It’s a story we’ve all been told: Small, quiet Rosa Parks refused to follow an Alabama bus driver’s order to give up her seat to a white passenger. Her subsequent arrest sparked the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott and cemented her position in American history textbooks as “the first lady of civil rights.” But the act of nonviolent […]
Pauline Friedman Phillips, author of the beloved “Dear Abby” advice column, passed away on Wednesday. She was 94 years old. Pauline began dispensing what would become her classic no-nonsense-yet-caring advice under her pen name Abigail Van Buren in 1956, the year she got a job as a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Before long […]
Martha Nelson, who worked as an editor for Ms. magazine in the 1980s, has been named editor-in-chief of Time Inc. The company publishes 21 U.S. magazines, including TIME, PEOPLE, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, FORTUNE and InStyle. She’s worked for the company for 20 years, most recently as editorial director. Most significantly, Nelson will be the first woman […]
In the late 1970s, Sally Ride spotted a newspaper ad from NASA calling for applicants to its space program. She immediately knew that, as a young, intelligent woman about to receive her Ph.D in physics at Stanford University, this ad was for her. “I’m one of those people,” she thought. People. Not men, which all […]
Another obituary We were filled with the strong wine of mutual struggle, one joined loud and sonorous voice. We carried each other along revolting, chanting, cursing, crafting, making all new. First Muriel, then Audre and Flo, now Adrienne. I feel like a lone pine remnant of virgin forest when my peers have met […]
Marie Skłodowska-Curie, two-time Nobel Laureate, challenged scientific theories and generally accepted beliefs about women’s abilities, blazing a trail for generations of women scientists and professionals to come. But for women in science today, there is still much more trail that needs blazing. One hundred years ago, on December 10, 1911, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences […]
I spend a lot of time on this blog pointing out the totally outrageous attempts of the anti-choice movement to take away women’s constitutionally guaranteed right to make their own medical decisions in private. As part of that, I admit that I often deliberately try to rile y’all up, because sometimes you’ve gotta get mad […]
Fearless human rights and anti-poverty crusader. Visionary environmental leader. Global women’s rights activist. Advocate for democracy. More than one phrase is required to begin to sum up the contributions the late Dr. Wangari Maathai made to the global community through her tireless work for a more just and sustainable world. Born in Nyeri, Kenya in […]
Christina Santiago, a lauded leader in Chicago’s lesbian community, was one of seven people tragically killed after a stage collapsed on August 13 at a concert at the Indiana State Fair. She was only 29 years old. Santiago’s fiancée, Alisha Brennon, was severely injured in the accident (along with more than 40 others). The two […]
Dr. Bernadine Healy, the first woman to head the National Institutes of Health, passed away due to brain cancer on August 6th at age 67. Healy broke medical ground by creating the Women’s Health Initiative, then the largest government clinical trial of women’s health ever in the U.S. She later served as the president of […]
