Women’s History – Sharing History

WNBA: The Beginnings

June 21, 2024June 22, 2024UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On June 21, 1997, two WNBA teams took the court at the Forum in Los Angeles. That day, the L.A. Sparks and the New York Liberty would face off in the inaugural game of the WNBA, launching a league that has provided entertainment, encouraged young girls to participate in sports, and taken a stand against a number of social issues.

In 1997, the NBA created the WNBA, the women’s counterpart to the NBA league. Eight teams were created, all owned by the NBA, in cities that already hosted NBA teams. These eight teams included the Charlotte Sting, the Cleveland Rockers, the Houston Comets, the New York Liberty, the Los Angeles Sparks, the Phoenix Mercury, the Sacramento Monarchs, and the Utah Starzz. The first game of the league brought together the teams from the two largest cities: New York and L.A. Approximately 15,000 people gathered at the Forum on June 21, 1997 to see the two teams face off.

By 2002, the NBA allowed for the franchising of team ownership. Today, the WNBA has 12 teams in two conferences across the country. Today, the average WNBA game draws about 1.2 million viewers. However, despite the continually rising popularity of women’s basketball, it is estimated that women’s sports overall only receives about 15% of airtime on major networks. As recently as last year, ESPN did not place the NCAA Women’s Championship in a primetime slot. The WNBA also receives just a tiny sliver of the marketing power given to the NBA. The WNBA has also highlighted the gender pay gap. In 2024, the WNBA’s number one draft pick, Caitlin Clark, who plays for Indiana Fever, was given a contract for approximately $338,000 over four years. The NBA number one draft pick was given a contract for $55.2 million over four years.

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The Almost Amendment: Constitutional Rights for Women

March 22, 2024April 2, 2024UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On March 22, 1972, the U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. The Equal Rights Amendment banned discrimination on the basis of gender. As is law, once the amendment passed in the Senate, it was sent to the states to be ratified. 35 of the required 38 states ratified, but the amendment failed to be added in the end.

The proposed amendment was first written in 1923 by Alice Paul. Though the language has changed slightly, the idea remains the same: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” It wasn’t until March 1972 that the amendment was brought before the Senate and the House and passed. Upon its passage in Congress, a seven-year deadline was set for its ratification by ¾ of U.S. states. By the deadline, 35 of the 38 states had ratified. The deadline was extended to 1982 by a congressional bill; however, in the ensuing years, conservative and religious right Americans took up arms against the amendment, claiming that it would open the door to gender-neutral bathrooms and same-sex marriage. The deadline passed, and the amendment was three states short of being ratified.

In 1992, the 27^th Amendment, often called the Madison Amendment after its author, was added to the Constitution. This Amendment, which prohibits members of Congress from giving themselves pay raises during the current session, had been passed by Congress in 1789 but was not ratified until 1992. While this amendment did not have a time limit attached, its passage still opened up legal precedent for old ratifications to continue to hold power. In 2017, the state of Nevada ratified the amendment. Illinois followed the next year. In 2020, Virginia became the 38^th and final state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Constitutional scholars argue that upon this ratification, the Equal Rights Amendment became an official part of the Constitution, however, the final step, which requires the U.S. Archivist to publish the amendment along with the ratification documents has never been done. Unfortunately, the entire matter is embroiled in legal conflict, and no decisions have been made.

A 2022 survey done by the Data for Progress organization showed that 85% of Americans, including 93% of Democrats, 79% of Independents, and 79% of Republicans support Congress in passing the Equal Rights Amendment. However, efforts in Congress have been blocked by Republican leadership, leaving women in 2024 with no guaranteed Constitutional rights other than that of the vote. May they use it wisely.

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Happy Birthday, Barbie!

March 8, 2024May 7, 2024UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On March 9, 1959, Barbara Millicent Roberts was introduced to the world. Arguably the most iconic children’s toy in history, Barbie was an instant success from the day of her release. To date, over one billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide, and Barbie has been featured in art, film, magazines, and television.

Barbie was invented by Ruth Handler, who owned the Mattel toy company with her husband, Elliott and friend, Harold Matson. Ruth’s own daughter, Barbara, enjoyed playing with baby dolls, but as Ruth observed Barbara playing intently with paper dolls featuring adult women, Ruth felt that little girls needed a three-dimensional doll with which they could act out their future dreams. Thus, Barbie was born and named after Ruth’s daughter.

Barbie’s form has been criticized throughout the years for being an unrealistic and inappropriate representation of the female form. Mattel has addressed those concerns over the years; however, Barbie was, from the beginning, a symbol of female empowerment. Barbie broke the mold created by doll manufacturers; she was a career woman. In fact, she has had over 250 careers, including doctor, teacher, ballerina, astronaut, pilot, architect, renewable energy engineer, presidential candidate, and Olympic athlete. Barbie does not have a husband (though since 1961, she’s had boyfriend Ken, except during their breakup from 2004-2011), nor does she have children. She allowed young girls to imagine their lives outside of the traditional role in the family.

Barbie has never left the zeitgeist in the 60 plus years she’s been around, but she was pushed into the global spotlight yet again in 2023 when the movie Barbie directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie was released. Barbie was the top grossing movie of 2023, making over $600 million.

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The Queen of Existentialism

January 9, 2024January 8, 2024UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On January 9, 1908, Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris. de Beauvoir would go on to become an award-winning author, a feminist icon, and a prolific existentialist philosopher. She lived her life by the philosophy she espoused: “One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion.” She remains a significant influence in the feminist and philosophic spheres.

From an early age, de Beauvoir was interested in in education, philosophy, and writing. She studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, becoming the youngest person to pass the extremely competitive agrégation exam, a series of test and interviews to become a teacher. Her score was second only to that of classmate Jean-Paul Sartre, who became de Beauvoir’s lifelong intellectual companion and lover. For many years, de Beauvoir was a philosophy teacher, but she lost her job upon the occupation of Paris by the Nazis in 1940. It was then that she began writing. Over the next 10 years, de Beauvoir penned a number of influential works, including The Ethics of Ambiguity, America Day by Day, and perhaps her most notable work, The Second Sex.

The Second Sex has been named one of the most important works of literature of the 20^th century. It was a major influence of the Second Wave Feminist movement in the U.S., and many notable feminists, including Betty Friedan, were inspired by de Beauvoir’s work. It was, in fact, de Beauvoir’s studies in philosophy that led her to assert that women owed it to themselves to transcend the limits that the world placed on them and become what their hearts led them to be. This individualism is a main tenant of existentialism. Existentialists believe that every individual’s purpose is created by themselves rather than by the societal structures around them. As a philosopher, de Beauvoir was often written off as merely Sartre’s disciple. However, after her death, studies of her personal journals and correspondences with Sartre prove that the two exchanges ideas equally, de Beauvoir’s as original as those of Sartre. de Beauvoir is admired worldwide for those contributions and her writings are still incredibly popular.

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The First Female Governor

January 5, 2024January 4, 2024UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On January 5, 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross was inaugurated as the Governor of Wyoming, making her the first female to hold the office in the history of the United States. After her term as Governor, Ross spent the rest of her career in politics, becoming a director for the National Democratic Committee and the Director of the U.S. Mint. Her ambition and desire to do good is still an inspiration for women in politics today.

Nellie Tayloe Ross was born and raised in Missouri and attended a teaching college before teaching kindergarten. She met William Ross, a lawyer, and after their marriage, the two moved to Cheyenne. William ran for Governor of Wyoming in 1922 and won. The two moved into the Governor’s Mansion with their three sons. Almost two years later, two months before William was slated to run for reelection, he passed away suddenly from appendicitis.

Upon his death, the Democratic Party of Wyoming approached Nellie about running in her husband’s place. She did so, won, and was inaugurated in January 1925. For her first term, Nellie outlined 11 proposals she wanted the state legislature to pass, including giving state loans to farmers and ranchers, requiring budgets for cities and counties, designating more funds to the state university, and earmarking industrial jobs for women. She was able to get five of her 11 proposals passed. Ross ran for reelection in 1926 but did not win.

In 1932, Ross was given the job as Director of the Women’s Division of the National Democratic Committee. As such, she had a major hand in the campaign of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected that year. Shortly after his election, Roosevelt gave Nellie the job as Director of the U.S. Mint. She served as director for 20 years. Her outlook on politics throughout her career is perhaps best summarized in a quote she gave to the New York Times in 1925: “Men and women, we are all alike citizens, moved by the same love of country and entertaining the hopes and fears for its future. Conditions that affect one, affect all. Just as in the family the prosperity of the group is reflected upon each of its members, so it is in the State, and in so far as our activities promote the general welfare, in exactly so far do they promote that of both men and women. Both have the same responsibilities, and there is no plea for good citizenship that cannot and should not be made to both alike.”

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Alcott and Her Little Women

December 1, 2023December 3, 2023UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On November 29, 1832, famed author Louisa May Alcott was born in Philadelphia. She was born to two transcendentalist parents who filled her youth with idealism, books, and political activism. Alcott was taught by famed thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. With such an upbringing, it is hardly a surprise that Alcott grew into an intelligent woman with strong beliefs about women’s rights and abolition. Her fierce independence and wit is written into her female characters, providing inspiration for generations of girls and women, encouraging them to read, create, and be unfailingly themselves.

Lousia May Alcott’s father, Bronson Alcott, was a transcendentalist philosopher with a particular interest in education reform. During Alcott’s childhood, he started an experimental school in Boston and a utopian community in Harvard. Due to the nature of her father’s work, Alcott, her mother, and her three sisters lived in poverty, relying on charity and help from friends (including Emerson) to live. It was her family’s need that led Alcott to submit her writing to magazines. She wrote under a pseudonym, A.M. Barnard, which was not discovered to be Alcott until the 1950s. Under this name, Alcott wrote gothic thrillers and earned a small living to support her mother and sisters.

Alcott’s beliefs as an abolitionist led to her volunteering as a nurse during the Civil War. While working in a hospital, she contracted typhoid fever and was forced to return home. Her experiences as a nurse inspired Hospital Sketches, published in 1863. This work was immediately popular, and so, shortly after, Alcott was offered a job writing for a children’s magazine called Merry’s Museum. It was the editor of this magazine, Thomas Niles, who asked Alcott to write a novel for girls. While Alcott was not particularly interested in this project, her family needed the money, so she began in earnest.

Little Women is an autobiographical novel following Jo March (based on Alcott herself) and her three sisters: Meg, Beth, and Amy (based on Alcott’s sisters Anna, Lizzie, and Abby). The book follows these sisters and their long-suffering mother, Marmie, as they navigate life with their father gone at war, much as Alcott and her sisters would have done as their father was off philosophizing. The book was one of the first to feature educated, independent heroines and thus became an inspiration for many. Female writers in every generation since have acknowledged Alcott and her March sisters as guideposts for their own works. These writers include Simone de Beauvoir, Margaret Atwood, Susan Sontag, and Anne Tyler. The novel has been adapted into plays, movies, radio shows, and television series too many times to count. The novel has sold over 10 million copies. The grip Little Women has on us all has not diminished over the years. With any luck, it never will.

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Buy your copy of Little Women from an independent bookstore like this one: https://www.horizonbooks.com/search/site/louisa%20may%20alcott

The Mother of Modern Physics

November 7, 2023November 22, 2023European HistoryLeave a Comment

On November 7, 1867, Maria Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland. Born to two teachers, she was an incredible bright student, distinguishing herself among her classmates. Despite this, she was not allowed to attend the University of Warsaw, as enrollment was only open to males. She dreamed of moving abroad to attend a university that allowed women but had no money to do so. With so many obstacles in her way, it may have been hard for her to imagine that she would go on to discover two new elements, win two Nobel Prizes, and become a household name around the world.

In 1891, Maria did finally have enough money to get herself to Paris, where she enrolled at the Sorbonne under the name Marie. She earned degrees in mathematics and physics. While studying at the Sorbonne, Marie met Professor of Physics, Pierre Curie. The two married in 1895. While studying the work of physicist Henri Becquerel, Marie Curie performed experiments on uranium rays. She hypothesized that the rays came from the element’s atomic structure. When this hypothesis proved true, she had discovered radioactivity, a word Curie herself invented.

At this point, Pierre joined his wife’s research. Together they discovered the elements polonium (named after Marie’s home country) and radium. Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She was granted the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, alongside her husband and Henri Becquerel, for her work in radioactivity. She was the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 for her discovery of polonium and radium. After her husband’s untimely death, Marie Curie took over his professorship, becoming the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne.

Marie Curie died in 1934 as a result of aplastic anemia, a condition that causes the body to cease producing new blood cells. The condition is a known side effect of radiation exposure. Curie’s life and work changed the field of science immutably. Her research led to other discoveries that have changed our understanding of the world, including the discovery of artificial radioactivity and the existence of the neutron. She was the first woman to achieve many things, opening the door for generations of female innovators after her.

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Tokyo Rose: American Scapegoat

October 6, 2023October 6, 2023UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On October 6, 1949, an American woman named Iva Toguri d’Aquino was the seventh person to be convicted of treason in the United States. She was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison and fined $10,000 for her crimes. What exactly was her crime? Broadcasting a radio show to American troops during WWII.

Iva Ikuko Toguri was born in Los Angeles in 1916. Her parents were immigrants from Japan who had settled in California. Toguri attended school, earned her degree from UCLA, and worked with her father in his shop. A normal American girl, Toguri soon found herself living a nightmare when, in 1941, she traveled to Japan to visit her aunt. Before she could return home to the US, Japanese troops attacked Pearl Harbor, and Toguri found herself stuck in Japan, far from her family, who had been forced into an internment camp.

As she waited out the war, Toguri got a job as a typist at Radio Tokyo where she met Australian POW Major Charles Cousens. He and several other captured Allied soldiers had been brought to Radio Tokyo to be the voices of a Japanese propaganda show intended to discourage US troops posted in the Asia Pacific area. Cousens asked Toguri to be an announcer on the show, Zero Hour. She and dozens of other women who announced on the show became collectively known as “Tokyo Rose” by US troops who listened to it. However, the announcers of the show claimed to be trying to sabotage the propaganda program. Toguri repeatedly joked with her listeners that the show was Japanese propaganda, saying, “Be on your guard, and mind the children don’t hear!”

As the war ended, the US media set its sights on now-married Iva Toguri d’Aquino. Two reporters traveled to Japan, promising d’Aquino money for an exclusive interview. Desperately in need of funds, she agreed to the interview. Once her name was published by the American media, the government moved in to investigate. d’Aquino’s name became synonymous with treason, and years of American upset and aggression were heaped upon her. A year’s investigation yielded no evidence that her show was anything other than “innocuous entertainment.”

It was unfortunate then, that famous radio host, Walter Winchell, was unwilling to let it go. He continued to insist that charges of treason be brought against her. In 1949, the government capitulated to pressure from the media and American public and brought her case to trial. Despite people who testified on her behalf, she was declared guilty, sentenced to a decade in federal prison, and stripped of her American citizenship.

d’Aquino served about six years in prison before being released on good behavior. She fought the government’s deportation efforts and moved to Chicago. In 1976, two of the key witnesses from her 1949 trial came forward to say they were pressured into giving false testimony against d’Aquino. Shortly after, the jury foreman from d’Aquino’s trial said that the jury was pressured by the judge to deliver a guilty verdict. In 1977, President Gerald Ford pardoned Iva d’Aquino and restored her citizenship.

In the decades since the Tokyo Rose debacle, many reasons have been given for the obvious scapegoating of d’Aquino. There were certainly politics, racial discrimination, sexual discrimination, and media bias at play. Iva herself said, “I supposed they found someone and got the job done; they were all satisfied. It was eeny, meeny, miney, and I was moe.”

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September History Hits: Battle of the Sexes

September 19, 2023October 3, 2023UncategorizedLeave a Comment

On September 20, 1973, tennis star Billie Jean King faced down retired tennis player Bobby Riggs in a high-profile match that would come to be known as the Battle of the Sexes. The match was and is the most watched tennis match in history, viewed by over 90 million people worldwide. The match is considered a major event in the feminist movement of the 70s, encouraging women to participate in sports, advocate for equal pay in the workplace, and never underestimate themselves.

In 1973, women were just barely starting to be included in major sporting events. 1972 was the first year women were allowed to run in the Boston Marathon. Title IX was passed the same year, which required schools to provide funding for female sports. During these years, women’s tennis was becoming a more popular sport, and female tennis players were participating in their own tournaments. Many male tennis players were unsettled by this but perhaps none so vocally as Bobby Riggs. By 1973, Bobby Riggs was retired, but he looked for a moment of fame by challenging the top female players of the time to matches. He wanted to prove that even a mediocre, retired tennis player could beat the best female players.

Billie Jean King, now considered a feminist icon, understood the impact that such a match would have on women’s sports and the feminist movement. She agreed to face Riggs at the Houston Astrodome with a prize of $100,000 up for grabs. The 30,000 people in attendance watched as Riggs took the court wearing a jacket that read in bright red letters, “Sugar Daddy.” King was carried onto the field atop a litter resting on the shoulders of four men. King beat Riggs in three straight sets. When the match ended, Riggs approached King and said, “I underestimated you.”

Following her landmark victory, King never stopped campaigning for equality. She demanded equal amounts of prize money in men and women’s tournaments. She founded the Women’s Sports Foundation that provided women and girls with greater access to sports teams and defended Title IX in lawsuits. She founded the Billie Jean King Initiative, a non-profit that “address[es] the critical issues required to achieve diverse, inclusive leadership in the workforce.” She has also been a relentless advocate for LGBTQ rights. It turns out Riggs did severely underestimate Billie Jean King. In the Battle of the Sexes match and in the rest of her life, King showed the impact that one person can make in the fight for equality.

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Read more about Billie Jean King’s exceptional career and life in her autobiography:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/all-in-an-autobiography-billie-jean-king/8605037

September History Hits: Famous September Birthdays

September 12, 2023September 16, 2023Birthdays, World HistoryLeave a Comment

According to the U.S. Social Security Administrations, of the 10 most popular birthdays among Americans, 9 of them are in the month of September. If you have a September birthday, you are in good company. This month has seen the births of hosts of famous figures throughout history, including politicians, artists, and innovators.

Here are a few influential people born in the month of September:

Marquis de Lafayette was born September 6, 1757 to a noble family in France. At the young age of 19, Lafayette traveled to America to fight with the colonists in the American Revolution. He was a close friend of George Washington and convinced the French to send aid to the colonists, leading to the defeat of the British army. He was also an influential figure in the French Revolution and composed the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen,” the credo adopted by the revolutionary National Assembly.

Jane Addams was born September 6, 1860. The second woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, Addams is seen as a pioneer in the field of social work. She opened Hull House in Chicago which was part childcare center, part night school, public kitchen, gymnasium, and library. She worked with boards and charities in the Chicago area to educate people about childbirth and proper hygiene and sanitation.

Agatha Christie, born September 15, 1890, is considered the best-selling novelist of all time. Christie wrote 74 novels, most of them detective novels. Some of her most notable were The Mysterious Affair at Styles, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and Murder on the Orient Express, each featuring her iconic main character, Hercule Poirot. Her personal life was almost as mysterious as her books—Agatha Christie famously disappeared for 10 days in 1926, though nobody knows exactly where she went or why. Christie’s novels and characters have been adapted in television, movies, books, and plays. Known as the “Queen of Crime,” she helped to pioneer the detective trope that is so popular today.

Jim Henson was born on September 24, 1936. Henson became interested in puppetry while in college. He and his wife, Jane, created a show called Sam and Friends that appeared on a local television channel. It was as part of this show that Henson first created the iconic character Kermit the Frog. His characters became more and more popular, appearing on commercials and other nationally famous television shows. In 1969, Henson signed with Children’s Television Workshop, and they created the still-running children’s television show, Sesame Street. Here, Henson created characters recognized throughout the world, like Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch. In the 1970s, Henson created The Muppet Show. Kermit, Miss. Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Gonzo won Henson worldwide renown and several major entertainment awards.

These are just a few of the many notable people born in the month of September who have left great legacies across the world. What other famous figures born in September can you think of?

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