Mary Church Terrell

The Awesome Woman of the Day is Mary Church Terrell, U.S. Civil Rights and Voting Rights Activist (September 23, 1863 – July 24, 1954), daughter of former slaves, and one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree. She became a teacher, fought for social and educational reform, and was the first president of the National Association of Colored Women.

For more information, see http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/terrell.html
http://www.biography.com/people/mary-church-terrell-9504299

Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz

The Awesome Woman of the Day for Wednesday, May 2, 2012 is Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz, who was an amazing scientist/naturalist, but who is mostly known for being the first president and one of the primary forces behind the founding of Radcliffe College (her initial push had been to allow women to attend Harvard itself). Bouteloua: Women in Science Before the Civil War, Catherine Creed. http://www.catherinecreed.com/book/agassiz.html

She was born in Arlington Heights, MA, USA on December 5, 1822 and was one of seven children. She met her husband, Louis Agassiz, at the home of her sister, who was married to a Harvard professor. Louis was already a famous Swiss scientist and was teaching at Harvard. Elizabeth worked as a homemaker and (step)mother, but she also collaborated with Louis and established herself as both an educator and a naturalist. See http://www.women-philosophers.com/Elizabeth-Cabot-Cary-Agassiz.html
for a timeline of her accomplishments.

Biography appears below, from the Cambridge Women's Heritage Project Database

 Elizabeth Cabot (Cary) Agassiz (b. December 5 1822 in Boston, d. June 27, 1907 in Arlington Heights, Mass.)First President of Radcliffe College, educator, science writer Elizabeth Cabot Cary was the daughter of Mary Ann Cushing (Perkins) and Thomas Graves Cary, a Boston business man. Through her sister, who had married a professor of Greek at Harvard, she met the Swiss naturalist, Louis Agassiz, who had begun a brilliant career teaching at Harvard and who founded the Museum of Comparative Zoology . The two married in 1850 and she took on the role of stepmother to his three children by his first marriage. Five years later, she opened a girls’ school in their home at 36 Quincy Street Cambridge where Louis Agassiz and a number of other Harvard professors lectured. The school provided a small income and addressed the need for the education of young women until 1863 when the school closed. Elizabeth Agassiz took notes on her husband’s lectures and published introductory texts on natural history with her stepson, the oceanographer and natural historian, Alexander Agassiz.. In 1865, she co-authored a record of her husband’s expedition to Brazil, A Journey in Brazil. Later, she served as scribe for the Hassler Expedition (1872), providing the only account of her husband’s last theories on glaciation. After Louis Agassiz’s death in 1873, Elizabeth joined six other women in an attempt to persuade Harvard to open its doors to women. The result was the Harvard Annex, founded in 1879, which later became Radcliffe College. She threw her influence to those who believed that women students should be offered the same courses as the men and be taught by the same professors. At the age of 72, she accepted the first presidency of Radcliffe and remained at its head until 1902. Shortly before her death she moved from Cambridge to Arlington Heights where she died in 1907 at the age of seventy-five.References: Notable American Women (1609-1950) Vol I; Dictionary of American Biography, (1928). http://www2.cambridgema.gov/historic/cwhp/bios_a.html

Edra Mbatha

The AWOD for this Sunday March 4 is EDRA MBATHA of Nairobi, Kenya, who has dreamed up an innovative way to protect children from widespread sexual abuse and neglect. After she completed her O levels, Mbatha moved from her rural hometown -- as do so many young adults with no resources in Kenya -- to a slum in Nairobi in hopes of finding employment and making a life for herself.

But soon after arriving and seeing the terrible conditions in which people were living, and noticing how so many women had "given up" and just stood around all day gossiping, Mbathe began working as a volunteer with a grassroots women's group. Close to two decades later, Mbatha is still working within the Mathare community.

In 2008 during preelection violence she noticed that children were at high risk. "It was a chaotic time for children," she remembers. "In the slums, the myth that having sex with minors could cure people living with HIV was rife and children were defiled in large numbers." While the women's organization was providing some services to the children, Mbatha saw the clear need for early intervention to prevent victimization from happening at all.

She realized that sexual predators would strike during those hours when working parents left their children alone. So she started Mathare Early Childhood Development Centre, which began as a daytime "safe house" collectively funded by parents of the children, and has become a school that also provides nutrition and counseling for 30 children.

Beyond the powerful support and direct aid being provided to the students and their parents, Mbatha has a broad vision in which the Centre will produce politically aware adults and long-term changes in Kenyan society. "It’s lack of education that sees Kenyans manipulated by politicians to take arms against their neighbours."


(source: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/sports/InsidePage.php?id=2000048503&cid=620)

Queen Margaret of Scotland

Margaret of Scotland was from the Saxon royal family, which was defeated by William the Conqueror in 1066. She was born in Hungary and traveled with her family as a child to England. She spent some time in a convent and wanted to become a nun. However, when the upheavals in England forced the family to flee, (hoping to return to Europe) their ship was blown off course and foundered off the coast of Scotland. There they stayed as guests of King Malcolm III of Scotland.

Margaret, under pressure from family, reluctantly married the king. Though she would have preferred to enter a convent as a nun, she made it her goal to give her all to being the best wife and queen possible. She became Scotland’s most beloved queen and was later (ca thirteenth century) canonized.

As Queen, she invited the poor villagers to her wedding feast, setting the stage for the rest of her reign. Her life from that point forward was spent helping her subjects, especially the poor. She was known to give her own clothing and many other possessions to them. The king, who reportedly was devoted to her, referred to her as, “my little thief”, because of her repeated ‘withdrawals’ from his treasury to feed and help the poor.

She did much to civilize the king and his court, bringing Scotland into the eleventh century with improving their manners and educating them, as well as making improvements to the royal households.

Margaret did the same for the clergy as well, bringing more of the Benedictine order to Scotland and educating those already there. Her reforms brought the Scottish church in line with the Roman church.

Margaret also was in favor of and worked for educating ALL girls. At that time, most countries gave only minimal education to girls of nobility, and none at all to the poor. Margaret changed that for Scotland. Celtic countries were alone then in their belief of women’s education. She was held up as the epitome of a just queen, and did charitable works for the poor and orphans daily.

Biographies report that the royal couple had a much more loving relationship than was common for that era. The king indulged Margaret in most things and respected her intellect. She was able to influence him in matters of state as well as at home; and was his most trusted adviser. Malcolm was illiterate when they married and Margaret read to him; legend having her teaching him to read.

The queen bore eight children (at least eight reached adulthood) and was a more involved mother than was common among royalty. Her children were raised with a sense of responsibility and were expected to uphold her high ethical standards. She held herself to even higher standards and spent much of her time praying and fasting for her sins. (She more than likely was anorexic, which led to her death in her 40s).

Their children went on to become kings and queens, three of their sons were kings, David reigning for 30 years; and known as one of the best rulers Scotland ever had. Their daughter Edith (Matilda) married Henry I of England.

more here:

Saint Margaret of Scotland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org

Saint Margaret of Scotland (c. 1045 – 16 November 1093), also known as Margaret of Wessex and Queen Margaret of Scotland, was an English princess of the House of Wessex. Born in exile in Hungary, she was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the short-ruling and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England. Margar...

Angela O'Brien

♥ ♥ ♥ The Awesome Woman of the Day is Dr. Angela O'Brien - Dr Angela O’Brien is a Barrister-at-law, Victoria, Mediator, Arbitrator and independent consultant with specialist expertise in the areas of dispute resolution, education and the arts.

In 2008 she was appointed the first female president of The Institute of Arbitrators & Mediators Australia. The Institute aims to serve the community, commerce and industry by facilitating efficient dispute resolution methods including arbitration, mediation, conciliation and adjudication. Angela's mother-in-law is Margaret (Peg) Lusink, first Victorian woman appointed as a judge to a superior court and Peg's mother was Joan Lusink, who became Victoria's first woman Queen's Council in 1965. Now that's a family for inspired women!

In 2009, she retired from the University of Melbourne, where she was an Associate Professor, Deputy Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Discipline Chair of Creative Arts in the School of Culture and Communication, Faculty of Arts. Prior to these roles, she was foundation Head of the School of Creative Arts (2001–2004), University of Melbourne and Dean of the School of Studies in Creative Arts, Victorian College of the Arts (1995–2000). She has also worked in the vocational education sector in Australia and England and has specialist expertise in curriculum development and review, educational management and dispute resolution in the tertiary sector. and federal and state councillor for the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). She was foundation President of the Victorian chapter of the Shakespeare Globe Centre and active in the annual Shakespeare Schools’ Festival for a decade (1990-1999).

Dr Angela O'Brien | Polyglot Theatre

www.polyglottheatre.com

Dr Angela O’Brien is a Barrister-at-law, Victoria, Mediator, Arbitrator and independent consultant with specialist expertise in the areas of dispute resolution, education and the arts. In 2009 she retired from the University of Melbourne where she was an Associate Professor, Deputy Dean of the Schoo...

Ruby Bridges Hall

The awesome woman for December 21, 2011 is Ruby Bridges Hall, U.S. educational activist whose career began 51 years ago, at the age of six, when her parents signed her up to be the first African American child to attend a white school in the South.

Because she was only 6 years old, she had no clue what the fuss was about as four federal marshals escorted her to William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans on November 14, 1960. She thought it was Mardi Gras.

And when she got to school, the other parents had already rushed the building and removed their children. Ruby was put in the principal's office and told to just sit there. "I remember thinking, 'This school is easy,'" Bridges told AOL News. Id.

From PBS.org, Ms. Bridges (now known as Ruby Bridges Hall) writes: Later on I learned there had been protestors in front of the two integrated schools the whole day. They wanted to be sure white parents would boycott the school and not let their children attend. Groups of high school boys, joining the protestors, paraded up and down the street and sang new verses to old hymns. Their favorite was "Battle Hymn of the Republic," in which they changed the chorus to "Glory, glory, segregation, the South will rise again." Many of the boys carried signs and said awful things, but most of all I remember seeing a black doll in a coffin, which frightened me more than anything else.

The local teachers refused to have anything to do with teaching Ruby, so the school brought down Barbara Henry from Boston. Initially, Ruby was apprehensive about Ms. Henry:

"Before that day, being black, I was only accustomed to seeing black teachers -- not to mention that she looked exactly like all of the people outside who were screaming and yelling outside," Bridges says. "But soon after, she began to teach me, and I realized she was one of the nicest teachers I had ever had. She showed me her heart, and she was totally different from the people that were outside, angry and screaming. AOL News article, supra.

In spite of Ms. Henry's best efforts, the school year was a difficult one for Ruby. She had trouble eating and sleeping, and every morning one of the white parents protesting outside the school threatened to poison her.

Eventually, a few white kids came back to the school, and Ruby, who still knew nothing about racism or integration, was allowed to visit with them a couple of times. She writes: The light dawned one day when a little boy refused to play with me.

"I can't play with you," the boy said. "My mama said not to because you're a n-----."

At that moment, it all made sense to me. I finally realized that everything had happened because I was black. I remember feeling a little stunned. It was all about the color of my skin. I wasn't angry at the boy, because I understood. His mother had told him not to play with me, and he was obeying her. I would have done the same thing. If my mama said not to do something, I didn't do it.
Id.

Ruby's second grade year was far less dramatic. White students had returned to the school, and Ruby went to a regular classroom She walked to school by herself every day, and she finished grade school on schedule, later graduating from an integrated high school in New Orleans.

She worked as a travel agent, married, had children, and became a full-time stay-at-home mom to her four sons. But, in 1993, her youngest brother was murdered, and Ruby began taking care of his children, who went to William Frantz Elementary School, where Ruby became a parent-community liaison. Id.

At the same time, the adults who had been involved with Ruby's first year at William Frantz, began reconnecting with Ruby, who, in 1999, formed the Ruby Bridges Foundation, the purpose of which is to end racism and prejudice. The foundations motto is, "Racism is a grown-up disease. Let's stop using kids to spread it." Id.

For more information:
http://www.rubybridges.com/story.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112391/ruby_bridges.htm

Bel Kaufman

The Awesome Woman of the Day is *Bel Kaufman* (born May 10, 1911) who at 100 years old is still an active and teaching a course in Jewish Humor at Hunter College, her alma mater (in the City University of New York system).

Bel Kaufman is the granddaughter of the famous Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem, described in a recent New York Times article about Kaufman as "a writer who was able to squeeze heartbreaking humor out of the most threadbare deprivation and wove the bittersweet Tevye stories that became the source for 'Fiddler on the Roof.'"

Kaufman emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States at the age of 12 and was forced to start school in the first grade. Only 11 years later she had graduated from Hunter, and then pursued a master's at Columbia University. She began to teach in New York City Schools, and worked part-time as a writer for Esquire and other publications.
In 1965 her book Up the Down Staircase was published, a novel that deals with the experience of a new teacher's experience dealing with both the other teachers and the educational system, and the students. The book was based upon Kaufman's own teaching experiences.

Kaufman has carried on the tradition of distinctly Jewish humor her grandfather was known for. The Times article opens with this example:

When Bel Kaufman sits you down on her sofa and asks, “Are you comfortable?” the right answer, she reminds you, requires a Yiddish inflection, a shrug and the words, “I make a living.”

In explaining the origins and particular flavor of Yiddish humor, Kaufman explained to the Times reporter:

“It goes back to immigration from the shtetl, from that poverty, and because the Jew was the object of so much opprobrium and hatred,” she said. “The jokes were a defense mechanism: ‘We’re going to talk about ourselves in a more damaging way than you could.’ ”

When asked about the secret to her longevity in a New York Post article earlier this year, Kaufman answered, "I'm too busy to grow old."

There are beautiful pictures of her at Sholem Alecheim's 150th birthday celebration In the blog of Joan L. Roth, a photographer and writer who has done much documentary work about Jewish Women. See http://joanlroth.blogspot.com/2009/03/bel-kaufman-theodore-bikel.html

Other links:
NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/nyregion/bel-kaufman-at-100-still-a-teacher-and-a-jokester.html

NY Post: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/prof_shticks_to_her_guns_18F6lFUm9wG983kyjevRgP

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel_Kaufman

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Frances Xavier Warde

Inspired by a plaque discovered while strolling through the streets of Pittsburgh this weekend, Today’s AWU Woman of the Day is: Frances Xavier Warde. Born at Belbrook House, Mountrath, Queen's County, Ireland, 1810; died September 17,1884 in Manchester, N.H. She led a group of six Sisters across the Atlantic from Ireland and started a chapter of the Sisters of Mercy in the United States. The Sisters of Mercy began in Ireland in the 1820’s as the House of Mercy established by Catherine McAuley. The House of Mercy became home to the Sisters of Mercy, a new congregation of religious women who, in time, added a fourth vow – a vow of service – to their lifelong commitment to Christ and to his sisters and brothers in need of education, health care, and relief from poverty. As they continued to walk among those they served, the Sisters of Mercy experienced the transformation of early criticism into an admiring nickname – the “walking sisters.”


In 1843 Frances Xavier Warde began in Pittsburgh and by the time of her death in 1884, she had helped establish over 82 Mercy convents, schools, hospitals, orphanages and other works of mercy in some 20 cities across 9 states. Over the course of the next 120 years, many more communities of religious women came to Western Pennsylvania. Some were cloistered nuns, dedicated to a life of prayer. Many came in answer to the call for teachers in the parochial schools established in the Dioceses of Pittsburgh, Erie, Altoona-Johnstown and Greensburg. Some of those communities also responded to the need to provide nurses and agreed to begin healthcare facilities of their own, or to staff or manage hospitals sponsored by local community groups.

A handful of religious communities were devoted exclusively to healthcare. In all, a total of 16 communities of Roman Catholic Sisters worked in over thirty-four hospitals and healthcare facilities in Western Pennsylvania during the period from 1847 to 1969. Although some communities are no longer involved in hospital work, their work in various healthcare-related ministries continues to the present day.

When Sisters began their nursing ministry, some ten years before Florence Nightingale made professionalism a watchword among nurses, they were looked down on for being both nurses and Roman Catholics. Anti-Catholic sentiment was high during those early years in the history of the United States. The turning point for the Sisters and their work was the Civil War. As one of the first groups of organized nurses, Sisters were called to service to care for soldiers regardless of whether Union or Confederate, and without regard to race or religion. The Sisters of Mercy of Pittsburgh responded to the call of Abraham Lincoln and sent Sisters to run military hospitals and care for injured soldiers from the battle fields. Their service, along with that of other congregations throughout the country was recognized by President Lincoln.

"Of all the forms of charity and benevolence seen in the crowded wards of the hospitals, those of Catholic Sisters were among the most efficient. I never knew whence they came or what was the name of their order. More lovely than anything I have ever seen in art so long devoted to illustration of love, mercy, and charity are the pictures that remain of those modest Sisters going on their errands of mercy among the suffering and dying..." [Attributed to Lucius Chittenden in his book "Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration" (1891)]

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