Women of History

Aviatrix Bessie Coleman

2012-02-02T16:14:00.000+11:00

A young woman from rural east Texas, who grew up in a hardscrabble existence as one of 13 children born to poor sharecropper parents, became an unlikely choice to pave the way for future African-American accomplishments in aviation and the U.S. Air Force.

Elizabeth “Bessie” Coleman would go on to be the first female pilot of African-American descent, but more importantly would later influence the accomplishments of others who would continue the evolution of African-American involvement in aviation throughout the 20th century.

William J. Powell, a lieutenant serving in an all-black unit during World War I, penned in his 1934 book, “Black Wings,” “Because of Bessie Coleman, we have overcome that which was much worse than a racial barrier. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.”

Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces

2012-01-30T10:36:00.000+11:00

From the Chronicle Herald:

FAMOUS CANADIAN women abound. But while many people know the names Roberta Bondar, Alexa McDonough and Hayley Wickenheiser, fewer probably recognize Eliza M. Jones, Elizabeth Smellie and Kathleen Parlow.

The leader in agriculture, first female colonel in the Canadian Army and world-renowned violinist are three of the women featured in Merna Forster’s 100 More Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces (Dundurn, $24.99).

The followup to her first collection in 2004 features women from across the country who are noteworthy for reasons that vary from scientific discoveries, the arts and sports to prospecting at a time when women weren’t known for looking for the lucky strike.

Forster says that when she launched the first collection she already had plenty of names of potential profiles for the second book. But while promoting it, people would send dozens of potential names and see her at speaking engagements to share suggestions. Other names came from her travels and her work as a naturalist with Parks Canada.

By the time she was ready to start working on the second book, she had plenty of potential subjects but wanted to make sure she included a wide variety of women from different areas of the country, time periods, ethnic origins and types of achievement.

Canada - Honour Killing

2012-01-30T10:19:00.000+11:00

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

An Afghan immigrant couple and their son have been found guilty in a Canadian court of first degree murder over the "honour killings" of four female family members, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The Shafia family had come to Canada in 2007, after living in Australia, Pakistan and Dubai over the previous 15 years.

The jury in Kingston, Ontario, deliberated for two days before pronouncing a guilty sentence against Mohammad Shafia, 58, his 42-year-old wife Tooba Mahommad Yahya and their 21-year-old son Hamed.

Their defence lawyers said on Sunday they would appeal the convictions.

Judge Robert Maranger called the crimes "heinous" as he sentenced the accused to 25 years in prison, and said the evidence clearly supported the charges.

Egypt: Attacks on Women Continue

2012-01-26T20:50:00.001+11:00

From albawaba:

Two articles that tell of the continued distress of badly-treated women in Tahrir, including foreign Arab American who was stripped of clothes and assaulted in Egypt's Tahrir Square.

Article One:

Heather still doesn’t know how she made it home on Wednesday night after being in Egypt’s Tahrir Square. The Arab-American arrived back at her Cairo flat without pants, having had them torn off downtown. She and her two roommates were victims of a mob attack by people in the iconic square on Wednesday, as protesters demonstrated against the military junta.

According to Heather, an Arab-American living in the Egyptian capital, she and her Swedish and Spanish roommates took to Tahrir as thousands were converging there to mark one-year since the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Article Two:

Thousands took to the streets in Egypt to protest against the military junta. By late Wednesday night, the conversation had turned away from the military council and on to Egypt’s most pressing social problem: sexual violence against women.

At least four women have been reported to have had their clothes ripped from their bodies, assault and groped endlessly by mobs of men in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Certainly more reports of assaults will flood editors’ email in the coming days. It seems whenever there is a mass protest in Egypt it is accompanied by attacks against women.

Bizarre History of the Pregnancy test

2012-01-26T20:41:00.000+11:00

From i09:

Nowadays, finding out if you're pregnant is relatively easy — but it wasn't always that way. Over the centuries, people have come up with downright strange and sometimes revolting tests to figure out whether or not a person is knocked up. Some of them were useless, some required being a chemist in the bathroom, and some caused major ecological disasters.

The thing about pregnancy, as a condition, is most people eventually figure out their status on their own. Pregnancy tests, for much of history, have seemed unnecessary.

Still, people have always tried to find ways to peek inside themselves. Some people want to make an early announcement to family. Some need to put their names on a six-year-long waiting list for a private kindergarten, and hope that a year's worth of kids drop out of the running. Some just wish to experience the sheer joy of peeing on something scientific. Whatever the reason, all those who grab a stick and run to the ladies' room are participating in a long, occasionally-destructive, and sometimes outright loony march of scientific progress.

Bangladeshi Women & Dowries

2012-01-25T20:52:00.000+11:00

From IOL News:

Farzana Yasmin sought a divorce just hours after her wedding when her new husband's family demanded dowry payments.

Despite the stigma of divorce in Bangladesh, she is not worried about her future.

She wants other women to be brave enough to maintain their dignity in the face of dowry demands that have destroyed the happiness of millions of women in the Muslim-majority South Asian country, and led to numerous deaths.

Violence related to dowries has resulted in the deaths of more than 2 000 women in Bangladesh in the last decade.

The government outlawed the practice over 30 years ago, but it persists and is still taking a heavy toll.

In the first nine months of 2011, dowry-related violence caused the deaths of 268 women compared to 137 the previous year, according to Bangladesh Mahila Parishad women's rights organisation, based on monitoring of media reports.

Wanted Women - Martyr & She-Devil

2012-01-23T20:01:00.000+11:00

From Salon:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Aafia Siddiqui

Deborah Scroggins’ engrossing new book, “Wanted Women: Faith, Lies, and the War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui,” is the story of a martyr and a she-devil. Or the story of a she-devil and a martyr, depending on your perspective. However, the author (a prizewinning international journalist) subscribes to neither view. By juxtaposing the lives of two (in)famous women involved with the so-called War on Terror — a celebrated critic of Islam and the only woman included on the FBI’s most-wanted list of al Qaida-linked international terrorists — Scroggins aims to show how “women like Ayaan and Aafia became symbols in battles that were really about other things.”

Although Hirsi Ali and Siddiqui have never met, and Scroggins wasn’t able to interview either one of them for “Wanted Women,” although there is no obvious connection between the two, the book works astonishingly well. Cutting back and forth between the two stories fosters a considerable amount of narrative suspense, and the juxtaposition of two similar personalities with two very different ideological positions keeps prompting the reader to look beyond easy or knee-jerk assumptions. Scroggins ultimately concludes that both women were “useful to the real drivers of conflict in their countries” because their stories provided political cover. Hirsi Ali’s talk of women’s oppression justified “Westerners who want to keep the Muslim world under Western rule,” and Siddiqui’s visible crusade against Western dominance masked the fact that jihadi were (at least in part) “fighting to maintain their control over women.”

Columbian Women & Politics

2012-01-23T19:56:00.000+11:00

From Women's Enews:

Unlike U.S. women, Colombian women have made great strides in the political arena in a short period of time, says Barbara Frechette in the book "Sharing Power." In this excerpt, she compares this progression to the one in the United States.

In Latin America, conservative Colombia was next to last-place Paraguay in granting voting rights to women. But Colombian women made up for their late start by taking only 41 years of peaceful power sharing to field two highly qualified female candidates in their 1998 presidential election.

Colombian women's remarkable achievement in such a short time led me to question why women in the United States took more time, encountered more bumps, attained a more contentious male-female power relationship and launched only one candidate in our 2008 presidential primaries.

50 Women We Admire

2012-01-21T13:35:00.000+11:00

From today's Herald Sun Weekend:

On our list, there are some obvious choices: such as the trio of incredibly courageous women who shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize, including Yemeni activist Tawakel Karman, a true force behind last year's Arab Spring. And Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the world's most respected women after more than two decades of fighting for freedom in her country.

And, finally, there are inclusions that may make you wonder. Lady Gaga? Well, she's one of the most powerful women in the entertainment world, whether you like her fashion sense or not. And our own Brynne Edelsten? Read on, and see why we reckon the Melbourne socialite deserves not just a break but a pat on the back.

So, here, in no particular order, are 50 women from Australia and abroad who we (the women of Weekend) reckon are pretty amazing. You will have heard of many of them. And, of course, for everyone on this list, there are hundreds of other champion females we could name, including our mums.

Book: The Origins of Sex

2012-01-21T13:31:00.000+11:00

From the Guardian:

We believe in sexual freedom. We take it for granted that consenting men and women have the right to do what they like with their bodies. Sex is everywhere in our culture. We love to think and talk about it; we devour news about celebrities' affairs; we produce and consume pornography on an unprecedented scale. We think it wrong that in other cultures its discussion is censured, people suffer for their sexual orientation, women are treated as second-class citizens, or adulterers are put to death.

Yet a few centuries ago, our own society was like this too. In the 1600s people were still being executed for adultery in England, Scotland and north America, and across Europe. Everywhere in the west, sex outside marriage was illegal, and the church, the state and ordinary people devoted huge efforts to hunting it down and punishing it. This was a central feature of Christian society, one that had grown steadily in importance since late antiquity. So how and when did our culture change so strikingly? Where does our current outlook come from? The answers lie in one of the great untold stories about the creation of our modern condition.

Saudi Women Target Guardianship Laws

2012-01-17T18:58:00.000+11:00

From Eurasia Review:

It’s the law of the land. A woman must carry around a permission slip from a man to function in Saudi society.

As violent protests roil through the Middle East with ruling monarchies facing uncompromising demands from its citizens for a greater voice, women’s rights is emerging as Saudi Arabia’s own Arab Spring, albeit in a less demonstrative manner. Emboldened by the role women played in the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions, Saudi women are beginning to challenge the core of the kingdom’s interpretation of guardianship in Islam. A male family member supervising all aspects of a woman’s life is a belief among Saudis who view guardianship as a sacred duty.

It is also perhaps the most abused tenet of Islam. The Qur’an is clear on the issue of employment of women: Islam permits women to work with some conditions. Women can work as long as the job does not interfere with being a wife and mother. The job should also not force women to mix with men. Women should also have special skills, such as in teaching or medicine. Islamic scholars generally agree that women seeking employment do not need a guardian’s permission. Nor does a government have the authority to demand that a woman receive such permission.

Women's Education Society of Ceylon

2012-01-17T18:57:00.000+11:00

From the Daily News:

The genesis of Buddhist women's education in modern Sri Lanka goes back to March 24, 1889, when a group of women gathered at the Colombo headquarters of the Buddhist Theosophical Society. The BTS had been formed nine years before at the behest of Madame Helena Petrovna and Colonel Henry Steele Olcott.

It was unprecedented in the colony for women to gather in this manner, like men, to discuss matters of import - which in this case was the furtherance of education for Sinhalese women. The initiative seems to have been taken by Ms O. L. G. A. Weerakoon, who by all accounts was a livewire.

A week later, on March 30, an expanded group met again at the same location, and formed the Women's Education Society of Ceylon (Nari-shiksa-dhana Samagama), to promote the education of Buddhist women.

Author & Historian Kate Williams

2012-01-17T18:54:00.000+11:00

From the Guardian:

Could historian Kate Williams be the next Doctor Who? She can build her own Tardis, after all. Sitting in the Edwardian elegance of her north London house, the academic and novelist confides: "When I was a child one of my first games was a time machine which I made for my brother – a big box covered in silver and bits of cellophane. I'd close him up in it and joggle him and say, 'We're in Victorian times now... and now we're in Egyptian times and I can see all these pyramids and pharaohs.' He was like, 'Let me out.'"

These days her methods are more "bluestocking" than Blue Peter, as she puts it. Williams studies overlooked or crassly simplified women and reveals their complexity, intelligence and significance to history. Her first book, England's Mistress, was about Emma Hamilton, who became the mistress of Lord Nelson and was, as Williams says, "from nowhere, the poorest strata of society, intended for nothing more than being a ballast to the industrial revolution." When Williams discovered a letter by her "it was as if a whole heart had been betrayed on to the page."

The next, Becoming Queen, was about the youth of Queen Victoria, and soon, Williams will release Young Elizabeth, a biography of the present queen.

Ancient Egyptian Female Singer

2012-01-17T18:50:00.000+11:00

From ZME Science:

A team of archaeologists from Egypt and Switzerland unearthed the 3100 year-old tomb of a female singer in the valley of the kings – a woman not related to the ancient Egyptian royal families ever found there.

Image by David Khalil

This was published on numerous sites with faulty information, reporting that the tomb was 1100 years old (like this article from the Independent), but that’s wrong, displaying yet again how badly science reporters sometimes treat their data. The body found was buried in 1100 BC, as in 1100 years before the year 0.

The singer’s name was Nehmes Bastet, which means she believed she was protected by the feline deity called Bastet, and her coffin was incredibly intact. It was actually found by accident, as archaeologists weren’t even looking for new tombs. What’s even more interesting is that the tomb wasn’t built originally for her, but 400 years earlier, it was built for someone else, though scientists can’t say for whom.

History - Elizabeth Arden

2012-01-17T18:46:00.000+11:00

From the Guardian:

Skincare, cosmetics and fragrance brand Elizabeth Arden is one of the oldest around. Starting in New York in 1910 with a salon on New York's Fifth Avenue, Miss Elizabeth Arden grew her company at an impressive rate and became one of the wealthiest women in the world. Now, over 100 years after its conception, Elizabeth Arden products are sold in more than a hundred countries and, at the last count, the company was estimated to be worth $1.3bn.

In 1912, Arden participated in the suffrage movement and played her part by supplying red lipstick to the suffragettes. The striking shade became part of standard rally uniform and something of a symbol of female emancipation. Later, the brand not only survived the depression but actually blossomed. In the 1930s, the company employed more than a thousand people and grossed more than $4m a year.

Dr. Salma Maqbool

2012-01-13T19:58:00.000+11:00

From the News International:

Dr. Salma Maqbool was the voice of the disabled in this country. After she was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa — an incurable genetic disorder leading to blindness — she took it upon herself to elevate her individual struggle to a bigger sphere. From there started a journey that left an indelible mark on history of social welfare in Pakistan. A young visually impaired female doctor would go on to single handedly establish ‘Darakhshan’, a Vocational Rehabilitation Centre for Women with Disability, develop the National Policy on Disability for the Ministry of Social Welfare, chair the Committee on the Status of Blind Women of the World Blind Union and manage the Pakistan Foundation Fighting Blindness in the capacity of Chairperson. Her proudest achievement however remained the induction of visually impaired in the Civil Services of Pakistan, a first in the 60-year history of Federal Public Service Commission.

Sexual History of London

2012-01-13T19:50:00.000+11:00

From Pop Matters:

When it comes to sex, London has always had a bit of a reputation. One scrap of manuscript, dating from 1058, shows a young woman of Southwark, seated on a clapped-out mule, her hair falling over her shoulders. She is exciting the attention of travellers on the highways by means of her indiscreet clothing, and holding a little gilt rod in her hand, to indicate her profession. This is the first picture of a prostitute actively soliciting on the streets of London, and it gives some indication of the state of affairs even then. Of course, this early version of the permissive society had its critics.

The Inventions of Frances Hugle

2012-01-08T10:09:00.000+11:00

Frances Hugle was a gifted female scientist and engineer who developed many processes and pieces of equipment under secret military contract while at Baldwin in the fifties. She went on to become a Silicon Valley pioneer including co-founding Siliconix as its first Director of Research.

Frances Hugle died in May of 1968 only a couple of months before Intel was formed. Following her death, her work was plundered and no company ever paid any royalties on any of her patents (or the use of her other intellectual properties) including her Tab invention which alone generates more than a billion dollars each year in revenue.

Continue to read more here: The Inventions of Frances Hugle by Cheryl Hugle

Remembering the Women of the ANC

2012-01-07T10:26:00.000+11:00

From the Mail & Guardian:

As we reflect on 100 years of the ANC, we must also reflect on the years that preceded its formation and honour, acknowledge, celebrate and critique the heritage bequeathed to us.

In 1956 despite a strong ANC "recommendation" to the contrary, women led by the federation undertook their most risky operation -- the march to Pretoria to protest against the extension of pass laws to African women. The exchanges between women such as Lillian Ngoyi and the ANC's male leadership reveal a complex but mutually respectful relationship and sharp ideological contestations among equals.

In the decades between then and now much has changed in the ANC and in the country. Much too has changed in the manner in which women locate and use their political agency within the ANC.

The longest surviving liberation movement in Africa celebrates it's centenary confronted by major and fundamental contestations within its ranks and sometimes publicly displayed acrimonious differences within its leadership.

Someone Else's War

2012-01-07T10:20:00.000+11:00

From the Australian:

Someone Else's War blends documentary evidence with imagination in bringing Stambolis to life, but even without the fictional darning the facts of her story are extraordinary enough. Born illegitimate in 1904, she was reared by an independent-minded seamstress who served the Greek royal family. Despite a good education and hopes for university, at 17 she married Michael, 15 years her senior and living in Australia. Coming with him to his fish shop in Sydney's Pyrmont she gave birth to a succession of children including Kafcaloudes's mother, Nellie.

But the relationship proved problematic, partly because of personal tragedies and partly because of a frustration within Olga, who craved a broader, more vivid canvas than the deep-fat fryer existence she had bought into through marriage. For reasons that are revealed later in the book, Olga left her family in 1936 and moved to Athens.

The novel-based-on-fact path is never a totally felicitous one as most people are doggedly devoted to distinguishing truth from fiction. Kafcaloudes manages this obstacle-strewn journey admirably in most instances, signalling direct quotations from the diary clearly and embroidering soberly in a tone that blends well with the older voice. While the truth within these highly dramatic and heart-stopping fragments may not always be verifiable from other sources, they form a narrative that Olga was determined to record for an unknown posterity.

The "Real" Iron Ladies

2012-01-07T10:01:00.000+11:00

From the Chesterfield Post:

A group of women who were the 'Real Iron Ladies' during the Miner's strike have taken part in a protest outside Chesterfield Cineworld this lunchtime - rallying against what they say is the misrepresentation of former PM Margaret Thatcher by scriptwriters in the newly released film 'The Iron Lady'

However Margaret Thatcher's time in power is not remembered so fondly locally and around 30 'Women’s Action group' ex-activists led the protest this morning, and received support from politicians and council leaders who were also in attendance.

"Hollywood is not the place to sentimentalise what is a difficult period in Britain's history. The women here today are the real Iron Ladies, who stood by and supported their men during the strike."

Women, War and the Making of Bangladesh. Remembering 1971

2012-01-04T09:14:00.000+11:00

From the Express Tribune:

“War destroys the vulnerable and unfortunately the individual sufferings of non combatants are seldom highlighted,” Dr Yasmin Saikia, author of Women, War and the Making of Bangladesh. Remembering 1971, said at the launch of her book on Tuesday. The book was launched at Forman Christian College.

Dr Saika, a professor of history at the Arizona State University, explained that the book is about families with memories of violence and trauma, “missing in the archives of history of the war.”

The book records the sufferings of Bengali and Bihari women, some of them raped and tortured during the 1971 war. The author said she had interviewed 250 families over 10 years. Those interviewed included those directly affected by the war. Some of them were perpetrators of sexual violence.

Dr Saikia said she wanted to focus on the war as traumatised women’s experience and not as a War of Liberation, as widely accepted by the Bangladeshi public. She said from the day that she had started writing the book, she had consciously tried to avoid avoided writing a particular type of history. “I tried to persuade these women to speak up about their personal experiences, including the war babies,” she said. She said some of the women had lost their citizenship and for some writers their credibility.

Historical Fiction With Mansoureh Mir-fatah

2012-01-03T17:35:00.000+11:00

From the Iran Book News Agency:

Talking about history novels, researcher of Iran's history Mansoureh Mir-fatah said:" The novel's historical figures shouldn’t turn into legends and myths, although Iran enjoys folklores and it is famed as the land of legends but historical figures shouldn’t turn into legends and myths.

IBNA: Talking about history novels, Mansoureh Mir-fatah told IBNA that during the previous year while I was researching for my book "Women in Iran", I had to go through some history books either research ones or novels.

She added:" During my studies and research I learned that several books were released about ancient Iranian women particularly women who lived during the Achaemenid era which encompassed imaginary pictures and hyperbole. For instance history novels hold many exaggerations about Pantea, a woman who lived during Cyrus while she had precious thoughts which could flourish throughout the history."

Books for 2012

2012-01-03T17:31:00.000+11:00

The Wicked Wives by Gus Pelagatti

In The Wicked Wives by Gus Pelagatti, we are given the opportunity to look into the lives of a group of both women and men that were responsible for the murders of the women's husbands in the 1930s. The story is based on a true set of crimes, and the strange and unethical reasons understate how little it takes for someone to cross over to the side of murder. During this time in Philadelphia, the scandal resulted in seventeen wives being arrested for murdering their husbands. It would take one man to stand up for the victims and uncover the acts that would bring justice.

Calories and Corsets: A History of Dieting over 2,000 Years by Louise Foxcroft

Medical historian Louise Foxcroft explains in her new book, Calories and Corsets: A History of Dieting over 2,000 Years. Foxcroft fixed on the topic of weight-loss schemes after speaking to a friend who's a medic. "She said that whenever she gives talks, as soon as she mentions diet drugs, everybody in the audience perks up. I thought that was so interesting, so I decided to see if I could use the history of dieting to throw light on the assumptions we make about our health."

A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France By Caroline Moorehead

A Train in Winter is the story of brave women hailing from villages and cities of France united in their hatred and defiance against their Nazi occupiers. The book is based on interviews with these women, their families and brings to surface the historical archives and documents held by World War II resistance organisations covering this darkest chapter of human history. When Moorehead began writing this book, seven of the women were still alive and she talked to the ones whose health allowed them to. Moorehead has heavy relied upon interviews with survivors and their relatives giving this overlooked corner of history a new urgency and meaning.

Notable Women of 2011

2011-12-31T09:34:00.000+11:00

From the Saturday Monitor:

Rebecca Kadaga: The Ugandan lawyer and politician is on this list for being the first female to be elected Speaker in the history of Parliament in Uganda.

Susan Muwonge: commonly known as Super Lady won the National Rally Championship (NRC) beating Ponsiano Lwakataka the Independence Rally.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: In 2011, Sirleaf stood out for being awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakel Karman of Yemen.

Justice Julia Sebutinde: is remembered as the tough judge who made corrupt police officere shake in their shoes in the famous Commission of inquiry into corruption in the Uganda Police

Just to name a few.

Review: Pope Joan (Lawrence Durrell)

2011-12-30T10:46:00.000+11:00

This work by Lawrence Durrell is a 1954 translation of the Greek Papissa Joanna of Emmannuel Royidis which was written in 1886. As such, the review is really covering the original work and is not a critique of Durrell's translation of the original work.

Joanna’s story begins with her humble antecedents – the daughter of an unnamed English monk (who is never named) and a buxom Saxon goose girl called Judith. Her father-monk is inspired to leave England and preach in the land of the great Charles (whom I am presuming to be Charlemagne), which he did as a wandering missionary for eight years until his “every hope of paternity” was cruelly removed. Whether through miraculously conception or rape, Joanna was born sometime in the year 818. And eight years later, following the passing of Joanna’s mother and a curious incident with a bare-breasted Abbess, Joanna’s father once more embarks on the missionary trail, this time with Joanna to accompany him.

You can read more of my review at Medievalists.net

Saudi Women in Elections 2015

2011-12-29T10:06:00.000+11:00

From the Washington Post:

Women in Saudi Arabia will not need a male guardian’s approval to run or vote in municipal elections in 2015, when women will also run for office for the first time, a Saudi official said Wednesday.

The change signifies a step forward in easing the kingdom’s restrictions against women, but it falls far short of what some Saudi reformers are calling for.

Shura Council member Fahad al-Anzi was quoted in the state-run al-Watan newspaper saying that approval for women to run and vote came from the guardian of Islam’s holiest sites, the Saudi king, and therefore women will not need a male guardian’s approval. The country’s Shura Council is an all-male consultative body with no legislative powers.

Panda is UK "Woman" of the Year

2011-12-29T10:02:00.000+11:00

From Jezebel:

In a move that is sure to go down in adorable bear history, the BBC has named a female panda named Sweetie one of its female Faces of the Year.

2011 was either lacking severely in girlchievements or a banner year for lady pandas. So what was Sweetie's glorious achievement that elevated her, a bear, over that of all female humans who did stuff?

She got off of an airplane in Scotland, to great fanfare. That's it. Hooray for Sweetie the panda, woman face of the year.

Not only is a bear deemed to appropriately fit the "woman" category, the rest of the list will leave people who were hoping for a progressive set of female movers and shakers disappointed.

Women on Wall Street

2011-12-29T09:58:00.000+11:00

From Bloomberg:

Siebert wasn't the first woman to rise above gender discrimination in the world of finance. One of the earliest documented female investors in the U.S. was Abigail Adams, who ignored her husband John's instructions to invest in land while he was stationed overseas, and instead made a much larger return investing in U.S. government bonds. Contemporary accounts describe Abigail's foray into the investing world as the one source of contention in the couple's otherwise happy marriage, despite her success.

There are also abundant examples of women who went out of their way to de-emphasize or even hide their gender to foster their careers in finance. Among them were the first women to own a Wall Street brokerage, sisters Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin, who had custom-made business dresses designed to hide their femininity and blend in with their male colleagues. Even so, the New York Times headline that announced the firm's opening in 1870 read "Wall Street Aroused," and the story's reporter concluded that "A short, speedy winding up of the firm of Woodhull, Claflin & Co. is predicted."

Canada's Bomb Girls

2011-12-28T11:05:00.000+11:00

From the Toronto Sun:

This hardly is explosive news, but Meg Tilly didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about where bombs were made before she was cast in Bomb Girls.

“I didn’t even know there were bomb factories, I just thought they magically appeared,” said Tilly, referring to the World War II era in which Bomb Girls is set.

“And I wasn’t aware of how many people I know whose parents, or aunts, or grandparents worked in them.”

In Canada the dangerous art of making of bombs fell largely to women, with so many men fighting overseas. The personal and professional politics of this together-by-necessity work environment is at the heart of Bomb Girls, a six-part Canadian mini-series that debuts Wednesday, Jan. 4 on Global.

Egypt: Virginity Tests Illegal

2011-12-28T11:01:00.000+11:00

From the Guardian:

Forced "virginity tests" on female detainees were ruled illegal in Egypt on Tuesday, after a court ordered an end to the practice.

Hundreds of activists were in the Cairo courtroom to hear the judge, Aly Fekry, say the army could not use the test on women held in military prisons in a case filed by Samira Ibrahim, one of seven women subjected to the test after being arrested in Tahrir Square during a protest on 9 March.

Fekry, head of the Cairo administrative court, decreed that what happened to Ibrahim and six other detainees was illegal and any similar occurrence in the future would also be considered illegal.

The court is expected to issue a further injunction against such tests and decree that the test was completely illegal, opening the door for financial compensation.

After the verdict Ibrahim, 25, posted on Twitter: "Thank you to the people, thank you to Tahrir Square that taught me to challenge, thank you to the revolution that taught me perseverance."

The 25-year-old marketing manager, who said she faced death threats for bringing the case, told CNN: "Justice has been served today.

"These tests are a crime and also do not comply with the constitution, which states equality between men and women. I will not give up my rights as a woman or a human being."

The Great Female Pilot – Pancho Barnes

2011-12-28T10:59:00.000+11:00

From Top Secret Writers:

Barnstormer, world speed record holder, crash survivor, stunt pilot, founder of a pilot union, and owner of a fly-in ranch depicted in The Right Stuff and frequented by friends like Chuck Yeager, Buzz Aldrin, and Jimmy Doolittle.

Pancho Barnes was an unconventional character that had a big effect on aviation and aviators during some of the most dynamic years in aviation history.

Though living through pain, prejudice, and the Great Depression, she maintained a love of life.

Born Florence Leontine Lowe, Panch was renowned as a unique, dynamic, humorous, talented, and generous individual.

Pancho was a very respected pilot in the Golden Age of Flight: an era that began with Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 flight across the Atlantic Ocean and ended twenty years later in Long Beach Harbor with Howard Hughes’ giant flying boat, the “Spruce Goose,” pulling itself out of the water.

Was Dickens Anti-Women?

2011-12-26T10:39:00.000+11:00

From the Mail Online:

For all his genius, the writer was an abusive husband who seduced a woman 26 years his junior and virtually abandoned his children.

Yet, as we near his bicentenary, we should remember that this was a man tortured by the memory of poverty as a child, thin-skinned, cruel to his wife (Catherine Hogarth), dismissive of his children, a slave to overwork and, ultimately, victim of an early death, worn out not least in the effort to support himself, his estranged wife, and his mistress (Ellen Ternan)and her family.

His is a very Victorian story of social mobility, sexual hypocrisy, and tortured genius.

Of Interest:

Dickens in Swizterland

Dickens in America

Babara Koob - Saint Marianne Cope

2011-12-26T10:28:00.000+11:00

From Syracuse dot com:

Barbara Koob moved from Utica to Syracuse in the summer of 1862, when she was 24, to enter the convent of the Sisters of St. Francis.

Twenty-one years later, the woman the world now knows as Saint Marianne Cope left Syracuse to work as a missionary among the lepers in Hawaii. Even during her lifetime, many considered her a saint for her bravery, compassion and leadership. She spent 35 years ministering to hundreds of people so feared that the Kingdom of Hawaii banished them to a remote, desolate peninsula of Kalaupapa on the island of Molokai.

In a Christmas present, the Sisters of St. Francis learned Monday that Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed Mother Marianne a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, and she will be canonized next year. The designation came after an intense, detailed process of nearly 40 years. The Franciscan sisters gathered thousands of pages of research about their heroine, toured the places she lived and worked and collected information about possible miracles, including two the Vatican ultimately ruled were healings of people whose recovery doctors could not explain.

The long journey to sainthood began with a modest life in Central New York. From 1862 to 1883, the future saint walked the streets of Syracuse in her roles as Franciscan leader and administrator of St. Joseph’s Hospital. She was among the Franciscan sisters who opened the 15-bed hospital in 1869 in a former dance hall and saloon on Prospect Hill.

Great set of links at the bottom of the article.

Smita Jadhav - Increase in Dowry Deaths

2011-12-24T10:08:00.000+11:00

From DNA India:

The new head of the women grievance redressal cell of the Pune Police, Smita Jadhav, handles a sensitive posting. As an incharge of the cell, Jadhav and her team have to counsel warring couples to try and bridge the gap between them. A student of history from the Fergusson College, Jadhav has plans to make the women aware of their rights. Chaitraly Deshmukh spoke to Jadhav to know about her future plans for the women’s cell.

As many as 48 married women in their 20s have fallen prey to the greed of their in-laws following mental and physical harassment over dowry in the last 11 months. What is your opinion on this?

"It is a shocking figure as we are in the 21st century and the city is witnessing increasing number of dowry deaths. Most of the women are in the age group of 20 to 30.

Women have fallen prey to dowry demands. Most of them are educated and belong to good families. Many women do not come forward despite knowing that laws have been made to protect them. Yet, they choose to remain silent and silence kills them. They sometimes approach us but later disappear. We cannot keep a track of each and every case but we make it a point to follow-up serious cases."

Yocheved Horowitz - Israel's Rosa Parks

2011-12-24T09:59:00.000+11:00

From Haaretz.com:

On a sunny afternoon early this week, an ultra-Orthodox woman boarded a bus in the enclave of the Gur Hasidic community in Ashdod and took a seat in the second row. The bus, Egged line 451, was headed for Jerusalem. It quickly became clear that this simple, everyday act - choosing a seat to her liking - was enough to transform her presence in the bus into a palpable challenge to the rest of the passengers. I sat down across from the woman, fearing the worst.

Not only did the woman, whose name is Yocheved Horowitz, blatantly ignore the tacit agreement among the bus' riders to adhere to the most stringent religious practices - in this case, an unwritten rule that men sit in the front and women in the back. And not only did she not conform to the seating arrangements dictated by men - that is, those in authority. This was also a woman who, judging by her appearance, seemed to come from within the community.

Now Horowitz turned around and said loudly and clearly: "What do you mean by 'men's area'? A geographical area?" she wondered. "What is mehadrin? Are you talking about an etrog, a lulav?" she queried, referring to two of the principal symbols used during the festival of Sukkot. "Nowhere in rabbinical law does it say that it is forbidden to sit behind a woman, not in the Shulchan Arukh and not in the Yoreh De'ah [two classical compilations of Jewish law]. What is written in the Torah and in rabbinical law is that it is forbidden to humiliate sons and daughters of Israel."

Sanghamitta Theri - Liberation of Lankan Women

2011-12-24T09:55:00.000+11:00

From LankaWeb:

No other historical event impacted on the status of Lankan women as the establishment of the Bhikkuni Order by Sanghamitta Theri. Her arrival in Sri Lanka on a Unduwap full moon Poya day 2245 years ago gave new directions to Lankan women taking them out from cultural wilderness and bringing them into the socio-cultural mainstream as literate persons. This led them to play a role in matters of historical significance.

The Kuveni episode in early history reveals the acceptance of a woman as a political leader by the indigenous Lankan society. But there are no clues that shed light on the kind of position occupied by women in general at that time.

Religionwise, there may have been varied faiths of Indian origin floating around as well as indigenous beliefs practiced by an agricultural community, a scenario which Mahinda Thero may have studied prior to his mission to Sri Lanka. In India, although the Bhikkuni Order had been established, by and large, women’s role was insignificant under a rigid Brahminic society which Buddhism was attempting to break through. Mahinda Thero perhaps expected a similar situation in Sri Lanka.

Walter Raleigh - Pirate Who Bewitched Elizabeth

2011-12-23T14:52:00.000+11:00

From the Mail Online:

You could not be alive in Elizabethan England and not feel that it was a young country, full of vigour and possessing the capacity to reinvent itself. There was a palpable sense of rebirth, of creative energy, of newness and expansion.

This was the age of glory when our nation put civil wars behind it and emerged into the broad, sunlit uplands.

It is no exaggeration to say that modern history began with the Elizabethans. British explorers went out to every corner of the known world to form the foundation of power and prosperity for future generations.

Central to this vision of an expanding British domain was the fervently ambitious and multi-talented soldier, sailor and poet Walter Raleigh. He was from an old West Country family that had come down in the world.

Article:

Very interesting article from the Times Online, which speculates that Sir Walter Raleigh may have adopted a young native boy who returned with him from his voyages to the Americas.

"Much less known is Sir Walter Raleigh’s kinship with a young black boy from Guyana, whom he brought back with him from the Americas and who became ensconced in the explorer’s household, according to newly discovered records.

The register, uncovered by archive staff and The Times, records the baptism of a young Guyanan boy in the Parish of Saint Luke, in Chelsea, on February 13, 1597. It reveals that the boy, named Charles and estimated to be aged between 10 and 12 years old, was brought to the church by “Sir Walter Rawlie” – a common spelling of the explorer’s name at the time. "

Website:

Luminarium: Walter Raleigh

The Wool Trade in England

2011-12-23T14:37:00.000+11:00

From the 12th to 18th Century, wool was the most important item in English trade. In the Middle Ages, the best English wool was the most prized in Europe and in later centuries, English cloth gained the same fame. In the 13th century, there was a rapid development of cloth manufacture in Flanders, and a resultant boom in English sheep farming.

The trade was organised by merchant guilds which operated an exclusive monopoly. By the 14th Century, wool merchants had become increasingly wealthy - some were so wealthy that they replaced Italian financiers who underwrote royal debts. In return, Edward III gave a small group of wool merchants an absolute monopoly on wool exports. However, this lasted only until 1350.

Over the next few years, a staple was organised. This was a fixed point through which all wool exports passed. From 1363, this was Calais - which proved to be very convenient for the Flemish markets. A Company of Merchants of the Staple was set up to manage the staple and pay taxes. It had a very large membership of approximately 300 to 400 merchants. The Company used its monopoly to transfer the heavy burden of royal taxation upon wool growers instead of the merchants themselves. This meant that the Company reduced the price paid to English wool growers.

An unexpected side effect was that the English cloth manufacturing industry was now able to purchase wool much more cheaply than its Flemish and Italian rivals. As such, English wool exports dropped from approximately 35000 sacks per year in the 14th century to 8000 sacks per year by the mid-15th Century. The export of cloth increased from approximately 9400 (1356-1360) to 56000 (1437 - 1440).

Sheep farming went through a decline until the mid-15th Century, but recovered during the reign of King Edward IV. It was not until much later, in the 17th Century, that English cloth was of such a quality as its Continental rivals.

Further Sources:

"The English Medieval Wool and Cloth Trade" by Dr. Margaret Bonney

"Medieval Wool and Cloth Exports" - a database compiled by Dr. Margaret Bonney on England's Export Trade from 1275 - 1547 (website: http://esfdb.websites.bta.com/Database.aspx ).

The Wool Trade in English Medieval History - Lecture by Prof. Eileen Power (1941)

Articles: Anglo Saxon Textiles

2011-12-23T14:22:00.000+11:00

From the Archaeology Data Service comes an article by Francis A Pritchard - "Late Saxon Textiles From the City of London":

Archaeological investigations in the City of London have produced an important collection of late 9th- to early 12th-century textiles manufactured from wool, goat hair, silk and flax. The production processes associated with the different types of cloth are here described, together with details of weaving techniques and dyeing practices. Changes in the types of cloth used in the 11th century are related to the introduction of new technology and the decline in use of the warp-weighted loom. Evidence is examined for the local manufacture of cloth and for the import of foreign silks. Lastly, attention is drawn to the similarity of the London textiles to those found in other regions of northern Europe.

Readers may also be interested in:

Anglo Saxon Textiles in the Mayer / Faussett Collection

Cloth & Clothing in Early Anglo Saxon England

Anglo Saxon Gold Braids

BBC Series - Wolf Hall

2011-12-23T14:11:00.002+11:00

From the Guardian:

The BBC and HBO are developing a TV drama mini-series adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Man Booker prize-winning historical novel Wolf Hall.

Peter Straughan, whose writing credits include the recent Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy movie, is working on scripts for a four-parter which, if commissioned, would be broadcast on BBC2, the BBC has confirmed.

Wolf Hall is a fictional biography set in the first half of the 16th century, charting the rise to power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII.

Cromwell was involved in arranging Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and his marriage to Anne Boleyn, and the English church's break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries. He later fell out with Henry and was executed.

Mantel revealed earlier this week that she is planning a Tudor trilogy, with a second novel, Bring Up the Bodies, to be published next year focusing on Anne Boleyn. The third book, The Mirror & the Light, will see Cromwell's story through until his execution in 1540.

The TV adaptation is being developed by Company Pictures, the UK independent producer behind Shameless, Skins and The Shadow Line, and Playground Entertainment, the US company set up by former HBO Films president Colin Callender.

Monastic Orders in Medieval England

2011-12-23T14:06:00.000+11:00

Here is a short list of the various Monastic Orders that were to be found in Medieval England.

Benedictines:

The Black Monks founded by St. Benedict or Benedict of Nursia (c.480 - 543). Benedict founded many monasteries, the most notable being at Subiaco.

Websites: Order of St. Benedict and St. Benedict on Wikipedia.

Cluniacs:

Foundations began at Cluny in France (910) by Abbot Berno and Count William of Auvergne. Their Rule was stricter than that of the Beneditines. The Cluniacs also supported the reforms of Pope Gregory VII. Widespread throughout England and France.

Websites: Cluny Abbey on Wikipedia and The Church in Britain - Cluniacs

Cistercians:

The White Monks were founded by Stephen Harding of Dorset and St. Bernard of Citeaux. They tended to inhabit lonely areas and toiled the land. The Order was considered austere and their Rule was considered strict.

Website: Cistercians on Catholic Encyclopedia

Carthusians:

Also called the Order of St. Bruno founded 1084 in the French Alps. Followed the Rule of St. Benedict but lived a more solitary life (strictly cloistered), meeting only in Church, in silence. Not particularly widespread in England.

Websites: Carthusian Monks & Nuns and Carthusians on Catholic Encyclopedia

Augustinians:

The Black Canons were founded by St. Augustine of Hippo (d.430). They were considered to be priests rather than monks, and preached in public. There was also a stricter Order of the White Canons or Premonstratensians.

Websites: Augustinians and Augustinians on Wikipedia

Gilbertines:

Founded by Gilbert, a Lincolnshire priest (1130) for monks and nuns with separate cloisters. This was a purely English Order.

Websites: Gilbertines on Catholic Encyclopedia and The Gilbertines

Other Websites:

* Religious Orders in Medieval Britain

Elizabeth I & Her Toyboy Essex

2011-12-23T14:00:00.002+11:00

From Mail Online:

In his major new examination of the Elizabethans, historian A.N. Wilson details the passionate love Queen Elizabeth I felt for several men throughout her reign. Here, in the final part of the Mail’s exclusive serialisation, Wilson reflects on the Queen’s later years — and her disastrous infatuation with a courtier young enough to be her grandson . . .

By the time she was in her mid-60s, the Virgin Queen had grown prematurely old, with a ‘goggle throat’ and ‘a great gullet hanging out’.

But if Elizabeth was long past her springtime, so was her once dynamic country. The new French ambassador travelled from Dover to London in 1597 through a landscape he described as ‘wild and untilled’.

In her palace in Whitehall, he was taken to meet her as she sat in a low chair, all by herself and melancholy, almost as if she had been abandoned. Her long, thin face was lined. Her ‘teeth were very yellow and unequal’. On either side of her ears, two great curls hung from beneath a somewhat fantastical red wig.

Luca Pacioli - Renaissance Magician

2011-12-23T13:53:00.000+11:00

Have you ever wanted to wash your hands in melted lead? Or maybe, you have always wanted to make an egg walk. Meet Luca Pacioli ~~ the Renaissance's own David Copperfield!

Luca Pacioli, a native of Tuscany, was a good friend and sometime artistic collaborator of Leonardo da Vinci.

He is also the author of one of the oldest magic books - De viribus quantitatis (On The Powers Of Numbers). And for the past 500 years, this unpublished book has been hidden away in the archives of the University of Bologna.

"It was written in Italian by Pacioli [a Franciscan monk] between 1496 and 1508 and contains the first ever reference to card tricks as well as guidance on how to juggle, eat fire and make coins dance. It is also the first work to note that Da Vinci was left-handed."

Reporter Lucy McDonald of the Guardian has the full details of this magical story from her 2007 article.

Venetian Lazaretto

2011-12-23T13:39:00.001+11:00

A lazaretto or lazaret is a quarantine station for maritime travellers. Lazarets can be ships permanently at anchor, isolated islands, or mainland buildings. Between 1348 and 1359 the Black Death wiped out an estimated 30% of Europe's population, as well as a significant percentage of Asia's population. The original document from 1377, which is kept in the Archives of Dubrovnik, states that before entering the city, newcomers had to spend 30 days (a trentine) in a restricted location (originally nearby islands) waiting to see whether the symptoms of plague would develop. Later on, isolation was prolonged to 40 days and was called quarantine.

Venice took the lead in measures to check the spread of plague, having appointed three guardians of the public health in the first years of the Black Death (1348). The first lazaret was founded by Venice in 1403, on a small island adjoining the city – the island of Santa Maria di Nazareth (also known as Lazaretum or Nazaretum). Today this island is known as the Lazzaretto Vecchio.

Originally, the “Lazzaretto Vecchio” was home to hermits who had erected a church dedicated to St. Mary of Nazareth and a shelter for pilgrims going or returning from the Holy Land (c.1240s). When the monks and novices died out, and on the advice of San Bernardino of Siena, the Senate voted to allocate the island as a shelter for people and goods from infected countries.

The Lazzaretto even then consisted of two islands joined by a bridge to the smallest housed the garrison whilst the larger housed the hospital which incorporated the original monastic buildings. Originally built of timber, these would be later rebuilt in stone. In 1468, the Lazzaretto Nuovo or new settlement was established. The Lazzaretto was enlarged with the adjacent lagoon being reclaimed in 1580s; and a boathouse entrance was built from the canal (1586).

In November, 1631, the plague was definitively eradicated, but at a terrible cost: almost 47,000 died in the city (more than a quarter of the population) and 95,000 in the area comprising Murano, Malamocco and Chioggia.

I was inspired to find out more from this article that appeared in the Independent in 2007:

Archaeologists are now exploring "the graves of Lazzaretto, an island in the Venetian lagoon which became the world's first isolation hospital."

The Independent reports that: "Following an outbreak of the plague in 1348, the Doge and his advisers put their minds to thinking up a way to prevent a recurrence. The upshot, at the beginning of the 15th century, was the world's first isolation hospital occupying the entire small island."

" .. archaeologists have uncovered more than 1,500 skeletons of Lazzaretto patients. Luigi Fozzatti, who is in charge of excavations, said: "It wasn't difficult to imagine that some people would have been buried on the island but we had no idea we would find so many." "

Research is continuing.

Writers & Their Books

2011-12-22T17:19:00.000+11:00

From Maria Popova at The Atlantic:

As a hopeless bibliophile, an obsessive lover of bookcases, and a chronic pursuer of voyeuristic peeks inside the minds of creators, I'm utterly spellbound by Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books—a vicarious journey into the personal libraries of thirteen favorite authors, who share their collections of childhood favorites, dusty textbooks, prized first editions, and beloved hardcovers, along with some thoughts on books, reading, and the life of the mind.

Alongside the formidable collections—featuring Alison Bechdel, Stephen Carter, Junot Díaz, Rebecca Goldstein and Steven Pinker, Lev Grossman and Sophie Gee, Jonathan Lethem, Claire Messud and James Wood, Philip Pullman, Gary Shteyngart, and Edmund Whit—are short interviews with the authors about the books most important to them (including their top 10), their style of organization, and their thoughts on what the future of books might hold. (Cue in writers on the future of books.) The interviews are prefaced by Leah Price's fascinating brief history of bookshelves, from the rise of the vertical book on a horizontal shelf to how social bookmarking services are changing our relationship with tagging and indexing information.

Politics & Asian Women

2011-12-22T17:13:00.000+11:00

From Gulf News:

India's Indira Gandhi, Sri Lanka's Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto, Bangladesh's Shaikh Hasina, Philippines' Corazon Aquino and Indonesia's Megawati Sukarnoputri — these women leaders dominated South and South East Asia for much of the past four decades.

Each belonged to a special class of women whose husbands or fathers were their country's recognised founding father or long-standing political leader. But, while their dynastic links brought them to power, they were not the sole factor keeping them there.

When first elected, none of these women had any serious professional or political qualifications. For some, this ‘shortcoming' was seen as an advantage, enabling some of them to project an image of innocence and purity, even martyrdom, as they stood in the place of their deceased husbands or fathers. None was particularly focused on a women's agenda (at least not in their first terms in office), and studies show that rural women did not fare particularly well under their rule.

But something very different emerged in Asia in 2011. A growing number of women are reaching for the highest political echelons in their countries by dint of their political talents alone.

Women of Faith in the Latter Days

2011-12-22T17:04:00.000+11:00

From Deseret News:

The first book in a series dedicated to highlighting the inspirational lives of Mormon women is finally hitting bookshelves. “Women of Faith in the Latter Days,” the first of seven volumes, features the biographies of women born between 1775 and 1820. Each biography was submitted by a contributor and edited by Richard E. Turley Jr. and Brittany A. Chapman of the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“The women who appear in Volume 1 … were generally first-generation Latter-day Saints who experienced characteristic trials of their day, including abandonment by family or friends when they joined the church, persecution after joining, and the hardships of pioneering again and again as they moved from one location to another,” the editors wrote in the preface.

The realization that little has been published regarding the faith and dedication of the women in the church, both past and present, sparked the idea for the series. Approximately half the people in the history of the church have been women, Turley said in December 2010. “Most of history we’ve created focuses on men. We’ve recognized a huge gap that needs to be filled,” he said.

Plans for the series were announced in May 2010. Subsequent volumes will follow at about one-year intervals and each will cover a 25-year time span. Volume 2 includes women born between 1821 and 1845; Volume 3 from 1846 to 1870; Volume 4 from 1871 to 1895; Volume 5 from 1896 to 1920; Volume 6 between 1921 and 1945 and Volume 7 from 1946 to 1970.

Top Women of 2011

2011-12-22T17:00:00.000+11:00

From Barbara Lee of Huffington Post:

Women are being left off the page of every best-of-the-year list I have read so far. For starters, you have to be a princess to make it onto TIME's list of runners-up for "Person of the Year." Kate Middleton appears again on People magazine's "Most Intriguing" list and her younger sister, Pippa, is among the women on Barbara Walter's list of "10 Most Fascinating People." The others? Pop icons Katy Perry and the Kardashians, followed by Amanda Knox, who won her appeal in a high profile murder case. Somehow, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the only woman who ranks for Forbes' top 10 "Most Powerful People in the World" and is one of very few women to be recognized for leadership ability rather than lifestyle and looks in these year-end superlatives lists.

In an age of reality TV, it has become clear that voters expect candidates to entertain and perform. This is potentially dangerous territory for women who have to work harder to prove themselves as "serious" candidates in the first place. "In a society where media is the most persuasive force shaping cultural norms," as Writer/Director Jennifer Siebel Newsom describes in her provocative documentary, "Miss Representation," "the collective message that our young women and men overwhelmingly receive is that a woman's value and power lie in her youth, beauty, and sexuality, and not in her capacity as a leader." Let's not dismiss the accomplishments of women; let's celebrate them instead.

Kitti Green & the KGB

2011-12-22T16:56:00.000+11:00

From Adelaide Now:

THREE women were stripped naked and an Aussie filmmaker was kidnapped as the KGB broke up a feminist protest.

Kitti Green spent more than six hours being interrogated by the local KGB security service, who freed her only after the Australian embassy in Moscow intervened.

The KGB dumped Ms Green at the Lithuanian border, but three Ukrainian women who were travelling with her - Inna Shevchenko, Oxana Shachko and Alexandra Nemchinov - were beaten after being seized at a Minsk railway station.

"They were blindfolded and driven around in a bus all night," the feminist group Femen said.

"They were taken into the woods, had oil poured on them, were forced to take their clothes off, were threatened to be set on fire.

"They threatened them with a knife, which they later used to cut off their hair. Then they threw them out into the woods naked and without documents."

The women were protesting to mark President Alexander Lukashenko's disputed re-election a year ago.

From Salon:

A group of women from a Ukrainian topless-protest group on Wednesday recounted their ordeal in neighboring Belarus, where they claimed they were kidnapped, beaten and abused by local security officials.

Oksana Shechko told the Associated Press that she and two fellow activists with Femen were interrogated on a bus for 12 hours, made to undress in the woods in freezing temperatures, punched in the head and back, threatened with death and rape, smeared with paint and had some of their hair cut of.

Shechko charged that the Belarusian authorities were punishing them for a protest in Minsk on Monday in which they bared their breasts to bring attention to President Aleksander Lukashenko’s crackdown on the opposition.

“It was a real fight for survival,” Shechko said after returning to Kiev, her voice trembling. “We ended up in the hands of the butchers who kill and terrify the Belarusian people.”

Film: The Flowers of War

2011-12-21T18:00:00.000+11:00

From Film Journal International:

Epic tale of young women desperate to survive the Japanese invasion of Nanking in 1937. China's Oscar entry for Best Foreign-Language Film offers powerfully realistic and inventive war scenes. Alas, some of the dialogue may register as a bit too saccharine for Western ears.

Adapted by Liu Heng from the novel by Yan Geling, The Flowers of War offers two distinct species of "flowers”: One group consists of beautiful courtesans on the run, while the other encompasses cloistered schoolgirls who sing in the church choir and who deeply mourn the recent death of their Catholic priest. To save both the prostitutes and the adolescent girls—who recoil from any association with fallen angels—Miller must put on the Father's black robes and emulate priestly behavior. Gradually, he acquires a new dignity and compassion. He stops trying to bed the sultry leader of the courtesans, Yo Mo (Ni Ni), and begins to treat her like the clever, formidable survivor that she is.

Christian Bale in China from China Buzz

Egypt's Women Protest

2011-12-21T11:09:00.000+11:00

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Thousands of woman marched through downtown Cairo on Tuesday evening to call for the end of military rule in an extraordinary expression of anger over images of soldiers beating, stripping and kicking a female demonstrator on the pavement of Tahrir Square.

"Drag me, strip me, my brothers' blood will cover me!" they chanted. "Where is the field marshal?" they demanded, referring to Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the military council holding onto power here. "The girls of Egypt are here."

The event may have been the biggest women's demonstration in Egypt's history, and the most significant since a 1919 march led by pioneering Egyptian feminist Huda Shaarawi to protest British rule.

The women's chants were evidently heard at military headquarters as well. On Tuesday evening, the ruling military council offered an abrupt apology.

"The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces expresses its utmost sorrow for the great women of Egypt, for the violations that took place during the recent events," the council said in a statement. "It stresses its great appreciation for the women of Egypt and for their right to protest and to actively, positively participate in political life on the path of democratic transition."

Although no one in the military has been publicly investigated or charged in connection with any misconduct, the statement asserted that the council had already taken "all the legal actions to hold whoever is responsible accountable."

Just two hours before the women massed, a coalition of liberal and human rights groups unveiled a plan to try to break the state media's grip on public opinion by holding screenings around the country of video capturing recent military abuses.

Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus

2011-12-20T10:19:00.000+11:00

Jocasta is the story of one of the many much maligned women of Greek mythology. A young noble-born girl is thrust onto the stage of politics when she is married to the new ruler of Thebes. Her marriage is cursed; her once loving husband has turned away from her and the responsibility of ruling and has taken refuge in drink and frivolities; her only child cruelly taken from her arms.

Jocasta rises to the occasion and takes upon her young shoulders the burden or ruling this great city of ancient Thebes. With guidance from her family she transforms into the ruler that the citizens of Thebes come to love and respect.

Fate - or the Gods - step in and her husband of many years is killed. As queen she must now take a new husband or risk Thebes becoming victim to the ever circling threat from envious rulers abroad. But whom should she choose - the answer comes in the form of a riddle.

Her second marriage brings to Jocasta that which she has long desired - love and children. But again, the Gods are cruel. Again, Thebes is beset by misfortune and the Gods demand a greater sacrifice. But has Jocasta and Oedipus done enough to appease the Gods - no they have not.

Soon the prophecies forecast for both Jocasta and her husband Oedipus began to unravel at an alarming rate - and the sacrifice now demanded of the Gods can no longer be put off - and the consequences are tragic.

Jocasta: The Mother-Wife of Oedipus was written by two outstanding authors, Victoria Grossack & Alice Underwood.They have together written a series of novels set in the Late Bronze Age, mostly in ancient Greece. Not once was I tempted to put this book aside due to lack of interest - the story of Jocasta gradually builds until it reaches its climax in the last few chapters.

About the Authors:

Victoria Grossack: Dartmouth graduate Victoria Grossack leads an international life, with homes in Switzerland and Arizona and a professional career in the financial industry that has spanned the Atlantic. She is fluent in German and French (and English of course) and has an MBA. Her last full-time position was as a Senior Vice President in New York City for a reinsurance company, but she is currently writing full-time and living with her husband who is a professor at the University of Arizona. Her writing has been published in Contingencies, Woman’s World, I Love Cats, and The Journal of Actuarial Practice. She was a regular columnist for Fiction Fix, writing monthly articles that have been used in several writing classes. She teaches writing courses at Coffeehouseforwriters on historical fiction, creating characters, and the levels of structure in fiction. She also tutors mathematics, as solving problems in algebra and geometry make a nice break from creative writing.

Alice Underwood: Alice Underwood studied classics at The University of Texas and Princeton University while earning her degrees in mathematics. Her passion for antiquity has taken her from the shadowed catacombs of Princeton’s libraries to the ruins of Pompeii and the sunny shores of Crete and Santorini. Her work has been published in Consortium, Networks, and The Journal of Actuarial Practice. Currently an Executive Vice President at one of the world’s top insurance brokerage firms, Alice lives and works in New York City.

In 1998, Victoria and Alice tied for first place in an international short story contest. After collaborating on several nonfiction pieces, they decided to apply their complementary strengths and perspectives to a work of fiction.

Tapestry of Bronze: The Tapestry of Bronze is a series of interlocking novels set in ancient Greece, starting several generations before the Trojan War. Archaeological evidence indicates that this “Golden Age of Heroes” aligns with Bronze Age dates. Our series forms a tapestry, because the books tie together, though each novel focuses on one strand of story. Jocasta, Children of Tantalus, The Road to Thebes and Arrows of Artemis are available for purchase today. And more are in the works!

Useful Links:

Oedipus The King: The city of Thebes wants its rulers to fix its current problem, an outbreak of divinely-sent pestilence. Prophecies reveal the means to the end, but Oedipus the ruler, who is committed to the cause of Thebes, doesn't realize he is at the root of the problem. The tragedy shows his gradual awakening.

The Mother of Oedipus: Jocasta (Iokaste) was the queen of Thebes and mother to Oedipus, Antigone, Eteocles, Polynices, Ismene, and Menocenes. She was sister to Creon, who also figures prominently in Sophocles' play, "Oedipus the King". She was married to King Laius and bore him a son, Oedipus, who was destined to kill his father and marry his mother: Jocasta.

Dangerous Ambition

2011-12-20T09:47:00.000+11:00

Press Release:

Born in the early 1890s on opposite sides of the Atlantic, these brilliant and ambitious women, Rebecca West, an English journalist, novelist, and critic, and Dorothy Thompson, an American journalist and first female head of a U.S. news bureau in Europe, defied convention to achieve unprecedented fame in a male-dominated era. Susan Hertog—author of the critically acclaimed Anne Morrow Lindberg, Her Life—delves deep into the complex life and legacy of two early feminists who tried to have it all in her new remarkable dual biography DANGEROUS AMBITION, Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson: New Women in Search of Love and Power (Ballantine Books Hardcover; November 8, 2011).

By the mid-twentieth century, West and Thompson both reached astounding levels of professional achievement. Thompson was considered by FDR and Churchill to be the most influential woman in America. West, a formidable journalist, literary critic, and biographer by the age of 20, and a novelist and literary theorist by 30, was hailed across the English-speaking world for her literary genius. But even as their careers prospered, their personal relationships shattered. Drawn to men equally ambitious and hungry for love—Thompson to Sinclair Lewis, West to H. G. Wells—their relationships with their husbands and their sons would be sacrificed for the sake of their work. They broke the old rules and charted new waters; their lives tell the story of the price women paid for ambition and success.

The first book to impressively link the lives of West and Thompson, DANGEROUS AMBITION introduces readers to two women who were hugely important and respected in their day, and speaks to 21st century women and men as they struggle to reinvent their roles as parents and professionals.

About the Author:

Susan Hertog was born in New York City and graduated from Hunter College. After earning her MFA from Columbia University, she became a freelance journalist and photographer. She is the author of one previous book, Anne Morrow Lindberg, Her Life. She lives in Manhattan with her family.

Magdalena Grodzka-Guzkowska - A Lucky Woman

2011-12-20T00:30:00.000+11:00

From CBS News:

Magdalena Grodzka-Guzkowska's journey of self-discovery is pieced together from interviews with her and people close to her, emails made available to The Associated Press, information provided by Yad Vashem, her memoir "Lucky Woman," and documentary footage.

Decades after she helped save the rabbi and about a dozen others, mostly children, by teaching them Christian customs, Grodzka-Guzkowska discovered documents in an old suitcase showing that her father and other close family members were Jews. Growing up she knew vaguely that one of her great grandmothers was Jewish but nothing more about those roots.

Why Women Need Fat

2011-12-19T20:56:00.000+11:00

From Salon:

On any given day, more than half of women in the U.S. are on a diet. In hopes of slimming their figures, millions take on Atkins, South Beach, Lean for Life or Hollywood 48. Some never eat after 5 p.m.; others only eat Subway sandwiches. While the diet industry has a less than noble reputation, it’s clear that American women, far more than men, remain obsessed with dieting. But what can evolutionary biology tell us about gender difference and eating habits?

In a new book called “Why Women Need Fat,” Steven J.C. Gaulin, an evolutionary biologist, and William D. Lassek, a retired doctor of public health at the University of Pittsburgh, explain the science behind women’s unique relationship to their diet. In the book, Lassek and Gaulin make a surprising argument for a more positive outlook on fat and illustrate the differences between the ways women and men gain weight. Think of it as the evolutionary biology diet.

What Glass Ceiling?

2011-12-18T13:52:00.000+11:00

From the Sunday Times:

Women of Power transcend these petty insecurities of gender hierarchies and the ceilings that are set through semantics and other cultural cues. Silly stuff in a scheme of things that are predestined on a grander scale. Success is after all a mind game; even in the older order where career woman straddled work life with greater balance and less sexual power play.

In "What glass ceiling?” Michelle Gunawardana deftly establishes at the outset , in a tone setting exchange, the no-nonsense, let's-get-cracking approach to life and circumstance that Rohini Nanayakkara adopted in the male bastions of power, as an equal and often path-finding player. Rather than a statement on gender discrimination, the title of the book itself is a telling reflection of her attitude to any and all obstacles in her path.

The intriguing and nonlinear biography of Rohini the corporate persona is captured through a small but immensely readable set of interviews and commentary. They trace the journey of this woman of purpose and leave in their wake a portrait of an immensely capable leader in our financial and corporate community.

Author - Alice Hoffman

2011-12-17T11:07:00.000+11:00

From the Alice Hoffman website:

"Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then received a Mirrellees Fellowship to the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing. She currently lives in Boston. "

The Dovekeepers

AD70 Roman troops sacked Jerusalem, destroying the Second Temple and hunting down those few who managed to flee the city. Some took refuge with the Sacarii, Jewish rebels led by Eleazar ben Ya'ir in Herod's hill fortress of Masada, with the settlement eventually swelling to accommodate more than 900 fighters and refugees.

The Red Garden

Beautifully crafted, shimmering with magic, a transforming glimpse into small town America, presenting us with 300 years of passion, dark secrets, loyalty and redemption in a web of tales where characters lives are intertwined by fate and by their own actions.

Salem or Saudi Arabia

2011-12-17T10:42:00.000+11:00

From CBS News:

Even for the late 17th century, the witch trials at Salem were egregious: the last hurrah of an early-modern culture of superstition and retribution that was stopped dead in its tracks by the early sparks of the Enlightenment. By the time, in 1692, that Abigail Williams and her friends wrought havoc across three counties on the Massachusetts frontier, it was widely considered that “sorcery” was, if not whimsical in itself, at least a matter unsuited for the courts. Indeed, so keen was the horror at the hysteria that had taken hold in Salem that the mere mention of the place was sufficient to cool any passions that looked in danger of spiraling into outmoded and dangerous thaumaturgy. For America, it was the witch-hunt to end all witch-hunts.

The news that Saudi Arabia executed a woman for “witchcraft and sorcery” on Monday is thus made all the more heartrending when one considers that the practice was last seen in America just one year before the Dodo was reported missing, and 100 years before the passage of the Bill of Rights. As is so often the case, Mecca is at least 300 years late to the punch and, worse, its government seems steadfastly determined to ignore the salutary lessons that the Western world learned at the cost of so much blood, sweat, and tears. Britain and America, without external examples to mimic, had at least some excuse for mistakes made while blazing a path to liberty, capitalism, and reason. The Saudis have none, and their myopia is appalling. For the steadfast refusal of the House of Saud to conform to liberal norms, a young woman paid the ultimate price.

The latest victim of medieval thinking, Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nassar, was condemned in al-Jawf province, having been, according to the Saudi interior ministry, “convicted of what was accused based on the law.” What was accused was that Nassar was a “witch” who had been performing “sorcery.” What the “law” prescribed was that she be beheaded. Such language parodies the Western argot, but not the nature of our judicial tradition. Witchcraft is a “crime” intrinsically incompatible with the classical Western conception of justice, relying as it does on proof that will — nay, can — never be forthcoming. Nassar’s conviction was secured after authorities found in her possession books on sorcery, a selection of talismans, and glass bottles that were allegedly “used for the purpose of magic.”

Lady Elizabeth Dacre's Erotic Poem

2011-12-17T10:34:00.000+11:00

From Huffington Post:

A crude love poem written almost 450 years ago by a Roman Catholic woman and sent to a Protestant scholar who served Edward VI has been discovered in the back of a book by a British academic.

When Professor Treharne took her class of undergraduates on a tour of medieval literature in the library of West Virginia University, she thought she was introducing another year of eager literature students to the familiar wonders of Chaucer.

Instead, tucked into a 1561 edition of the poet’s work, she was about to discover what she now believes to be the only known Latin love poem written by an Englishwoman until the 18th century.

After translating the poem Treharne discovered that the poem was penned by Lady Elizabeth Dacre, a married Catholic woman, and addressed to Sir Anthony Cooke, a Protestant and tutor to King Edward VI. During this time it was common for lustful Tudor men to pen verses to woo the objects of their affection but extremely unusual for a lady to do the same.

Peace Monument for Comfort Women

2011-12-16T10:41:00.000+11:00

From the Hankyoreh:

A 130-cm bronze sculpture of a young girl was erected Wednesday on the road in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul's Jongno District.

The “Peace Monument” was designed to give shape to the spirit of the “comfort women” who have come to the area every Wednesday for the past twenty years to call for an apology from the Japanese government.

Dressed in a hanbok, traditional Korean outfit, the girl sits on a chair with her fists on her knees, looking quietly toward the embassy. The shadow hanging to the ground beneath the sculpture forms the shape of an elderly woman. A bird sits on the girl's left shoulder, and a butterfly is positioned on the shadow's chest. In addition to representing freedom and peace, the bird is also a spiritual bridge linking the women who have passed away with those who are still alive. The butterfly symbolizes rebirth.

Below the statute is a history of the Wednesday Demonstrations engraved in Korean, English, and Japanese. The empty chair to the girl’s right is a contribution from citizens to offer comfort to the survivors. The peace memorial was likewise made through the actions of citizens.

Book: The Virgin Cure

2011-12-16T10:35:00.000+11:00

From The Star Phoenix:

The Virgin Cure is set in Manhattan in 1871, when 30,000 children lived in the streets of the city. It is the story of 12-year-old Moth, a poor girl but a survivor if there ever was one. Moth's mother sells her to a wealthy woman who abuses her, so Moth escapes to the Bowery, a place of beggars, thieves, prostitutes and freakshows. There, she is taken in by brothel-owner Miss Everett, who sells girls' virginity to the highest bidder. It's there that Moth befriends a woman doctor, Dr. Sadie, and learns about the virgin cure - the belief that having sex with a virgin girl will cure a man's syphilis.

By the Winter Sea

2011-12-16T10:29:00.000+11:00

From Skegness Standard:

CAMERA crews are set to pop up all over the local area in the coming days after work got underway on a new short film about the life of an Anderby Creek land girl.

Wartime Lincolnshire and the experiences of ‘Ada’, who worked a Lincolnshire coastal farm during World War Two.

“The 10 minute film entitled ‘By the Winter Sea’, is being made on behalf of the Lincolnshire Coastal Country Park project by Red Dog Film,” said a spokesperson for Lincolnshire County Council.

“It shows how London city girl Ada found the rural life and hard physical work a shock initially, but she gradually overcame her inexperience and grew to love her life as a land girl.

“The film is based on actual events – director Phil Stevens discovered the story in a book called ‘Lincolnshire Women at War’.

“The book is a compilation of letters from women who came from all over the country to work in Lincolnshire during WWII,” they added.

Anousheh Ansar - First Female Private Space Explorer

2011-12-16T10:23:00.000+11:00

From Huffington Post:

“On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari captured headlines around the world as the first female private space explorer. Anousheh earned a place in history as the fourth private explorer to visit space and the first astronaut of Iranian descent. Anousheh is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder and chairman of Prodea Systems, a company that will unleash the power of the Internet to all consumers and dramatically alter and simplify consumer’s digital living experience. Prior to founding Prodea Systems, Anousheh served as co-founder, CEO and chairman of Telecom Technologies, Inc. The company successfully merged with Sonus Networks, Inc., in 2000.

Anousheh immigrated to the United States as a teenager who did not speak English. She earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics and computer engineering from George Mason University, followed by a master’s degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University. She has an honorary doctorate from the International Space University. She is currently working toward a master’s degree in astronomy from Swinburne University.

She believes the key to a better future for humankind is in the hands of our young generation, and it is up to us to provide them with the right tools through education and as good role models.” - Anoushehansari.com

Notable Passing: Paula Hyman

2011-12-16T10:18:00.000+11:00

From JTA:

Noted Jewish feminist Paula Hyman, who served as the first female dean of the Seminary College of Jewish Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary, has died.

Hyman died Thursday at the age of 65.

She was the Lucy Moses Professor of Modern Jewish History at Yale University, a position she held for 25 years, including more than a decade as chair of the Jewish studies program.

Hyman served as dean of the Seminary College of Jewish Studies from 1981 to 1986, as well as an associate professor of history at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Prior to that she was an assistant professor of history at Columbia University for seven years; she received a doctorate from the school in 1975.

She published extensively on topics including Jewish gender issues, modern European and American Jewish history, and Jewish women's history as well as feminism. She wrote several books on French Jewry.

Hyman was a founder in 1971 of Ezrat Nashim, a group of Conservative Jewish women who lobbied extensively for changes in the Conservative movement's attitude toward women, including ordaining them as rabbis and inclusion in a minyan.

She was awarded a National Jewish Book Award in 1999 and received honorary degrees from The Jewish Theological Seminary and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Hyman regularly spent time in Israel, lecturing in Hebrew and English at the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University.

Acid Attack On Mother & Daughters

2011-12-12T17:21:00.000+11:00

From Care2 Make A Difference:

Acid attacks are one of such violent forms of assault that is most common in countries like Cambodia, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. A recent story from Afghanistan left four women – 3 daughters and their mother – disfigured from an acid attack.

The perpetrators were after the family’s oldest daughter because her father had denied one of the men’s requests for her hand in marriage. The girl’s father said he rejected the man’s offer of marriage at the time because his daughter was too young. Forced marriage of young Afghan girls is not uncommon today which makes the father’s protection notable.

Rejected, the man and his brothers, who are suspected of being members of a local militia, broke into the house to attack the girls and their mother in revenge. The men involved in the attack have since been brought to the capital by the Interior Ministry for investigation and potential prosecution.

“The attackers defamed Afghanistan in the eyes of the world,” said the ministry’s spokesman, Sediq Sediqui. “It was the harshest violence they could ever carry out.”

He said that the Afghan police were warning “those who commit such brutal acts that they will be brought to justice at any cost.”

The Elimination of Violence Against Women law, which was passed last year, specifically prohibits chemical attacks against women. Such offenses carry a punishment of at least 10 years of imprisonment and at most life in prison.

Given the law and the ministry’s quick arrest, one would hope that the men will be adequately punished, but history has proved differently. Since Afghanistan enacted the law banning violence against women there have been 2,299 complaints of gender-motivated abuse registered with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission from March 2010 to March 2011 only 7% of those crimes have been prosecuted.

Mirren Questions Number Of Female Nobel Prize Winners

2011-12-12T17:16:00.000+11:00

From the Washington Post:

ritish actress Helen Mirren hailed this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to three women as historic, but said Sunday it’s shameful that so few women have won the award since it was created in 1901.

Mirren said the award marks an “extraordinary moment in the history of women,” but that it is “slightly shameful statistically that only 12 women have won it in a 112 years, when you think how important women historically have always been, specifically in terms of peace.”

She spoke to The Associated Press before the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo on Sunday, which she will host with American actress Rosario Dawson.

The concert will honor this year’s peace prize winners Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and women’s right activist Leymah Gbowee, also of Liberia, and democracy activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen. Together, the three have boosted the number of women who have received the peace prize from 12 to 15.

See my post: Nobel Prize Winning Women

Blessing Liman - Nigeria's First Female Fighter Pilot

2011-12-12T17:11:00.000+11:00

From This Day Live:

Blessing Liman, a 25-year-old lady from Kaduna State, has become Nigeria’s first female military pilot.

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) at the weekend commissioned her along with 126 others who completed the Direct Short Service Course 2010/11 Cadets of 325 Ground Training Group at the NAF Base, Kaduna. Liman said she was very excited and proud to make history.

She said: “It is very uplifting and I feel very proud of myself though it has been very challenging. Coming from the civil war and the civil mentality, the Air Force has done a great job because it has changed our orientation.

“I believe that all females have equal opportunity to dignify their rights in whatever adventure they choose they can do.”

Blessing, who wants to encourage other females, called on other womenfolk to see her feat as a challenge for them to explore their capabilities “for nation-building”.

Celia Sanchez - Castro's Lover?

2011-12-12T17:05:00.000+11:00

From BBC News:

Celia Sanchez was at the heart of the Cuban revolution for over two decades and after meeting Fidel Castro in 1957, she became his indispensable aide.

There has been speculation they were lovers. But neither Sanchez when she was alive, nor Castro, ever addressed the rumours. Outside Cuba, little has been written about the role Celia Sanchez played until her death in 1980.

The earliest picture of Sanchez and Castro together was taken when they first met, in 1957, but Sanchez had already played a crucial part in his life.

When Castro came to power in 1959, Sanchez remained his most valuable aide, and worked alongside him until her death.

She was in charge of numerous revolutionary projects. From overseeing the "re-education" of the families of anti-Castro insurgents, to founding parks and ensuring Cubans had ice-cream, Celia was the go-to woman.

Aelfhtryth of Devon

2011-12-10T22:32:00.000+11:00

Aelfthryth was a controversial figure - wife of King Edgar, mother of Aethelred the Unready.

But it is the murder of her step-son Edward to which all hold her solely accountable and for which she will always be unjustly remembered. For it is claimed that history is written by the victors, though in these early times it was written by the clergy to whom Aelfthryth often found herself at odds. Could she have hoped for a fair and unbiased retelling of events – it is highly doubtful. We shall never know the whole truth surrounding the events of the death of Edward – nor will we ever fully know what role – if any – Aelfthryth did play.

List to the guest podcast that I wrote for David Crowther's "The History of Britain" series.

Aelfthryth of Devon: http://historyofengland.typepad.com/files/43a-aelfthryth-by-melisende-1.mp3

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret

2011-12-10T22:16:00.000+11:00

In 1766, Jeanne Baret, the daughter of illiterate French peasants, disguised herself as a teenage boy in order to join the first French expedition to circumnavigate the world. She signed on as assistant to the famous botanist Philibert Commerson—who also happened to be her lover. The journey made the twenty-six-year-old, known as “Jean Baret” to her shipmates, the first woman to ever sail around the globe. Yet very little is known about this extraordinary woman, whose accomplishments were considered—when they were considered at all—to be subversive, even impossible for someone of her sex and class.

In THE DISCOVERY OF JEANNE BARET: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe (Broadway Books; December 6, 2011), acclaimed author and professor Glynis Ridley upends the myths about Jeanne Baret’s pioneering journey. When Ridley began researching Baret’s life, she quickly noticed that certain implausible “facts” kept appearing. Most glaringly, almost every published source asserted that no one, not even Baret’s cabinmate and longtime lover Commerson, realized her sex until the ships made landfall in Tahiti, eighteen months into the voyage. According to the accepted story, the officers and men of the ship were greeted by Tahitian women offering sexual favors, while Baret found herself surrounded by a group of native men who easily saw through her disguise.

Unraveling the conflicting accounts recorded by Baret’s crewmates, Ridley played historical detective to piece together the real story: how Baret’s true identity was in fact widely suspected within just a couple of weeks of embarking, and the painful consequences of those suspicions; a newly discovered notebook, written in Baret’s own hand, that proves her scientific acumen; the thousands of specimens she collected, most famously the showy vine bougainvillea; and her awkward, sometimes dangerous interactions with the men on the ship, including the well-meaning commander who covered up the truth about Baret and downplayed her accomplishments.

Because Baret was a working-class woman, the French establishment found it easy to dismiss her scientific contributions. Not even a single plant that she discovered is named for her, and she was quietly written out of history—until now. Anchored in impeccable original research and endowed with indelible characters and exotic settings, THE DISCOVERY OF JEANNE BARET offers this forgotten heroine a chance to bloom at long last.

REVIEW

From the New York Journal of Books

"When you consider that the entire historical record for Jeanne Baret comprises little more than a birth certificate, a marriage certificate, a death certificate, and a handful of mentions in other people’s journals, Glynis Ridley’s achievement in producing an entire biography of the woman is quite something. Not just that, but Ridley’s skills as a researcher give us such a strong impression of the times Baret lived in, the people who surrounded and influenced her, and the geography through which she traveled, that, for most of the book, we hardly notice, or care."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Glynis Ridley is a professor of English at the University of Louisville and a British citizen. Her previous book, Clara’s Grand Tour: Travels with a Rhinoceros in Eighteenth-Century Europe, won the Institute of Historical Research (University of London) Prize.

Julia Taft - Humanitarian & Notable Women

2011-12-10T22:04:00.000+11:00

I received a review copy of Ann Blackman's "Off To Save The World: How Julia Taft Made a Difference" and am certainly glad that I had the opportunity to read and review this book.

From the promo:

In Off to Save the World Blackman paints a mosaic of a witty, determined and idealistic woman who not only ran some of the most dramatic relief efforts of her generation, but also influenced the debate at home as the international spotlight moved from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to the collapse of the Soviet Union to ethnic conflicts in Africa and the former Yugoslavia.

Taft, who married into a famous Republican family, dedicated herself to restoring honor and dignity to those far less fortunate than herself. Starting in 1975 when she was 32 years old, Taft directed the task force that managed the resettlement of refugees from the Vietnam War. Over the years, she basically invented the way the United States government responds to natural and man-made disasters around the world, and continued to direct many relief efforts.

For more than three decades, Julia Taft was one of the United States’ top humanitarian relief experts, friend and ally of the world’s most impoverished people. She was, simply put, a legend in her field.

I read this tome of barely 140 pages in a day - it was such an easy, free flowing work that was hard to put down - the more I read, the more I had to discover more about Julia. It is more in the style of anecdotal memoir not a full blown biography bogged down with facts and more facts. It is concise and each stage of Julia's amazing life is covered in enough detail to succinctly convey the author's point.

Julia was one of the first women to embark upon a career devoted to the care and welfare of others. Humanitarian work had not the priority nor the publicity it has today. Julia threw herself wholeheartedly into her work and brought the plight of those less fortunate to the forefront.

Highly recommended for all those interested in the accomplishments of this extraordinary woman.

Obituary from the New York Times

About the author:

In her long career as a news correspondent for TIME magazine and the Associated Press, Blackman covered American politics, social policy, the changing role of women, cultural trends and the powerful personalities that make up Washington society. While with TIME, Blackman spent three years in Moscow as a foreign correspondent. Her assignments at the AP included the Watergate hearings, presidential politics, the Iranian hostage crisis and the assassinations attempts on Governor George Wallace and President Ronald Reagan.

Her earlier books include Seasons of Her Life: A Biography of Madeleine Korbel Albright (Scribner/Simon & Schuster, 1998); The Spy Next Door(co-author) about the secret life of FBI turncoat Robert Hanssen (Little Brown, 2002), and Wild Rose, the story of Civil War spy Rose O’Neale Greenhow. (Random House, 2005).

Change For Japanese Royal Women

2011-11-27T14:15:00.000+11:00

From the Examiner:

The Japanese government is reportedly considering some significant changes to Imperial House Law. Specifically, they are looking at an ancient law which stipulates that if a woman in the royal family marries a commoner she is no longer an official member of the royal family.

Currently, there are only seven men out of a 23 member royal family, and five of those men are over the age of 60. The aging of the men, and the marrying of the women, present a major hurdle in keeping up with their public duties. The remaining men in the family just simply could not complete the number of engagements they currently do, without women to assist them. The anxiety around the issue has only increased with the recent hospitalization of the Emperor. Changes look likely to happen, and the most immediate effect will be to TIH Princesses Mako and Kako, both unmarried daughters of TIH Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko. Changes would also affect HIH Princess Aiko, 9 but obviously she is a ways from marrying age. Aiko remains the only child of TIH Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako and is not in line to inherit the throne due to the succession laws in Japan. There is currently not push to change the law since the birth of Prince Hisahito has slotted him as third in line behind his uncle and father.

Sheng Nu - China's Leftover Women

2011-11-27T14:10:00.000+11:00

From Care 2 dot com:

In China, the sexist term “leftover woman,” sheng nu, is widely used to describe an urban, professional female over the age of 27 who is still single. This derogatory term has been aggressively disseminated by the Chinese government, warning women that they will become spinsters if they do not marry by the time they turn 30. The irony of the media campaign is that China’s sex-ratio imbalance has resulted in a surplus of tens of millions of men who will not be able to find a bride.

In 2007, China’s Ministry of Education added the term “leftover woman” to its official lexicon, according to state media reports. In 2010, the All-China Women’s Federation and other government groups carried out a nationwide survey of more than 30,000 people in 31 provinces. Their findings on “leftover women” have been publicized repeatedly by China’s official media.

The article uses the heading “See What Category of ‘Leftover’ You Belong to.” The first category is leftover women aged 25 to 27 years, who are called “leftover fighters,” sheng dou shi, a play on the title of a popular martial arts film. It says these women “still have the courage to fight for a partner.”

The next category is 28- to 30-year-old women, or “the ones who must triumph,” bi sheng ke, a play on the Chinese name for Pizza Hut. It says these women have limited opportunities for romance because their careers leave them “no time for the hunt.”

The final category, 35 and older, is called the “master class of leftover women.” The term qi tian da sheng plays on the name of an ancient Chinese legend, the Monkey King. It says this category of woman “has a luxury apartment, private car and a company, so why did she become a leftover woman?”

Call The Midwife

2011-11-27T14:06:00.000+11:00

From the Guardian:

Bedpans, surgical gloves and cries of pain may not sound likely ingredients for the BBC's Sunday evening costume drama slot, but Call the Midwife is a series that aims to take the audience into new territory – childbirth 1950s-style.

Leading female talent drawn from several generations of British stars – including Vanessa Redgrave, Pam Ferris, Jenny Agutter and Miranda Hart – will come together in the new year to tell of the joys and hardships of a group of midwives working in London's East End in the 50s. The drama will be the first to put childbirth, and its place in social history, at the heart of a television serial.

On screen and off, it is a very female production. Screenwriter Heidi Thomas, who adapted the hit serial Cranford – a Sunday night triumph that the makers of Call the Midwife hope to emulate – says there are some in the television industry who have asked her whether she thinks men will watch the new drama. Her response is forthright. "They may well watch, but people don't ask whether enough women will watch Top Gear."

Other female members of the team on Call the Midwife include Eve Stewart, who earned an Oscar nomination for production design on The King's Speech and has now recreated East End street scenes for the new serial.

Beatrix Potter Versus Winston Churchill

2011-11-26T20:00:00.000+11:00

From the Telegraph:

Children's author Beatrix Potter has finally won a 100-year-long battle against a noisy sea plane - winning sweet revenge over her arch-nemesis Winston Churchill.

In 1911 she furiously penned a strongly worded letter against the testing of a Britain's first successful sea plane, called 'Waterbird', over and on her treasured Lake Windermere, in the Lake District, blasting: "Those who want noise go to Blackpool."

Despite her loud opposition the tests went ahead on 25th November 1911 after Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, ignored her pleas and pressed on with Edward Wakefield's unique aircraft.

But plans to celebrate the centenary of that maiden flight and landing this Friday using a different sea plane were sunk when air enthusiasts lost a council application to temporarily lift Windermere's 10mph speed limit - which was introduced in 2005 and inspired by Potter's years of conservation campaigning.

Angelina Jolie as Gertrude Bell

2011-11-21T22:04:00.000+11:00

From the Washington Times:

Angelina Jolie is set to play a British woman who helped map out the modern Middle East in the early 20th century, the Hollywood Reporter said Friday.

According to Agence France-Presse, the Oscar-winning actress is slated to play the title character in “Gertrude Bell,” who has been described as the female Lawrence of Arabia for her pioneering work in establishing the framework for what would become Jordan and Iraq.

The project is still in development by British director Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions, said THR, noting that Miss Jolie has a history of playing strong female characters.

Bell was passionate about archaeology and languages, spoke several languages including Arabic and Persian, and wrote about her extensive travels in a number of books, including “Persian Pictures,” and “Syria: The Desert and the Sown.”

During World War I, Bell, who won widespread admiration among Arabs, worked as a British spy and helped to dismantle the Ottoman Empire and to found Iraq.

The project’s screenplay is being written by Jeffrey Caine, who wrote the script for 2005’s “The Constant Gardner.”

Deare Sister - Letters of Historical Women

2011-11-21T20:43:00.000+11:00

Deare Sister - a work of fiction consisting of letters that might have been written by such historical women as Lady Godiva, Milton’s daughter, Rubens’ model, Mozart’s mother, Freud’s wife, Plato’s students, and others.

As Chris says: "In fact, I chose women who, for whatever reasons, probably didn’t write such a letter, or any letter, or anything at all for that matter. Or if they did, it hasn’t survived (at least, not in the easily accessible pre-internet mainstream). In this way then, I did not presume to speak for anyone who could and did speak for herself. These pieces are not so much what the characters really would’ve said but what I think they should’ve said."

About Chris:

~ author

~ poet

~ scholar

~ voice of female consciousness

Visit Chris' website: http://www.chriswind.net/

Bending The Boyne - Women & Prehistory

2011-11-21T20:30:00.000+11:00

Bending the Boyne - a novel of ancient Ireland by J.S. Dunn:

"2200 BCE: Changes rocking the Continent reach Eire with the dawning Bronze Age. Well before any Celts, marauders invade the island seeking copper and gold. The young astronomer Boann and the enigmatic Cian need all their wits and courage to save their people and their great Boyne mounds, when long bronze knives challenge the peaceful native starwatchers. Tensions on Eire between new and old cultures and between Boann, Elcmar, and her son Aengus, ultimately explode. What emerges from the rubble of battle are the legends of Ireland’s beginnings in a totally new light.

Larger than myth, this tale echoes with medieval texts, and cult heroes modern and ancient. By the final temporal twist, factual prehistory is bending into images of leprechauns who guard Eire’s gold for eternity. As ever, the victors will spin the myths."

Women, Sex & Prehistory - J.S. Dunn gives us the background to this exciting new novel:

"We’re going to focus on the Atlantic Bronze Age at four thousand years ago, around 2200 BCE.

One piece of the puzzle in constructing Bending The Boyne was, How did that early culture view women? Boann, the female protagonist, comes from the earliest myths where she appears briefly in a tangled story.

The written record for the Atlantic Bronze Age (the area from Iberian coasts up through the Isles) is limited. Teasing out any meaning from the transcribed oral history has its perils. It is the oldest mythology of western Europe. Irish/Welsh/Gaulish oral tales were written down much later by cold, hungry monks whose own sexuality probably had limited expression. The original tales are not short on sexual imagery and clearly got censored in places.

The monks also applied a layer of Greco-Roman sensibilities. Greco-Roman gods were immortals lolling in the clouds, divine beings who meddle in human affairs. In contrast, the beings in early Irish/Welsh/Gaulish myth are archetypes, they are real persons who struggle, sweat, eat and drink, fornicate, and die as mortals. The monks couldn’t resist tampering with that vivid “pagan” imagery to suit later beliefs.

“...they made the sun stand still to the end of nine months / strange the tale...” from the Dindshenchas text. Boann’s son Aengus is born at winter solstice and symbolizes the astronomy practiced at the mounds. One version says Elcmar fathered Aengus, another improbably says the Dagda fathered her son and hid that liason by stopping the sun for nine months. This may be the first bit of Who’s Your Daddy gossip about a celebrity, Boann. Confusion about Aengus’ birth leads to tragedy.

It may be that Boann’s original oral tale told of the solstice standstill but monks scrambled that, trying to write it down like Homeric tales of divine gods.

Not only is Boann portrayed as a hussy to whom notions of paternity mean little, another fragment says that she violates a cultural rule at the well of Wisdom. As a result, the well’s waters flood east to the ocean, forming the river Boyne---and killing Boann. That seems harsh and smacks of misogyny, but no more than Eve’s punishment in the Old Testament. It may be that monks inserted this moralistic outcome for Boann, or, that the original version said that Boann’s indiscretion led to her punishment.

Whose perspective of Boann and women at 2200 BCE does her tale reflect, the indigenous Boyne astronomy culture or that of armed newcomers, the warriors looking for gold? Burial practices changed at this time, implying that the Boyne society began to stratify. High status goods, copper and bronze daggers and gold jewelry, appear in some male burials but very seldom with female burials.

Yet Boann symbolizes the Milky Way, a celestial being of great importance. It seems unlikely her starwatching culture, pastoral farmers and herders, viewed her fertility as deserving of punishment. In Bending The Boyne, she is given prominence as an astronomer and is not drowned for acquiring wisdom!

In associating Boann with the Milky Way and Aengus with solstice, the myths emphasize the importance of astronomy to her Boyne culture. Before the Pyramids and Stonehenge, her people built impressive passage mounds, a calendar in their landscape for sun, moon, and stars. The great mounds may themselves express the natives’ veneration of fertility (the female mound) and the sun’s generative power (phallic) and a balance between the genders.

For more reading, see generally The Prehistory of Sex, Timothy Taylor (Bantam, 1996), and of course, Bending The Boyne.

Thanks to Melisende for the blog invite!"

Pictish Settlement Uncovered

2011-11-19T19:38:00.000+11:00

From Past Horizons:

Earlier this year Dr Gordon Noble, from the University of Aberdeen, and Dr Meggen Gondek, from the University of Chester, led the Rhynie Environs Archaeological Project (REAP) in an excavation at the site where carved stones have been found south of the village.

Between AD400-900 it is understood that the kingdoms of the Picts became some of the most powerful political groups in the north of Britain, but there is very little documented history and archaeological record about these people.

Student Robert Lang with spindle whorl from the possible building site near the Craw Stane. Image: University of Aberdeen.

The symbol stones that the Picts left behind are acknowledged to provide a record of their identity, beliefs and lifestyle, although the elaborate carvings on the Rhynie stones have not been translated. In fact, very little direct work has been carried out in relation to the Rhynie stones, until now.

The REAP team’s excavation near the symbol stones – discovered between the 19th century and the 1970s – is one of the first large scale digs at this kind of site.

Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill

2011-11-19T19:32:00.000+11:00

From The News:

The civil society has lauded the passage of the Prevention of Anti-Women Practices Bill by the National Assembly, hoping that it will help protect women’s rights once it sails through the Senate.

Hilda Syed, a senior member of the Women Action Forum, told The News that it was a wonderful piece of news, adding, however, that the task now was to pass the bill from the Senate as well.

“The domestic violence bill stayed in the Senate for three months after which it lapsed but we are adamant to pass it through. Similarly, as soon as the amendments are made to this bill, it should come into force so that its efficacy is not compromised,” she said.

Zohra Yusuf of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that the unanimous acceptance of the bill by the NA was a positive sign for sure as it made certain “evil practices” illegal. But given the history of such laws being interpreted wrongly or not implemented at all, awareness of the law enforcement authorities is also needed.

She said that the bill was focusing on the punishment aspect at the moment, and it should also take into account the problems women faced while reporting inheritance issues.

“Recently, Bangladesh announced equal property rights for women on International Women Day which did not go down well with the clerics (there). But at least it is a step in the right direction. We need to focus on that as well.”

The Woman Formerly Known As Margaret Tudor

2011-11-19T19:21:00.001+11:00

From The Guardian:

Owned by the Revd WH Wayne from at least 1886; sold by Wayne to A Smith of Albert Gate Art Galleries, from whom it was purchased by the National Portrait Gallery. Purchased 1898 (NPG 1173).

The National Portrait Gallery acquired this portrait as Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII and wife of James IV of Scotland. However, both the style and the lack of any securely identified portraits of Margaret Tudor make this identification unlikely. The painterly technique suggests a French or possibly Flemish origin. The woman's costume is also in the style of French court dress of the early 16th century. Her gold jewellery and the stylised pomegranate and leaf pattern, commonly reproduced on expensive silks of the period, hint at her noble status. Recent microscopic examination of her medallion has revealed a horseman hunting with a falcon. Falconry and courtly love were frequently linked in medieval literature, so it is possible that this woman is wearing a love token.

Women in Roman Mosaics

2011-11-08T21:52:00.004+11:00

From the Science Codex:

Numerous images of women appear in Roman mosaics. The majority are inspired in mythology – goddess, heroines and other protagonists of countless legends – although other flesh and blood women, probably dominae, their daughters, handmaidens and servants, are also documented. "The most significant aspect of these images is the different roles they reflect and their contribution to the construction of certain stereotypes, not just in the Roman world, but also throughout history and up to the present", points out Luz Neira, Associate Professor of Ancient History in the Department of Humanities: History, Geography and Art, and a researcher at UC3M's Institute of Culture and Technology.

Begum Nusrat Bhutto

2011-10-30T10:49:00.003+11:00

From The Nation:

Born Nusrat Ispahani, the young woman from an Iranian Pakistani family, who grew to love her adopted country, rests today in the soil of Sindh.
Begum Nusrat Bhutto’s political role does not start with Ziaul Haq, but it was during his rule that her determination was forged of an unbreakable iron. With her eldest daughter, Benazir, Begum Bhutto fought fearlessly to save her husband, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whose life was stolen by the most vicious military dictator in our nation’s history; a dictator, who denounced democracy, abrogated the Constitution, cynically toyed with religion, and denied the basic rights of the people.
Too strong to be easily intimidated, Begum Nusrat Bhutto was motivated by the depth of Zia's tyranny to put her heart and soul into the fight for the restoration of democracy, the Constitution and basic human rights. She stood steadfast against a usurper and dictator not out of any desire for personal gain, but out of an unwavering dedication to her principles. Many were intimidated by General Ziaul Haq and quickly acquiesced to his rule; but for Begum Nusrat Bhutto there was never a moment of doubt. The fundamental rights of the Pakistani people could not be sacrificed at the altar of dictatorship.
Dubbed the “Iron Lady of Pakistan,” Begum Bhutto was the backbone of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) - a coalition comprising PPP and other democratic political parties determined to restore the democratic order on which Pakistan was founded.

Women in Tunisia

2011-10-30T10:47:00.000+11:00

From the Financial Times:

Suad Abd al-Rahim, a tall, elegant, 47-year-old Tunisian woman with dyed red curls, is no one’s idea of what an Islamist politician should look like.

Yet the businesswoman, who says she has no plans to don the Islamic headscarf, has just been elected to Tunisia’s new constituent assembly on the ticket of Nahda, the Islamist party that has emerged as the strongest political force in the country.

After 22 years of repression under the regime of Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali, the former president ousted by a popular uprising this year, Nahda has staged a powerful comeback, winning 90 out of 217 seats according to final results of this week’s election.

Now the largest party in the new assembly that will write the country’s democratic constitution, it is poised to lead a coalition government.

Wallis Simpson - That Woman

2011-10-30T10:40:00.002+11:00

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

ALMOST everyone knows the story of King Edward VIII's abdication to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson but few have read the mountain of books about the saga. That Woman, the first biography by a woman of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, is for them.

Anne Sebba's intention "to humanise not demonise" the woman works, no doubt to the chagrin of those who still detest her.

It works because of the material discovered in the King's Proctor's files at the National Archives in London but most of all because, as a woman, Sebba could get into Wallis's mind the way male authors could not. So hats off to Sebba for turning a complex slice of history into a gripping yarn.

Stephanie Dray - Song of the Nile

2011-10-19T19:41:00.000+11:00

Sorceress. Seductress. Schemer. Cleopatra’s daughter has become the emperor’s most unlikely apprentice and the one woman who can destroy his empire…

Having survived her perilous childhood as a royal captive of Rome, Selene pledged her loyalty to Augustus and swore she would become his very own Cleopatra. Now the young queen faces an uncertain destiny in a foreign land. Forced to marry a man of the emperor’s choosing, Selene will not allow her new husband to rule in her name. She quickly establishes herself as a capable leader in her own right and as a religious icon. Beginning the hard work of building a new nation, she wins the love of her new subjects and makes herself vital to Rome by bringing forth bountiful harvests. But it’s the magic of Isis flowing through her veins that makes her indispensable to the emperor. Against a backdrop of imperial politics and religious persecution, Cleopatra’s daughter beguiles her way to the very precipice of power. She has never forgotten her birthright, but will the price of her mother’s throne be more than she’s willing to pay?

Visit Melisende's Library for an excerpt from Stephanie's book.

Rogues Gallery of Restoration Actresses

2011-10-15T14:45:00.000+11:00

From the Guardian:

The emergence of the actress on the Restoration stage was revolutionary. As every pupil of Shakespeare knows, it was men in drag who took the ladies' parts before. Imagine the frisson, then, when Nell Gwyn first showed herself aged 14 to a packed house at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, in 1664. This unprecedented female exhibition provoked salacious frenzy, which theatre companies hoped to harness to their profit.

The showcasing of beauties in "breeches roles" exploded ideas of decorum. Actresses welcomed the chance to demonstrate the virtuosity demanded by parts such as Viola and Rosalind. But the display of their shapely legs was condemned as an exercise in "brazenness" which confirmed the shameless immodesty and sexual availability of the actress. That both theatre-land and prostitution had their metropolis in Covent Garden was not lost on the press. From the first, the "actress" of popular imagination was a shimmering mixture of whore, coquette, talent and celebrity.

A new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons, investigates the concept of the "actress" in all its troubling contradictions. The artists include Reynolds, Gainsborough, Hoppner, Lawrence, Zoffany and Gillray.

The exhibition is the brainchild of Gill Perry. When she was writing her book Spectacular Flirtations: Viewing the Actress in Eighteenth Century Art and Culture, she realised that the NPG had an exceptional collection of early actress portraits – "And not only that they are in Covent Garden," she says.

When modern critics rate a female performance on whether it's theatrical Viagra or doubt that a woman is thin enough to play Juliet, they invoke a long and dishonourable tradition. "Modern actors should see the first actresses as trailblazers, fighting prejudice and innuendo," Perry concludes. Certainly women today might take comfort that so many of their forebears managed to seize the public relations initiative and shape the culture that so objectified them.