femme renaissance

liberté, egalité, sororité Women's liberationist. Even though women/womanhood are the focus, this is a safe space for all respectful sisters and brothers, cis or trans*, radfems or libfems, etc.

[lookatthisfuckingoppressor-blog]

[femmerenaissance-blog]

 are you doing this via mobile app?

No, sadly, I'm just having difficulty more generally.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_1800–99 please note that canada was a part of the british empire at the time.

I understand that Canada was a British colony, but it did have its own demographic history and local administration. I would not lump in India with the UK for this time period either. The (Western) European wars in the middle of the 19th century, compared to the Napoleonic wars before them and World Wars thereafter were not as severe. There is no reason to attribute a population disruption on par with the American Civil War to Canadian and UK men at the time.

you do realize that this is a life expectancy graph with respect to health and gender, not a mortality graph? it doesn’t measure death but average expectancy of number years to live?

Yes. And over time it shows that young men who made it past childhood (a dangerous time because of disease alone) experienced a relative drop in life expectancy during the period of the Civil War - many of them were cut down in the prime of their lives.

all of scandinavia. and uh… yes… they lack phonics… for the same reason… no clue about Korea though. North or south?

South, naturally. I wouldn't trust any assessments of student performance coming from NK. Denmark's system, as I understand it, produces a smaller gap - perhaps for an unaccounted for difference. 

as pointed out, the dropout rates and related GPA rate is being controlled by those policies. if those policies weren’t in place, do you believe dropout and GPA rates would be seen as stable.

Re: GPA rates - the gender gap is undeniable but does not seem like a deviation from the historical norm since compulsory, comprehensive education began. It has even narrowed over the past 40 years. Dropout rates are harder to gage because of how drastically they've changed. The gap between the dropout rates of white girls and white boys (which means minus any complicating factors of race) is much smaller than those between white boys and black boys, white girls and black girls, etc. Though you might disagree, this suggests to me that the crisis is with boys of color. 

 'are' versus 'this signifies rapid reversal is A MASSIVE CONCERN WITH HUGE ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS'.

As I have indicated I believe that changes in economic circumstances (along with the opening of higher ed/professions to girls) are causing this to be a major issue right now, not so much vice versa, because of the relative stasis of boys' GPAs/school performance relative to girls', a small dropout gap for boys who are not affected by institutional racism (combined with a 100 year history of a greater rate of dropping out), and the persistence of young men's college enrollment per capita over the past 40 years. We may disagree whether this is compelling evidence, but these are my reasons for believing the collapse of private sector unions, industry, etc. is the bigger factor here.

I mean. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130225153029.htm is supposed to be great news.

I don't see why narrowing gaps is bad news. If girls are performing better in the sciences (where they have previously struggled), this is good. If boys perform better in literacy, this is also good. Provided, that is, that overall scores are improving rather than dropping: this is something the article doesn't address. Ideally, any solution to a gender gap in a coed context should have a neutral or positive effect on the score of each gender.

"Several reasons have been cited for this crossover, including gender differences in academic achievement (girls do better in high school than boys), changes in societal values, and a shift in women’s expectations for future employment.2 Some researchers have focused on these trends as a positive development for young women, who still lag behind men in labor force participation rates and earnings.3 Others view these trends as evidence of the growing social, behavioral, and economic problems facing young men, particularly those in lower-income groups.4 Some colleges are now actively recruiting male students in order to bring men’s enrollment rates in line with those of women.5”

Which is a good thing - we ought to strive for a roughly equal gender ratio in colleges. This is a complex issue caused by both increasing socioeconomic inequalities, material changes in the job market that have removed traditional sources of young men's career opportunities, and the increased ability of girls' secondary school performance to translate into opportunities in higher ed/professional careers. These changes have and will continue to have major repercussions in terms of young men's perception of their social identity and personal worth. 

changes to pedagogy effecting literacy rates, female teacher bias, mass pilling, hopelessness versus… Blue collar expectations?

I've discussed this, but am quoting so it remains seen.

 …consider it historical analysis if that makes it easier to process.

I understand its definition, but not whether and to what extent I agree that it is an apt analysis. We will have to discuss this some time. 

no I mean all the dead drafted men in Vietnam created a vacuum that women filled.

I would be interested to see a demographic analysis (esp taking into account socioeconomic statuses of the men who made up the armed forces because they couldn't be exempted, etc.). About 60,000 men died in Vietnam - let me know if you find anything about the significance of this in terms of broader employment. 

okay. given that female teachers have been the norm for hundreds of years, currently make up 97% of K-6 teachers, they’re baised against boys(and boys know it[this includes ranking them as less engaged than they are]), employ biased teaching methods, may or may not support the myth that girls need education to earn comparable wages to blue collar men (motherhood) tie this back into NOW and WEAVE and the destruction of blue collar work by feminists (from our last meeting of the minds.).

I don't recall agreeing that feminists destroyed blue collar work. Only that NOW's position (which, fortunately, does not seem to have ruined men's recovery - http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/womens-unemployment-surpasses-mens/?_r=0) was classist and that the mainstream feminist movement has not focused as extensively as it should on working class issues. 

what do you actually think is going on with stagnate gaps? why aren’t boys keeping pace with girls? why are boys less literate? what solutions do you believe feminism offers?

It's not clear why boys aren't keeping pace with girls in terms of discipline/language or why this seems to be so common globally. Neither is it clear why girls continue to underperform in spacial and mathematics tests. I don't think anyone has "the answer" to these discrepancies.

I do think that these gaps can be (in part) remedied with a greater number of male teachers, and pedagogical work done to examine how boys can best served without decreasing the general quality of girls' education. But since the brunt of the crisis is borne by boys of color, I also believe broader socioeconomic and structural changes are essential in order to create the kind of environment in which an underprivileged young man can succeed (without his life and livelihood being threatened by the prison industrial complex, the school to prison pipeline, etc). For example, if we continue to outsource blue collar work, no amount of vocational training in secondary school is going to help them succeed in the job market without a degree. Of course, opening the door to fields like nursing, teaching, clerical work, secretarial work (pink collar) for boys may allow them to transition into a post-industrial economy with greater ease. However, because the public sector has also taken such a massive hit (as the last link shows), this is not enough. So it's a more complicated problem that may directly involve feminism at some junctures, but not as directly at others. I don't have any comprehensive plan because I don't think there is one solution.

[lookatthisfuckingoppressor-blog]

[femmerenaissance-blog]

sosungalittleclodofclay:

Quoting nests are a pain on Tumblr, but here goes.

trick for getting around the issue.

Not really. It was an honest mistake that left out less than a percentage point from the actual number. 

leave it in.

Okay. Anyone following the conversation can see it.

theorticlly then, neither has white supremacy had anything to do with a GPA gap between white students and black students.

I'm sure racism/classism has had a significant effect on these scores. But blacks and Latinos have always been underrepresented in higher education/the professions/union-protected trades/top earning jobs in the US. If those lower scores had never historically kept them from succeeding in education/business/professions relative to whites, then my conclusion about why they lag behind today would be different. But it is hard to even imagine a world in which that was the case.

ah, so the historical fact that whole word was chosen by a feminist over phonics because it was the one pedagogy that girls out preformed boys in… despite the fact that girls on phonics out preformed girls on whole word… is nothing to be concerned over? really. okay, in that case it a simple matter to teach boys phonics and chuck the rest.

I think we can bridge this historical gender gap in literacy (since the late 19th century), but the reason it is hurting American boys now more than ever is probably not due to this change in pedagogy, given that they lag in reading/writing scores all over the world. For this reason, the argument that a change to phonics would go so far to solve the issue of boys' loss of competitiveness in higher education/employment is not a convincing one. We need to be looking at the bigger picture, because that has changed much more significantly than teaching, the primary/secondary school GPA gap, the drop-out gap (and boys are graduating in greater numbers than ever), etc. over the period of time in which this crisis has emerged. 

The female domination of early education started during and then after the civil war, before then it was a male dominated profession. But all the men went off an died.

If you noticed my notes, I talked about how the mid 19th century educational program, which was coed and brought in a greater number of children than ever before, resulted in girls' relative academic success. This is why I used the term "frequently" rather than always with regards to women dominating the history of public teaching. Before the federal push for comprehensive, public education in the mid 19th century, the period in which women came to dominate teaching, school attendance was spotty at best, especially in rural areas. I'm not sure about how and in what ways the Civil War impacted the US demographically. Young male life expectancy certainly did dip during that period,(1) but this is a theory behind female participation in early teaching that I had not heard. It doesn't really help me understand why there was also a feminization of teaching elsewhere, such as in Canada and the UK, at roughly the same time.

At any rate, the (male) class of 1880, regardless of its performance, simply did not have to worry about women outdoing them in terms of career opportunities and wages after graduation. Women's rate of wage employment was in fact lower at the turn of the 20th century than it had been during the mid 19th century. This is not to say that the gap is not important, but it has been with us roughly since the large-scale expansion and consolidation of public education in the US: simply returning to a slightly earlier pedagogy is probably not going to close it. We may want to look at how certain countries produce smaller gaps in literacy scores now (Denmark, Korea, etc.). 

Feminist research into sexual violence excludes female predators to enforce this notion? or do you imagine that feminism is of no influence?

It has had an influence and can/should do better. Feminism brought the issues of child abuse into a public light, often as the result of feminists' own personal experiences. The idea was to force predominantly male journalists, legislators, judges, policemen, etc. to respond to these issues instead of ignoring or trivializing them. Although women are still not as well represented (it's better in the press and judiciary than elsewhere, though) in these positions, feminists need to be involved in child/sexual assault victim advocacy more broadly at this point, as not enough is being done to protect either sex from abusers. 

As to the stability of GPA and dropouts: high-school-drop-outs/push-outs. It appears that the financial incentive to have high graduation and test scores have resulted in some interesting practices, like pushing student that are going to drop/fail out into GED programs.

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012025.pdf that table 1, where it says it’s mostly males in a GED program? yeah… and needless to point out, the enrollment gap in secondary education has always increased since 1972.

Yes, dropouts have dropped dramatically across the board because of these policies, which are dubious and counterproductive. But high school males also no further than high school females in terms of GPA than they were 40 years ago and are not actually dropping out at a greater rate than in the past (as sometimes is assumed). Is it fair to infer that they are doing worse now at those levels than they were then? Again, it is not that boys are performing as well as girls in primary/secondary school, but that this gender performance gap has been around for well over 100 years. 

College enrollment per capita for men has remained roughly the same for 45 years. But women have entered college in increasing numbers since their movement into the professions/higher education. This is significant to putting the decline of male  competitive advantage in perspective.

you removed the quote that gave my words context. please stop doing that.

I'm sorry, I am having trouble with the nested quotes and am doing my best. I hope anyone who is following this conversation takes the time to look at all the posts.

well you see crisis is a problem you can’t ignore. and we’ve been ignoring the problems of men and boys for a good long while, disposable as they are.

I do not advocate ignoring boys, but acknowledging what has happened to them (or happened around them) over the past few decades and why it is important. 

”Stephen Gilbert, chief executive of the Printers’ Charitable Corporation, points out that girls’ improvement increased dramatically at the end of the First World War. “If you look back at that period, education for women was considered a waste of time,” he said. “But because of the carnage in the trenches, there was a huge shortage in terms of the numbers of men. Educated women became valued in the marketplace.” you think maybe war and expectations of disposability has something to do with male underachievement and female over achievement. kinda why the whole kerfluffle over this issue started in the US after the vietnam war.

Well, to be honest, I don't know precisely what I think about "male disposability" at this point, especially in the 20th century, but I have been mulling it over. Unfortunately, the conversation about the relative worth of male and female roles in society and all the evo psych/anthropological/historical stuff (suttee vs. "women and children first", etc.) that comes along with it will probably have to wait for another conversation. (Let alone its impact on "men" across time periods, race/classes, and cultures). 

But, by "kerfluffle", do you mean second wave feminism coming from the New Left (which was a reaction to Vietnam in many ways) or women's participation in higher ed/professional work? 

I don't follow. Has there been a significant 

[lookatthisfuckingoppressor-blog]

Despite the alleged feminazification of our school system over the past 40 years, the male dropout rate has inexplicably gone from 27.8% in 1960 to 8.5% as of 2008 – it’s as low as 4.8% for white males

[sosungalittleclodofclay-deactiv]

for white people according to the table you’ve misquoted....

Boys: white at 5.4%, black at 8.7%(and rising) and hispanic 19.9%. Girls: white at 4.2%, black girls at 11.1%(and rising) and hispanic 16.7% as of 2008

[femmerenaissance-blog]

My mistake. It was unintentional. White boys are behind white girls by 1.2%.

trick for getting around the issue. that makes a second mistake.

That was not a mistake. It speaks directly to the actual narrowing of girls' and boys' performance gap over the past 40 years. The fact is, feminism has not affected the GPA gap negatively.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/boys-do-better-than-girls-when-taught-under-traditional-reading-methods-7184547.html

hmmmmm. missed… http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/Reading_Wars.html hmmm….. I wonder if they missed the whole ‘boys are illiterate because feminism decided whole word pedagogy is better based on the fact that girls do better than boys in it.’

And there are problems getting boys to read/write well under many educational systems in both the "First" and "Third" worlds (we discussed those transnational studies cited in Michael Sullivan's Connecting Boys With Books 2: Closing the Reading Gap, Volume 2 last time we went back-and-forth). We should be trying to improve their scores and change teaching methods as we observe fluctuations in those scores. However, the truth is that gaps in these scores did not matter nearly as much to boys in the US when a.) well-paid, unionized, blue collar work was readily available to them and b.) when they did not have to compete as much with female peers at university and in the job market. Sullivan has an excellent quote:

huh. somehow pedagogy wasn’t factored into this feminist’s examinations. or the female teacher bias against male students http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/02/16/female-teachers-give-male_n_1281236.html

and the utter lack of male teachers http://abcnews.go.com/Health/men-teach-elementary-school/story?id=18784172

 As I've said, I am in favor of having more women with English degrees teaching at the university level, and more men with English degrees teaching at the primary/secondary school level. Even if, as your article notes, "male teachers tend to reward male students more than female students." But I do not think that this has to do with the decline of boys' competitiveness, as women have frequently dominated early education in its history (even when they couldn't vote).

 (which has nothing to do with the ‘only men are rapists and pedos’ that feminists keep throwing up. totally.)

They aren't, and I don't think feminists are more likely to argue that case than any average member of the US population. Half the male news commentators on a given week's Mary Kay Letourno (sp?) story throw around this idea that women cannot rape/predate children (or express astonishment that they can, at the very least). 

http://www.parentingscience.com/ADHD-in-children.html http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2010/nearly-1-million-children-potentially-misdiagnosed-with-adhd/ http://www.ibtimes.com/adhd-diagnosis-rates-rise-11-us-children-attention-deficit-disorder-being-misdiagnosed-1163867 the mass pilling of boys. by female teachers. that give them bad grades. *cough*

I agree that this is a problem. However, as the gender gap in GPA and dropout rates have been stable over the past 50 years, and male college enrollment per capita has been pretty consistent during that period of time as well, I doubt it is the Ritalin prescriptions that have caused the crisis that boys/young men face.

Fathers. huh. Isn’t working class riddled with single moms? but it’s fathers that are socializing the boys according to this sociologist. hm.

It's pretty well documented that single mothers' children are economically vulnerable and lack free/bonding time and resources that two-parent households often have. 

yeah………… researcher finds boys not preforming well, studies. misses female teacher bias, pedagogy, lack of male teachers, boys being misdiagnosed and drugged.

So, given the long history of female overrepresentation in early teaching, the recentness of the Ritalin/ADD phenomenon, and the fact that the literacy gap remains in countries with different educational pedagogies, how is it that this crisis is emerging here and now? 

instead says that fathers are responsible for things like ‘girls go to college to get more knowledge, boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider’ and related stereotypes. further, the bar needs to be raised.

I don't know where that comes from, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't around when boys had the highest dropout rates and lowest GPAs in the last half century. For a sense of how far back this issue goes (though the first is a UK example):

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6022093

Learning Together: A History of Coeducation in American Public Schools (this I recommend, because it shows how educational reform after Reconstruction in the US - bringing in more students per capita, providing coed classrooms, including roughly equal numbers of boys and girls, etc. - produced generations of girls who could read/write more competently than their brothers. Indeed, girls' education took off in the US and Europe during the Republican period of the late 18th and early 19th century. "Republican motherhood" to raise good citizens arguably required better female minds).

 gosh darn, three errors in a row.

One error, two disagreements in interpretation.

but whatever it takes to keep warm at night, with the idea that men REALLY have it better off.

My argument is not really about that - it is about the origins of the troubles. I am not comforted by the situation young men find themselves in. 

[hellionlives-deactivated2014120]

[femmerenaissance-blog]

It's worth remembering that even when child labor laws are "on the books," they are not always enforced. The "First World" has sweatshops and unregulated agricultural work, too. And, of course, we import products and commodities like clothing, shoes, coffee, cocoa, and shrimp that have been harvested, processed, and/or made by children all over the world. 

[thelongnineteenthcentury]

Olympe de Gouges O.G. 18th century feminists

[femmerenaissance-blog]

Wrote the seminal Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in 1791.

Outspoken abolitionist (Zamore and Mirza, Le Marché des Noirs).

Executed by guillotine on November 3, 1793 during the Reign of Terror.

[femmerenaissance-blog]

Alice Paul, an American suffragette, went on a hunger strike where she was force fed raw eggs (down her nose) until she vomited blood. Prison officials removed Paul to a sanitarium in hopes of getting her declared insane. Her doctor’s reply was, “Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity.” Suffrage passed 3 years later.

[femmerenaissance-blog]

Agustina de Aragón (bottom), known as the "Spanish Joan of Arc," was a national heroine from the Spanish War of Independence who went on to become a rebel leader during the French occupation and, ultimately, professional officer in the Duke of Wellington's army as it triumphed over Napoleon Bonaparte. She has been celebrated in the works of Francisco Goya and Lord Byron for her remarkable courage.

In the summer of 1808, Zaragoza was one of the last cities in northern Spain not to have fallen to the forces of Napoleon...In the mores of the time, a woman who took on "manly" duties posed a problem. However, as the French-imprisoned King of Spain was considered anointed of God, the Church declared it the duty of every Spaniard to take up arms against his captors.

On June 15, 1808, the French army stormed the Portillo, an ancient gateway into the city defended by a hodgepodge battery of old cannons and a heavily outnumbered volunteer unit. Agustina, arriving on the ramparts with a basket of apples to feed the gunners, watched the nearby defenders fall to French bayonets. The Spanish troops broke ranks, having suffered heavy casualties, and abandoned their posts. With the French troops a few yards away, Agustina herself ran forward, loaded a cannon, and lit the fuse, shredding a wave of attackers at point blank range. The sight of a lone woman bravely manning the cannons inspired the fleeing Spanish troops and other volunteers to return and assist her. After a bloody struggle, the French gave up the assault on Zaragosa and abandoned their siege for a few short weeks before returning to fight their way into the city, house-by-house. With the human cost proving truly terrible on both sides and the city's defences hopelessly compromised, Palafox finally accepted the inevitable and was forced to surrender the city to the French. Despite the eventual defeat, Agustina, along with the two other heroines of the battle of Zaragoza [Casta Álvarez (top left) and Manuela Sancho (top right)], became an inspiration to those opposing the French. 

The image of Agustina as the saviour of Zaragoza has, however, also overshadowed her later actions. After being captured by the French, she was imprisoned and saw her son Eugenio die at the hands of her guards. She subsequently mounted a daring escape and became a low-level rebel leader for the guerrilleros, helping to organise raids and attacks that harassed the French. As the strategic situation deteriorated for the French Army, her role became increasingly orthodox as supplies and training were covertly provided by the Duke of Wellington.

Agustina began to fight for the allied forces as Wellington's only female officer and ultimately rose to the rank of Captain. On June 21, 1813, she acted as a front line battery commander at the Battle of Vitoria under the command of Major Cairncross, who reported directly to Wellington himself. This battle was to see the French Army that had occupied Spain effectively smashed beyond repair and driven out of the country.

[agoodcartoon]

It proved to be a brief search, given the fact that women need higher education levels than men to compete for the same job. A no shit you dumb duck cartoon.

[sosungalittleclodofclay-deactiv]

yeouch, do feminists even read their own articles?

first link: old and lacking levels of analysis(psst, motherhood, not degrees), though the racism inclusion is nice

secondlink ooooooh, this is a good one ”Men learn early that to woo women, they must risk rejection and be persistent. Straight women, for their part, learn from their earliest years that they must wait to be courted. The professional world does not reward the second approach. No one is going to ask someone out professionally if she just makes herself attractive enough. I suspect this is why people who put together discussion panels and solicit op‑eds always tell me the same thing: it’s harder to get women to say yes than men. Well, duh. To be female in our culture is to be trained from puberty in the art of rebuffing—rebuffing gazes, comments, touches, propositions, and proposals.”              oh gods it gets worse (…) “Sensing that they are not prepared for the world they have entered, many professional women seek still more academic credentials. I’ve come to think of this as intellectual primping—the frequently futile hope that one more degree will finally win notice, and with it, that perfect job or raise. (…) women today may have a harder time seeing the barriers before them than did the women of her generation. “Women may think the more degrees they get, the more chances they have of being hired,” she says, “but they are swimming upstream.”

[lookatthisfuckingoppressor-blog]

That sounds a lot like something that would happen in a patriarchal society.  I suppose that’s only one explanation. What’s yours? 

[sosungalittleclodofclay-deactiv]

It seems to be plain ole stupid come back to bite women in the ass. have you heard of  Negotiating Women, Inc.?  Deborah Kolb and Carol Frohlinger’s training and consulting firm for professional women. They say the problem is that women who are working sit on their butts while men are pushing their bosses for raises and extra time and promotions. Sitting around waiting for recognition instead of seeking it out. Sitting on their pedestal waiting for someone to come worship, to recognize them for their brilliance and pay them exactly what they’re worth.  Not all though, 17% of women actually feel that it’s up to their-self to make sure they’re getting hired on at the right price,That attitude is more common in men (85%).  Women don’t initiate. They’ve taught themselves to avoid the anxiety of agency… and for men to embrace it.

[lookatthisfuckingoppressor-blog]

So women have been socialized to avoid behavior that could lead to them making more money or having more power.

And men have been socialized in the opposite way.

That sounds like privilege to me.

[femmerenaissance-blog]

A.

Many women can obtain a higher education in culturally and legally patriarchal societies (although this has been a relatively recent phenomenon). For example:

60% of those who graduate from Saudi universities are female.

In Pakistan, more than 60% of "degree level" students in public and private institutions are female. And they perform better than men at these levels.

As of 2006, women accounted for over half of university students in Iran and 70% of Iran's science and engineering students.

Recently, in the United States, there has been more affirmative action to admit young men into colleges to create a more balanced gender ratio.(1) 

(1) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20111646-503544.html ; http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1727693,00.html ; http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/unstereopolitical-thoughts/2013/jun/25/white-men-affirmative-action-boon-not-boondoggle/

B.

The kinds of opportunities participation in higher ed opens for women in any society vary. Even in the US, there is mixed evidence about whether and to what extent assertiveness about raises/promotions helps women, hurts women, or has any effect at all on the progress of their careers. We are always cognizant that appearing too ambitious, aggressive or demanding might be perceived negatively (in a variety of contexts). So even Margaret A. Neale, who believes the difference mostly comes down to smart negotiation, notes:

Women are concerned about the reputational risks of negotiating, and they have cause to be concerned. If I negotiate for an increase in my salary, and I have a male boss, the research suggests that I will be penalized in a way that my male counterparts will not be. If I have a female boss, she’s going to penalize both males and females, so it’s not like I get any benefit for working with a woman. One thing I would encourage women to do is to have a communal motivation for asking for more. If I’m a man and I’m negotiating a salary, I can talk about my competencies. What women need to do is yolk their competencies with a communal concern.

[heytoyourmamanem]

Since today is Women’s Equality Day, here is one of the black women who participated in the suffrage movement. Mary Eliza Mahoney (May 7, 1845 or April 16, 1845 - January 4, 1926) was the first African American professionally trained nurse in the United States. Mahoney was a pioneer who worked tirelessly to create opportunities for other black women to become nurses and to raise the status of all nurses, regardless of color. She was also an activist for women’s right to vote and is credited as one of the first women to register and vote in Boston, Massachusetts in 1920.

Photo source: Wikimedia

[theamericanparlor]

Before Rosa Parks- There Was Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

1846 – She began her amazing career as a writer by publishing her first book of poetry, Forest Leaves, at the age of 21.

1858 – She refused to give up her seat or ride in the “colored” section of a segregated trolley car in Philadelphia (100 years before Rosa Parks) and wrote one her most famous poems, “Bury Me In  A Free Land,” when she got very sick while on a lecturing tour. Her short story “The Two Offers” became the first short story to be published by an African American.

1859 – A dedicated abolitionist, Harper was one of the few public figures who did not abandon John Brown after his failed effort at Harpers Ferry, instead writing to him and staying with his wife, Mary, at the home of Lucretia Mott (Philadelphia’s leading Quaker Abolitionist) for the two weeks preceding his hanging.

1865 – In the immediate post-Civil War years, Harper returned to the lecture circuit, focusing her attentions on education for the formerly enslaved, on the Equal Rights Movement and on the Temperance Movement.

Despite all of her remarkable accomplishments, Frances E.W. Harper’s name cannot be found in most history books. 

 http://www.moonstoneartscenter.org/category/francesharper/

[transstudent]

Singular “they” is a correct gender-neutral pronoun! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Learn more. Click here to retweet. Click here to share on Facebook.

[femmerenaissance-blog]

:) 

[historicwomen]

Nadezhda Durova

Nadezhda  Durova was a Russian who spent her youth living in the military. She was abandoned by her mother and adopted by soldiers. Nadezhda was raised like a boy and excelled in all the traditionally boyish tasks she was taught. Official biographies say Nadezhda married in 1801 and had a child but none of her memoirs mention a family.

In 1806 Nadezhda dressed a man and enlisted in the military. She fought in the 1806- 1807 Prussian campaign. During this time she saved at least three of her fellow soldiers from death. While there, she wrote her family explaining where she was. They told others about Nadezhda’s presence in the military and eventually rumor of a woman soldier reached Tsar Alexander I. The Tsar inquired about the woman and her commanders reported that she was an excellent soldier. He was impressed and invited Nadezhda to his palace where she was awarded the Cross of St. George. When Napoleon tried to invade Russia, Nadezhda fought again. She retired in 1816 as a stabs-rotmistr, or captain.   

When retired, Nadezhda continued to dress and live as a man would have. She hated when people addressed her as a woman and spent more time with her pets than with other people. She published a book of memoirs, Cavalry Maiden. Her writing impressed fellow author, Aleksandr Pushkin, who encouraged Nadezhda to write more. She lived until she was 83 and was buried with military honors. 

[femmerenaissance-blog]

Durova's memoirs are a fascinating read, especially their description of Napoleonic era warfare/cannon fire from the perspective of someone who impulsively thrust themselves into the fray.

[argentinavintage-blog]

Cecilia Grierson fue la primera médica argentina, graduándose el 2 de julio de 1889 en la Facultad de Ciencias Médicas de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, a los 30 años.

Completó su carrera en el plazo normal de seis años. Durante su transcurso fue Ayudante del Laboratorio de Histología, al tiempo que realizaba la práctica hospitalaria en la Asistencia Pública. Incluso antes de recibirse en 1886, fundó la Escuela de Enfermeras del Círculo Médico Argentino. Apenas recibida se incorporó al Hospital San Roque (luego Ramos Mejia) dedicándose a la ginecología y obstetricia. En 1891 fue uno de los miembros fundadores de la Asociación Médica Argentina. En 1892 colaboró con la realización de la primera cesárea que tuvo lugar en la Argentina y dos años depues, en 1894, se presentó en el concurso para cubrir el cargo de profesor sustituto de la Cátedra de Obstetricia para Parteras. El concurso fue declarado desierto, porque en aquellos tiempos las mujeres todavía no podían aspirar a la docencia universitaria. 

La actividad de la doctora Cecilia Grierson fue intensa e ininterrumpida hasta su fallecimiento, el 10 de abril de 1934. En 1892 fundó la Sociedad Argentina de Primeros Auxilios. En 1897 publicó ‘Masaje Práctico’, un libro precursor de la técnica kinesiologica y pese a la inhibición que recaía sobre las profesionales médicas de su sexo, de alguna manera ejerció la docencia universitaria, dictando cursos sobre ‘Gimnasia Medica y Kinesioterapia’ en la Facultad de Medicina (entre 1904 y 1905) y desempeñándose como adscripta a la Cátedra de Física Médica y Obstetricia. En 1899 viajó a Europa para desempeñar en Londres la vicepresidencia del Congreso Internacional de Mujeres y luego realizar, durane cinco meses en Paris, cursos de perfeccionamiento en Ginecología y Obstetricia . Antes de regresar a la Argentina visito clínicas y establecimientos hospitalarios de renombre en Viena, Berlin y Leipzig. 

En 1900 fundó el Consejo Nacional de Mujeres y la Asociación Obstétrica Nacional. Diez años después, presidió el Congreso Argentino de Mujeres Universitarias y se destacó en la Comision de Sordomudos del Patronato de la Infancia y en numerosos cargos y misiones que le encargaran las autoridades.

[femmerenaissance-blog]

Cecilia Grierson, MD BAMF.

[workersofthenight]

Pyramid of the Capitalist System

[femmerenaissance-blog]

Classic (if seriously white washed).

[femmerenaissance-blog]

Women's History of the Day

Under English law, from 1351 to 1828, a man who killed his wife was guilty of murder, but a woman who killed her husband was guilty of no less than petty treason. Because mariticide was held to be an especially unacceptable crime, women found guilty were burned alive at the stake, a harsher punishment than the hanging reserved for men who killed their wives or for servants who killed their masters.

[1. Garthine Walker, Crime, Gender and Social Order in Early Modern England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. p. 138; 2. Kirsten T. Saxton, Narratives of Women and Murder in England, 1680–1760: Deadly Plots. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate, 2009. p. 16.]

[lamaschingonaa-deactivated20200]

La Cosecha / The Harvest (2011)

"Every year there are more than 400,000 American children who are torn away from their friends, schools and homes to pick the food we all eat.  Zulema, Perla and Victor labor as migrant farm workers, sacrificing their own childhoods to help their families survive.  The Harvest / La Cosecha profiles these three as they journey from the scorching heat of Texas’ onion fields to the winter snows of the Michigan apple orchards and back south to the humidity of Florida’s tomato fields to follow the harvest and provides an intimate glimpse into the lives of these children who struggle to dream while working 12 – 14 hours a day, 7 days a week to feed America.”

[deeplezstonerwitch-blog]

part of the guilt-free vegan diet

[lookatthisfuckingoppressor-blog]

Instead of some bizarre, petty, cheap shot at vegans, I’ll tell y’all to check out the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

They’re a fantastic group that has made huge strides towards protecting the rights of farmworkers in Florida. I’ve done lots of work with then and they are incredible.

[muchymozzarella]

That’s what I thought.