Woman Warrior: Joan of Arc - A Hero's Tribute

Monday, May 30th is celebrated as the Feast of Joan of Arc.  In truth, this is the day in 1431 that she was burned at the stake for witchcraft.  At the age of 17, she believed that she heard the voice of God call upon her to act.  And act she did.  She raised an army and overcame the British invasion of France in 15 months time.  Instead of celebrating her as a hero, the French bishops labelled her a "heretic, apostate, idolater" and they burned her.  But, Pope Benedict XV canonized her a saint nearly 500 years later on May 16, 1920 so it's all good.  No harm done, right?

Joan of Arc Chain Maille Millais Art Necklace by Mermaiden Creations

Joan of Arc is a shield maiden in it's truest form, a warrior woman, a battle maiden, and perhaps one of the strongest women in history.  She put on her armor and picked up her sword not for glory, but in defense and for love of her country, her people, and her God.  She was a 17 year old girl in 1431.  If you ask common society, she should have been wearing a dress, sewing, cooking, making babies, or any other "women's work" that they deemed fit.  Joan had plans of her own.  She listened to her intuition, was brave, and never wavered from what she knew she had to do to save her country.  She was questioned and tortured and yet remained fearless in her belief.

May 30th, the day Joan was burned at the stake, was the day that she was condemned for being a strong, fearless woman.  Take today to honor her as a hero, not just to her country but to womankind.  Decide today to be fearless, to be courageous, to stand up for what you believe in.  Listen to the voice (for Joan, it was God; for you it might be intuition) inside you to do what you you know is right, what you believe in, what your passion tells you to do.  Believe in yourself and your convictions.  Be a Hero.

Woman Warrior: Alice Ramsey

Today, was like any other day: my alarm went off, I got ready for work, I got in my truck... and then nothing. My truck didn't start. The same thing happened the other day, but I was kind of just hoping that the battery just got run down. I took out the battery charger (again), but this time it didn't hold a charge. Despite the fact that I was just sitting in my driveway, I called AAA. The technician was there in less than an hour and... get this... it was a woman!! You know that I was thrilled to see a woman working in a field that is dominated by men.

That got me to thinking about my woman warrior series and women who have made strides in the automobile industry. A little bit of looking around led me to Alice Ramsey. In a time when women still didn't have the right to vote and were far from independent, Alice Ramsey was the first woman to drive across the United States. It was 1909 and she was 22 years old. She drove a dark-green, four-cylinder, 30-horsepower 1909 Maxwell DA, a touring car with two bench seats and a removable pantasote roof. The highest speed it reached: 42 miles per hour. At this time, it was typical to see women travel short distances, but a cross-country trip had been tried only a handful of times and never accomplished. Only six years had passed since Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson’s 1903 drive marked the first male cross-country success.


We take some things for granted with our cars today: at that time, the sheer physical triumph of survival of a cross country trip was impressive. Though the Maxwell-Briscoe Company published an ad stating that the group (Ramsey traveled with her two sisters-in law and a friend) traveled “without a particle of car trouble,” this was far from the truth. Ramsey had fixed at least one tire blowout and had called for a mechanic to repair a coil in Syracuse, waiting near their car as someone in the crowd cried “Get a horse!” as Ramsey would recall. In the Midwest, the car ran out of gas. The women had forgotten to check the tank, a process that required the driver and her seatmate to leave the car, remove the front seat cushion, and stick a ruler into the Maxwell’s specially fitted 20-gallon fuel tank. The next day, moving through mud in low gear overworked the car, and the transmission needed water. There was no extra on board, so her two sisters-in-law proved their mettle by using their toothbrush and toiletries holders—made of cut-glass and sterling silver—to transport water ounce by ounce from road-side ditches to the radiator. Some potholed, muddy roads proved practically impassable for the tread-less tires. It was slow-moving and, in one case, no-moving: the women slept beside an overflowed creek until the water receded enough that they could ford it.

Because the automobile industry was yet in its infancy, America’s roads were not yet designed for long-distance driving. For navigation, Ramsey relied on the Blue Book series of automotive guides, which gave directions using landmarks. But sometimes the route changed faster than the books. The women struggled to find a “yellow house and barn” at which they were supposed to turn left; a horse-loyal farmer had deliberately foiled drivers by repainting in green. Worse, there were no books for regions west of the Mississippi River. The Maxwell took worn routes, at crossroads following the telegraph poles “with the greatest number of wires,” according to Ramsey. On certain days, the Maxwell-Briscoe Company hired pilot cars familiar with the area to lead them. Even so, the party sometimes hit a dead end at a mine or sandpit and had to backtrack for miles.

Finally, on August 7, 1909, and they had made it. In total, the trip had taken 59 days and covered 3,800 miles from New York to California.

After her brief bout with fame, Ramsey returned to New Jersey by train, where she resumed a relatively low-key profile raising two children. She continued her cross-country drives, losing count after her thirtieth. In 1960, the Automobile Manufacturers Association named her their “First Lady of Automotive Travel” for her trek across a “trackless land.” The next year Ramsey published Veil, Duster, and Tire Iron, a chronicle of the 1909 trip. She later drove five of the six passes of the Swiss Alps, giving up the last under doctor’s orders regarding her pacemaker. Ramsey died in 1983.

It's crazy for me to think that even today, in our forward thinking society, there are some women that don't even know how to fill up their gas tank, that simply look at their engine and get intimidated. And then you look back at a brave, pioneer like Alice Ramsey... I don't know about you, but it makes me want to get greasy and learn about the inside of my truck.

Woman Warrior: Ada Lovelace

It's been way too long since I've done a Woman Warrior post and it's mind boggling to me how I missed Ada Lovelace Day yesterday. Actually, I know how it happened, I was thrilled to distraction with the sponsorship announcement that I had to make for the 3 Day. My Woman Warrior posts feature incredible and inspiring women who have made a difference in our world.

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was born on 10th December 1815, the only child of Lord Byron and his wife, Annabella. Born Augusta Ada Byron, but now known simply as Ada Lovelace, she wrote the world’s first computer programmes for the Analytical Engine, a general-purpose machine that Charles Babbage had invented.

Ada had been taught mathematics from a very young age by her mother and met Babbage in 1833. Ten years later she translated Luigi Menabrea’s memoir on Babbage’s Analytical Engine, appending notes that included a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with the machine – the first computer programme. The calculations were never carried out, as the machine was never built. She also wrote the very first description of a computer and of software.

Understanding that computers could do a lot more than just crunch numbers, Ada suggested that the Analytical Engine “might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent.” She never had the chance to fully explore the possibilities of either Babbage’s inventions or her own understanding of computing. She died, aged only 36, on 27th November 1852, of cancer and bloodletting by her physicians.

Yesterday was Ada Lovelace Day which is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science. For more information on Ada and some other amazing women in this field, be sure to check out the Ada Lovelace Day Website.

Friday Finds - Women's Equality Day

Women's Equality Day was on August 26, but in the flurry of being busy at work, hating work, and being home trying not to think about work I was totally sidetracked and didn't have an opportunity to highlight it. For this week's Friday Finds, I'd like to highlight a few special women who broke through barriers.

Susan B. Anthony by Paul Chung

For more on Susan B. Anthony, check out my Women's History Month feature on her here.

Marie Curie Historic Date Stamp Necklace -- Two Time Nobel Prize Winner by Poto + Cabengo

I love this artist's description of Marie Curie: "Marie Curie didn't just climb over sexist road blocks, she was like a wrecking ball demolishing assumptions about women and their skills and intelligence." Read more about her in the item description.

Victoria Woodhull Hand Stenciled Shirt by KM Stitchery

For some more info on Victoria Woodhull, check out my Woman Warrior post about her here.

Woman Warrior: Sojourner Truth

A Brief History
Sojourner Truth was born a slave in 1797; she was bought and sold a number of times before gaining her freedom when New York emancipated slaves in 1827. Throughout her life, Truth was a dedicated abolitionist and suffragist. Upon learning of the illegal sale of her 5 year old son, she took the issue to court and became the first black woman to go to court against a white man and win the case, and thus her son. She worked alongside the likes of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony. During the Civil War, she helped recruit black troops for the Union Army. In 1865, while working at the Freedman's Hospital (set up to treat former slaves) in Washington, Truth rode in the streetcars to help force their desegregation. In 1870, Truth tried to secure land grants from the federal government to former slaves, a project she pursued for seven years without success. While in Washington, D.C., she had a meeting with President Ulysses S. Grant in the White House and years earlier she had met with President Abraham Lincoln. In 1872, she returned to Battle Creek and tried to vote in the presidential election, but was turned away at the polling place.

Ain't I A Woman?
In 1851, Truth attended the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, OH where she delivered her famous speech Ain't I a Woman, a slogan she adopted from one of the most famous abolitionist images, that of a kneeling female slave with the caption "Am I Not a Woman and a Sister?"

AIN'T I A WOMAN?

by Sojourner Truth

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

After more than a dozen years of campaigning, lobbying and fundraising, a bust of Sojourner Truth was unveiled in the U.S. Capitol. Fittingly it now stands in Emancipation Hall, but it is expected to be moved to a place of special honor in the Rotunda.

Learn more about this amazing woman at the Library of Congress.

Woman Warrior: Joan of Arc

May 30 was the feast day of Saint Joan. Julie, of Mermaiden Creations on Etsy wrote a magnificent blog post in her honor. I highly recommend checking it out and learning more about this determined, courageous, and confident woman.

An insane work schedule and visit from mom took over my life for the last couple of weeks, but things are finally slowing down. I desperately need a day off to regroup, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen until Friday. In other news, my little betta fish that had the tumor like lump on his head has gone to the fishy afterlife.

Woman Warriors: March is Women's History Month

In honor of Women's History Month, I'd like to share with you:

Firsts In Women's Achievement

Ann Teresa Mathews	1715	First woman whose invention received a patent (for cleaning and curing corn) - it was granted to her husband
Mary Katherine Goddard	1775	First woman postmaster
Betsy Ross	1776/77	First person to be a U.S. flagmaker
Hannah Adams	1784	First woman to become professional writer
Lucy Brewer	1812	First woman marine
Elizabeth Blackwell	1849	First woman to receive a medical degree
Amelia Jenks Bloomer	1849	Publisher/editor of first prominent women's rights newspaper
Harriet Tubman	1850	First woman to run underground railroad to help slaves escape
Lucy Hobbs	1866	First woman to graduate from dental school
Susan B. Anthony	1869	Co-Founder of first US woman's suffrage organization
Arabella Mansfield Babb	1869	First woman admitted to the bar
Frances Elizabeth Willard	1871	First woman to become a college president (Evanston College)
Victoria Chaflin Woodhull	1872	First woman to be presidential candidate
Helen Magill	1877	First woman to receive a Ph.D. degree (Boston University)
Belva Ann Lockwood	1879	First woman to practice law before U.S. Supreme Court
Clara Barton	1881	Founder of the American Red Cross
Maud Booth	1887/96	Co-Founder of Salvation Army and Volunteers of America
Suzanna Madora Salter	1887	First woman mayor (Argonia, Kansas)
Mary McLeod Bethune	1904	First woman to establish secondary school that became 4-year accredited college
	1935	Founder of National Council of Negro Women
Blanche Scott	1910	First woman to fly an airplane
Jeannette Rankin	1916	First woman U.S. House Representative (Montana)
Kate Gleason	1917	First woman president of a national bank
Jeannette Rankin	1917	First woman in Congress
Florence E. Allen	1920	First woman judge
Hallie Ferguson	1924	First woman governor of U. S. state (Texas)
Katherine Bement Davis	1929	First person to conduct national survey of sexual attitudes
Jane Addams	1931	First woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize
Hattie Wyatt Caraway	1932	First woman elected to U.S. Senate
Amelia Earhart	1932	First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
Ruth Bran Owen	1933	First woman foreign diplomat
Pearl S. Buck	1935	First woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature
Hattie McDaniel	1939	First African-American of any gender to win an Academy Award (she won for Best Supporting Actress in the film, Gone with the Wind).
Linda Darnell	1941	First woman to sell securities on the New York Stock Curb Exchange
Conchita V. Cintron	1949	First U.S. woman bullfighter in Spain
Georgia Nesse Clark	1949	First woman treasurer of the United States
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova	1963	First woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6.
Muriel Siebert	1967	First woman to own seat on the New York Stock Exchange
Janice Lee York Romary	1968	First woman to carry U.S. flag at the Olympic Games
Mary Clarke	1978	First woman to be named major general in U.S. Army
Ella Grasso	1978	First woman governor to be re-elected (Connecticut)
Sandra Day O'Connor	1981	First woman a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court
Sally Kristen Ride	1983	First American woman to reach outer space.
Joan Benoit (Samuelson)	1984	First woman to win an Olympic marathon
Penny Harrington	1985	First woman police chief of major U. S. city (Portland, OR)
Ann Bancroft	1986	First woman to walk to North Pole
Christa McAuliffe	1986	First woman citizen passenger on a space mission
Lt. Col. Eileen Collins	1995	First American woman to pilot a Space Shuttle
Madeleine K. Albright	1997	First woman Secretary of State and highest ranking woman in the U.S. government
Hillary Rodham Clinton	2000	Only First Lady ever elected to the United States Senate
Halle Berry	2002	First African-American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar
Condoleezza Rice	2005	First African-American woman to be appointed Secretary of State
Nancy Pelosi	2007	First woman to become Speaker of the House

Woman Warrior: The Every Woman

It's been a long time since I've done one of my Woman Warrior features. I'd like to start the new new year by featuring The Every Woman: the woman carrying groceries with the aching back, the single mom earning a paycheck, the woman working a full time job and caring for her elderly mother. . . These women of the world are heroes everyday, but you never hear about them. They are truly phenomenal women.

Phenomenal Woman
by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Woman Warrior: Victoria Woodhull

During Women's History Month (March), I featured a few women who made an impact in our world: whether by pursuing women's right to vote, progressing women's economic independence, or simply by living outside the box that patriarchal society put them in. There are so many of these women warriors who have inspired a change in our world, that I have decided to continue the features beyond Women's History Month. I hope you find these stories, profiles, quotes, features, and pictures as inspiring as I do.

Today, we face the very real possibility of our very first female president. Hillary Rodham Clinton is not, however, the first woman to run for the presidency: there have been 16 contenders before her. The first was Victoria Woodhull.

She was known for her work supporting women's rights, free love, and labor reforms. Her first "first", however, was as a broker: Victoria and her sister were the first female Wall Street brokers. It was their work as newspaper editors, however, that gave Victoria a chance to start addressing issues close to her: women's suffrage, short skirts, spiritualism, free love, vegetarianism, and licensed prostitution. The paper is now known primarily for printing the first English version of Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto in it's December 30, 1871 edition.

Also in 1871, suffrage leaders Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Isabella Beecher Hooker heard her address the House Judiciary Committee. Woodhull argued that women already had the right to vote - all they had to do was use it - since the 14th and 15th Amendments granted that right to all citizens. They applauded her statement: "women are the equals of men before the law, and are equal in all their rights." Woodhull catapulted to the leadership circle of the suffrage movement with her first public appearance as a woman's rights advocate. Although her Constitutional argument was not original, she focused unprecedented public attention on suffrage. Following Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Woodhull was the second woman to petition Congress in person.

Woodhull was nominated for President of the United States by the newly formed Equal Rights Party on May 10, 1872, at Apollo Hall, New York City. Her nomination was ratified at convention on June 6, 1872. Former slave Frederick Douglass was nominated for Vice President. Although the first woman to run for President, some critics argue the legality of her run citing one of the following reasons:

-The government declined to print her name on the ballot.
This criticism is not valid as the government wasn't responsible for printing ballots.
-She was under the constitutionally mandated age of 35.
This is the most cited criticism in the 20th and 21st centuries, but was hardly noticed in the 19th. There also is no legal primary evidence that Woodhull was born in 1838. Ohio did not require the registration of births until 1867.
-She didn't receive any electoral and/or popular votes.
While it's true that Woodhull received no electoral votes, there's evidence that Woodhull did receive popular votes that weren't counted.
-Women couldn't legally vote until August 1920.
Although it's true that most women couldn't legally vote until 1920, some women did legally vote and hold public office prior to 1920. Some believe that when the 19th amendment passed giving women the right to vote, it implicitly gave women the right to run for President.
-She was a woman.
This was the most cited legal impediment in the 19th century. Some of Woodhull's contemporaries believed that because she was a woman she was not a citizen and, therefore, not entitled to vote. Since the Constitution required that the President be a citizen, she would also be excluded from holding the office of President. Others believed women were citizens, but that the states had the right to limit the franchise to males only. Some Woodhull supporters believed that even if Woodhull couldn't vote legally, that wouldn't have excluded her from running for public office. United States law has its roots in English common law, and under English common law, there was an established precedence of women holding public office.

It wasn't just her gender that made Woodhull's campaign notable; her association with Frederick Douglass stirred up controversy about the mixing of race and fears of miscegenation.

On Saturday, November 2, just days before the presidential election, US Federal Marshals arrested Woodhull, her husband Colonel Blood, and her sister Tennie C. Claflin for sending obscene material through the mail: she published an article in their newspaper in order to highlight what she saw as a sexual double-standard between men and women. The event incited worthy questions about censorship and government persecution, but also prevented Victoria from attempting to vote during the 1872 presidential elections due to her incarceration. Woodhull attempted to secure nominations for the presidency again in 1884 and 1892.

Here we are over 130 years later and women are still trying for the highest office in our nation. Instead of debating Victoria on the issues, her opponents attacked her personally. If Hillary didn't have to deal with critics shouting "iron my shirt" or condemning her for sounding like she is 'scolding', imagine the lively debates we would have. We've come a long way, but we sure have further to go.