Women In History

I love the emails I get from everyone. The reactions to the Who Am I's featuring mostly women in history have been pretty positive. Some are surprised that they have never heard of some of these ground breaking women. I loved this email yesterday from DR and I think it could serve as very good subject to discuss.

"I really think it's almost criminal that our history books and classes in grade, middle and high schools don't include women like the ones you've featured on your blog. What fabulous role models, particularly as several, like Sabin, also left a "history" of caring and sharing with fellow workers, students and others. You know, if we'd "met" these women when we were in middle and high school, I suspect we'd have many more women today who would have similar bios. However, we were taught only about men and, even in the early sixties, women weren't a part of history and were expected to be teachers, nurses and wives and mothers. Can you imagine what the business and political landscape might look like today, if we'd known of these women, many of whom overcame incredible odds, many of whom were doing a hundred years ago the types of research, teaching, "politicking" and business that women have only very recently been accepted in? Thinking back, about the only women who were mentioned in history courses I recall were Betsy Ross and Clara Barton, with a nod to Grandma Moses and a passing reference to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Even today, these women you've introduced us to aren't mentioned. And what would it mean to the black community, if their children were introduced to and made acquainted with the black women you've found? And take it further and let's include the many black men who made profound differences in the lives of this country."

"Sorry for the soapbox, but tonight it just seemed to hit me that our social studies programs were sadly lacking in terms of being "well rounded" and I don't think that's changed much today and I think that's doing a disservice to our children, just as it was a disservice to us. Thank you for the incredibly informative history lessons you've provided and leading me to further explore these individuals. Even if I don't recall each one's particular contribution(s), there's the fact that they're wonderful examples of what women have and can accomplish, when they begin destroying boundaries and parameters and step outside the box."

Questions for the day. What did you learn about women in history when you were in school? What women did you learn of? If you have children in school today, what women are being taught about? If we had learned more about these groundbreaking women would that have that impacted society?

Besides the women above that DR mentioned we learned of Florence Nightingale in high school and Elizabeth Barrett Browning in college. However, I don't remember anyone else we learned of. I do think had we learned a lot of the groundbreakers like the first woman attorney, the first woman doctor, the first woman to break the sound barrier, the first African-American to become a cabinet member, the first woman to run for president, and so forth it most definitely would have inspired young female students to go for goals they might not have thought otherwise were available to them. What do you think?

TODAY'S WHO AM I ?

Yesterday's answer. The one that sparked DR's email. Florence R. Sabin

TODAY'S

I was born in 1936 in Texas to a mother who was deaf and didn't speak. I didn't know who my father was. My first job was in the cotton fields. I was raised by my paternal grandparents. I attended high school at an all black high school in Austin and graduated at age 16. I then went to an all black college in Austin and graduated cum laude with a B.S. degree in education. I tried to go to the University of Texas graduate school but didn't have enough credits, when I applied to their undergraduate school to get up to speed I was denied entrance due to their policy of not allowing African-Americans in their undergraduate program. I went on to a successful career and was hired in 1957 as a staff member for the new Texas AFLCIO, a major labor union. I later moved to Washington to serve on President John F. Kennedy's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, beginning twenty years of service in the public sector that culminated with my appointment in 1977 to a job once held by Alexander Hamilton. The first African-American to be so appointed to this cabinet position. I was responsible for the receipt and custody of government funds. Among other things I was a member of the American Delegation to Rome for the Enthronement of Pope John Paul II, and chair of a People to People Mission to the Soviet Union and China. Through a scholarship named for me, I will be remembered as a person who worked across racial, religious, and ethnic lines, and loved working with young people. In the Austin American-Statesman newspaper, Lavon Marshall, friend and colleague of mine, said, "She tried to share with them her hardships growing up and tried to encourage them to do better." I married in 1965. We had two daughters. I died shortly after my husband in 2003 from complications of a stroke. Who Am I?