July 28, 1995 - Episode 364 - Women of Achievement and Herstory

      Born July 28, 1906, Maria Goeppert Mayer in Katowice, Poland, only
the fourth woman to receive the Nobel Prize (the second Polish woman) and
the first to be awarded it for work in theoretical physics (1963).  
      She developed the shell theory of the nucleus of the atom and
published her initial findings in 1955 in *Elementary Theory of Nuclear Sell
Structure* with J. Hans Jensen who shared the Nobel. Eugene Wigner also
shared in the prize. It is not unusual for the Nobel committee to recognize
several scientists in the same basic discovery field. 
      Mayer spent much of her research life in the U.S.  

07-28 Anniversaries ...........................................

      B. July 28, 1805, Giuditta Grisi, the Contessa Barni, famed Italian
mezzo-soprano.

      B. July 28, 1859, Mary Anderson, popular actor who appeared in
England as well in America.

      B. July 28, 1859, Mary De Navarro, one of the most widely acclaimed
actors of her day. 

      B. July 28, 1866, Beatrix Potter, English author and painter.

      Event July 28, 1869, the Daughters of Saint Crispin, an all-woman
union of shoemakers with a membership of almost 800 women, was
organized. Their ranks swelled to almost 1,000 as they campaigned for
better wages in the days HIStory books claim that women did not work
outside the home.

      B. July 28, 1874, Alice Duer Miller, novelist, playwright, and poet. Her
poem *White Cliffs of Dover* (1940) sold 125,000 copies in the first ten
months and eclipsed her 20 other books and became a very popular movie.
She was part of the famed Algonquin literary group.  Her 1933 novel
*Gowns by Roberta* was adaped into a Broadway musical *Roberta.*

      B. July 28, 1929, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Socially
prominent, she studied at Vassar, the Sorbonne, and George Washington
University before marrying John Kennedy whom she met while working as
a "camera girl" (why not photographer?) for a Washington newspaper.  She
was an editor for a major publishing company and raised her two Kennedy
children away from the public eye and without any of personal scandal
attached to them. Considering the fate of some of the other Kennedy
children, that was quite a feat.

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

      "A professional in a pinstriped suit can act like real trash.  Some
sober gray-flannel (wearers) have pulled stuff in the office that would
shame Billy Bob when he's had a snootful.

      "One woman in her 20s said a co-worker came into her office, buried
his face in her breasts and said, "It's cold out there, warm me up!"  She
told him, get your head out of my chest."  She went immediately to her
male superior who asked "Are you sure?"  She quit on the spot, making
herself a double victim.

      ". . .These men go for the powerless: secretaries, waitresses,
manicurists and sales clerks.  They go after the emotionally helpless:
women on the verge of breakdowns. Women who are newly divorced.  Young
women just starting out.  (Anita Hill was a 25-year-old lawyer in
Washington where young lawyers are as common as burger flippers and
have about the same status.)

      "...Powerlessness gives these men the perfect cover.  'Would someone
as important as I am go after this waitress, this junior accountant, this
hysterical woman?'

      "You betcha.  She doesn't have the money or the lawyers to
challenge you.

      "A victim has so little recourse.  An EEOC suit can destroy her
career even if she wins.  Refusing to have anything to do with the man
who harassed her will earn the ultimate corporate condemnation: `She is not
a team player.'"
      -- Elaine Viets, columnist, appearing in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

      ....................... * ........................

      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. 
                   -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
(C) 1995 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR 71902,
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