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Women's History

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RVInit
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Women's History

#1

Post by RVInit »

Not sure if this is the best place for this. But I wanted to start a topic where we can collect interesting women in history stories and information. Here's one to start!

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Re: Women's History

#2

Post by Volkonski »

Not so silent: the unquiet women of history

https://www.historyextra.com/period/med ... ary-lives/
Let’s face it: one can tire of reading about medieval queens and women saints. The former are invariably ascribed the role of femmes fatales, playing high risk games for power in a brutal world of dynastic rivalry. They are “men in petticoats”, to use philosopher Mary Astell’s marvellous phrase (more of her later). The biographies – more properly hagiographies – of women saints tend to be equally conventional: pious, littered with improbable miracles and mysterious foretellings and nearly always written by men (and celibate men, at that). Before the Age of Enlightenment [typically considered from the late 17th to the early 19th century], it seems, history’s women are either stereotypical tropes or they are invisible. Where are the stories of ordinary women’s daily lives; or the authentic voices of women writers and artists of the Middle Ages? Did they ever exist in tangible form; have they been buried by misogynist historians; or are we just not looking for them hard enough in the right places?

Perhaps ‘looking’ is not the right word. As an archaeologist turned historian, I have come to realise that one must turn a fine-tuned ear to the chorus of unquiet women whose agency and experience runs through all our pasts. By ‘unquiet’, I mean the sort of curious, intrepid minds and spirits who have found ways to negotiate access to social, artistic and intellectual fulfilment – often, it is true, against the odds. These sorts of women have always interested me. I come from a very large family of strong aunts and women cousins who, though they might not call themselves feminists, have managed, in otherwise unremarked careers as mothers and householders, to express their restless spirit through creativity and moral authority. What stories, I wonder, will they leave behind for future historians?

Where do we find such women in history? Especially in written history, which until the Reformation was dominated by unmarried men in closed monastic communities whose experience of women was as a species of wild, unfathomable creatures. The archaeologist, at least, starts with an advantage: in death, if not life, women achieve equality – that is, we excavate as many women as men. Over the generations, these women have gone to their graves with as rich a cornucopia of goods, pathologies and ceremonial signatures as men. And in life, if we listen carefully, we can hear their authentic voices. The graves of medieval women tell us that they held the keys to their houses; that they were in charge of domestic livestock; that they valued ornament and style. Sometimes, enigmatic grave assemblages suggest that we are witnesses to the careers of professional healers, cunning women [folk healers] or shamans.

The artefacts that women dropped during their daily lives tell us much more. Take the women weavers who lived in West Stow, an Anglo-Saxon village in Suffolk during the fifth to seventh centuries (now an open air museum). We know that whatever they were up to at the site, they were also spinning yarn; they dropped spindles and whorls everywhere, and took many more to their graves. Each item tells us something unique about the fineness of the yarn being spun and the skill of the spinner. We know that women congregated in workshops to weave and embroider a range of fabrics, from the everyday to the ceremonial, on vertical looms. Finds from other sites tell us that tablet weave – narrow bands with the warps drawn through small pierced cards that enabled intricate symmetrical and geometric patterns to be created for cuffs, hems and collars – was a means for women to express traditional designs passed down through generations, to be worn and displayed by their favoured friends and family. Women could and did advertise their craft skills, their social and family affiliations, and their commercial wares. They had, to use a fashionable phrase, agency.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Women's History

#3

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperi ... t-us-moon/
The Women Who Brought Us the Moon
FROM THE COLLECTION: WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY


In 1965, Poppy Northcutt was the only female engineer at NASA’s Houston Mission Control. As she gazed at the men around her she thought to herself, I’m as smart as they are. Although she belonged among them, it was undeniably difficult to be the only woman in what sometimes felt like the domain of men.

As isolated as Northcutt felt in the historic control center, she was one of thousands of women who began their careers at NASA as computers. It was a job created before the advent of electronic machines, when human aptitude was required to perform all the mathematical calculations needed for experiments. Women have historically filled these positions, as exemplified by the groups of female computers who worked at the Harvard Observatory and the Royal Observatory Greenwich in the late 1800s. At NASA, these women came from all over the world, working at centers across the United States, and comprising a diverse and potent force in space exploration. Their calculations would ultimately be responsible for sending astronauts to the moon.

Unlike Northcutt, Sue Finley noticed the ubiquitous presence of female employees when she started work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Not only was her supervisor a woman, but all of her coworkers in the computing section were as well. It was January 31, 1958, and the country was on the precipice of historic achievement. That evening the laboratory would finally catch up with Sputnik 1 and 2, the world’s first satellites, launched by the Soviet Union in October and November of 1957. In mission control that night, it was one woman, Barbara Paulson, who tracked Explorer 1, America’s first satellite, as it left Earth’s atmosphere and entered space. When Paulson declared that the satellite had made it into Earth’s orbit, the room erupted in celebration. Although it would be another six months before NASA was officially formed, for those at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory the moon was already in their sights.



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Re: Women's History

#4

Post by Volkonski »

Texas school scraps chivalry assignment that had girls 'obey any reasonable request of a male'
“Outside the classroom, ladies cannot show intellectual superiority if it would offend the men around them," one prompt in the assignment said.


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/te ... d_nn_tw_ma
A Texas school district has pulled an assignment on chivalry that prompted widespread outrage after images of the lesson circulated online.

Some parents complained about the English assignment, which included rules on how female students at Shallowater High School outside Lubbock should conduct themselves around their male classmates.

"Hear Ye, Hear Ye Ladies," the lesson began. "The ladies ... will demonstrate to the school how the code of chivalry and standards set in the medieval concept of courtly love carries over to the modern day."

The lesson called for them to dress in "a feminine manner to please the men" and to "address all men respectfully by title, with a lowered head and curtsy." It instructed them to "never criticize a male," "initiate a conversation" or "whine." It directed them to "walk behind men or walk daintily, as if their feet were bound." And they were told to cook, clean and "obey any reasonable request of a male. If not sure if it is considered reasonable, ladies can check with their teachers.”
:roll: Small wonder this caused a fuss. This could get out of hand very easily.

The male students also had rules to follow-

They were to-

call girls "milady".

"pay all expenses" when taking them out.

"...rise when a lady walks into a room and bow when greeting a lady.

The males certainly got the better deal in this role play. That was the way it was from medieval times well into the 20th Century. Some men still think this is the way things should be.

In my youth having the guy pay the expenses when on dates was still the usual thing. Standing when a lady entered a room was still considered appropriate in some settings. We guys then were also taught to hold the door for women, to offer them our seats on a crowded bus, to take our hats off indoors and to wear a hat when outside.

The male breadwinner/stay at home mother division of labor was still common then too. At least until the children reached college age and the mothers went out and got jobs to pay for tuition. ;)

Things have changed greatly in the last 50 years. A lot of old attitudes that held women back have been cast into the dust bin of history. In my freshman class in college the ratio of males to females was 16 to 1. Last fall the ratio at that school for all undergraduates was 53 to 47.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Women's History

#5

Post by pipistrelle »

Volkonski wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:43 pm The male breadwinner/stay at home mother division of labor was still common then too.
I know this was tongue in cheek based on what followed, but in medieval times most poor people worked, men, women, and children, just to stay alive. Brewing was a popular profession for women, probably because you could do it from home and the product was, ummm, well received.
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Re: Women's History

#6

Post by Volkonski »

pipistrelle wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:57 pm
Volkonski wrote: Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:43 pm The male breadwinner/stay at home mother division of labor was still common then too.
I know this was tongue in cheek based on what followed, but in medieval times most poor people worked, men, women, and children, just to stay alive. Brewing was a popular profession for women, probably because you could do it from home and the product was, ummm, well received.
That was still mostly true in this country up to the civil war. I'm thinking for example of the subsistence farmers on the North Fork who remained such until the railroad came thru which opened new markets for them.

The male breadwinner/stay at home mother thing came out of industrialization which resulted in many people moving to cities where the men worked all day away from their homes and families bought food rather than growing it. Post WW II suburbanization reinforced this. The unrivaled prosperity of the 1950's and 1960's allowed many families to live comfortably on a single income. That was the world I was born into. Certainly in elementary school most of my friends' mothers didn't work outside the home. Most of their fathers had good paying factory jobs.

Then in the 1970's the factories started closing but that's another story.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Women's History

#7

Post by Suranis »

Coming from a farming Background that is cerrtainly true. Men and woman had different jobs its true, but everyone worked. Milking cows was regarded as "womens work," for example. I pretty much could be said to have done slave labour till I was in my 20s, and even now when I visit my mother I do various jobs to help her run the farm, and I dont get paid anything other than room and board.

Oh and as for the comment above about Monestries filled with Clueless Monks... Nuns worked too, and worked damn hard, even in the Middle ages. Both monestries and Convents were expected to be largely self sufficiant, unless they had the patronage of the local rich lord, and that meant Farming etc. You had to eat well as a Nun or Friar or you would drop dead with the amount of work they had to put in, male or female. A friend of mine lived with Nuns in her youth, and she said they ate some seriously good food.
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Re: Women's History

#8

Post by Slim Cognito »

I watch Horrible Histories, over and over and over. It's a hilarious BBC educational show. One episode featured Boudicca and this kick-ass video. This still earworms me, but I don't mind.

She led the Celtic fight to drive Rome out of Britain after her husband, the Chieftain, passed. Because Rome was such a patriarchal society, the knowledge that a woman was kicking their ass really kicked their ass.

The video is a short version of her story, but there's lots more out there in the intertubz. Lots of ass kicking.

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Re: Women's History

#9

Post by AndyinPA »

:lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Women's History

#10

Post by Uninformed »

May be the wrong thread. History lives. Courtesy of Stonekettle.

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Re: Women's History

#11

Post by p0rtia »

Yes, because on Earth 2, being considered to be a "trophy wife" is a good thing.

That's why they call it Earth 2.
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Re: Women's History

#12

Post by MsDaisy »

Uninformed wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 11:05 am May be the wrong thread. History lives. Courtesy of Stonekettle.

But his dumpy self doesn't matter as long as he has a trophy wife, right? :roll:
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Re: Women's History

#13

Post by AndyinPA »

p0rtia wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 4:34 pm Yes, because on Earth 2, being considered to be a "trophy wife" is a good thing.

That's why they call it Earth 2.
I think that might actually be Earth 1.
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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Re: Women's History

#14

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

First pilot license for a woman 3-8-1910

Raymonde de Laroche, a plumber's daughter from Paris, having convinced an aviator friend, Charles Voisin, to instruct her in how to fly an airplane, demonstrates her flying skills to the Aero-Club of France, which awards her a pilot's license, the first ever issued to a woman.
My godmother was a pilot and a pilot instructor during WWII. She lost her leg when a student pilot crashed the plane.
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Re: Women's History

#15

Post by Estiveo »

Estiveoshot_20210308_061458.jpg
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Re: Women's History

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Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

Brava!!!! The Egyptians used Pharoah.
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Re: Women's History

#17

Post by p0rtia »

AndyinPA wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 5:31 pm
p0rtia wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 4:34 pm Yes, because on Earth 2, being considered to be a "trophy wife" is a good thing.

That's why they call it Earth 2.
I think that might actually be Earth 1.
It's a good thing now to be called a trophy wife on Earth 1? Hm. I must live in an ivory tower.
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Re: Women's History

#18

Post by AndyinPA »

p0rtia wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 9:57 am
AndyinPA wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 5:31 pm
p0rtia wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 4:34 pm Yes, because on Earth 2, being considered to be a "trophy wife" is a good thing.

That's why they call it Earth 2.
I think that might actually be Earth 1.
It's a good thing now to be called a trophy wife on Earth 1? Hm. I must live in an ivory tower.
I understand how they are using Earth 2 these days, but I think patriarchy has been around on Earth (1) for a long time. ;)
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Re: Women's History

#19

Post by p0rtia »

AndyinPA wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 9:59 am
p0rtia wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 9:57 am
AndyinPA wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 5:31 pm

I think that might actually be Earth 1.
It's a good thing now to be called a trophy wife on Earth 1? Hm. I must live in an ivory tower.
I understand how they are using Earth 2 these days, but I think patriarchy has been around on Earth (1) for a long time. ;)
I'm up on my E1 patriarchy, but my E1 dictionary still says that being called a trophy wife is an insult and has been since it was first used. Exactly because of the patriarchy on E1. Yes/no?

Perhaps my syntax was confusing. I'm actually curious to know if you truly think it's a compliment to call a woman a trophy wife, and if so, where you picked that definition up?

(On a related note: One of the linguistic highlights of the MAGA/Faux News crowd is the way they reverse otherwise butcher the perceived meaning of words (and not in the normal way in which as times passes, meanings change). It helps sustain their delusion.)
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Re: Women's History

#20

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There's a lot of things that need to change. One specifically? Police brutality.
--Colin Kaepernick
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Re: Women's History

#21

Post by Volkonski »

10 million more underage girls may be forced to marry due to pandemic, Unicef report shows

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-56292247 ... 40BBCWorld
According to Unicef estimates, even before the pandemic struck it was predicted that 100 million children would have been forced into marriage in the next 10 years. But now that figure is even higher, with a projected 10% increase.

Global school closures, the economic downturn and the interruption of support services for families and children have made girls more likely to become wives before legal adulthood by 2030, the report says.

"These figures tell us that the world is ecoming a tougher place for girls," Nankali Maksud, senior advisor for Prevention of Harmful Practices at Unicef, told the BBC.

Abeba said that she managed to get out of her arranged marriage because she won her father over. "My mother and brothers, they kept pushing me to get married. They finally relented when my family got counselling and officials persuaded them to change their minds."
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Women's History

#22

Post by Volkonski »

Michelle Obama to be inducted into U.S. National Women's Hall of Fame

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... ce=twitter
Former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama will be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame along with eight other women including former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, soccer icon Mia Hamm and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who died last year.

The National Women’s Hall of Fame named the members of its Class of 2021 set to be inducted on Oct. 2 on Monday.

Others in the list include author Octavia Butler, who died in 2006, Rebecca Halstead, who had a near three-decade career in the military, poet Joy Harjo, artist Judy Chicago and activist Emily Howland, who died in 1929 and had taught formerly enslaved people how to read and write in refugee settlements where she worked during the American Civil War.

Snip-

“The National Women’s Hall of Fame will celebrate the inclusion of these extraordinary women into the Hall at the biennial in-person induction ceremony on October 2, 2021.”
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Women's History

#23

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

Antonia Novello is first woman surgeon general

Antonia Coello Novello is sworn in as the 14th surgeon general of the United States under the George H.W. Bush administration. Hailing from Puerto Rico, she's both the first woman and first person of color to hold the office. Her tenure will focus on issues like underage smoking, the AIDS crisis, and immunization.
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Re: Women's History

#24

Post by AndyinPA »

p0rtia wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 10:06 am
AndyinPA wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 9:59 am
p0rtia wrote: Mon Mar 08, 2021 9:57 am

It's a good thing now to be called a trophy wife on Earth 1? Hm. I must live in an ivory tower.
I understand how they are using Earth 2 these days, but I think patriarchy has been around on Earth (1) for a long time. ;)
I'm up on my E1 patriarchy, but my E1 dictionary still says that being called a trophy wife is an insult and has been since it was first used. Exactly because of the patriarchy on E1. Yes/no?

Perhaps my syntax was confusing. I'm actually curious to know if you truly think it's a compliment to call a woman a trophy wife, and if so, where you picked that definition up?

(On a related note: One of the linguistic highlights of the MAGA/Faux News crowd is the way they reverse otherwise butcher the perceived meaning of words (and not in the normal way in which as times passes, meanings change). It helps sustain their delusion.)
The comment was meant as snark on patriarchy, not on a trophy wife, which I would never consider okay.
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Re: Women's History

#25

Post by roadscholar »

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