Women's History Month
#WomensHistoryMonth
Women's History Month and
International Women's Day March 8th
March is Women's History Month
When we recognize and celebrate the diverse and historic accomplishments of women by providing information
and educational materials and programs.
The Educational CyberPlayGround (founded by a Karen Ellis) provides many wonderful resources to help you discover the important contributions and achievements made by women throughout our history. We hope you will find information to use all year round and for a lifetime of learning.
Hedy Lamarr invented cell phone
technology
Wireless Technology and Hedy Lamarr National Women's History Month: Female Inventor Hedy Lamarr and
her
Contributions to Wireless Technology
Hedy Lamarr's Invention Finally Comes of Age
Born Hedwig Eva Kiesler in Vienna, Austria, she was the daughter of Gertrud (Lichtwitz), from Budapest, and Emil Kiesler, a banker from Lviv. Her parents were both from Jewish families.Her inspiration for inventing a radio that broadcast on different frequencies came from watching a player piano paper go around with different holes in the paper. She gave the idea to the US War Department, which led to a radio guiding system for torpedoes that was used in World War II. She had supposedly gained the knowledge from her first husband, Fritz Mandl, an Austrian industrialist and arms dealer who philosophically and financially supported the Nazis. He was abusive and brutal to her, and she finally managed to escape him, and Austria, by drugging her maid.
Was co-inventor (with composer George Antheil) of the earliest known form of the telecommunications method known as "frequency hopping", which used a piano roll to change between 88 frequencies and was intended to make radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or to jam. The method received U.S. patent number 2,292,387 on August 11, 1942, under the name "Secret Communications System". Frequency hopping is now widely used in cellular phones and other modern technology. However, neither she nor Antheil profited from this fact, because their patents were allowed to expire decades before the modern wireless boom. She received an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1997 for her pioneering work in spread-spectrum technology.
2017 Now well into their 90s, Women who helped uncover secret Nazi communications gather at British WW2 code-breaking HQ Bletchley Park
THE RIGHT OF AN EDUCATION FOR GIRLS
Forgotten ---- a magical song by John McCutcheon
Honoring Mala La Yousafzai target of the Taliban.
Training For Service, 1926 - AT&T Archive
MAPPING THE LONG WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
I can remember when I was 13 --
1963 Prediction of the home Computer was Clearly a man's world for Susie Homemaker.
Nastalgic memory of the 1990's "The Kids Guide to the Interent"
And it's NOT JUST FOR BOYS EITHER 2:21
COMPUTER WONDER WOMEN PIONEERS
Female Inventors: The Wonder Women who were the first computers.
Yes, that is where the name comes from . . . the women who did it by hand, who did the math with pencils and paper! We were the computers, we figured it out by ourselves and we win the smart-epants award.
Male bro-*coders vs. Female Inventors: The Wonder Women who were the first computers.
In 1987, Congress expanded the celebration to a month, and March was declared Women's History Month. PDF
Before 1970, women's history was rarely the subject of serious study. Since then,
almost every college offers women's history courses and most major graduate programs offer doctoral
degrees in the field.
The public celebration of women's history in this country began in 1978 as "Women's History
Week" in Sonoma County, California. The week including March 8, International Women's Day, was
selected. In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) co-sponsored a joint
Congressional resolution proclaiming a national Women's History Week.
TOP SECRET ROSIES
"In 1942, when computers were human and women were underestimated, a group of female mathematicians
helped win a war and usher in the modern computer age. Sixty-five years later their story has finally
been
told."
Support Equal Pay for Women
End Discrimination against Women and Girls
International Gender Equity Resources
Congress may soon consider the Paycheck Fairness Act (S 766/HR 1338), which would
enhance
provisions of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and close loopholes in that law and other statutes in order to
close
the wage gap between men and women workers. Working through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the bill would enhance enforcement
of
equal pay requirements, provide resources to government agencies for use in training staff to comply with
the laws, as well as empower women to negotiate more equitable salaries, contracts, and benefits.
Paycheck Fairness Act S. 766 Clinton (D-NY) H.R. 1338 DeLauro (D-CT) Wage discrimination. Amends the Equal
Pay Act to provide for expanded penalties and enhanced enforcement of prohibitions against sex
discrimination in the payment of compensation. Prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who
share pay-related information with co-workers. S. 766 was introduced on March 6, 2007, and referred to the
Senate HELP Committee. H.R. 1338 was introduced on March 6, 2007, and referred to the House Education and
Labor Committee.
American women earn only 77 cents on every dollar earned by men, a figure that adds up to nearly $10,000
in
median annual income disparity. The disparity is even greater for minority women. This gender wage gap
persists even when relevant career and family attributes are taken into account, suggesting that sex
discrimination still plays a role.
Gender
pay gap emerges early, study finds 4/23/07
"One year after graduation, a pay gap turned up between women and men who studied the same
fields."
Resources
Sewing In Space by Astronaut Karen Nyberg
NASA Astronaut Karen Nyberg, a lifelong lover of sewing, is inviting fellow crafters to join her in stitching together a global community space quilt. Nyberg, in the final weeks of her mission, recently shared a star-themed quilt square she was able to complete inside the International Space Station. Now, she's inviting quilters from the public to create their own star-themed quilt squares to help celebrate her mission and passion for the quilting arts. The International Quilt Festival and Nyberg will work together to have the squares stitched together for display at the 40th annual International Quilt Festival in 2014 and other public displays. For Nyberg's complete biography, visit: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios... For more information about Nyberg's personal sewing hobbies visit: http://go.nasa.gov/CraftyKaren
The Best of Systers Blog Posts
The National Register of Historic Places is pleased to promote awareness of and appreciation for the historical accomplishments of American women during Women's History Month.
The National Women's History Project
How girl geeks can get the best tech jobs, Women! Embrace your
inner
geek.
Sybilla Masters | First woman whose invention received a patent (for cleaning and curing corn) - it was granted to her husband | 1715 |
Mary Katherine Goddard | First woman postmaster | 1775 |
Betsy Ross | First person to be a U.S. flagmaker | 1776/77 |
Hannah Adams | First woman to become professional writer | 1784 |
Mary Dixon Kies | First U. S. patent issued to a woman. Kies, a Connecticut native, invented a process for weaving straw with silk or thread. First Lady Dolley Madison praised her for boosting the nation's hat industry. Unfortunately, the patent file was destroyed in the great Patent Office fire in 1836. | 1809 |
Lucy Brewer | First woman marine | 1812 |
Elizabeth Blackwell | First woman to receive a medical degree | 1849 |
Lucretia Coffin Mott | Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton Inaugurated the woman suffrage movement. site | 1848 |
Amelia Jenks Bloomer | Publisher/editor of first prominent women's rights newspaper | 1849 |
Harriet Tubman | First woman to run underground railroad to help slaves escape | 1850 |
Lucy Hobbs | First woman to graduate from dental school | 1866 |
Susan B. Anthony | Co-Founder of first US woman's suffrage organization | 1869 |
Arabella Mansfield Babb | First woman admitted to the bar | 1869 |
Frances Elizabeth Willard | First woman to become a college president (Evanston College) | 1871 |
Victoria Chaflin Woodhull | First woman to be presidential candidate | 1872 |
Helen Magill | First woman to receive a Ph.D. degree (Boston University) | 1877 |
Belva Ann Lockwood | First woman to practice law before U.S. Supreme Court | 1879 |
Clara Barton | Founder of the American Red Cross | 1881 |
Amalie Noether | Albert Einstein called her the most “significant” and “creative” female mathematician of all time. Emmy Noether's theorem united two pillars of physics: symmetry in nature and the universal laws of conservation. | 1882 |
Maud Booth | Co-Founder of Salvation Army and Volunteers of America | 1887/96 |
Suzanna Madora Salter | First woman mayor (Argonia, Kansas) | 1887 |
Miriam Benjamin | The second black woman to receive a patent for an invention she called a Gong and Signal Chair for Hotels. | 1888 |
Mary McLeod Bethune | First woman to establish secondary school that became 4-year accredited college | 1904 |
Mary Anderson | Patented the windshield wiper. | 1905 |
Blanche Scott | First woman to fly an airplane | 1910 |
Jeannette Rankin | First woman U.S. House Representative (Montana) | 1916 |
Kate Gleason | First woman president of a national bank | 1917 |
Jeannette Rankin | First woman in Congress | 1917 |
Florence E. Allen | First woman judge | 1920 |
Nellie Tayloe Ross | First woman governor of U. S. state (Wyoming) | 1925 |
Katherine Bement Davis | First person to conduct national survey of sexual attitudes | 1929 |
Jane Addams | First woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize | 1931 |
Hattie Wyatt Caraway | First woman elected to U.S. Senate | 1932 |
Amelia Earhart | First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean | 1932 |
Ruth Bran Owen | First woman foreign diplomat | 1933 |
Pearl S. Buck | First woman to win a Nobel Prize for Literature | 1935 |
Hattie McDaniel | First African-American of any gender to win an Academy Award (she won for Best Supporting Actress in the film, Gone with the Wind). | 1939 |
Linda Darnell | First woman to sell securities on the New York Stock Curb Exchange | 1941 |
Conchita V. Cintron | First U.S. woman bullfighter in Spain | 1949 |
Georgia Nesse Clark | First woman treasurer of the United States | 1949 |
Evelyn Hooker, Ph.D. | Hooker's research demonstrated that expert clinical judges could not distinguish the projective test protocols of nonclinical homosexual men from a comparable group of heterosexual men, nor were there differences in adjustment ratings, was validated soon thereafter by other investigators. Not until 1973, however, did the American Psychiatric Association delete homosexuality from its diagnostic handbook. | 1957 |
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova | First woman to fly in space, aboard Vostok 6. | 1963 |
Stephanie Kwolek |
Kevlar was invented by former DuPont chemist Stephanie Kwolek of Wilmington, Del. Soldiers owe their lives to a retired 79-year-old woman in Delaware. |
1965 |
Muriel Siebert | First woman to own seat on the New York Stock Exchange | 1967 |
Janice Lee York Romary | First woman to carry U.S. flag at the Olympic Games | 1968 |
Marie Brown | The first video home security system was patented (patent #3,482,037) on December 2, 1969 to Marie Brown. The system used television surveillance. | 1969 |
Mary Clarke | First woman to be named major general in U.S. Army | 1978 |
Ella Grasso | First woman govenor to be re-elected (Connecticut) | 1978 |
Sandra Day O'Connor | First woman a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court | 1981 |
Sally Kristen Ride | First American woman to reach outer space. | 1983 |
Joan Benoit (Samuelson) | First woman to win an Olympic marathon | 1984 |
Penny Harrington | First woman police chief of major U. S. city (Portland, OR) | 1985 |
Ann Bancroft | First woman to walk to North Pole | 1986 |
Christa McAuliffe | First woman citizen passenger on a space mission | 1986 |
Barbara Ross-Lee, D.O. | First African American woman to be appointed dean of an American medical school. | 1993 |
Lt. Col. Eileen Collins | First American woman to pilot a Space Shuttle | 1995 |
Madeleine K. Albright | First woman Secretary of State and highest ranking woman in the U.S. government | 1997 |
Hillary Rodham Clinton | Only First Lady ever elected to the United States Senate | 2000 |
Halle Berry | First African-American woman to win a Best Actress Oscar | 2002 |
Condoleezza Rice | First African-American woman to be appointed Secretary of State | 2005 |
Nancy Pelosi | First woman to become Speaker of the House | 2007 |
Hillary Clinton | Second women to run for President of the United States | 2008 |
Muiti Processor Computing 1924
First Computer Programmers Inspire Documentary
Decline in Numbers of Women in Computer Science Threatens U.S.
Competitiveness, Say Experts By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES Dec. 4, 2007 (ABCNews)
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3951187&page=1
During World War II the Army ran out of male mathematicians and turned to six women to program the
world's first computer - ENIAC. Historian Kathy Kleiman (left) has recorded oral histories of these
women - now in their 80s - in her upcoming documentary film, "Invisible Computers." ...At 83, Betty Jean Jennings Bartik -- a
devoted bridge player and grandmother of five -- had a secret past that was invisible to many who knew
her.Her grandson Alex knew her story. He stormed out of school one day when his teacher refused to believe
his gray-haired granny was a computer pioneer who had calculated firing tables and ballistic trajectories
during World War II. The boy's parents had to explain to the teacher that Bartik and five other women
had, indeed, legally hacked one of the world's first computers, converting it into a stored machine
and
eventually helping to usher in the digital age.
The Book of Household Management published 1859-1861 by Isabella Beeton in 24 monthly parts. Find "information for the mistress, housekeeper, cook, kitchen-maid, butler, footman, coachman, valet, upper and under house-maids, ladys-maid, maid-of-all-work, laundry-maid, nurse and nurse-maid, ... also, sanitary, medical, & legal memoranda; with a history of the origin, properties, and uses of all things connected with home life and comfort." Also includes recipes. From the University of Adelaide Library.
Amara Angelica is on the National Space Society Board of
Directors
A radio amateur operator (KF6TEJ) She is editor of internationally renowned techno-futurist Ray
Kurzweil's web site (KurzweilAI.net) and newsletter, Accelerating Intelligence. She has a background
in
aerospace engineering, having held positions at Grumman Aerospace as human factors engineer on the Lunar
Module and in mission and operations analysis for electronic warfare and electronic intelligence
systems.
Amara has an extensive background as a technology and science journalist, writing for InfoWorld,
TechWeek, Computerworld, Broadcast Management/Engineering, The
Futurist,
CoEvolution Quarterly, and other publications. She also has a background in public relations and
advertising, especially in writing technology/science white papers. She is the author of “Communicating
with
the Universe,” in the book, Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge (2008). She also
has
experience as a book editor (Ray Kurzweil's two recent books), inventor, radio producer/engineer/host,
video scriptwriter/producer, electronic synthesizer musician/composer, webmaster, and web
programmer.
Amara has been a strong supporter of space settlements since the early 70s, working with NSS Board of
Governors member Barbara Marx Hubbard, NSS Board of Directors member Stan Rosen, and other space
futurists,
and with the World Future Society. She is also a member of the Space Development Steering Committee,
working
closely with noted author and NSS Board of Governors member Howard Bloom, NSS Senior VP Mark Hopkins, and
other leaders in strategy and promotion.
500 Years of Women in Art and Film
Music: Bach's Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 performed by Yo-Yo Ma