In all seriousness, the Rev. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw was a pretty amazing woman who probably should have her own day. Besides her work for women’s suffrage, she graduated from the Theological School of Boston University in 1878, with the intention of becoming an ordained Methodist minister. The New York Times reported in her obituary that:
“On account of her sex, she was refused when applying for ordination by the New England Conference and by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but in the same year had the honor of being the first woman ordained by the Methodist Protestant Church. In her struggles to become a minister she fought against ridicule, dissension, and lack of the barest necessities.”
…..
“Dr. Shaw had spoken in every State in the Union, before many State Legislatures, and before committees of both houses of Congress. She is said to have been the only woman who ever preached in Gustav Vasa Cathedral, the State Church of Sweden, and the first ordained woman to preach in Berlin, Copenhagen, Christiania, Amsterdam, and London. ”
She was also sworn in as a member of the Washington police force shortly before she died, just because she always wanted to be a cop.
Happy Birthday, Rev.