Belva Lockwood

The awesome woman for Wednesday, October 24, 2012 is Belva Lockwood, USA, attorney, author, world peace and women’s rights activist, and politician. She was either the first or second woman to run for President of the United States, and she was one of the first female civil rights attorneys in the US.

Lockwood was born on October 24, 1830 in Royalton, NY, USA. She started teaching elementary school at age 14. By age 18, she was married. By 20, she had a baby. When her husband died three years later, she decided to go to college so that she could support herself and her daughter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belva_Ann_Lockwood

There wasn’t a lot of community support available for widowed mothers seeking higher education, but Belva did it anyway, and, while she was at it, she became interested in the law. After graduating, she taught at, and later ran, local schools for young women. During that time, she met Susan B. Anthony, who advocated for broadening the subjects being taught to young women. Belva agreed and began offering such subjects as public speaking and gymnastics. Id.

However, Belva continued to be interested in practicing law, and there was no law school near her, so she and her daughter moved to Washington DC, where she opened a coeducational school and began to study law herself. She completed her coursework, but the school refused to give her a diploma, because she was a woman. 

 Without a diploma, Lockwood could not gain admittance to the District of Columbia Bar. After a year she wrote a letter to the President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, appealing to him as president ex officio of the National University Law School. She asked him for justice, stating she had passed all her courses and deserved to be awarded a diploma. In September 1873, within a week of having sent the letter, Lockwood received her diploma. She was 43 years old.
Lockwood was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar, although several judges told her they had no confidence in her. This was a reaction she repeatedly had to overcome. When she tried to gain admission to the Maryland Bar Association, a judge lectured her and told her that God Himself had determined that women were not equal to men and never could be. When she tried to respond on her own behalf, he said she had no right to speak and had her removed from the courtroom”  Id.

In spite of all that, she managed to build a large and influential civil rights law practice, to mount a credible third party candidacy for President of the United States, and to become an important and well-known advocate for world peace. Id.

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belva_Ann_Lockwood

Sharmeka Moffitt

Today Tuesday October 23, 2012 the woman of the Day is Sharmeka Moffitt. This woman deserves our attention. I am sickened by the lack of humanity.

Louisiana Woman Set On Fire, Has Car Defiled With 'KKK' Slur

www.huffingtonpost.com

A Louisiana woman was the victim of a horrific attack during which she was reportedly set on fire and had her car defiled with the letters "KKK," police reported Monday. 

Elizabeth George Speare

The Awesome Woman of the Day for Wednesday, October 17, 2012, is Elizabeth George Speare (November 21, 1908 – November 15, 1994), U.S.A., award-winning author of children’s historical fiction.

I can still remember the first time I read The Witch of Blackbird Pond, probably Speare’s best-known work. Kit Tyler was perhaps the most dynamic female character I had ever encountered at the ripe old age of 9, unless you count the capitulation of Jo March from single career woman to wife and mother (but that’s a different awesome woman for a different day). Kit, to me, was unique in what I saw as a mix of good and bad traits and bents and how her journey reflected on the good and bad elements of her origins in Barbados and her home in puritanical Connecticut. She was privileged beyond belief (and don’t even get me started on the unwritten-about costs of that privilege), but her privilege came with a freedom of thought and movement that was completely incomprehensible to her pilgrim cousins.

As she accustoms herself to her new surroundings, she learns life skills – ninja skills, really, both in terms of functioning authentically within a restrictive environment and in finding inner peace even when the people around you are completely insane. And she becomes an authentic heroine. The book has its own ninja skills at work exploring both the benefits of cooperative society and the risks and burdens of religious oppression (especially sexism) without rocking the patriarchal boat so hard that fifth grade teachers couldn’t assign the book in class. Virtually all of the important characters are female, and all of the book’s important themes are viewed from female perspectives. And my 11 year old son, whose class has been assigned the book, hasn’t complained even once.

The book was written in 1958, so, of course, it ends with Kit finding her happily ever after with the right man. But he at least seems to appreciate her for who she is and to be okay with the concept of being her equal.

So, for that, I thank Ms. Speare.

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_George_Speare

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witch_of_Blackbird_Pond

Malala Yousafzai

Today Tuesday October 16, 2012 the Awesome Woman of the day is Malala Yousafzai (born July 12, 1997) from the town of Mingora in Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. She is the incredibly brave 15yr old who defied the Taliban and spoke out about the importance of an education for young women. The Taliban banned her (and all girls) from going to school where she lives in Swat Valley.
Swat, was occupied by the Taliban from March 2009 until May 2009, when the Pakistani Army regained control of the area. During the conflict, when she was 12 years old, she championed the cause of the people of Swat by blogging a diary for the BBC under a pseudonym “Gul Makai” about the atrocities of the Tehrik-i-Taliban regime. She volunteered to contribute to the blog when a journalist friend of her fathers could not find any other young girl to speak out.
In her blogging, she was very confident. In the tribal area where she grew up, it is difficult for a child to talk to their elders, they are often shy, but she is not. She also has a very good political understanding of her area. Her father is a big influence on her, because he was a political activist and he talks to her to explain to her about the environment. Therefore, she has good knowledge of the area and she was trained by her father how to talk to the media. She is also a very keen observer. When she was writing her diary, it was like the voice of Swat Valley. Malala's diary, had a journalistic appeal for the local and international Media. Pakistani media was not highlighting the humanitarian issues but trying to show the world that it was only a security problem. However, this diary gave a humanitarian face to the tragedy, which attracted the International Media.

For her courageous and outstanding services for the promotion of peace under extremely hostile conditions, she was awarded the first National Peace Award by the Pakistani government on 19 December 2011. Speaking to the media afterwards, she expressed her intent to form a political party focused on education.
The Government Girls Secondary School, Mission Road, was immediately renamed Malala Yousufzai Government Girls Secondary School in her honour.She was named after Malalai of Maiwand, a Pashtun poet and warrior woman.

The international children’s advocacy group KidsRights Foundation included Yousafzai among the nominees for the International Children’s Peace Prize, making her the first Pakistani girl nominated for the award. South African Nobel laureate Desmund Tutu announced the nominations during a 2011 ceremony in Amsterdam, Holland, but Yousafzai did not win the prize.
On 9 October 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. Ihsanullah Ihsan, the chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, officially claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that she is symbolic of obscenity and has spread negative propaganda.
A group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan have issued a fatwā against those who tried to kill her. The Taliban has reiterated its intent to kill Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin.
She is currently fighting for her life after being transported to a Hospital in the UK.

Genevieve Hughes

Awesome Woman of the Day for Wednesday, October 10, 2012. Rest in Peace, Ms. Hughes, and thank you.

Timeline Photos

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By: Help Me Register to Vote - 50 States

Edna Adan

Today Tuesday October 9 2012 the WOD is Edna Adan, an inspiring advocate for women and girls. Her maternity hospital in Somaliland is an oasis of healing and care for the country's women.

Adan was raised in Somaliland in an educated and wealthy family, when the country was a protectorate of the British Empire. When she was 15, a girls' school opened in Somaliland. Adan went to work there as a student teacher and also received private lessons. She was permitted to sit for exams, in a room separate from the boys, and was the first Somali girl awarded one of a few coveted scholarships to study in Britain. She spent seven years there, studying nursing, midwifery and hospital management.

When she returned home to Somaliland, Adan became the first qualified nurse-midwife in the country and the first Somali woman to drive a car. She later became the first lady when she married Somaliland's prime minister, Ibrahim Egal. After they divorced, Adan was recruited to join the World Health Organization (WHO), where she held various key positions advocating for the abolition of harmful traditional practices, such as female genital cutting.

But Adan never let go of a life-long dream to build a hospital, so upon retiring from the WHO she sold all of her possessions, including her beloved Mercedes, and returned to Somaliland to make her dream a reality. There was only one available plot of land within the capital of Hargeisa, land which since the civil war had been used as a trash dump. But it was in the poor area of town, near those who needed the hospital the most. So she negotiated with the president, her ex-husband, and obtained the land for her hospital.

When the structure was completed but the roof not yet installed, the project ran out of money. But with assistance from the Friends of Edna's Hospital and in-kind donations from local merchants, Adan finished construction and the hospitalopened in 2002. Since then, Adan has focused her efforts on a new goal: training and dispatching 1,000 qualified midwives throughout Somaliland. Adan continues to work as the hospital's director and strives to improve the lives and health of women throughout her country.

Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer - Awesome Woman - Voting Rights Advocate

History in Pictures - October

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History in Pictures features just a few of the many stories that are often left out of the textbooks. The sources for these stories include: This Week in History from Peace Buttons (http://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/thisweek.htm), Planning to Change the World: A Social Justice Plan Book for Teachers (http://www.justi...See More

By: Zinn Education Project

Rebecca Lolosoli

The Awesome Woman of the Day for Wednesday, October 3, 2012 is Rebecca Lolosoli, women's rights activist specializing in helping women who are victims of (nearly always male-perpetrated) violence. http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/half-the-sky/rebecca-lolosoli/

There's really no way for me to do her justice, so I give you her own words:
http://www.satyamag.com/jun07/lolosoli.html

DEFINITELY watch the PBS documentary Half the Sky.

For more information: http://www.umojawomen.net/

http://www.vitalvoices.org/node/542

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/03/06/women-in-the-world-rebecca-lolosoli-kenya.html

Rebecca Lolosoli | Half the Sky | Independent Lens | PBS

www.pbs.org

Rebecca Lolosoli is the matriarch of the Umoja Women's Village and an advocate for women's rights. 

Dr. Marie Valdés-Dapena

Today Tuesday October 2, 2012 the WOD is Dr. Marie Valdés-Dapena (1921- Oct 1, 2012) Pathologist, pioneering researcher on SIDS, and mother of 11 children. She lived an extraordinary life as a pioneer in the study of sudden infant death syndrome; a leading pediatric pathologist who was among the first to recognize what is now known as child abuse; and a working mother of 11 children in an era when few women worked and far fewer were doctors. In fact, she was performing an autopsy at nine months pregnant. She was watching a clock - timing her contractions, determined to complete the job before delivering her own baby.

The grandmother of sudden infant death research, Dapena, whom everyone refers to as "Molly," developed her expertise in pediatric pathology as a consultant to the Philadelphia medical examiner before relocating to Florida. Dr. Valdés-Dapena was best known to the public as a pathologist in the biggest maternal infanticide case in recorded history - Marie Noe's murder of eight babies in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. In the 1960s, a local couple became the most famous bereaved parents in America, as their infants died one after another. One of the first child autopsies Molly Dapena ever did for the city was that of Constance Noe, baby number five, in 1958. She went on to assist or observe on all the others through number ten -- which she believes is the most babies ever lost by one mother.

A Philadelphia Magazine investigation revealed the deaths were indeed tragic, but perhaps not unexplainable.

Dr.Dapena moved back to the Philadelphia area to be closer to her children when she was 77. She died Sunday at the Rose Tree Place retirement community near Media. She had struggled with advanced dementia for many years.