published numerous academic texts, named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1971
- July 31, 1924 – Geraldine Hoff Doyle born, possibly model for WWII “We Can Do It” poster which came to symbolize Rosie the Riveters, women who became factory workers to support the war effort
- July 31, 1940 – Carol J. Clover born, American academic and author, authority on gender in films; author of Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film
- July 31, 1944 – Sherry Lansing born, American film studio executive; she went from mathematics teacher to actress (in two films) to script reader, then head script reader, at MGM, where she worked on The China Syndrome and Kramer vs. Kramer; she moved to Columbia Pictures; became a partner with Stanley R. Jaffe in 1979 in Jaffe/Lansing Productions; in 1980, Lansing was appointed as the first woman president of 20th Century Fox; in 1992, she became chair of Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Group, but left in 2004 when Viacom, after taking over Paramount, decided to split the company into two parts
- July 31, 1952 – Faye Kellerman born, American author of mystery novels; noted for her Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series, especially its first book, The Ritual Bath, which won the 1987 Macavity Award for Best First Novel
- July 31, 1956 – Lynne Rae Perkins born, American author and illustrator of books for children and young adults; her novel Criss Cross won the 2006 Newberry Medal
- July 31, 1958 – Suzanne Giraud born, French contemporary music composer and academic; recipient of the Prix Georges Enesco, and the Prix Georges Bizet; her work is often inspired by poetry, paintings, or architecture
- July 31, 1965 – J.K. Rowling born as Joanne Rowling, British author of the best-selling book series in publishing history, the Harry Potter fantasy series; film and television producer; and philanthropist; in 1990, she was a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International, and the Harry Potter concept was born while she was stuck on a train which was delayed for four hours; during the next seven years, she persisted in writing through the death of her mother, birth of her first child, divorce from her first husband and surviving on state benefits, before the runaway success of the first Harry Potter book in 1997; the series made her the world’s first billionaire author, a status she quickly gave up, donating much of her fortune to charity, including Comic Relief, One Parent Families, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain, the Shannon Trust, the English PEN Charity auction, and her own charity, the Lumos Foundation, which rescues children in orphanages separated from a living parent because of poverty or discrimination, and enables them to be reunited
- July 31, 1981 – Arnette Hubbard is installed as the first woman president of National Bar Association
- July 31, 1991 – U.S. Senate votes to allow women to fly combat aircraft
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