WOW2: Late November's Women Trailblazers and Events in OUR History - 2017

Welcome to WOW2 — Late November !

WOW2 is a twice-monthly sister blog to This Week in the War on Women. This edition covers women and events from November 16 through November 30. 

The purpose of WOW2 is to learn about and honor women of achievement, including many who’ve been ignored or marginalized in most of the history books, and to mark moments in women’s history. It also serves as a reference archive of women’s history. There are so many more phenomenal women than I ever dreamed of finding, and all too often their stories are almost unknown, even to feminists and scholars.

These trailblazers have a lot to teach us about persistence in the face of overwhelming odds. I hope you will find reclaiming our past as much of an inspiration as I do.

 This Week in the War on Women 

just posted, so be sure to go there next and catch up
on the latest dispatches from the frontlines:

www.dailykos.com/...

Late November’s Women Trailblazers and Events in OUR History

• November 16, 1528–Jeanne d'Albret born, became Jeanne III, queen regnant of Navarre; a spiritual and political leader of the French Huguenots; after the Huguenot defeat in 1569, she negotiated the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye with Catherine de' Medici, arranging a marriage between her son, Henry, and Catherine's daughter, Marguerite; she died during preparations for the wedding in 1572, starting an unsubstantiated rumor that Catherine de’Medici had her assassinated by means of poisoned gloves

• November 16, 1806–Mary Tyler Peabody born, one of the Peabody sisters of Massachusetts; author, teacher, translator, women’s education advocate and abolitionist; she taught young children in her school in Salem, and wrote educational works for children and parents, including The Flower People: Being an Account of the Flowers by Themselves; Illustrated with Plates, a popular storybook which introduced children to horticulture; married at age 36, she was second wife of the reformer and politician Horace Mann

• November 16, 1896–Joan Lindsay born, Australian author of Picnic at Hanging Rock

• November 16, 1899–Mary Margaret McBride born, radio interview show host and writer; dubbed “the First Lady of Radio,” her popular program lasted over 40 years; she accepted advertising only for products she was willing to endorse from personal experience, turned down all tobacco and alcohol products, and “broke the color line” during WWII by bringing black interviewees on her show

• November 16, 1903–Barbara McLean born, American film editor; edited 62 films, including Mary Pickford’ s early talkies, The Black Swan (1942), 12 O’Clock High (1949) and All About Eve (1950); six-time nominee for Academy Awards in Editing, she won the 1944 Oscar for Best Editing for Wilson; her attitude was, “If you’re going to ask me, then listen to me,” and they did

• November 16, 1935–Elizabeth Drew born, American author, journalist and political pundit; the Washington correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, she was also a panelist on Meet the Press, and made many appearances on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer; published 14 books, including On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994) an account of his first years in office, and Richard M. Nixon (2007)

• November 16, 1945–Lynn Avery Hunt born, American historian, author and academic; wrote several books on the French Revolution, including Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (1984); her 2007 work, Inventing Human Rights: A History, has been heralded as the most comprehensive analysis of the history of human rights

• November 16, 1948–Bonnie Greer born in Chicago, playwright, novelist and broadcaster, who has lived in the UK since 1986, and became a British citizen in 1997; her plays includeMunda Negra (1993), Dancing On Blackwater (1994), and the musical  Marilyn and Ella (2005), based on Ella Fitzgerald’s exclusion by the color bar and  Marilyn Monroe’s help in getting her employment at the Mocambo nightclub; her musical memoir of growing up in Chicago, Obama Music, was published in 2009

• November 16, 1954–Andrea Barrett born, American novelist and short story writer; her story collection, Ship Fever, won the 1996 National Book Award for Fiction

• November 16, 1964–Valeria Bruni Tedeschi born, Italian-French screenwriter, actress and film director; her first film, It’s Easier for a Camel . . . , won the 2003 Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film; in 2013, her film, A Castle in Italy, was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival

• November 16, 1988– In the first open election in more than a decade, voters in Pakistan elect populist candidate Benazir Bhutto as Prime Minister of Pakistan

• November 17, 1558–Queen Elizabeth I ascends the throne of England at the age of 25, and reigns for 45 years

• November 17, 1866–Voltairine de Cleyre born, American anarchist and Freethought Movement activist; prolific writer, poet and public speaker, who opposed capitalism, the state, marriage, and domination over women’s lives and sexuality by religion

• November 17, 1878–Grace Abbott born, American social worker and advocate for the rights of immigrants and for child labor laws; worked at Hull House, wrote weekly articles for the Chicago Evening Post exposing exploitation of immigrants; member of the Women’s Trade Union League; director of the Child Labor Division of the U.S. Children’s Bureau (1917-1919); author of several sociological texts

• November 17, 1903 –Molly Spotted Elk (Molly Alice Nelson Archambaul) born, native Penobscot dancer, combined anthropology with dance in her lecture/dance recitals

• November 17, 1917 –Ruth Aaronson Bariborn, American mathematician; graph theory and algebraic homomorphisms; earned her MA at Johns Hopkins University in 1943, but had originally enrolled in the doctoral program; the university suggested that women in the graduate program should give up their fellowships so men returning from WWII could study; she acceded, marrying Arthur Bari, and raising their three children. Bari returned to Johns Hopkins in 1966, where she completed her dissertation on “absolute reducibility of maps of at most 19 regions” at the age of 47. In the early 1970s, she felt that math teachers in the Washington DC public schools were not as prepared as they should be, so she got a grant from the National Science Foundation to create and fund a pilot program for a master’s degree in teaching mathematics

• November 17, 1923 –Ruth Bleier born, neurophysiologist, pioneering feminist scholar explored how gender biases shape biology research, leader in development of Women’s Studies discipline. Author of Science and Gender: A Critique of Biology and Its Theories on Women (1984) and Feminist Approaches to Science (1986). In 1950’s, worked for civil rights with Maryland Committee for Peace, lost hospital privileges for refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities

• November 17, 1942–Dame Lesley Rees born, British professor and endocrinologist; Dean of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College (Bart’s) from 1989–95, the first and only woman to hold this post; now Emeritus Professor of Chemical Endocrinology at Bart’s; she was the first Director of Education at the Royal College of Physicians in 1997

• November 17, 1945–Lesley Abdelaborn, British expert on women’s rights and representation; adviser in 40 different countries to governments and IGOs (including the UN), NGOs, and the European Commission; broadcast journalist and public speaker; has been the first, and sometimes only, advocate for women, involved negotiations in several war zones, including Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, immediately after a cease-fire; in the 1990 Queen’s Birthday Honours, appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for “services to the advancement of Women in Politics and Local Government”

• November 17, 1955–Yolanda King born, American activist and actor, oldest child of Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr.; acted in Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Our Friend, Martin (1999) and Selma, Lord, Selma (1999); supporter and ally of the LGBTQ Community; died at age 51 of complications related to a heart condition, just 16 months after her mother passed away

• November 17, 1959–Glenda Bailey born, British magazine editor; worked for Marie Claire (1988-2001), first as launch editor for the British edition of Marie Claire, then editor-in-chief of the U.S. edition, earning 3 Magazine Editor of the Year Awards, 5 Magazine of the year Awards, and 2 Amnesty International Awards for coverage of human rights stories; editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar since 2001

• November 17, 1964–Susan Rice born, American public servant; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2009-2013); National Security Advisor (2013-2017); in 2012, she withdrew her name from consideration for Secretary of State after Hillary Clinton retired because of the ongoing Benghazi controversy, saying if she were the nominee, “the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly.”

• November 17, 1969–Rebecca Walker born, American author, feminist and activist; co-founder of the Third Wave Foundation, which supports efforts of young women of color, and queer, intersex, and trans individuals as activists and leaders in their communities

• November 17,1988–Benazir Bhutto is inaugurated as Prime Minister of Pakistan, the first woman leader of an Islamic country

• November 18, 1825 – Susan T. Mills born;with her husband Cyrus, founded Mills Seminary, a boarding school for young women, which became Mills College, the first women’s college in California; in 1890, she became the college’s president, hiring architect Julia Morgan in 1904 to design six buildings to expand the campus; Mills retired in 1909 at the age of 84

• November 18,1857–Rose Markwood Knox born, with her husband Charles Knox, developed the world’s first pre-granulated gelatin, eliminating the difficult process of making gelatin at home; when her husband died in 1908, she ran the company for the next 40 years, initiating a five-day work week and two-week vacations; first woman member and first woman director of  the American Grocery Manufacturers’ Association; died at age 93, still chair of the Knox Board of Directors

• November 18, 1869 –American Woman Suffrage Association is formed by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and other more conservative women’s rights activists, to work exclusively for woman suffrage by focusing on amending individual state constitutions

• November 18, 1869 –Soprano Marie Selika Williams becomes the first Black artist to perform at the White House, Washington D.C.

• November 18, 1878–Georgia Bullock born, first woman member of the Los Angeles Bar Association, founder of the Women Lawyer’s Club of Los Angeles, first woman on the bench of the Los Angeles Women’s Court, and first woman California Superior Court judge (1931-1955)

• November 18, 1888–Frances Marion born as Marion Owens; silent film director, author and screenwriter; first writer to win two Academy Awards, Best Adaptation for The Big House and Best Story for The Champ; also wrote the scenarios for silent classics starring Lillian Gish: The Scarlet Letter (1926) and The Wind (1928)

• November 18, 1904 –Esther McCoy born, historian, author, California architectural design and cultural influences, launched preservation campaigns and  museum exhibits

• November 18, 1939–Margaret Atwood born, Canadian author, poet, and critic; The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Blind Assassin among many others

• November 18, 1939–Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington born; English BBC television journalist and politician, Minister for Women (1998-2001) Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal (1988-2001)

• November 18, 1945 –Wilma Mankiller born, Native American and women’s rights advocate, first female Chief of the Cherokee Nation

• November 18, 1945 –Ana Mendieta born in Cuba, American performance artist and sculptor

• November 18, 1964–Rita Cosby born, American television news anchor and correspondent; CBS Inside Edition (2007 to present)

• November 18, 2003–The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules 4–3 in Goodridge v. Department of Public Healththat the state’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, giving the state legislature 180 days to change the law, making Massachusetts the first U.S. state to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples

• November 19, 1845–Agnes Giberne born in India during her father’s military service there; prolific British author and amateur astronomer; her early novels, short stories and religious tracts were mostly published under her initials A.G.; a founding member of the British Astronomical Association; her illustrated book, Sun, Moon and Stars: Astronomy for Beginners (1879) was very popular, printed in several editions in the UK and the U.S.,  and was followed by Among the Stars, to introduce younger children to astronomy

• November 19, 1868 – In Vineland, New Jersey, 172 women suffragists attempted to vote in the presidential election to test Constitution’s 14th Amendment which states, "no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." The suffragists, including four African American women, were turned away, so they cast their votes in a women's ballot box overseen by 84-year-old Quaker Margaret Pryer

• November 19, 1876 –Tatyana Afanasyeva born, Russian-Dutch mathematician and physicist who contributed to the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics; co-authored The Conceptual Foundations of the Statistical Approach in Mechanics with her husband, Austrian physicist Paul Ehrenfest, published in 1911

• November 19, 1895 –Louise Dahl-Wolfe born, staff photographer for Harper’s Bazaar,  her photos launched 17-year-old Lauren Bacall’s career;  also worked for Sports Illustrated and Vogue

• November 19, 1900–Anna Seghers born as Anna Reiling, German author; joined the Communist party of Germany in 1928, and wrote Die Gefährten, a novel warning of the dangers of Fascism, which led to her arrest by the Gestapo; she left Germany in 1934, and wrote The Seventh Cross in Paris, then fled from the German invasion in 1940; after making her way to Mexico by 1941, she founded Freies Deutschland (Free Germany), an academic journal. The Seventh Cross was published in the U.S. in 1942, and made into a motion picture in 1944, one of the few depictions of a Nazi concentration camp written during WWII

• November 19, 1900–Nina Bari born, Soviet mathematician, one of the first women accepted to Moscow State University’s Department of Physics and Mathematics; known for work on trigonometric series

• November 19, 1910 –Gladys Hobby born, microbiologist whose research heralded  introduction of penicillin, sulfa drugs, streptomycin, and other antibiotics

• November 19, 1917–Indira Gandhi born, Indian Prime Minister (1966-75 and 1980-84)

• November 19, 1924 –Dame Margaret Turner-Warwick born, British physician and thoracic specialist; first woman president of the Royal College of Physicians (1989-1992)

• November 19, 1932 –Eleanor F. Helin born, American astronomer, principal investigator of the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory; she discovered several comets; discoverer or co-discoverer of over 900 numbered minor planets and asteroids

• November 19, 1937 –Penelope Leach born, British psychologist and author specializing in child development and parenting; Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five

• November 19, 1956 – Eileen Collins born, American astronaut, first woman Space Shuttle pilot, and first female commander of a U.S. Spacecraft

• November 19, 1956–Ann Curry born on Guam, American television journalist; reported from war zones in Syria, Palestine, Darfur, Congo, Central African Republic, Kosovo, Israel, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq

• November 19, 1958–Annette Gordon-Reed born, American historian and Harvard law professor; her book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (1997), won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction

• November 20, 1858 –Selma Lagerlöf born, Swedish writer, first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature (1909) 

• November 20, 1858–Olive Wetzel Dennisborn,American engineer whose railway passenger travel design innovations included: seats that partially reclined; stain-resistant upholstery in passenger cars; larger dressing rooms for women, supplied with free paper towels, liquid soap and drinking cups; ceiling lights that could be dimmed at night; individual window vents (which she patented) to allow passengers to bring in fresh air while trapping dust; and, later, air conditioned compartments

• November 20, 1896 –Rose Pesotta born, union organizer, first woman vice president of the International Ladies Garment Worker Union (ILGWU) – in 1934, thirty-four years after the union’s founding

• November 20, 1900 –Helen L. Bradley born, British painter-illustrator of Edwardian scenes

• November 20, 1903 –Alexandra Danilova born, ballerina, teacher, Russian Imperial Ballet and Kirov soloist, Ballets Russes and Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo prima ballerina,School of American Ballet faculty member, associated with NY City Ballet

• November 20, 1910  –Pauli Murray born, civil rights lawyer, Episcopal priest, first black person to earn a doctorate at Yale Law School (1965)

• November 20, 1918 –Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita) born, Pop Art silkscreen artist, peace activist, left religious order in 1967, continued peace work with Physicians for Social Responsibility; designed 1985 version of the U.S. Postal Service’s ‘Love’ stamp

• November 20, 1923–Nadine Gordimer born, South African author and anti-apartheid activist; 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature; member of the banned African National Congress; her books were also banned by the white South African government; July’s People, The Conservationist, The Pickup

• November 20, 1929–Penelope Hobhouse born, British garden designer, author and television presenter

• November 20, 1941–Haseena Moin born, Pakistani playwright and screenwriter, considered the nation’s best dramatist

• November 20, 1942–Meredith Monk born, American composer, vocalist, director, filmmaker and choreographer; her music has been used in Coen Brothers films like The Big Lebowski

• November 20, 1946–Judy Woodruff born, American television journalist; anchor of PBS NewsHour; board member of the International Women’s Media Foundation, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations

• November 20, 1966–Jill Thompson born, American comic book writer-illustrator; noted for work on Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, and her own Scary Godmother series

• November 20, 1968 – Robin Canup born, American astrophysicist, notable research on the giant impact hypothesis, and origins and planets; awarded 2003 Harold C. Urey Prize

• November 20, 1976–Dominique Dawes born, gymnast, first African-American winner of Olympic individual event medal in 1996, won gold medal in 2012

• November 20, 1999–Gwendolyn Ann Smith promotes the first Transgender Day of Remembrance to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman killed in 1998 – vigils and other events now promoted by GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)

• November 21, 1631–Catharina Questiers born, Dutch poet and dramatist, one of the few successful women poets in late 17^th century Holland; The Battle for the Laurels was a joint publication with poet Cornelia van der Veer of a friendly contest - paired poems to see who most deserved the poetic laurels - which was declared a tie

• November 21, 1835 –Hetty Green born, American businesswoman and financier, called the “Witch of Wall Street,” the richest woman in America, and a terrible miser; her daughter was dressed in cast-off clothes, and Green refused to pay for a doctor when her teen-aged son’s leg was broken in an accident; later, it had to be amputated

• November 21, 1897 –Molly Steimer born in Tsarist Russia, anarchist-trade unionist in the U.S., arrested in 1918 for printing and distributing leaflets denouncing U.S. military action against the Bolshevik revolution, convicted under the Sedition Act and sentenced to prison, but deported to Russia in 1921. Protested against Bolshevik persecutions of Russian anarchists, and deported to Germany. When Hitler came to power, she fled, and spent the rest of her life in Mexico

• November 21, 1906 –Mary Ellen Bute born, abstract animation innovator, pioneer in electronic imagery, “Abstronic” (1952) very early use of electronically generated imagery

• November 21, 1908 –Elizabeth George Speare born, American children’s author, known for historical novels, including two Newbery medal winners, The Witch of Blackbird Pond and The Bronze Bow; 1989 Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for contributions to children’s literature

• November 21, 1922 –Rebecca Latimer Felton (D-GA) takes oath of office as first female U.S. Senator

• November 21, 1929–Marilyn French born, radical American feminist author of nonfiction and fiction; Beyond Power: On Women, Men and Morals;From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women; best known for her novel, The Women's Room

• November 21, 1932–Dame Beryl Bainbridge born, English author; won the Whitbread Prize twice, for Injury Time (1977), and Every Man for Himself (1996)

• November 21, 1937–Marlo Thomas born, American actress-producer, known for award-winning pioneering feminist children's franchise, Free to Be... You and Me

• November 21, 1940–Natalia Makarova born, Russian prima ballerina absolute, and choreographer

• November 21, 1940–Fiona Pitt-Kettle born, British poet, novelist, travel writer, anthology editor and freelance journalist; Sky Ray Lully, The Misfortunes of Nigel,The Pan Principle

• November 21, 1977–Yolande James born, Canadian Quebec Liberal Party politician; first black female and youngest Member of the National Assembly of Quebec; first black cabinet member in Quebec, as Minister of Immigration and Cultural Communities & Minister of Family

• November 21, 1992– A damning story in the Washington Post, which was not printed until after the 1992 elections, accuses U.S. Senator Bob Packwood (R-OR) of sexual misconduct. He issues a non-denial denial but refuses to discuss allegations that he had made unwelcome sexual advances or assaulted ten women,chiefly former staffers and lobbyists, between 1969 and 1992: "I'm apologizing for the conduct that it was alleged that I did." Almost a dozen more women come forward with additional allegations. The  Senate Ethics Committee makes a unanimous recommendation of expulsion, so he resigns from the Senate, blaming alcohol for his behavior. He is never charged with any crime, and becomes a successful lobbyist. 

• November 22, 1744–Abigail Adams born, Second U.S. First Lady and pioneering women’s rights advocate

• November 22, 1819– Mary Ann Evans born, better known as George Eliot, British author

• November 22, 1880– Lillian Russell, American actress-singer, makes her NYC vaudeville debut

• November 22, 1900 – Helena Pantaleoni born, U.S. actress, humanitarian and co-founder of U.S. Fund for UNICEF

• November 22, 1900 –The “Uprising of the 20,000,” aka the New York Shirtwaist Strike, begins when Clara Lemlich, tired of hearing male speakers talk about the disadvantages to striking,  takes the podium, declaring the shirtwaist workers will strike. She receives a standing ovation and two days later thousands of workers walk off their jobs

• November 22, 1912–Doris Duke born, American heiress, horticulturalist, advocate for wildlife conservation and historic building preservation; most of her over $1 billion fortune was put into a charitable Foundation which funds medical research, ecology, and prevention of cruelty to children and animals

• November 22, 1913–Cecilia Muñoz-Palmaborn, Filipino jurist, first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of the Philippines (1973-1978); after leaving the Supreme Court, she became a leading figure in the political opposition to Ferdinand Marcos; chair of the 1986 Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution

• November 22, 1943–Billie Jean King born, tennis champion, won 20 Wimbledon titles, first female athlete in any sport to earn $100,000 (1971)

• November 22, 1945–Elaine Weyukerborn, American computer scientist, engineer; elected to the National Academy of Science; received the Harlan D. Mills Award from IEEE Computer Society for leading research on rigorous software testing, and the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2010 Presidential Award for "her tireless efforts in the development and growth of the ACM Women's Council"

• November 22, 1947–Valerie Wilson Wesleyborn, African-American mystery and children’s author; noted for the Tamara Hale mystery series

• November 22, 2005 –Angela Merkel is elected as Germany's first female chancellor

• November 23, 1868 –Mary Brewster Hazelton born, American portrait painter

• November 23, 1898 –Rachel Brown born, bacteriologist, in collaboration with microbiologist Elizabeth Lee Hazen, developed first useful antifungal antibiotic, nystatin, a cure for many serious fungal infections, combats Dutch Elm disease in trees and used to restore artwork damaged by water and mold. Royalties for nystatin totaled $13.4 million, which was all donated, half to set up the Brown-Hazen Fund to encourage and support women in biomedical studies and research, especially in medical mycology. The other half was given in scientific research grants

• November 23, 1906 –Elisabet Alver born, Estonian poet; member of the Arbujad (“Soothsayers”) an influential poet’s group; poetry collection, Tähetund ("Starry Hour")

• November 23, 1915 –Anne Burns born, British aeronautical engineer and glider pilot

• November 23, 1916 –P.K. Page born, Canadian poet, author, and playwright; her poem “Planet Earth” was read in 2001 as part of the UN celebration of the International Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations

• November 23, 1923–Gloria Whelan born, American poet, short story writer, and novelist known primarily for children’s and young adult fiction; 2000 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for Homeless Bird

• November 23, 1955–Mary Loretta Landrieu born, American politician; U.S. Senator (D-LA 1997-2015); Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee (2009-2014)

• November 23, 1965–Jennifer Michael Hecht born, American historian, author, and poet; The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France, 1876-1936

• November 23, 1986– In Manila, Philippine President Corazon Aquino dismisses Defense Minister Enrile after discovering officers loyal to him plan a coup. All 25 members of her cabinet tender their resignations, and she decides which ones to accept in the following week

• November 23,1993–Rachel Whiteread wins both the £20,000 Turner Prize for Best British modern artist and a £40,000 K Foundation art award for worst artist of the year

• November 23,2005–Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected as President of Liberia, the first black woman to be elected as a head of state

• November 24, 1849–Frances Hodgson Burnett born, English-American children’s author; A Little Princess, The Secret Garden

• November 24, 1877–Anna Sewell’s novel Black Beauty is published, which inspires animal welfare reform movements in the U.K. and U.S.A.

• November 24, 1886–Margaret C. Anderson born, American founder, publisher and editor of The Little Review, an art and literary magazine, noted for introducing the works of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot in the U.S., and publishing the first thirteen chapters of James Joyce’s then-unpublished novel, Ulysses

• November 24, 1910–Lucy FriedlanderCovington born, tribal leader, political activist, saved Washington State Colville Indian Reservation by working to defeat federal “termination bill” which would have taken away tribal lands, forcing federal government to fulfill treaty responsibilities, supported education and training for tribal members

• November 24, 1914–Bessie Blount Griffin born, American physical therapist, inventor, and forensic scientist; created an apparatus during WWII to help amputees feed themselves, which led to her invention in 1951 of an electronic feeding device; as a forensic scientist, she worked for law enforcement in Norfolk VA, then became the chief document examiner for the Portsmouth VA police. In 1977, she trained in England at Scotland Yard, then became the first African-American woman to work there. In the 1990s, she was an independent consultant, studying slave papers and Civil War documents as well as verifying the authenticity of documents containing Native American-U.S. treaties, before retiring at age 83

• November 24, 1921–Yoshiko Uchida born, author, American Library Association Notable Book citation: Journey to Topaz

• November 24, 1949–Sally Davies born, British physician and haematologist, expert on sickle cell disease; Chief Medical Officer of England since 2010 (most senior doctor in the English Civil Service, equivalent to Permanent Secretary)

• November 24, 1952 –Parveen Shakir born, Urdu poet and Pakistani civil servant; published six collections of poetry, often using the Urdu first-person, feminine pronoun in her verses which, though common in prose, was rarely used in poetry, even by female poets, before her; recipient of Pakistan’s distinguished Pride of Performance award for outstanding contributions to literature in 1976; killed in a car accident in 1994

• November 24, 1954–Margaret Wetherell born, prominent British academic in the field of discourse analysis; co-author of Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour (1987)

• November 25, 1715 - Sybilla Thomas Masters, American inventor, becomes the first American colonist to be granted an English patent, for cleaning and curing maize (Indian corn)

• November 25, 1778–Mary Anne Schimmelpennick born, British author and abolitionist

• November 25, 1846 –Carrie Nation born, temperance extremist, famed for wielding a hatchet to smash saloons

• November 25, 1865 –Kate Gleason born, first woman enrolled to study engineering at Cornell University, first woman elected to full membership in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, philanthropist and suffragist, friend of Susan B. Anthony; left much of her estate for libraries and parks in her hometown of Rochester NY, and to the Rochester Institute of Technology, which named its college of engineering for her

• November 25, 1880 – Elsie Oxenham, born Elsie J. Dunkerly, author of brooks for girls and young women, who published 87 titles, 38 of them in her Abbey series

• November 25, 1895–Helen Hooven Sanymyer born, American novelist and librarian; active in the struggle for women’s rights as a Wellesley student; earned a B.Litt. degree from Oxford University for her thesis on 17^th century women writers, and wrote poetry and two novels, but then focused on earning a living, in positions as an educator and librarian until her retirement in 1959; best known for "...And Ladies of the Club" first published in 1982, when she was 86, then picked up and republished in 1984 by Putnam, when it became a best-seller; she died in 1986, at 90 years of age

• November 25, 1900–Helen Gahagan Douglas born, American actress and politician; third woman and first Democratic woman elected to the U.S. Congress from California, which became one of the first two states, with Illinois, to elect women members to the House from both parties; in the 1920s, she had success in acting and as an opera singer; she met and married Melvin Douglas in the 1930s when they starred together on Broadway; they moved to Hollywood, where she played the title role of She, based on H. Rider Haggard’s novel, in 1935. While performing in Tosca at the Vienna State Opera in 1938, she first encountered a Nazi sympathizer, and became an ardent anti-Nazi. Returning home, she was an advocate for migrant workers as the head of the John Steinbeck Committee, and joined the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, calling for a boycott of goods made in Nazi Germany. Through her participation on advisory committees for the Roosevelt administration, she became friends with Eleanor Roosevelt, and served as a Democratic National committeewoman for California.  Appointed by Truman as an alternate U.S. Delegate to the UN. In 1944, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1945-1951).  In 1950, she ran in the primaries against the incumbent Democratic Senator Sheridan Downey because she thought he neglected California veterans and small growers, and she was vilified in the primary as “the Pink Lady,” claiming she was a communist sympathizer. These unfounded smears were amplified by her Republican opponent, Richard Nixon, to Communist “fellow traveler” and an issue was made of her husband being Jewish, in one of the most vicious campaigns in American political history. Nixon, heavily funded by oil companies and even surreptitious donations from Democrats like John F. Kennedy, had campaign finance irregularities, and used the smear campaign against her to deflect attention. She coined his “Tricky Dick” nickname. Nixon won with 59% of the vote, ending Gahagan Douglas’s political career. Ironically, she campaigned for JFK when he ran against Nixon for the presidency in 1960. She continued to be an activist, against nuclear weapon proliferation and the Vietnam War, and spoke out against Nixon during the Watergate scandal. In California, bumper stickers appeared claiming “Don’t blame me, I voted for Helen Gahagan Douglas”

• November 25, 1906–Alice Ambrose born, American philosopher, logician and author; professor at Smith College (1937-1972 when she became Professor Emeritus); editor of the Journal of Symbolic Logic (1953-1968), and co-author with her husband, Morris Lazerowitz, of  Fundamentals of Symbolic Logic, and several other works

• November 25, 1916–Peg Lynch born, American actress, producer-scriptwriter; first woman to create, write, own and star in her own radio and television sitcoms, Ethel and Albert, The Couple Next Door and The Little Things in Life, retained her ownership, and wrote nearly 11,000 scripts

• November 25, 1924–Sybil Bailey Stockdale born, became an activist when her husband, a U.S. Navy pilot, became a prisoner of war during Vietnam, co-founding the National League of Families, a nonprofit organization working on behalf of the families of Missing in Action and POW members of the U.S. military; awarded the Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, the highest honor given by the U.S. Department of the Navy to a civilian not employed by the department

• November 25, 1929–Judith Feiner born, American television news and documentary producer; the first woman producer for CBS Reports, where she produced “The Nuclear Battlefield,” which won three Emmy Awards; moving to ABC Close-Up, she produced the award-winning Oh, Tell the World What Happened, and a profile of Franklin Delano Roosevelt; executive producer of American Experience (1987-1996), winning 6 Peabody Awards, and 7 Emmy Awards. President Clinton presented her with the National Humanities Medal in 2000

• November 25,1936–Trisha Brown born, American choreographer and dancer, co-founder of the Judson Dance Theatre

• November 25,1936 –Phoebe S. Leboy born, American biochemist and advocate for women in science; her work on nucleic acid modifications and bone-forming adult stem cells placed her at the forefront of epigenetics and regenerative medicine

• November 25,1945–Gail Collins born, American journalist, op-ed columnist; first woman Editorial Page Editor for the New York Times (2001-2007)

• November 25,1951 – Charlaine Harris born, American mystery and urban fantasy novelist; Aurora Teagarden and Sookie Stackhouse series

• November 25,1952–Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London, beginning the longest continuous run of a play in theatre history

• November 25, 1952–Crescent Dragonwagon born (birthname Ellen Zolotow), prolific American fiction writer; co-founder of the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow in Arkansas; her book, Half a Moon and One Whole Star, won 1986 Coretta Scott King Book Award

• November 25,1958–Naomi Oreskes born, American science historian; Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University since 2013

• November 25,1960 –“Las Mariposas”(the butterflies)–three of the four Mirabal sisters, Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa, leaders of the Movement of the 14^th of June opposing Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo’s regime are assassinated, making them martyrs to both the populist and feministcauses. In1999, the U.N. General Assembly recognizes and supports a campaign started in the Dominican Republic to honor the three Mirabal sisters, which has grown into an international campaign to stop violence against women. The General Assembly designates November 25 as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, first of the U.N. campaign “16 Days of Activism” leading up to Human Rights Day

• November 26, 1792 –Sarah Grimké, abolitionist, women’s rights pioneer, wrote “Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States” (1836) refuting Biblical scripture justifying slavery, “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and the Condition of Woman” (1838)

• November 26, 1832–Mary Edwards Walkerborn, physician and surgeon, women’s rights activist, advocate for “Bloomer” rational dress reform. During the U.S. Civil War, she volunteered, becoming the first female surgeon in U.S. Army.  Walker was captured and arrested as a spy by the Confederates when she crossed enemy lines to treat wounded civilians, then held as a prisoner of war for four months before she was released in a prisoner exchange. She is the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor, and one of only eight civilians to be so honored – her name was deleted, with 900 others, from the Army Medal of Honor Roll in 1917, but her medal was restored, after a prolonged campaign by her admirers, in 1977

• November 26, 1900–Anna Maurizio born, Swiss biologist, known for her study of bees, lasting over thirty years, at the Department of Bees at the Liebfeld Federal Dairy Industry and Bacteriological Institute, which included developing new methods for determining the amount of pollen in honey

• November 26,1907 – Ruth Patrick born, American botanist and limnologist (studies inland water systems) specializing in diatoms and freshwater ecology; formed and chaired the Department of Limnology at the Academy of Natural Sciences in 1947; inventor of the diatometer, which takes more accurate samples for study of diversity in water ecology; also developed other methods of measuring the health of freshwater ecosystems; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1976), and awarded the National Medal of Science (1996); lived to age 106

• November 26, 1915–Inge King born, to a Jewish family in Germany; she fled to Britain in 1939, studied at the Glasgow School of Art; emigrated to Australia in 1951, where she was at the forefront of modern non-figurative sculpture; best known for Forward Surge at the Melbourne Arts Centre

• November 26, 1936–Margaret Boden born, English computer scientist and psychologist, noted for research in cognitive science, which includes artificial intelligence and psychology

• November 26, 1942–Đặng Thùy Trâm born, battlefield surgeon for North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and posthumous author; killed in disputed circumstances by U.S. forces in 1970, but her wartime diaries had been kept, against orders, by American soldiers, who searched for her family for years. They finally found her mother, and gave them back. When Nhật kýĐặng Thùy Trâm (Đặng Thùy Trâm's Diary:Last Night I Dreamed Of Peace), chronicling the last two years of her life, was published in 2005, it attracted international attention

• November 26, 1943 –Marilynne Robinson born, American author and essayist; winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Gilead, the 2012 National Humanities Medal, and the 2016 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction; also noted for novels Housekeeping and Home

• November 26, 1948–Elizabeth Blackburn born in Tasmania, Australian-American molecular biologist, President of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies; discoverer of the enzyme telomerase, which replenishes telomeres, the protectors for the ends of chromosomes from DNA damage or fusion; shared 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• November 26, 1952–Elsa Salazar Cade born, Mexican-American science teacher and entomologist; selected by the National Science Teachers Association as one of the top ten science teachers in 1995; she and her husband William Cade have studied the Texas field cricket, Gryllus texensis, for over 30 years

• November 26, 1954–Roz Chast born, American cartoonist for The New Yorker magazine

• November 26, 1959–Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs born, American poet, cultural studies scholar and feminist theorist

• November 26, 1969–Kara Walker born, African-American contemporary artist and filmmaker

• November 27, 1809–Fanny Kembleborn, notable British actress and author; on an American tour, she met and married Pierce M. Butler in 1832, who inherited three of his family’s plantations on Butler Island in Georgia, which he did not take his wife and children to see until the winter of 1838-39; she wrote her horrified impressions in her journal, but Butler forbid her to publish it, threatening to deny her access to her daughters. He grew increasingly abusive. When she finally left him, he filed for divorce, assuming sole custody of their daughters, as was the practice in divorces under American law at the time. Kemble resumed touring to earn her living, and in 1863, she published her anti-slavery Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839, after excerpts had been privately circulating among abolitionists for years. In 1877, she returned to England, where she became friends with the writer Henry James, and published Notes on Some of Shakespeare's Plays (1882) 

• November 27, 1894–Katherine Milhousborn, American painter-illustrator and author; noted for her graphic designs for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the depression; won the 1951 Caldecott Medal for picture book illustration for The Egg Tree

• November 27, 1900–Jovette Bernierborn, Canadian journalist, novelist, poet, and scriptwriter/radio show host in the 1930s for Bonjour madame and Quelles nouvelles

• November 27 and 28, 1917 – In response to public outcry and the jailers' inability to stop the National Woman's Party picketers' hunger strikes, the government unconditionally releases the protesters

• November 27, 1921–Dr. Dora Dougherty Strother born, American pilot with WWII Woman Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and a B-29 Superfortress demonstration pilot; she earned a PHD in Aviation Education from NYU in 1955, a member of the Ninety-Nines, and President of the Whirly-Girls (1979-1981); received the Amelia Earhart Award for academic achievement, and inducted into the Military Aviation Hall of Fame

• November 27, 1937 – Marilyn Hacker born, American poet, translator and critic; her poetry collection Presentation Piece(1974) won the National Book Award, and has won three PEN Awards for Poetry in Translation

• November 27, 1943–Nicole Brossard born, a leading French-Canadian poet and novelist; Mécanique jongleuse (Day-Dream Mechanics) and Double Impression both won the Governor General's Award for Poetry

• November 27, 1951–Kathryn Bigelow born, American director, producer and screenwriter; first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director, in 2009, for The Hurt Locker, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture

• November 27, 1952–Sheila Copps born,Canadian Liberal Party politician; Minister of Canadian Heritage (1984-2004) and the first woman Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (1993-1997); advocate for the legal rights of women and minorities, and protection of the environment

• November 27, 1999–Helen Clark, leader of New Zealand’s centre-left Labour Party, becomes the first elected woman Prime Minister of New Zealand; now Administrator of the UN Development Programme

• November 28, 1853 –Helen Magill White born, American academic; first woman to earn a PhD in languages the U.S (in Greek); director of the Howard Collegiate Institute (1883-1887); and taught at Evelyn College for Women, women’s annex to Princeton University

• November 28, 1861–Adina De Zavala born, American historian, teacher, author and Texas history preservationist; herHistory and Legends of the Alamo and Other Missions In and Around San Antonio (1917) highlights the role of women and minorities in the history of both the Alamo and Texas

• November 28, 1881– Organizational meeting held to form Association of Collegiate Alumnae, predecessor of American Association of University Women (AAUW)

• November 28, 1893–New Zealand women vote for the first time in a general election

• November 28, 1903–Alice Cook born, labor educator, increased union representation of textile workers and CIO, taught at Cornell University 1952-72, established Cornell’s Department of Women’s Studies

• November 28, 1919–Lady Nancy Astor elected as the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons (Countess Markievics was elected earlier, but as a member of the Irish Sinn Féin, did not take her seat)

• November 28, 1924 – Johanna Döbereiner born a German-Czech, became a Brazilian citizen in 1956; agronomist whose studied Azospirillum and other bacteria to improve the soil, and played an important role in Brazil’s soybean production; 1989 UNESCO Science Prize

• November 28, 1944–Rita Mae Brown, American novelist, screenwriter, feminist and LGBT rights activist; known for her first novel Rubyfruit Jungle, and the Mrs. Murphy mystery series

• November 28, 1947– Maria Farantouri born, Greek singer, activist and politician; recorded protest songs during the Greek military junta (1967-1974); elected to the Greek Parliament representing thePanhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK – 1989-1993)

• November 28, 1953–Helen De Michiel born, American filmmaker and multimedia director-producer; documentaries include Turn Here, Sweet Corn (1990), The Gender Chip Project (2006) and Lunch Love Community (2014)

• November 28, 1956–Fiona Armstrong born, Lady MacGregor and currently Lord Lieutenant of Dumfries, Scottish newspaper/television journalist and columnist; has also made over 20 films on Scottish clan history

• November 29, 1832 –Louisa May Alcott born, author, abolitionist and feminist; served as nurse in Civil War; best known for Little Women

• November 29, 1873 –Suzan Rose Benedict born, first woman to earna Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Michigan. Her long academic career was at Smith College: professor (1921-1942), also Dean of Students (1918-1928), Chair of the Mathematics department (1928-1934); member of the American Mathematical Society  

• November 29, 1876 –Nellie Tayloe Ross born, first woman U.S. governor (Wyoming) taking over when her husband died (1924-27), also a prohibition and worker’s rights supporter. President Franklin Roosevelt appointed her as director of the U.S. Mint (1933-1953)

• November 29, 1902 –Essie Parrish born, Kashaya Pomo tribal spiritual and political leader, expert basketweaver, worked with Robert Oswalt to create Kashaya Pomo dictionary, taught language to tribe’s children, advocate for cultural heritage education for Native American children

• November 29, 1910 – Elizabeth Choy born as Yong Su-Moi, Singaporean WWII hero who served in the Singapore Volunteer Corps, where she was nicknamed “Gunner Choy” and also volunteered as a Medical Auxiliary Service nurse; with her husband, she smuggled money, clothing, medicine and messages to British POWs interned by the Japanese in Changi Prison; they were both arrested, imprisoned and tortured, but survived

• November 29, 1918 –Madeleine L'Engleborn, American Yong Adult author and poet; best known for A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels; 2004 National Humanities Medal

• November 29, 1919 –Pearl Primus born, choreographer, dancer, fused modern dance with African dance. Her debut in 1943 created public demand for African American women in dance; also increased interest in anthropology, which helped preserve African dance tradition

• November 29, 1926 –Michi Weglyn born, wrote Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of American Concentration Camps, about WWII internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry

• November 29, 1942 –Ann Dunham born,American anthropologist who studied the economic and rural development of Indonesia; as a consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development, she created microcredit programs to address the poverty in rural villages; mother of Barak Obama

• November 29, 1947 – Petra Kelly born, German activist, one of the founders of Die Grünen, the German Green Party; campaigned against nuclear weapons, and for peace, protecting the environment and women’s rights; elected to the Bundestag representing Bavaria (1983-1991); murdered in 1992

• November 29, 1953 – Jackie French born, prolific Australian author of fiction and nonfiction books, primarily for young readers, including her eight-book nonfiction series Fair Dinkum, which covers over 60,000 years of Australian history

•   November 30, 1485–Veronica Gambara born, Italian political leader and poet; when her husband the Count of Correggio died in 1518, she took over running the city-state, including the condottieri (the military), and turned her court into a salon, drawing important Renaissance thinkers and artists; when the city was attacked in 1538 by the forces of Galeotto Pico II, she organized a successful defense, then oversaw improving the fortifications; 80 of her poems and 150 of her letters have survived

• November 30, 1813–Louise-Victorine Choquet Ackermann born, French poet and author; Poésies, premières poésies, poésies philosophiques is her most noted work

• November 30, 1873–Božena Benešová born, Czech author, poet and playwright, considered at the forefront of psychological prose; known for the Úder trilogy and Don Pablo, Don Pedro and Věra Lukášová

• November 30, 1874–Lucy Maud Montgomery born, Canadian author, best known for her Anne of Green Gables series

• November 30, 1900–Mary Lasker born, health activist, worked with the Birth Control Federation of America (renamed Planned Parenthood 1942); also lobbied for federal funding for the National Cancer Institute and National Heart Institute

• November 30, 1919–Jane C. Wright born, American surgeon and pioneer in cancer research, who developed a technique of using human tissue culture to test potential drugs on cancer cells, and was first to use methotrexate in the treatment of breast and skin cancer; combined with other treatments, this extended the average lifespan of patients by ten years; one of the founders of the American Society of Clinical Oncology; first woman president of the New York Cancer Society

• November 30, 1924 –Shirley Chisholm born, the first African-American Congresswoman, (D-NY, 1969-83), and first woman/first African-American Democratic presidential nominee, received 151 delegate votes at the 1972 Democratic Convention

• November 30, 1928 –Takako Doi born, Japanese politician; first woman Speaker of Japan’s Lower House, to date the highest position held by a female Japanese politician in the country’s modern history; leader of the Japanese Social Democratic Party (1986-1991); recruited young women with grass-roots activist backgrounds to bring more Japanese women into politics

• November 30, 1929–Joan Ganz Cooney born, American screenwriter and producer; co-creator of Sesame Street

SOURCES:

http://www.nwhp.org/events/november/

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/important-dates-us-womens-history

http://www.historyplace.com/specials/calendar/november.htm

http://www.onthisday.com/day/november/

Women Trailblazers of California: Pioneers to the Present, © 2012 by Gloria G. Harris and Hannah S. Cohen — The History Press