July 12, 1995 - Episode 348 - Women of Achievement and Herstory

            B. July 12, 1880, Emily Gregory Hickman, world peace activist,
     professor of history New Jersey College for Women, quaintly
     described at the time as the distaff side of Rutgers University,
     chaired the Committee on Participation of Women in Postwar Planning,
     an organization that was spearheaded by Mary E. Woolley, president
     emeritus of Mount Holyoke College. Woolley saw that women would NOT
     be asked to sit at any of the international conferences after the
     second World War unless they forced the issue and she decided to
     FORCE the issue. 
            She called a meeting in 1944 of representatives from thirty
     women's organizations.  Twelve of them were represented at the first
     meeting and 61 others soon got involved. Some of the groups were
     the National Association of Women Lawyers, National Board of the
     YWCA, National Council of Jewish Women, National Council of Negro
     Women, and Women's Action Committee for Victory and Lasting Peace. 
            As a result Josephine Schain, Ellen S. Woodward, Elizabeth A.
     Conkey, Dr. Virginia Gildersleeve, Ruth Bryan Owen Rohde, and Emily
     Hickman participated in the post war decisions in various ways.

     07-12 .................................................

            B. July 12, 1865, Lucy Fitch Perkins, an artist and children's
     writer whose "twins" series sold more than two million copies.

            B. July 12, 1895, Kirsten Flagstad, world-renowned Norwegian
     dramatic and Wagnerian soprano, considered to have one of the most
     beautiful voices of the century. She was unjustly accused of being a
     Nazi collaborator and blacklisted in the US following WWII because
     she remained in occupied Norway to help her fellow countrypersons. 

            B. July 12, 1918, Doris Grumbach*, novelist, educator, critic.
     Contributing editor, _The New Republic_. Authored _Chamber Music_
     (1979), _The Ladies_ (1984), _Coming Into the End Zone_ (1991) and
     two other books of essays about her experiences with advancing age.
     (My personal favorite curmudgeon.)

            E. July 12, 1945, Col. Westray Battle Boyce was appointed
     director of the Women's Army Corps to succeed Oveta Culp.  The
     approximately 100,000 WACS who served in WWII were to be reduced
     to 30,000 or less after the end of the war with Japan.

     Quotes du jour ................................................

            "What we are going to do specifically is to nominate women who
     will be qualified for membership in any international body.  They will
     be able to sit with any international conference now being planned.
     First we are going to select those who are trained for such duties." 
            -- Mary E. Woolley, explaining the creation of a committee to
     force governments to accept women as part of the post World War II
     planning. 

            .................................................

     Don't let anyone tell you there weren't notable and effective women
     throughout history.  They were always there, but historians failed to
     note them in our histories so that each generation of women has had
     to reinvent themselves. 

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     >>(C) 1995 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR
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