Anita Hill

Sexual harassment is a major issue in the workplace today now that it’s common for women to work outside the home, but though it’s illegal and reprimanded now, that wasn’t always the case. I’ve heard stories from an older relative about how anytime the boss at one of her jobs would start hitting on her, she just had to quit and find a new job. She never felt she could complain to authorities, and she never even felt her parents would take her seriously. But sexual harassment in the workplace has become a serious issue today, and we owe some of the attention the subject receives to Anita Hill. Back in 1991, Anita Hill charged her former boss Clarence Thomas with sexual harassment while she worked for him. Thomas was accused of making advances, speaking crudely, and describing off-color topics in graphic language. The allegations were a big deal because Thomas had just been made a Supreme Court Justice, and Anita was only the assistant he had fired. Anita had to stand firm through the ripping of the media, the insults from the public, and the denials of a man she had once worked for. It took a lot of bravery for her to sit through those televised trials, having to relive a difficult part of her life and having her character and honesty criticized, but she was determined that a man shouldn’t get away with treating a woman like that just because he was in a powerful position. Anita’s brave David versus Goliath stand was the beginning of the modern outcry against sexual harassment. Laws were changed in victims’ favor, companies started programs to end harassment, and sexual harassment complaints went up fifty percent now that women were emboldened to speak up and believed they would be listened to. The dismissal of the case by a group of male judges also sparked an upsurge in women’s participation in politics as angry women wanted their voices to be heard. Anita Hill may not have gotten a perfect ending to her own sexual harassment case, but she opened the door for discussion about harassment to begin, and she empowered other women to take a stand and to demand to be treated respectfully. We owe our current attitude toward sexual harassment largely to Anita Hill and her unwillingness to be treated poorly by a man in authority over her.

Today, be inspired to…Say no to sexual harassment. Don’t do it, and don’t allow it to be done to you. Report offenders to your superiors, and please don’t even stay silent because you think it’s somehow your fault—it never is.

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Susan B Anthony

Ah, Susan B. Anthony, my personal favorite of all the women in history who championed women’s rights, saved for a very special day, of course. Susan was raised with a strong sense of political activism and social justice by parents who believed girls should be just as well educated as boys. As an adult, she was keen to be politically active but was discouraged that she was not allowed to speak out at political meetings because she was a woman, and her attention began to turn toward women’s rights. Susan helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention, one of the biggest events in women’s rights history, and served as a secretary for the 1852 National Women’s Rights Convention. Her early activism concentrated on issues women’s faced everyday rather than specifically on voting, like a woman’s right to her own earnings, property, and even custody of her own children, and she help to have an improve Married Women’s Property Act passed. When she joined forces with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the magic really started to happen. The duo organized the Women’s Loyal National League, revamped the National Women’s Rights Convention, and published the newspaper The Revolution. The two also formed the National Woman Suffrage organization, which eventually became the National American Woman Suffrage Association, with both women taking a turn as the president. In addition to her involvement with so many organizations, Susan traveled almost constantly to give lectures and encourage support for women’s rights, giving between 75-100 speeches a year. Everywhere she went, she won more people over to the side of women’s suffrage and made certain the necessity of the right to vote never faded from the political eye. She wasn’t afraid to do whatever needed to be done either—she was arrested for attempting to vote but only used the situation to bring more attention to her cause (she never did pay her fine either). Susan even took women’s suffrage abroad through the World’s Congress of Representative Women and the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. Susan B. Anthony was not just yet another activist during the women’s rights campaign—she WAS the women’s rights campaign. She was the driving force behind the movement, the brain that did the thinking and the feet that did the walking. Almost everything that was ever done or organization in the long campaign was touched by her hand. She was a sharp-minded, determined, and strong woman who worked tirelessly for the acknowledgment of women as equals, and we owe the fact that we can vote today largely to her.

Today, be inspired to…Vote! Susan B. Anthony would want you to. The very idea of a country where women can’t even vote seems so foreign to a modern Western mind, but appreciate that you have the right to and that someone worked very hard so that you have that right today. Check here https://2014.votinginfoproject.org/ to find out where you should vote and what’s on your ballot.

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Julia Ward Howe

Well-education as a child partly through parental indulgence and partly through luck, Julia Ward Howe was a well-read and intelligent woman whose early taste of learning would propel her toward many social activism and literary endeavors. Bored during the early years of her marriage, Julia attended lectures, learned new languages, and took up writing. Her writing often discussed the particular troubles and worries of women, and she began to become more interested in women’s issues like suffrage and legal rights. She became politically active and helped found the New England Women’s Club and the New England Woman Suffrage Association. She presided over both groups at different times and was also president of the American Woman Suffrage Association. Julia worked with several different organizations throughout her life and traveled to give lectures in many places. She also wrote the weekly magazine Woman’s Journal to promote feminist views and continued to write and publish works on various subjects related to women and their needs and rights. The work Julia did started even before the 1900s began and continued after the turn of the century until her death in 1910. All of the campaigning, writing, and organizing she did laid the ground work for the women’s suffrage movement in America—Julia didn’t jump onto the bandwagon, she got behind it and started pushing. The suffrage women would receive ten years later was a result of the hard work and dedication given by feminist and leader Julia Ward Howe.

Today, be inspired to…Don’t let boredom get you down—get out and do something.

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Gail Laughlin

Gail Laughlin was a highly educated, compassionate woman who advocated for the rights of workers, women, and traditionally disadvantaged people. Inspired by her own mother’s struggle to provide for her family as a widowed woman, Gail was careful to obtain a good education and ambitious when it came to building a career. By the time she was thirty she had her own law office, and soon she was appointed to the US Industrial Commission investigating the working conditions of domestic workers, immigrants, and those who lived in rural areas. Gail was also a feminist, using her political position and connections to lobby for the right of women to serve on juries and the ever important right to vote. She was part of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women and was a leading member of the National Women’s Party. She participated in campaigns like a motorcade to support the Equal Rights Amendment because she felt women shouldn’t settle for simply achieving the basic right to vote and should continue to push for equality and fair treatment. When she became a Congresswoman and Senator, she continued to champion women’s rights causes, succeeding in raising the legal age for girls to marry from thirteen to sixteen and preventing husbands from sending their wives to mental institutions without compelling medical proof. Gail Laughlin devoted her career, both as a professional woman and a politician, to helping women gain and defend their rights and to establishing more equal footing for women in America.

Today, be inspired to…Don’t settle too soon.

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Sylvia Pankhurst

Sylvia Pankhurst was the daughter of women’s rights activist Emmeline Pankhurst, and she followed in her mother’s footsteps in crusading for the right to vote and equality for the women of England. She first started working at the Women’s Social and Political Union with her mother and wrote articles for the organizations newspapers, but she was more interested in the platform of the labour party and the struggles of working class people. She moved on to found the East London Federation of Suffragettes and the newspaper Women’s Dreadnought. Sylvia was very antiwar, and during World War I, she concentrated more on helping the women left behind by soldiers than on getting them the vote. She arranged employment for women needing to provide their own income, advocated for the women’s right to financial support while their husbands were fighting, and provided food for those who could not afford it. Sylvia’s support of the International Women’s Peace Conference and her unpopular political views alienated her not only from her family but also from other suffragists and supporters. But despite her rejection by her own country, Sylvia was welcomed by Ethiopia, where she condemned Italy’s invasion of the country, raised money for the first teaching hospital in Ethiopia, and chronicled the nation’s art and culture. Like a lot of people, Sylvia Pankhurst was rather a mixed bag. She had some unpopular and outrageous views at times, but she helped bring along the women’s suffrage movement, and she did something a lot of other suffragettes didn’t do at the time—she cared about the poor women. While her sister was encouraging the upper and middle class women to become involved, Sylvia was making sure poor soldiers’ wives were employed, fed, and clothed, knowing voting means nothing if your children’s bellies are empty. Sylvia may not have gotten it all right all the time, but she cared and she tried, and sometimes that’s really all you can ask of a person.

Today, be inspired to…Care and try. Just do your best and let that be enough.

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Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal El Saadawi is an Egyptian feminist, activist, and writer. While working as a doctor and psychiatrist treating women in her rural hometown, Nawal became aware of the struggles of culture, patriarchy, and class her female patients dealt with every day of their lives and of the lack of control the women had over their own bodies. The combination of her medical knowledge, her experiences treating the women of Egypt, and her own personal experiences led her to write her book about women and the ownership of their bodies Women and Sex and to condemn the practice of female genital mutilation. Nawal also helped publish the feminist magazine Confrontation and has written several other books, both fiction and nonfiction. Nawal was the United Nations Advisor for the Women’s Programme in Africa and Middle East for a time, and also has taught at many of the world’s most prestigious universities. She is the founder of the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association and the co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights. Her outspoken stance on controversial issues has brought her a lot of trouble; she was dismissed the Ministry of Health, lost her position as an editor, and was even imprisoned for a time. Threats against her life finally forced her to flee Egypt, though she continues to be active in Egyptian politics today. And though her activism has put her in danger, many people have noticed and admire the work she has done, and Nawal has been gifted many awards for her humanitarian efforts, including the North-South Prize and Inana International Prize. Nawal El Saadawi fights for the rights of Egyptian women to have control over their own bodies as well as their minds and to promote human rights for all people in Egypt, without the pressing force of religion, culture, or class distinctions drawing lines of division.

Today, be inspired to…Take control of your body and respect it by treating it well. Only you should be making decisions about what you do with your body, so do what’s best for yourself.

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Emily Davies

Emily Davies was an English feminist who supported women’s rights to vote and women’s higher educational opportunities. Emily was the editor of the English Woman’s Journal and was one of the founding members of the Kensington Society, a discussion group for women. She was also friends with many of the most prominent feminists and suffragettes of the day, who encouraged her in her work toward promoting university access for women. Through her work on the London School Board, she was able to obtain the acceptance of girls into the admissions process for secondary school, but she didn’t stop there. Emily wanted women to also be able to attend universities, which were exclusively male domains at the time. To this point, she published The Higher Education of Women. When schools remained unwilling to open their doors to young women seeking, knowledge, she took more direct action and opened the first college for women in Great Britain, Girton College, herself where she was mistress and later secretary. Despite the education it provided for girls and its relation to Cambridge University, the college would not be allowed to grant full degrees until 1948. Emily was also very involved in the suffrage movement, though she steered away from the more violent, lawless demonstrations of some crowds. Emily Davies understood that in order to truly achieve equality and their true potential as people, women needed to be educated, and she worked hard to help that happen for so many women during her lifetime and so many women that came after her in search of higher learning.

Today, be inspired to…Reflect on how little education women were once afforded and still are limited to in some countries. Education is a pretty awesome privilege to have that not everyone gets, even in the most developed countries.

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Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first English woman to become a qualified surgeon in Great Britain and the first female dean of a medical school. Encouraged to be independent as a child and well-educated, Elizabeth was inspired by female doctor Elizabeth Blackwell and decided to enter the medical field herself. The road was a hard one, and she started out as a surgery nurse to gain experience and the trust of the doctors. She was not allowed to attend medical school and instead studied privately while still working as nurse. Despite being forbidden to officially attend school and being voted out of classes by male classmates, Elizabeth was able to pass the exam to obtain a license from the Society of Apothecaries with high marks, to which the Society replied by changing the rules to disallow future women to be licensed. Unable to find work at a hospital, Elizabeth opened her own practice and started a dispensary to provide outpatient care to poor women. Patients soon forgot their uncertainty at the idea of a female physician under her excellent care, and Elizabeth was able to help many during an outbreak of cholera. Prejudice was chipped a way a little bit at a time, and she was finally able to obtain her medical degree (from France though), and she became the first woman in Britain to be assigned a medical post when she was sent to the East London Hospital for Children. In the medical community, she refuted the old idea that education was bad for women because it used up the energy they should be exerting toward having children and promoting more logical and understanding approaches to women’s health. To smooth the path for the women that came behind her, Elizabeth also co-founded a medical school for women. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson not only helped heal and comfort her many patients throughout her career, but also she broke down barriers for women in the medical field, encouraged accurate thinking about women’s health, and even supported the women’s suffrage movement in England.

Today, be inspired to…Break down a few barriers today in your own life.

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Yanar Mohammed

Yanar Mohammed is a women’s rights activist in Iraq. Yanar grew up and was educated in Iraq, but she moved to Canada with her family shortly after she finished her masters in architecture. It would be ten years before she decided to go back, inspired by a need to promote and protect the rights of women in her home country. Backed by several feminist groups in the United States and the United Kingdom, Yanar started a few of her own organizations after she arrived, including the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and the Committee for the Defense of Iraqi Women’s Rights. Yanar and her groups attempt to end the rampant violence against women by providing safe shelters for them to flee to, by teaching them how to handle situations where they are disrespected or abused, and by working to stop sex trafficking in Iraq. Her work has saved more than thirty women from “honor killings” by helping them leave the country, and she has also brought attention to the horrible conditions incarcerated women were subjected to. The beliefs Yanar and her organizations hold to include democracy, equal rights for the women of Iraq, and the end to a patriarchy-based set of rules and limitations placed on women because of religion. She wants women to be able to go to school, to work, just out about town in safety, without having to fear being harassed or having to ask permission. Iraq still has a long way to go to achieve equality and rights for women, but Yanar Mohammed and the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq are working hard to help get them there, hopefully to make their country a better and more peaceful place.

Today, be inspired to…Don’t give up on your home country. You might hate something about it, but who else is going to change it for the better than the people who live there and care about it? Sometimes you do have to leave but don’t give up hope entirely.

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Alva Vanderbilt Belmont

Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was a supporter of women’s suffrage who provided the financial backing for many of the movement’s campaigns and endeavors. As a wealthy woman who moved in the upper circles of society, Alva had a lot of influence and resources, and she directed them toward the cause of demanding the right to vote for American women. She funded the headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and paid for its publications, and she even used her own house to host events. She was president of the New York Political Equality League and served on the board of the National Women’s Party. She wasn’t just a figurehead with a bank account either; she also wrote pamphlets and articles on suffrage and participated in picketing campaigns. Alva was noted for her strong opinions (all the best women are), her aristocratic attitude, and her very shocking divorce following her husband’s adultery, to which she proclaimed that it was unusual for anyone to tell a man he did something wrong. And though she may have appeared to be a rich snob, she was one of the few to include African Americans and minorities to some extent in her undertakings, and she also supported worker strikes for better pay, even paying the bail money for strikers. Another little interesting fact that shows how down-to-earth and complex a person she could be–Alva was also one of the first female members of the American Institute of Architects, and she enjoyed designing mansions. Alva Vanderbilt Belmont was one of those women who never did anything half way—when she cared about something, she was all in, all the way, and the wholehearted attention she turned to the women’s suffrage movement gave a great momentum to the cause and its ultimate success.

Today, be inspired to…Go all in on whatever you do today. No halfway measures, no lukewarm efforts.

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