Women of Note

Jo Freeman writes: "A Day Without Women" borrowed it's theme from "A Day Without Immigrants" on Feb. 17, which was new. Many people interpreted it as a call to strike. "Women Strike!" was proclaimed from the top of the arch in New York City's Washington Square. That was old. In 1970, Betty Friedan called for a Women's Strike on August 26, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the US Woman Suffrage Amendment and announce a new women's movement to the world. Leaders of the NOw quickly scrambled to interpret that as a "do your own thing" strike. They organized a march down New York's Fifth Ave., which was the first time in decades that women marched to demand women's rights in the US.      more »

A winner of both the Presidential Medal of Freedom (from President Barack Obama, in 2014) and the National Medal of Science (from President George H.W. Bush, in 1990), Dresselhaus was a member of the MIT faculty for 50 years. "Among her many 'firsts,' in 1968, Millie became the first woman at MIT to attain the rank of full, tenured professor. She was the first solo recipient of a Kavli Prize and the first woman to win the National Medal of Science in Engineering." more »

"President Trump last month signed an executive order barring American aid to international organizations that discuss abortion as a family-planning option with clients. American law already forbids the use of taxpayer money to fund the procedure itself. In Europe, the president’s order brought an unexpected response. Lilianne Ploumen, 54, minister of foreign trade and development cooperation in the Netherlands, established a nongovernmental organization, She Decides, to raise money for aid groups whose funding is threatened under the new order." more »

Mary Garber began her trailblazing sports journalism career in 1944, when the sports editor of the Winston-Salem Journal joined the Navy and Garber replaced him. "Not because I had any ability in sports," Garber once told the Women’s Sports Foundation, "but because it was the war, and every man was in the armed forces."Even though she was banned from locker rooms and forced to sit with the players’ wives instead of in the press box, Garber lobbied to continue covering sports after World War II ended. more »