Elizabeth Blackwell
(1821 - 1910)

Elizabeth Blackwell, born in Britain, was the first woman awarded the M.D. degree. Many nineteeth-century physicians, including a few women, practiced without a degree, but Elizabeth Blackwell wished to attain full professional status. She was rejected by all the major medical schools in the nation because of her sex. Her application to Geneva Medical School (now Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York) was referred to the student body. They accepted with great hilarity in the belief that it was a spoof perpetrated by a rival school.

Working with quiet determination, she turned aside the hostility of the professors, students, and townspeople. She earned her medical degree in 1849. Blackwell completed her medical education in Europe, but faced additional difficulties in setting up her practice when she returned to New York. Barred from city hospitals, she founded her own infirmary. Eventually she founded a Women's Medical College to train other women physicians.

Blackwell's educational standards were higher than the all-male medical schools. Her courses emphasized the importance of proper sanitation and hygiene to prevent diseases. She later returned to Britain and spent the rest of her life there, working to expand medical opportunities for women as she had in America.

Additional Resources:
Kline, Nancy. Elizabeth Blackwell: a doctor's triumph. Berkeley, California: Conari Press, c1997. NOTES: Part of "The Barnard Biography" series.

Sahli, Nancy Ann. Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D. (1821-1910): a biography. New York: Arno Press, 1982, c1974. NOTES: Part of "Dissertations in American biography" series.

Latham, Jean Lee. Elizabeth Blackwell, pioneer women doctor. Champaign, Illinois: Garrard Pub. Co., 1975. NOTES: Part of "A Discovery Book" series.

The Laws of Life: (with special reference to the Physical Education of Girls).New York: G.P.Putnam, 1852.

The Religion of Health. Edinburgh:John Menzies, 1878.

Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of Their Children. London: H. Smyth and Son, 1878.

Rescue Work in Relation to Prostitution and Disease. [London?]: Leonard and Lingle, 1887.

Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women. London and New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895. NOTES: Autobiography.

Letters 1850-1884, 152 items. Columbia University, University Libraries, Butler Library. New York, New York.

Papers 1830-1950, 40 ft. (ca. 29,000 items). Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Washington, D.C.

Blackwell Family papers, 1784-1944, and Addition 1832-1942, ca. 100 items/ 2 boxes. Radcliffe College, The Arthur & Elizabeth Schlesinger Library of women in America. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Joyner-Kersee, Jackie (1962- ), American track and field athlete, two-time Olympic gold medalist and world champion. She was born Jacqueline Joyner in East St. Louis, Illinois, and educated at the University of California, Los Angeles. She won her first of four consecutive National Pentathlon Championships at the age of 14.

After graduating from high school she accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of California, where her coach and future husband, Bob Kersee, encouraged her to train for multiple-event contests.

In 1983 she and her brother, Al Joyner, represented the United States at the world championships in Helsinki, Finland. They also competed in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where she won the silver medal in the heptathlon-a two-day event in which athletes compete in the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, and 200-meter race on the first day and in the long jump, javelin, and 800-meter race on the second day. (Al Joyner won the gold medal in the triple jump.)

She married Kersee in 1986, and that same year she gave up basketball for the heptathlon, setting two world records within one month.

Joyner-Kersee continued her success in 1987 at the indoor and outdoor track and field championships in the United States, at the Pan-American Games in Indianapolis, Indiana, and at the world championships in Rome, where she won gold medals in the long jump and heptathlon. In 1988 she broke her own record, scoring 7291 points in the heptathlon at the Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, to win the gold medal and set the world, Olympic, and American records in the event.

Joyner-Kersee also won the gold medal and set the Olympic record in the long jump at Seoul, with a leap of 24 ft 3½ in (7.3 m). At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, she again won the heptathlon and came in third in the long jump. Joyner-Kersee overcame illness to capture the 1993 heptathlon gold medal at the world championships in Stuttgart, Germany. The recipient of numerous athletic honors and awards in the late 1980s, including the Jesse Owens Award (1986, 1987) and the Sullivan Award (1986), Joyner-Kersee earned a reputation as the world's best all-around female athlete and the greatest heptathlete of all time.

Frida Kahlo, Mexican, 1907-1954

From 1926 until her death, the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo created striking, often shocking, images that reflected her turbulent life. Kahlo was one of four daughters born to a Hungarian-Jewish father and a mother of Spanish and Mexican Indian descent, in the Mexico City suburb of Coyoacán.

She did not originally plan to become an artist. A polio survivor, at 15 Kahlo entered the premedical program at the National Preparatory School in Mexico City. However, this training ended three years later when Kahlo was gravely hurt in a bus accident. She spent over a year in bed, recovering from fractures of her back, collarbone, and ribs, as well as a shattered pelvis and shoulder and foot injuries. Despite more than 30 subsequent operations, Kahlo spent the rest of her life in constant pain, finally succumbing to related complications at age 47.

During her convalescence Kahlo had begun to paint with oils. Her pictures, mostly self-portraits and still lifes, were deliberately naive, filled with the bright colors and flattened forms of the Mexican folk art she loved. At 21, Kahlo fell in love with the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, whose approach to art and politics suited her own. Although he was 20 years her senior, they were married in 1929; this stormy, passionate relationship survived infidelities, the pressures of Rivera's career, a divorce and remarriage, and Kahlo's poor health. The couple traveled to the United States and France, where Kahlo met luminaries from the worlds of art and politics; she had her first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City in 1938. Kahlo enjoyed considerable success during the 1940s, but her reputation soared posthumously, beginning in the 1980s with the publication of numerous books about her work by feminist art historians and others. In the last two decades an explosion of Kahlo-inspired films, plays, calendars, and jewelry has transformed the artist into a veritable cult figure.

Maya Ying Lin (Chinese: 林瓔; pinyin: Lín Yīng; born October 5, 1959)

She is a Chinese American artist who has become known for her work in architecture. However, although she has become a successful designer in this field, she is not yet registered, and is therefore unable to legally use "architect" as an official title. She is the niece of Lin Huiyin. Her best known work is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

She was born in Athens, Ohio and studied at Yale (B.A. 1981, M.A. 1986). In 1987 Yale conferred upon her an honorary Doctorate Degree in Fine Arts.

Lín, who now owns and operates Maya Lin Studios in New York City, went on to design other structures, including the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama (1989) and the Wave Field at the University of Michigan (1995).

In 1994 she was the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision. The title comes from an address she gave at Yale where she speaks of the monument design process.

In 2000, Lin re-emerged in public life with a book Boundaries. Also in 2000, she agreed to act as the artist and architect for the Confluence Project, a series of outdoor installations at historical points along the Columbia River and Snake River in the state of Washington. This is the largest and longest project that she has undertaken so far.

In 2002, Lin was elected Alumni Fellow of the Yale Corporation, the governing body of Yale University, in an unusually public contest. Her opponent was W. David Lee, a local New Haven minister and graduate of the Yale Divinity School who was running on a platform to build ties to the community with the support of Yale's unionized employees. Lin was supported by Yale's President Richard Levin, other members of the Yale Corporation, and was the officially endorsed candidate of the Association of Yale Alumni.

In 2003, Lin served on the selection jury of the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition. Some have attributed the trend toward minimalism and abstraction among the entrants, finalists, and current World Trade Center Memorial to Lin's presence on the Jury.

In 2005, Lin was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.

She is married to Daniel Wolf, and they have two children.

Quotes
"In all my work I have tried to create works that present you with information allowing you the chance to come to your own conclusions; they ask you to think."

"The process I go through in art and architecture, I actually want it to be almost childlike."

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Blanche Lincoln

Blanche Lambert Lincoln (born September 30, 1960) is the Democratic senior United States Senator from the State of Arkansas. She was the youngest woman ever to be elected to the Senate when she was elected in 1998 at the age of 38.

Lincoln was born in Helena, Phillips County, Arkansas. She attended Arkansas public schools and graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1982. She studied law at the University of Arkansas. Lincoln's sister, Mary Lambert, went on to be a movie director.

Immediately after graduating she took a job as staff assistant to Congressman Bill Alexander and served in his office until 1984. Lincoln defeated Alexander in the Democratic primary of 1992 and took his seat in the House. Lincoln won reelection to a second term and served in the House of Representatives until 1997. Lincoln did not stand for reelection in 1996 because she was pregnant.

In 1998, Lincoln returned to politics and ran for the US Senate seat being vacated by incumbent Democrat Dale Bumpers. She defeated her Republican opponent, Fay Boozman, by a margin of 55%-42%.

Lincoln serves on the Senate Finance Committee; Special Committee on Aging; Select Committee on Ethics; Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee; Senate Social Security Task Force; Rural Health Caucus; Senate New Democrat Coalition.

Lincoln has concentrated primarily on issues involving farmers, and rural issues. She is one of the primary advocates of the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), which is designed to spur development in the lower Mississippi Delta region. She is also the Chair of Rural Outreach for the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Sen. Lincoln calls herself a moderate or Centrist Democrat, in attempts to appeal to the center-right (though historically blue) southern state of Arkansas. Lincoln was among the minority of Democrats to support CAFTA and she is opposed to some protectionist measures. She has voted in favor restricting class action lawsuits and tightening rules on personal bankruptcy. Though initially she was one of the few Democrats in Congress to vote in favor of the tax cut passed in 2001, she now advocates scaling back or eliminating the portions of that tax cut, has opposed making tax cuts permanent, and was nearly a fatal vote against the 2003 tax cuts. She laments that the tax cuts were unfairly biased toward the rich, and advocates scaling back on tax cuts that benefit those tax payers with incomes over $300,000. She supports the permanent elimination of the estate tax. Lincoln cast a vote to pass the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, though she previously supported the Feinstein Amendment (Senate Amendment 261) to the bill, which would strike out the act itself and replace it with "Post Viability Abortion Restriction Act." Pro-life advocates argued a health exception in the amendment would render the ban ineffectual
She also supported the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act to ban lawsuits against gun manufacturers and distributors.

As of 2003, after fellow Democrat Mark Pryor defeated Senator Tim Hutchinson, Lincoln has been Arkansas' senior senator.

In 2004, Lincoln was re-elected 56%-44% over State Senator Jim Holt (R-Springdale).

In May 2006 Lincoln voted in favor of S. 2611, a controversial immigration bill which would almost double the number of H1-B visas (see H1B visa). Lincoln, like almost all other senate Democrats and a few of her Republican colleagues (most notably Arizona's John McCain), argued that it was a compromise between those activists who would seek the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, and those activists who believe in some form of amnesty.

Some observers initially considered Lincoln to have been a possible running mate for presidential candidate John Kerry in the 2004 election.

Lincoln co-authored the book Nine and Counting with eight other female Senators relating their experiences in public service. Lincoln is married to Dr. Steve Lincoln and is the mother of twin boys, Reece and Bennett.

Looking ahead to 2008, a Democratic party movement has already begun to draft Lincoln as the Presidential nominee for 2008. Despite her attractiveness as a Southerner and a woman, if a female candidate were to be nominated it seems overwhelmingly likely it would be Lincoln's congressional colleague, New York Senator Hillary Clinton. It does not appear that Lincoln is considering a bid at this time. She is up for re-election to the Senate in 2010.

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Angelita Lind

Angelita Lind (born January 13, 1959 in Patillas, Puerto Rico), is considered by many people in Puerto Rico to be their greatest track and field athlete.

Known as "The Angel of Puerto Rico", Angelita was born into a poor family and received her primary and secondary education in her hometown. She first participated in track and field events in the 7th grade and later she continued participating for her high school. However, it wasn't until she became a student at the Inter-American University that she was asked by the Puerto Rican Olympic Committee to represent Puerto Rico in international sports events.

Angelita has represented the island and participated in three Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC) and won two gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze medal. She also participated in three Pan American Games and in the 1984 Olympics celebrated in Los Angeles, California.

In the CAC of 1982, celebrated in Havana, Cuba, Angelita was the standard carrier of the Puerto Rican flag. In those games, she won a gold medal in the 1,500 meter dash with a record time of 4.25.88 and a silver in the 800 meters dash in a controversial race in 2.04.24. In that race, she crossed the finish line with two Cuban runners next to her. Right at the finish line the two Cuban girls ran into each other and they both knocked Angelita down. Angelita's feet were crossing the finish line, but because the Cuban fell into Angelita from behind, it was the Cuban who actually crossed the finish line first; after a prolonged discussion which reached the central offices of the International Athletic Federation, it was decided that Angelita arrived second. They based their decision on a rule of track and field which states that the first torso across the finish line wins.

By this time there had been a lot of trouble between the Government of Puerto Rico, headed by then governor Carlos Romero Barcelo, (who withheld economic support from the athletic delegation headed to Cuba), and The Puerto Rican Olympic Committee, presided by German Rieckehoff, which had to appeal directly to the people for donations. Angelita's "fall" united the people of Puerto Rico and for the first time, they forgot about the fight between the Olympic Committee and the government and concentrated on the sport - these events also served to inspire future runners.

Angelita Lind officially retired in 1992, however on July, 2003 at age 44, she returned to paricipate in the 1,500 dash in the World Masters Athletics championships, which were celebrated in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She continues to hold the national record for the 800 meters dash and the 1,500 meters dash.

She earned her Masters Degree and is currently a professor of physical education. Angelita also serves as assistant athletic director in the department of physical education at the Inter-American University in San German, Puerto Rico. In 2004, she was inducted into the "Puerto Rican Sports Hall of Fame".

The Angel of Puerto Rico

Graciela Rivera

Dr. Graciela Rivera (born April 17, 1921 in Ponce, Puerto Rico), is the first Puerto Rican to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Dr. Graciela Rivera enjoyed singing as a child, she was considered very talented by her family and teachers alike. She received her primary and secondary education in Ponce, however her family moved to Cataño and later to Santurce, a section of San Juan, when she was a teenager, there she attended Santurce Central High School. While in high school, she auditioned and participated in school productions of The Magic Flute, Il Trovatore, Rigoletto, Lucia di Lammermoor and Aida (Ms. Rivera believes these were the only operas ever produced by a high school anywhere in the world). She delighted audiences in Puerto Rico with her soprano voice in concerts which she organized. She planned to use the money obtained from these concerts to pay for her studies at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City.

Rivera moved to New York after she graduated from high school. She enrolled at Juilliard's and took voice classes, piano lessons, music theory, harmony and composition, graduating in 1943. Upon the outbreak of World War II, she sang for the American troops overseas as a member of the Red Cross.

In 1945, she was given the role of Adele in the musical "Rosalinda", a Broadway version of Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus. Rivera traveled to France and Germany with the production. That very same year she made her operatic debut as Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" by Rossini at the New Orleans Opera.

In December of 1951, she became the first Puerto Rican to sing a lead role at the Metropolitan Opera as Lucia in the production of Lucia di Lammermoor. She earned accolades for her performance from critics around the world. In 1953, Rivera was proclaimed "Citizen of the Year" by the City of New York.

In 1954 Rivera was featured as a guest singer in Name That Tune.

In 1956, she performed at the Theater of the University of Puerto Rico and one of her back-up singers was a young fellow Puerto Rican by the name of Justino Diaz, who would someday also become a renowned opera singer. That same year Rivera was presented with a special recognition by the Government of Puerto Rico.

In 1959, Rivera returned to New York where she had a weekly radio show at WHOM. She traveled regularly between New York and Puerto Rico, in Puerto Rico she participated in the IV Pablo Casals Festival.

In 1992, she was appointed Assistant Professor at the Hostos Community College. She taught Puerto Rican music, Italian and Spanish. She also held conferences at Hunter College, Rutgers College and Lehman College.

In 1993, Rivera earned her Doctorate Degree in Humanities from the Catholic University of Ponce and in 1996 she was bestowed with a Honoris Causa from Lehman College.

Puerto Rico's Opera Singer

Isabel la Negra

Isabel Luberza Oppenheimer (born approx. 1910, murdered in 1974) was the legendary owner of the most famous brothel in Puerto Rico. Her name became part of Puerto Rico's lore during and after her life. She was born in Ponce. She is much better known as Isabel la Negra.

Although she has been mistakenly branded as a "criminal", her only "crime" was to own and operate a very notorious house of prostitution in Ponce, in the late 1930's to the mid 1960's, when she was murdered. At the time, like in many other places, prostitution was tolerated. Urban legends and rumors state that her house was visited by many distinguished politicians and businessmen, and even by members of the clergy. Of course, there is no documentation about these claims.

Apart from her business as a madam, well documented in many Puerto Rican newspapers such as El Dia and El Vocero, not much is known about her. Most information is based on urban legends and rumors.

The most widely accepted legend is that Isabel left her house as a young teenager to live with a wealthy man, only to find out that he was married. She then started to date another wealthy man, a much older, American man. While Isabel was happy with him for some time, he grew disrespectful of Isabel's Puerto Rican traditions. On Saints Day, a typical Latin American holiday, he blew out the candles she had lit to honor the saints.

After this episode, she left him and returned home, only to find out that her home was now being used as a brothel. Isabel, maybe being naive, at first did not know the women occupying her house were selling their bodies to men, as she thought they were giving out sex only because they liked it. However, soon she discovered they were selling themselves, and she began to do business in prostitution.

Isabel la Negra then declared herself Madame of her brothel, "Elizabeth's Dancing Club". According to legend also, Ponce's mayor was one of her prostitution clients, and the Puerto Ricans serving in the U.S. Armed Forces and the National Guard would use her brothel's services almost exclusively when they were in Ponce or in training in nearby Salinas and Fort Allen.

Before she was murdered, her nickname had become a household name all over Puerto Rico and she had become a legend, as many men lost their virginities at her brothel, tv and radio. Even after she died, her legend continued on growing. Some even consider her an example of the feminist movement in Puerto Rico.

In 1979, a movie named A Life of Sin was released, starring Miriam Colon as Isabel la Negra with Jose Ferrer, Raul Julia and Henry Darrow. The movie was directed by the famous actor and director Efraín López Neris.

Writer Mayra Santos Febres has announced that she is writing a novel based on Luberza Oppenheimer's life.

Isabel the Black

Nitza Margarita Cintron

Dr. Nitza Margarita Cintron (born 1950 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a scientist who is currently the Chief of Space Medicine and Health Care Systems Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

As a child, Cintron traveled throughout Europe because her father was a member of the U.S. Army. When her father retired from the armed forces, they returned to Puerto Rico and settled down in Santurce, a section of San Juan. There she attended elementary and high school, where she excelled in science and mathematics. She dedicated many hours to reading and studying about biology, chemistry, astronomy and space.

Cintron enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico where she earned a Bachelors Degree in Biology. In 1972 she was accepted into the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology training program offered by The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where in 1978 she earned a Ph.D. degree. In 1978, Cintron read a recruitment announcement for the first Mission Specialist positions in the Astronaut Corps while at Johns Hopkins still completing her PhD research work. She answered the advertisement and passed to the finals. However, she was not selected because of her poor eyesight. Her academic qualifications impressed the people at NASA to the extent that she was offered the position of NASA Scientist.

In 1979, Cintron was the originator of the Biochemistry Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center. Cintron also served from (1979-85) as the project scientist for the Space Lab 2 mission which was launched aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1985.

After many years of service at NASA, she was sponsored by NASA after she was accepted as a student by the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She graduated in 1995 with a M.D. degree, and is currently a board-certified specialist in internal medicine.

Among the positions held by Cintron in NASA are "Chief of the Biomedical Operations and Research Branch in the Medical Science Division" and "Director for managing the Life Sciences Research Laboratories" in support of medical operations. In 2004 she was named "Chief of NASA's (JSC) Space Medicine and Health Care Systems Office", position which she currently holds.

Cintron has received many awards and honors. Among them the "JSC Director's Commendation and Innovation Award", the centers highest award for a civil servant, the "NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement", the highest science honor given by the agency. On October 7, 2004, she was inducted into the Hispanic Engineer's National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC) Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame, located in Los Angeles, California, was established in 1998 and recognizes the contributions of Hispanics in the fields of science, engineering and technology.

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quote:

Originally posted by Gtman1:

quote:

Originally posted by raymond:
I stand corrected...and my hearfelt apologies to all you good women...

btw...ah was jus joking wid yalll

You my friend may need to send each woman on the forum a box of godiva chocolates.

Plus a free computer and printer!!!!

We women are very practical creatures!!!

World's women gain political ground

More women than ever hold seats in parliaments around the world, but governments need to make a greater effort to achieve gender equality, says a group that tracks women in politics.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union said Thursday in New York at UN headquarters that women now comprise nearly 17 per cent of parliamentarians now female, up from 11.3 per cent 12 years ago.

Anders Johnsson, secretary general of the IPU, said that women are not only standing for election in greater numbers than before, they are getting elected, thanks in part to quota systems.

In countries with gender quotas, women took 21.7 per cent of seats compared with 11.8 per cent in countries without.

However, Johnsson said, the rate at which women have been making gains has slowed.

"The good news is that the number of seats held by women in parliament continues to go up and now has reached an all time high of nearly 17 per cent in 2006," he said.

"The bad news is the increase in the number of women is slower than it was in the preceding year. If we are aiming for equality in parliament — in other words, roughly 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women — we will wait until the year 2077 to celebrate that event."

Of the women who won seats in 2006, 1,459 were directly elected, 63 were indirectly elected, and 35 were appointed. A total of 9,335 seats were up for grabs in 2006, with women capturing 16.7 per cent of seats. A total of 23 countries used quota systems last year.

Johnsson said there are more female presiding officers of parliament than ever before: a total of 35 out of 262 worldwide, with a record number of women elected speakers.

Remarkable gains
Women speakers were elected for the first time in Gambia, Israel, Swaziland, Turkmenistan and the U.S., with the election of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Of heads of government, he said, the numbers of women more than doubled last year, with six elected in 2006 alone, including Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

In some countries and regions, the increases in the numbers of women were remarkable, he said. The regions where gains were made include the Gulf States, the Middle East and Latin America.

For example, the United Arab Emirates allowed men and women to vote and to stand for election for the first time ever in 2006. The number of women in the UAE parliament went from zero to 22.5 per cent, with nine women elected.

"That reflects a growing trend in that part of the world where more and more women not only get the right to vote and stand for election, but also they are actually getting elected to parliament," he said.

Rwanda leads list
And in Costa Rica, after an election in 2006, women now make up 38.6 per cent of parliamentarians, with 22 women elected. There were 20 elections in all in Latin America last year.

According to a table compiled by the IPU, which classifies 189 countries by descending order of the percentage of women in their respective parliaments, including lower or upper houses, Rwanda, Sweden and Costa Rica are the top three.

In Rwanda, women occupy 48.8 per cent of seats in its Lower House, while in Sweden, women make up 47.3 per cent of its parliamentarians.

Canada ranks 47 on the list, given that only 20.8 per cent of its MPs are female. Of 308 federal seats, 64 were won by women in the last federal election in January 2006. And only 35 out of its 100 senators are women.

There were elections in 51 countries in all last year. The IPU, established in 1889, is an international organization of parliaments of sovereign states , with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/03/01/women-politics.html#skip300x250

Dame Nita Barrow

With the appointment in September, 1986, of Dame Nita Barrow as its Permanent Representative the government of Barbados chose one of the most distinguished women of the Caribbean to oversee the country's interests at the United Nations.

Dame Nita, an outspoken and articulate foe of social injustice, had but recently returned from South Africa as the lone female on a seven-member team of Commonwealth dignitaries assigned to take a first-hand look at the system of apartheid. The team, known as the Commonwealth Group of Eminent Persons, had as its mandate the reduction of the rapidly rising levels of tension in the strife-ridden country and the initiation of fruitful dialogue between the Botha government and leaders of the African majority. Dame Nita's membership of the Group was proposed by the Prime Minister of the Bahamas in recognition of the Barbadian's outstanding leadership in the International Council for Adult Education, the World Council of Churches and the World YWCA.

Her extensive interviews with leaders on both sides of the South African confrontation left an inspired impression upon Dame Nita, who singled out Nelson Mandela as "a man whose vision would transform South Africa from the pariah which it is to a state which could be a paragon of multi-racial harmony." Committed to the elimination of apartheid, she spent much of her spare time lecturing and raising public awareness of the bizarre intricacies of Pretoria's racial formula.

Ambassador Barrow was born into a family of civic activists. Her father, an Anglican priest, was removed from his pulpit in the Caribbean island of St. Croix after his ministry was considered too socially progressive for the island's local leaders. Despite warnings from the establishment and less courageous colleagues, he refused to temper the tone of the blistering sermons he delivered against the island's racially delineated social system.

Her maternal uncle, Dr. Charles Duncan O'Neal, sacrificed a successful medical practice to take up the cause of the underprivileged masses of Barbados. In 1924 he founded the Democratic League of Barbados and set in motion the social forces which would wrest political control of the island from the planter class and transform Barbados into a modern democracy.

Her younger brother, Errol, donned the mantle of his uncle, and in 1966 led Barbados to full political independence. As Barbados' first Prime Minister, Errol Barrow introduced a program of reforms which gave Barbados one of the most stable economic systems in the developing world.

Dame Nita was a practicing adult educator throughout a long professional career that spanned half a century. She worked or resided in almost every territory of the Caribbean. Her family had its roots in three Caribbean territories: St. Vincent-and-the-Grenadines, Tobago, and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Motivated in her early years by the humanitarian values of her father and uncle, Dame Nita chose nursing as a profession from among the limited number of careers then available to women. She completed her basic training at the Barbados General Hospital and immediately after undertook training in midwifery at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital in neighboring Trinidad. A graduate in nursing from Columbia University, New York, Dame Nita was also a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, holding graduate degrees from the University of Toronto, Canada and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

In 1964 her career took a significant turn when she became Nursing Adviser for the Caribbean Area with the Pan American Health Organization. In this capacity she served as principal adviser to sixteen Caribbean governments. She initiated and coordinated an extensive research program on nursing education which culminated in a comprehensive revision of nursing education in the region.

In 1975, Dame Nita became Director of the Christian Medical Commission of the World Council of Churches. She was considered one of the world's leading authorities on public health and health education, and published numerous papers on subjects related to those fields. Dame Nita regarded health care as more than a medical concern. She considered it a political force intended to free individuals from the liabilities of nature and direct their energies toward social and economic development. She recognized that all development depends, finally, on the efforts of those persons whose physical well-being is crucial to any concern for material improvements or any vision of the future.

Dame Nita was a strong advocate of the coordinating function of the United Nations and the part to be played by that organization in awakening an interest in improving the human condition. She believed, however, that unless the principles and priorities of the United Nations were reflected at every level of society, the Organization would be nothing more than a united governments organization whose focus and performance would, inevitably, be irrelevant to the needs and aspirations of humankind.

Ambassador Barrow believed that if the United Nations were to succeed in the preservation of peace it must always be a people-oriented organization, working to eradicate those conditions which give rise to the frustrations and anxieties from which armed conflict is spawned. Thus, she consistently promoted the active engagement of non-governmental organizations--"grass-roots," people's organizations--in the work of the United Nations and in all spheres of international relations.

From the Canadian Arctic to the South Seas; from Tashkent to Harare, Dame Nita visited more than 80 destinations in Africa, Asia, Europe and North, South and Central America. She traveled by river and other means to the interior of every continent, working and studying the social organization and customs of indigenous communities. She was equally familiar with the Inuit of the Canadian North and Amazon villagers of the Brazilian forests.

Dame Nita was president of the International Council of Adult Education (ICAE) from 1982 until 1990. In 1983, she traveled to six provinces of the People's Republic of China, with a team from the ICAE, seeking to evaluate Chinese approaches to workers' education. During this visit she co-chaired, with Chinese officials, a series of seminars on adult education.

As with most people of international stature, Dame Nita was a study in superlatives and contradictions. A woman, whose career though rooted in compassion, is described by associates as "a powerful manager who has the combative spirit of a freedom fighter."

With the presidencies of three major international bodies to her credit she recalled with special satisfaction, her challenging appointment in 1983 as Convenor of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Forum for the Decade of Women in Nairobi, Kenya. Her management of 17,500 delegates from 177 organizations and almost every known culture earned her international acclaim.

After an international career poised equally between ideas and action, Dame Nita--the adult educator/diplomat--remained convinced that neither ideas nor action can be beneficial if disjoined from the other.

It is not sufficient for us to be able to speak each other's language or visit each other's capitals. It is far more crucial to understand how we think and why. A clear understanding of every culture's pressures, its history and the way its people view themselves and the world is essential to the maintenance of peace. Every conflict has its deepest roots in a people's view of themselves and their neighbors.

Dame Nita was recipient of many honors and awards. In 1980 she was invested with the Order of Dame of St. Andrew in recognition of outstanding service to the people of the Caribbean and the Commonwealth. In 1987 she was awarded the CARICOM Women's Award for her personal accomplishments and the stature she brought to women of the Caribbean.

In her honor, the ICAE created the prestigious Dame Nita Barrow Award which recognizes and supports regional or national adult education organizations that have made a significant contribution towards the empowerment of women. Dame Nita Barrow brought great wisdom and experience to the field of adult education, her legacy informed by a lifelong commitment to people's struggle for learning, justice, and democracy.

Dame Nita Barrow died in Barbados on December 18, 1995.

http://www.nl.edu/academics/cas/ace/resources/nitabarrow.cfm

Dame Eugenia Charles

Mary Eugenia Charles led an extraordinary life as a pioneer among women and a leader of men. In 1949 she began the first female lawyer in the Caribbean. In 1980 Mary Eugenia Charles became the first woman to come to power in the Caribbean. As prime minister of Dominica (pronounced "Dom-i-NEE-ka"), she was the first woman to lead an independent nation. Her longevity and determination to do right for her people earned her the nickname "The Iron Lady of the Caribbean." Charles served three terms in office before retiring in 1995.

Learned Values from Family
Mary Eugenia Charles was born in Pointe Michel, Dominica, not far from the capital of Roseau. Dominica—not to be confused with the larger, Spanish-speaking country of the Dominican Republic—was a colony of Great Britain at the time of Charles's birth and remained so until achieving independence in 1978. She grew up with three brothers who all became doctors and one sister who became a nun. Charles's father, John Baptiste was a renowned businessman who speculated in land and founded the island's Penny Bank. He lived until the age of 107, seeing his daughter serve as prime minister for three years before his death in 1983.

Charles referred to her father in Ebony magazine as "a very, very great man. He taught me much about being tough when it counts, and about always being open and honest with people." In People she spoke of her mother as the primary influence in her life however. "In Dominica we really live women's lib," she said, "we don't have to expound it."

Charles, who never married and bore no children, began her education in Dominica. She completed her higher studies at a Roman Catholic convent in St. George's, Grenada—a neighboring island country. She became interested in law while attending trials to practice her shorthand for a required secretarial course. She then went to the University of Toronto in Canada to study law, earning her bachelor's degree there. She continued her legal education in England at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Charles was called to the bar in England in 1947 as a member of the Inner Temple. She hoped to stay in London to further her studies of law in the field of juvenile delinquency. Her parents however convinced her to return to Dominica where she would be the only female lawyer. Charles returned to her home, and was soon practicing law in Dominica. Over the years, she became involved in legal cases in several of the West Indies islands.

Jumped into Politics
Charles first became involved in politics in the 1950s. She told Americas magazine that she "was a concerned citizen involved in what was happening in my country, and quite often I would write letters of criticism of whatever government was in power at the time." During the 1950s and 1960s Dominica moved slowly toward independence. By 1968 Dominica was an internally self-governed colony. Edward Oliver Le Blanc was the prime minister and a member of the ruling Labour party. Le Blanc passed a sedition law that prohibited the formation of opposition parties and attempted to muzzle the media.

Charles quickly reacted by joining with trade unionists, upper class professionals, and the religious leaders to form an organization called the Freedom Fighters. She made numerous speeches traveling the island to protest the law. "At that point," said Charles in Americas, "I made up my mind I would do everything to prevent that government from continuing to rule, because I felt democracy would die." Many of the Freedom Fighters formed the new Dominica Freedom party, a right-of-center party that represented the "traditional merchant and professional class in Roseau and non-agricultural areas in the south of the island," according to Patrick Baker in the book Centering the Periphery.

In the 1970 elections several members of the Freedom party were winners for seats in the House of Assembly, Dominica's legislative body. Although not one of the people elected, Charles was appointed to a seat in the Assembly as the Dominican constitution allows; she was elected to the House of Assembly on her own right in 1975 after Le Blanc had resigned and Patrick John had succeeded him. She was one of three Freedom party members elected that year. She was also chosen as the leader of the opposition party.

After Dominican independence in 1978, John, who began calling himself Colonel, attempted to make many changes to the country. He tried to sell 45 square miles, nearly one-sixth of the island, to a Texas-based business for development of a free port. He canceled the agreement after protests became very vocal. His government came under attack for business dealings with the apartheid government in South Africa. Government officials were accused of trying to set up a drug-trading zone in the country. John's government was often mentioned as being connected to the marijuana trade controlled by Jamaican-based Rastafarians.

Elected to Lead
In May of 1979, in response to a curtailing of press freedom and changes in the right-to-strike laws, 15,000 people—of a total population of 80,000—gathered to protest the government. Government security officers began shooting into the crowd. One person died in the attack and several others were injured. John's government fell soon after. An interim government was formed to last until elections. Hurricane David struck Dominica during this period, further angering the people due to lack of government response. In elections of July 1980, Eugenia Charles and her opposition Freedom party swept to victory in 17 of the 21 assembly seats.

Immediately Charles set about trying to reconstruct a government and an island, after the devastating hurricane. She ran into trouble immediately. The Dominican Defense Force was inventoried for weapons. Stories of officers selling their weapons to the Rastafarian marijuana growers were widespread. Eventually Charles disbanded the defense force. Several members were arrested as they tried to reach Charles's office. The marijuana growers, known as Dreads in Dominica, were under watch and attack. After two of their members were killed in a clash with police, a local well-known farmer was kidnapped and killed. Former Prime Minister Patrick John was arrested for trying to overthrow the government in separate charges. And finally, in April of 1981, a plot to overthrow the Charles government was uncovered by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in New Orleans and the Ontario Provincial Police in Canada. Eight Americans and two Canadians, six with ties to the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, were arrested shortly before they were to take boats to Dominica. They were going to overthrow Charles, restore the John government, and receive preferential treatment in setting up businesses, including the development of a free port where gambling and drug trade would occur.

At a Glance

Born May 15, 1919, in Pointe Michel, Dominica; died on September 6, 2005, on the island of Martinique; daughter of Jean Baptiste (businessman) and Josephine Delauney (homemaker); never married; no children. Education: University of Toronto, BA in law; further studies in law at the London School of Economics and Political Science; admitted to the bar in 1947.

Career: Lawyer in private practice, 1949–68; Lecturer, opposition political figure, 1968–70; appointed member, Dominica House of Assembly, 1970–75; elected member and opposition political leader, House of Assembly, 1975–80; prime minister of Dominica, and also Minister of Finance, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Economic Affairs, 1980–95.

Awards: Chair, Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), 1983; Knighted by Queen Elizabeth of England, 1991.

The Dominicans arrested in the coup attempt were eventually convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. In December of 1981, an attempt to free John and others from their prison by a group of Dreads, or former Dominican soldiers, and American mercenaries was also thwarted. "I'm convinced one of the reasons certain people want to take over Dominica," Charles told Ebony, "is so they can turn it into a center for trafficking in marijuana and other drugs. I have said as firmly as I can that I do not intend for that to happen. I am not going to legalize marijuana and permit it to be sold openly on this island, and I'm not going to permit it to be grown wholesale for export. Dominica will not become a lawless place. We will not become the laughing stock of the world."

Formed Tough Government Policies
Eugenia Charles quickly began changing the way business was conducted in Dominica. She no longer accepted deals with people who wanted to avoid taxes. "I pay mine," she was quoted in as saying in Ebony, "so you must pay yours." She stopped granting waivers to businesses and immediately canceled all trips overseas for government employees. She instructed them to "stay home and do their work," Ebony stated. During her first term in office, Charles benefited from U.S. President Ronald Reagan's Caribbean Basin initiative. Money granted to the government by this plan allowed Charles to reconstruct Dominica's road system as well as rebuild the banana, lime, and coconut crops that were devastated by Hurricane David. By 1983 Charles had succeeded in lowering the inflation rate from 30 percent to less than five percent. Charles also created a budget surplus where only deficit had existed before her tenure. She followed recommendations of the World Monetary Fund and kept spending at a minimum. As she was quoted as saying in Women Prime Ministers and Presidents, "We should give the people not luxury but a little comfort. Dominica will never be rich, but it can be self-reliant." "People realize there is not much money," she told the New York Times, "but what there is, is spent on assisting them. We have given the government credibility."

Dominica joined with other island nations in July of 1981 to form the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Eugenia Charles was elected the chair of this organization in 1983. It was in this role that Charles would leave her most lasting impression on the world. In October of 1983 Prime Minister Maurice Bishop of Grenada, three of his cabinet ministers, and a number of civilians were killed in a coup carried out by a group calling itself the New Jewel Movement. Charles convened a meeting of the OECS. She spoke about information she had which implicated Cuba and the Soviet Union in the coup. She said the coup had taken place because Bishop had scheduled elections. Charles received permission from the OECS to request help.

Stood Strong Against Criticism
On October 25, 1983 Charles joined Reagan as he announced that nearly 2,000 American Marines and Army Rangers, joined by forces from Jamaica, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, and Dominica, had intervened in Grenada to safeguard the lives of American citizens and help in restoring democracy to Grenada. Charles told Essence, "I believe we had to do it for our sake too, because I think we would have fallen like dominoes [to communism] if we hadn't taken those steps then."

Charles's request and U.S. reaction was roundly criticized by the Soviet Union, as well as many of the Organization of American States members, France, and Germany. Charles took the criticism in stride and told Essence that "nobody is satisfied with anything you do, because everyone has a different notion of what should have priority." She stated in Essence that she would do the same thing again if the circumstances were the same. Charles has often faced charges that she is kowtowing to the United States. She has always responded that she is simply attempting to do what is best for Dominica. Recently she ignored her own objections to Cuba's government to begin trading with her large neighbor. "I have always said I'll do business with the devil if it will buy products and put money in the hands of my people," she told Essence. "I'll trade anywhere in the world where I can get money for my farmers."

Charles handily won re-election in 1985 over a reformulated Labour party and again in 1990. She led her country through the completion of many important projects: the construction of a protective seawall and a promenade that overlooks the Roseau waterfront; the repair of all the roadways; and the electrification of even the most rural areas. Charles oversaw the dramatic rise in the number of tourists to Dominica each year. Because of its relatively pristine jungle and mountains, Dominica has been featured in many ecology-based tours. Charles told Audubon, "We are not interested in mass tourism." Charles also set aside much of the rain forest on Dominica as national park land or reserves and won the praise of environmentalists for her work in preserving the habitat of the rare Sisserou, a parrot that is found only on Dominica. She also experienced criticism in this arena when she favored a resumption of whaling in her waters.

Honored for Efforts
Charles, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth of England in 1991, has been described in Ebony as a "brilliant lawyer [and a] savvy politician [who is] razor-sharp in debate…. When it is appropriate to her purpose, [she can] turn cold-faced and wither strong men with a stare." She also has displayed a sense of humor in her work. As an Assembly member she was upset over a formal dress code rule introduced for Assembly business. She protested this by wearing her judicial robe to the Assembly, and removed it once inside the chamber to reveal a green floral print bathing suit. This stunt angered the current prime minister but brought laughter to the public gallery. During her last term in office, Dame Eugenia—the title a knighted woman goes by—looked forward to retirement. She told Essence that she intended to travel to Alaska and read when she left office. In 1995, Charles retired and began her travels. She died on September 6, 2005 on the island of Martinique from complications of a broken hip. She was 86 years old. Charles will be remembered for her "firsts" as a female lawyer and as a leader in the Caribbean. Her nickname "Iron Lady of the Caribbean" remains a uniquely suitable descriptor for her and the way she lived her life.

http://www.briefbio.com/pages/2901/Charles-Mary-Eugenia.html

The Hon. Louise Bennett-Coverley aka 'Miss Lou'

Louise Bennett was born on September 7, 1919. She was a Jamaican poet and activist. From Kingston, Jamaica Louise Bennett remains a household name in Jamaica, a "Living Legend" and a cultural icon. She received her education from Ebenezer and Calabar Elementary Schools, St. Simon’s College, Excelsior College, Friends College (Highgate).

Although she lived in Toronto, Canada for the last decade she still receives the homage of the expatriate West Indian community in the north as well as a large Canadian following.

She was described as Jamaica's leading comedienne, as the "only poet who has really hit the truth about her society through its own language", and as an important contributor to her country of "valid social documents reflecting the way Jamaicans think and feel and live” Through her poems in Jamaican patois, she raised the dialect of the Jamaican folk to an art level which is acceptable to and appreciated by all in Jamaica.

In her poems she was able to capture all the spontaneity of the expression of Jamaicans' joys and sorrows, their ready, poignant and even wicked wit, their religion and their philosophy of life. Her first dialect poem was written when she was fourteen years old. A British Council Scholarship took her to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where she studied in the late 1940’s.

Bennett not only had a scholarship to attend the academy but she auditioned and won a scholarship. After graduation she worked with repertory companies in Coventry, Huddersfield and Amersham as well as in intimate revues all over England.
On her return to Jamaica she taught drama to youth and adult groups both in social welfare agencies and for the University of the West Indies Extra Mural Department.

She lectured extensively in the United States and the United Kingdom on Jamaican folklore and music and represented Jamaica all over the world. She married Eric Winston Coverley in 1954 (who died in 2002) and has one stepson and several adopted children. She enjoys Theatre, Movies and Auction sales.

Her contribution to Jamaican cultural life was such that she was honored with the M.B.E., the Norman Manley Award for Excellence (in the field of Arts), the Order of Jamaica (1974) the Institute of Jamaica's Musgrave Silver and Gold Medals for distinguished eminence in the field of Arts and Culture, and in 1983 the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of the West Indies. In September 1988 her composition "You're going home now", won a nomination from the Academy of Canadian Cinema ad Television, for the best original song in the movie "Milk and Honey."

In 1998 she received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from York University, Toronto, Canada. The Jamaica Government also appointed her Cultural Ambassador at Large for Jamaica. On Jamaica’s independence day 2001, Bennett-Coverley was appointed as a Member of the Order of Merit for her distinguished contribution to the development of the Arts and Culture.

http://www.jis.gov.jm/special_sections/This%20Is%20Jamaica/MissLouProfile.html

Adriane Brown
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Brown leads a $4.5 billion auto products division that makes turbochargers, oil filters, antifreeze, and more. Operating profits last year were $557 million.

Shona Brown
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SVP, Business Operations, Google

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