Matronalia Festival

From Patheos:

Juno Capitolium was another goddess called upon by new brides and wives, for She is a goddess who protects the sanctity of marriage vows and marital relations.  A story grew up that Juno, already angry over her husband’s affairs, became even more infuriated when She learned that Jupiter had given birth to a daughter. To relieve Jupiter’s headache, Vulcan split open His head with a mallet and out arose wise Minerva. Grey-eyed Minerva was addressed as “most chaste goddess” because Her conception and birth had not resulted from sexual intercourse. Juno was so angered by this that She decided that She, too, would bear a child on Her own, without any help from Jupiter. She enlisted the help of Flora, Goddess of Flowers, who provided Juno with a sacred lily that held pollen-laced dew. This was the semen that Flora poured from the lily into Juno’s ear. This immaculate conception of Juno is celebrated on 2 May as another sort of Matronalia comparable to modern Mother’s Day. Then, on the first day of the New Year, the first day of March, Juno gave birth to Mars. 

The Bones of Arsinoe IV

From UPI:

Circumstantial evidence has led Austrian researcher Hilke Thur to conclude the bones of a young woman discovered in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus belonged to Cleopatra's younger sister, Arsinoe IV, who was the queen had murdered.

Archaeologists began to excavate the Octagon site in Ephesus in 1904, and discovered the burial chamber containing the bones of a young woman in 1926.

The skull disappeared during World War II, but Thur uncovered the rest of the bones in 1985.  Some findings have cast doubt on the conclusion that the bones may be of the murdered princess.

Additionally, testing shows the bones are of a woman who died before she turned 20, a surprisingly young age considering the important role she supposedly played--a challenge to Cleopatra's rule that eventually led to Arsinoe's murder.

Cleopatra had connected with Julius Caesar in Alexandria in 48 B.C. in an attempt to tamp down rivalries for her throne. Arsinoe raised an Egyptian rebellion against her sister, fought off by reinforcements sent in by Rome.

Arsinoe was captured and taken to Rome, where Caesar granted her life in exile in Ephesus.

After Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., Cleopatra took up with Antony and had her sister murdered.  Although Thur says her team is somewhat stuck to find more conclusive evidence, she is hopeful new tests will soon be able to prove the bones' identity.

See also: Bones Wars - from HLN

Suffrage March of 1913

From the Smithsonian:

In the spring of 1913, women in six states had the right to vote in all elections: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington and California. Despite these successes, though, the momentum of the 65-year-old suffrage movement was slowing. It was like a car running on fumes.

Alice Paul decided to give it some gas. Having recently returned to the States from England, where she cut her teeth as a suffragist, the 28-year-old New Jersey native pitched an idea to the National American Woman Suffrage Association. She would organize a suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., strategically timed with the influx of crowds arriving for President Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration, to drum up support for the cause. NAWSA appointed Paul the chair of its Congressional committee and approved her plan, but made it clear that she would have to come up with the money for the parade on her own. 

Links:

Womens' Suffrage Parade of 4th March 1913

Womens' Suffrage March - wikipedia

Update: Amber Toppah

I would like to add an update to my September blog on Amber Toppah.  The image used was not correct.  As such I have updated the post with the correct image (to the right ->>).  

My humble apologies to Amber who altered me to the error.

Please revisit: First Female Kiowa Leader again.

Mary Leakey - Matriarch & Archaeologist

From the Christian Science Monitor:

She was a talented artist, specializing in early Stone Age, able to flawlessly draw early tools and artifacts. He had a passion for fossils since he found arrowheads and tools as a child. Together, Mary and Louise Leakey would change the scientific world and leave a lasting family legacy.

It was 1936 when they married, unknowingly creating the family that would go on to dominate paleoanthropology. They had three sons, one of which inherited the family business. Since then, at least one member of each generation of Leakey children has been involved in major paleoanthropological finds.

See also: Leakey: A Century of the Leakey Family in East Africa

Repeal of French Trouser Law

Further to my blog post from May 2012 - France: Paris' Trouser Law - comes this update from BBC News:

The French government has overturned a 200-year-old ban on women wearing trousers.

The Minister of Women's Rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, said that the ban was incompatible with modern French values and laws.

She said the law, imposed on November 17, 1800, had in effect already been rescinded because of incompatibility.

The move to formally repeal the law followed a parliamentary question asked last year.

According to the law, women needed to have the permission of local police if they wanted to "dress like a man" and wear trousers.

Though it has been ignored for decades, formally it remained on the statute books.

Ms Vallaud-Belkacem said the original law had been intended to prevent women doing certain jobs.

Mayte Almeida - The Story Continues

Further to my blog post on Mayte Almeida in May 2009, comes this update.

Having retired from the ariplane business, Mayte has diversified her talents into painting, photography and chainsaw carving.

I have attached some images from this talented female artist.

You can see more via Google+ .

    

Lionesses of Syria

From Mail Online:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has recruited an army of women to guard checkpoints and carry out security checks in an attempt to plug the holes left by defections and casualties in his dwindling army.

Up to 500 women have been drafted into the new paramilitary force known as the 'Lionesses for National Defence.' 

They have been in trained at a boot camp in Wadi al-Dahab in the Syrian city of Homs.

They form part of the recently formed 10,000-strong National Defence Force (NDF), a key part of Assad's counter insurgency strategy, as the president desperately tries to regain control of the country's towns and cities.

Decked out in army fatigues and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, the women have also been seen guarding areas of Homs where the majority of locals are known to support the government's regime.

Bald Barbie

From Good:

Barbie has proven a controversial figure since her shapely beginnings in 1959, but as time and different civil rights movements have marched forward, Barbie’s image has morphed to include various races and cultures. Now, she’s going bald for a good cause.

Mattel, the makers of Barbie, announced last month that a hairless "friend of Barbie" will "be distributed exclusively to children’s hospitals and other hospitals treating children with cancer throughout the U.S. and Canada, directly reaching girls who are most affected by hair loss." The decision came after a facebook group called "Beautiful and Bald Barbie! Let’s see if we can get it made" scored thousands of "likes" within hours of its creation.