Nexhmije Hoxha, ‘Lady Macbeth’ of Albania, Dies at 99

From The New York Times: 

A political partner with her Communist dictator husband, they isolated their small Balkan nation, executed dissidents and drove the economy to collapse.

Nexhmije Hoxha, who joined with her husband, Enver Hoxha, the Communist dictator of Albania, in overseeing an oppressive regime that isolated the country after World War II, executed dissenters and drove the economy into the ground, died on Feb. 26 at her home near the capital, Tirana. She was 99.

Her death was announced by her son Ilir Hoxha and confirmed by Agence France-Presse and other news outlets.

The Hoxha regime, which lasted from 1945 to 1991, did not tolerate dissent. More than 6,000 of its opponents were executed, the remains of more than 5,000 of them dumped in secret mass graves, according to the International Commission on Missing Persons and Albania’s Institute of Integration of Ex-Politically Persecuted, which began exhuming and identifying bodies in 2019.

These are the 11 Indian women scientists the new STEM chairs are named after

From The Print: 

The names of 11 Indian women scientists have come into prominence after the Narendra Modi government decided to establish chairs in their name in institutes across the country. Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani made the announcement last week to “not only honour & recognize Indian women scientists’ contribution to the field of Science but also inspire women & encourage greater participation of young girls in STEM.”

Unsung Women – The Forward

Unsung Women – The Forward

For Women’s History Month, the Forward presents “Unsung Women,” a special project showcasing Jewish women — from biblical times to our modern moment — whose stories have rarely been told.

Remains of Anglo-Saxon Princess Discovered In Kent

From The Independent: 

An Anglo-Saxon princess who was one of England’s earliest Christian saints has been identified by scientists in a church in Kent. Some historical evidence suggests that she may be the present Queen’s earliest known relative whose remains have so far been identified.

Dating from the mid-seventh century AD, the princess was the daughter of King Eadbald (literally “the prosperous one”), the ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent, who was that micro-country’s monarch from 616 (or 618) to 640. Eanswythe, the daughter of King Eadbald, is believed to have founded England’s first nunnery before her life was cut short, likely as a result of bubonic plague.

read more here @ The Independent and The Telegraph

Maude Collins: Ohio's First Female Sheriff

By Jess Montgomery for CrimeReads: 

In my Kinship Historical Mystery Series, protagonist Lily Ross is inspired by Maude Collins, Ohio’s first true female sheriff in 1925.

In real life, Maude’s husband Vinton County (Ohio) Sheriff Fletcher Collins was killed in the line of duty in October 1925. But there was no mystery as to who killed him. Internet stories vary, but per a newspaper account of the day, Fletcher had ventured out with a warrant for Amy Robinette, on a charge of stealing automobile tires, and another for George Steele for speeding. He found the two together alongside the road. Sadly, George pulled out a 12-gauge shotgun and shot Fletcher at close range. The couple ran but turned themselves in an hour later. There were also several witnesses to the murder, and Maude had to serve as witness in the trial that she had knowledge of the warrants. (The couple took them before running.)

After the funeral, Maude was packing up her five children to return home to West Virginia. (Interesting side note: she was a direct descendant of the McCoy clan—as in the Hatfield and McCoy feud of fame.) But a county commissioner came by, asked her where she was going, and invited her to serve out her husband’s term. She did, and in 1926 ran for sheriff in her own right. She ran on the Democratic ticket, beating men in both the primary and general elections, and won… in a landslide.

read more @ CrimeReads

Victoria Woodhull: First Woman Presidential Candidate

From National Review:

She was the first woman to run for president, the first to address a congressional committee, and the first to own a brokerage on Wall Street. She was also a con artist, a gold digger, and a scandal magnet. When she ran for president in 1872, she sat out Election Day in a Manhattan jail, arrested on charges of obscenity. Victoria Woodhull was unquestionably a pioneer in women’s rights, yet her legacy is so messy and complicated that she remains an outlier in feminist history.

read more here @ National Review

Female Administrators in Ancient Iran

Article - Colby College: 

Marta Ameri, assistant professor of art, has published an article titled “Who Holds the Keys? Identifying Female administrators at Shahr-i Sokhta” in Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies. The article compares the physical and iconographic aspects of seals found in the cemetery of the third millennium BCE Iranian site of Shahr-i Sokhta with those of seals used for administrative sealing to identify different groups of people responsible for controlling goods and resources. 

Ameri uses the observed similarity between seals used for sealing and those found buried in women’s graves to suggest that women were responsible for most of the administrative sealing at Shahr-i Sokhta in the mid-third millennium BC, and to call into question the often-unchallenged assumption that men were by default responsible for administration in ancient societies.

Blog Post: Girls Can Do Anything

From The Asia Foundation: 

Michelle Obama came to December's Grassroots Leaders Roundtable in Vietnam to deliver an urgent message: some of the world’s best minds are going undeveloped because of our failure to educate girls.

The GOA is a program of the Obama Foundation that empowers adolescent girls around the world through education, especially poor girls from disadvantaged communities, allowing them to achieve their full potential and transform their lives, families, and communities. Ms. Obama was accompanied to Vietnam by actors Julia Roberts, Lana Condor, and Ngo Thanh Van and Today Show cohost Jenna Bush Hager.

There is no single or simple approach to this mission, but roundtable participants all agreed that education is the key for these girls, and that they need holistic support, including tuition, soft-skills development, and leadership training, so they can rise to their full potential. We shared our successes and challenges, as well as the stories of girls in our programs who have achieved things far beyond our hopes. We talked about collaborating to maximize our resources, support one another, and inspire more action for girls’ education, and we discussed the progress that has been made and the many people who are working in their own way to support girls and young women who have been left behind due to circumstances beyond their control.

read more here @ The Asia Foundation

Legends of a Medieval Female Pope May Tell the Truth

From Live Science: 

Medieval legends claim that Pope Joan was the first and only female pope. And now, an analysis of ancient silver coins suggests that the ordained woman may have actually lived.

However, there is much debate over whether a pope named Johannes Anglicus existed, much less whether this pope was a man or woman. The doubt stems in part from the great deal of confusion over the identities of popes during the middle of the ninth century. For example, in the oldest surviving copy of the "Liber Pontificalis," the official book of biographies of popes during the early Middle Ages, "Pope Benedict III is missing entirely,"study author Michael Habicht, an archaeologist at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, told Live Science.

Now, Habicht has suggested that symbols on medieval coins show that Pope Johannes Anglicus may have existed, and so, Pope Joan may have been real as well. "The coins really turned the tables in favor of a covered-up but true story," Habicht said.

read more here @ Live Science