Welcome to WOW2!
WOW2 is a twice-monthly sister blog to This Week in the War on Women. This edition covers women and events from November 16 through November 30
This is an on-going, evolving project. So many women have been added to the lists over the past three years that even changing the posts from monthly to twice a month, the pages keep getting longer and more unwieldy – an astonishing and wonderful problem to have!
(Apologies for this being even later than planned — I’ve been sick for two weeks, and really, really ready to get over it!)
For the entire previous LATE NOVEMBER list as of 2017, click HERE: www.dailykos.com/...
Otherwise, what you’re seeing on this Late November 2018 page are only the NEW people and events, or additional information, found since last year.
The purpose of WOW2 is to learn about and honor women of achievement, including many who’ve been ignored or marginalized in most of the history books, and to mark moments in women’s history. It also serves as a reference archive of women’s history. There are so many more phenomenal women than I ever dreamed of finding, and all too often their stories are almost unknown, even to feminists and scholars.
These trailblazers have a lot to teach us about persistence in the face of overwhelming odds. I hope you will find reclaiming our past as much of an inspiration as I do.
This Week in the War on Women just posted, so be sure to go there next and catch up on the latest dispatches from the frontlines: www.dailykos.com/...
Late November’s Women Trailblazers and Events in Our History
Note: All images and audios are below the person or event to which they refer
_________________________________
- November 16, 1900 – Eliška Junková aka Elisabeth Junek born, Czechoslovak automobile racer; considered of one the greatest women drivers in Grand Prix history; noted as one of the first drivers to walk the course before a race, noting landmarks and the best lines through corners. In 1926, she won the two-liter sports car class at the Nürburgring, in Germany, the first woman to win a Grand Prix event. When her husband was killed in a crash at the German Grand Prix in 1928, she retired from racing
- November 16, 1915 – Jean Fritz born in China to Presbyterian missionaries where she attended a British school until her family emigrated to the U.S. when she was 12; American children’s author, whose career began with short stories published in children’s magazines; her first book, Bunny Hopwell’s First Spring, was published in 1954. Many of her other books were about American history. Her autobiography, Homesick: My Own Story (1983), was a Newbery Honor Book, and won a National Book Award; in 1983, she was honored with the Laura Ingals Wilder Award for career contribution to American children’s literature; she lived to age 101
- November 16, 1952 – Robin McKinley born, Newbery Award winner for The Hero and the Crown (The Blue Sword, written earlier and set later in the same world, may be even better) and won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Sunshine
- November 16, 1968 – Shobha Nagi Reddy born, Indian politician from Andhra Pradesh; As a candidate of the Telugu Desam Party, she was elected to a State Assembly seat four times, the first woman to be elected to the legislature in Andhra Pradesh; she lost when she ran for a seat in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s bicameral Parliament. She was killed at age 45, when the vehicle she was traveling in overturned, while she was campaigning for the 2014 state assembly elections
_________________________________
- November 17, 1880 – The first four women graduates from London University, with Bachelor of Arts degrees
- November 17, 1966 – Sophie Marceau born, French actress, director, screenwriter and author; noted for writing and directing Speak to Me of Love (Parlez-moi d’amour), for which she won the 2002 Montréal World Film Festival Award for Best Director, and Trivial (La disparue de Deauville)
_________________________________
- November 18, 1869 – The American Woman Suffrage Association is formed by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and other more conservative women’s rights activists, to work exclusively for woman suffrage by campaigning for amending individual state constitutions
- November 18, 1872 – Beebe Steven Lynk born, one of the first African-American women chemists and chemistry teachers; she earned a degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of West Tennessee (then a two-year, pre-bachelor degree for teachers) in 1903, and became one of the two women faculty members (out of 10) at UWT’s new medical school, where she taught Latin botany and materia medica (collected knowledge of healing properties of various substances); author of Advice to Colored Women, published in 1896; active in the National Federation of Women’s Clubs, and an advocate for women’s rights
- November 18, 1878 – Soprano Marie Selika Williams becomes the first Black performer to be invited to perform at the White House for President Rutherford B. Hayes and First Lady Lucy Webb Hayes
- November 18, 1882 – Frances Gertrude McGill born, pioneering Canadian forensic pathologist, pathologist, criminologist, and allergist; earned her medical degree at the University of Manitoba in 1915, then became the provincial bacteriologist (1918) and pathologist (1920) of Saskatchewan, working closely with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and local law enforcement for over 30 years. She traveled across the province conducting forensic examinations, and was an active supporter for establishing the first RCMP forensic laboratory (1937). A newspaper dubbed her the “Sherlock Holmes of Saskatchewan.” She became the forensic lab’s second director (1943-1946), as well as training new Mounties in forensic methods of detection, and medical jurisprudence. After she left the director position, she was appointed as Honorary Surgeon, and continued as a consultant until her death in 1959
- November 18, 1914 – Bettie Cilliers-Barnard born, South African painter and teacher, noted for her symbolic and non-figurative art
- November 18, 1924 – “Lise” Østergaard born, Danish psychologist and Social-Democratic politician; Minister of Culture (1980-1982), and chaired the 1980 UN World Conference on Women in Copenhagen; Minister without Portfolio (1977-1980); member of the Folketing (Danish Parliament – 1979-1984); spokesperson for the Danish Refugee Council (1974-1977); first woman to become professor of clinical psychology at Copenhagen University (1963); head of psychology at Copenhagen’s Rigshospitalet (State Hospital – 1958); published Den psykologiske testmetode og dens relation til klinisk psykiatri (The Psychological Test Method and its Relationship to Clinical Psychiatry) in 1961
- November 18, 1932 – Amy Johnson, British aviator, who already held several solo flying records, arrives in Cape Town, South Africa, from England, breaking her previous record by over ten hours
- November 18, 1936 – Suzette Haden Elgin born; author and PhD in linguistics; founder of the Science Fiction Poetry Association; creator of the language Láadan for her feminist Native Tongue science fiction series
- November 18, 1939 – Margaret Atwood, Canadian author, poet, and critic; among her 16 novels to date, particularly notable for her iconic novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award; and The Blind Assassin, winner of the Man Booker Prize
- November 18, 1945 – Wilma Mankiller born, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (1985-1995), community organizer
- November 18, 1960 – Yeşim Ustaoğlu born, Turkish producer-director-screenwriter, who made several award-winning shorts before her feature film debut in 1994, Iz (The Trace). Her 1999 film, Günese Yolculuk (Journey to the Sun) won the Blue Angel Award for Best European Film at Berlinale. Other films: Bulutlari Beklerken (Waiting for the Clouds), Pandora’nin Kutusu (Pandora’s Box), Araf (Somewhere in Between), and Tereddut (Clair Obscur)
- November 18, 1981 – Maggie Stiefvater born, American author of Young Adult fantasy fiction; noted for her two series, The Wolves of Mercy Falls and The Raven Cycle
_________________________________
- November 19, 1868 – 172 women suffragists attempted to vote in Vineland, NJ, in the presidential election to test Constitution’s 14th Amendment which states, "no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." The suffragists, including four African American women, were turned away, so they cast their votes in a women's ballot box overseen by 84-year-old Quaker Margaret Pryer
- November 19, 1958 – Annette Gordon-Reed born, American historian and Harvard law professor; her book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (1997), won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction
- November 19, 2001 – The World Toilet Organization starts World Toilet Day to highlight the 2.4 billion people living without a toilet, with a goal of preventing the spread of diseases like cholera, typhoid and hepatitis, as well as ensuring that women and children are not at risk of assault or rape because they lack indoor toilets
_________________________________
- November 20, 1857 – Helena Westermarck born, Finnish artist and writer who was a Swedish speaker and worked for long periods in France; noted for her realistic style of portraiture. At the 1889 Exposition Universelle, she received honorable mention for her painting Strykerskor. But later she gave up painting and turned to writing as a critic and biographer, especially of notable Finnish women, regarded as significant contributions to Finnish culture and history
- November 20, 1869 – Zinaida Gippius born, Russian poet, novelist, playwright, editor and religious thinker, a major figure in the Russian symbolism movement; when writing critical essays early in her career, she often used male pseudonyms. While she and her husband, author Dmitry Merezhkovsky, were critical of Tsarism after the 1905 Revolution, and spent a lot of time out of Russia for the next several years, they denounced the 1917 October Revolution as a cultural disaster, and emigrated to Poland, then France, and later Italy. Her poetry is considered her greatest contribution
- November 20, 1897 – Germaine Krull born in Posen, then Germany, now Poznań, Poland; Photographer, political activist, and hotelier. She was a pioneer in avant-garde photomontage. Born to a German family which moved frequently, she was schooled by her father, an engineer and free thinker, who let her dress as a boy when she was a child. She spent two or three years (1915-1917 or 18) at a photography school in Munich, then opened her own studio there, specializing in portraits. Her involvement in the Communist Party of Germany led to her arrest and then expulsion from Bavaria in 1920. She went to Russia, was imprisoned there as an “anti-Bolshevik” and expelled from there too. She resumed her photographic career in Berlin (1922-1925), moved to Amsterdam, then to Paris, where she entered a marriage of convenience with Dutch communist filmmaker Joris Ivens (1927-1943) to get a Dutch passport. She shot fashion photography, nudes and portraits, and published her best-known work, Métal, a portfolio of industrial landscapes, bridges and metal objects in 1928. After that, she worked mostly in photojournalism for French publications like Vu magazine until the mid-1930s, when she moved to Monte Carlo. In the 1940s, she traveled in Brazil, French Equatorial Africa and spent months in Algiers. After WWII, she traveled in Southeast Asia, where she became a part-owner of the Oriental Hotel in Bankok, Thailand, and stayed there until 1966. Next, while in Northern India, she converted to the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. Her last major publication was a 1968 book, Tibetans in India, which included a portrait of the Dalai Lama. After a stroke, she was in a nursing home in Germany, where she died in 1985
- November 20, 1900 – Helen L. Bradley born, British painter-illustrator of Edwardian scenes
- November 20, 1910 –‘Pauli’ Murray born, American civil and women’s rights activist, lawyer, author and the first African American woman ordained as an Episcopal priest, and among the first women to be ordained by that church. Orphaned very young in Baltimore, Maryland, she was raised by her maternal grandparents in Durham, North Carolina. After being denied entry to Columbia University because it was then a males-only school, at 16, she went to Hunter College in New York, graduating with a BA in English in 1933. During the Depression, she worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps at an all-woman camp founded at the urging of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, whom she met when she visited the camp, but Murray later clashed with the camp’s director after he found a Marxist book among her belongings, and he disapproved of her relationship with Peg Holmes, a white counselor. They both left the camp in 1935, and traveled the country on foot, hitching rides and hopping freight trains, before finding employment, Murray with the YWCA. In 1940, Murray was arrested for sitting in the whites-only section of a Virginia bus, a violation of Virginia’s segregation laws. After this incident, and her involvement with the socialist Workers’ Defense League, Murray enrolled in the law school at Howard University after being denied entry to the University of North Carolina because of her race. At Howard, her awareness of sexism increased, which she called “Jane Crow” (alluding to the Jim Crow laws which enforced racial segregation in the Southern U.S.) She graduated first in her class, but was denied entry to Harvard for post-graduate work because of her gender. In 1964, she delivered her speech “Jim Crow and Jane Crow” in Washington DC. She earned a master’s degree in law at University of California, Berkeley, and in 1965 she became the first African American to receive a Doctor of Juridical Science degree from Yale Law School. As a lawyer, Murray took on civil and women’s rights cases. Thurgood Marshall, then chief counsel for the NAACP, caller her 1950 book, States’ Laws on Race and Color,the “bible” of the civil rights movement. Murray was appointed by President Kennedy to serve on the 1961-1963 Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt until her death in 1962, then run by Esther Peterson, noted activist for labor, women’s rights and the consumer movement. Murray was a co-founder of the National Organization for Women in 1966. In recognition of Murray’s seminal work on gender discrimination, Ruth Bader Ginsburg named her as co-author of a brief in the 1971 case, Reed v. Reed, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that administrators of estates cannot be named in a way which discriminates between sexes. The case involved the parents of a young man who had died, where their petitions to the Idaho Probate Court were decided in favor of the father only because the Idaho code specified that “males must be preferred to females” in appointing estate administrators. It was a landmark case because it was the first time that the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause prohibited differential treatment based on sex. Murray taught law at Brandeis University from 1968 until 1973, when she became involved with Episcopal Church programs, and in 1977, at the age of 67, she was ordained as a priest, and became the first woman to celebrate the Eucharist at an Episcopal Church in North Carolina, then worked until 1984 in a parish in Washington DC. She died in 1985 of pancreatic cancer
- November 20, 1913 – Libertas Schulze-Boysen born in Paris to German parents; she joined the Nazi Party in 1933, but became disillusioned, and left the party early in 1937, using time needed for household duties and taking care of her husband as an excuse. With her husband, Harro Schulze-Boysen, she began sounding out like-minded people to form a secret resistance group. In 1940, while she was writing film reviews for Essener Zeitung, Germany’s largest regional newspaper, she was visited by a Soviet intelligence officer, and introduced him to her husband. In 1942, the Gestapo discovered their resistance group, and her husband was arrested. She destroyed all the illegal documents, including some photographic evidence of Nazi war crimes, that the group had collected, and warned their friends, but she was also arrested a month after her husband. While in prison, she wrote a number of remarkable letters and poems to her mother, including memories of her childhood. She and her husband were brought before the Reichskriegsgericht (Reich Court Martial). They were both charged with “preparation” to commit high treason, and he was additionally charged with wartime treason, military sabotage and espionage, while she was charged with helping the enemy and espionage. On December 19, 1942, they were both given death sentences, and executed on December 22, 1942. She had turned 29 a month earlier
- November 20, 1929 – Penelope Hobhouse born, British garden designer, author and television presenter
- November 20, 1930 – Christine Arnothy born in Budapest, was a French author, who went through the 1945 siege of Budapest, and later fled Hungary with her family. Her teenage diary was her only remaining possession when they arrived in France. She wrote J’ai quinze ans et je ne veux pas mourir (I am Fifteen and I Do Not Want to Die) based on her diary, which was published in 1955. The sequel, It is Not So Easy to Live, chronicles the journey to Paris after escaping from Hungary. She also wrote novels and, under the pen name William Dickinson, detective stories
- November 20, 1937 – Viktoriya Tokareva born, Russian screenwriter and short story author
- November 20, 1940 – Wendy Doniger born, American Indologist (Indian subcontinent studies), a scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions; author of Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva; Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook; The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology; Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts; and The Rig Veda: An Anthology, 108 Hymns Translated from the Sanskrit. She is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of History of Religions at the University of Chicago, where she has taught since 1978
- November 20, 1940 – Helma Sanders-Brahms born, German film producer-director, screenwriter, and feminist; noted for her influential films Unter dem Pflaster ist der Strand (Under the Pavement Lies the Strand), and Germany, Pale Mother
- November 20, 1941 – Haseena Moin born, Pakistani playwright and screenwriter, she is considered the nation’s best dramatist
- November 20, 1945 – Deborah Eisenberg born, American short-story writer; professor of writing at Columbia University; honored with six O. Henry Awards (1986, 1995, 1997, 2002, 2006, and 2013), and the 2000 Rea Award for the Short Story; her latest short story collection, Twilight of the Superheroes, was published in 2006
- November 20, 1950 – Jacqueline Gourault born, French MoDem politician; Minister of Territorial Cohesion and Relationships with territorial collectivities since 2018; Member of the Senate of France for Loir-et-Cher (2001-2017); Mayor of La Chaussée-Saint-Victor (1989-2014)
- November 20, 1959 – Diane M. James born, British Independence Party politician; Member of the European Parliament for South East England since 2014; Leader of the UK Independence Party (2016); Deputy Co-Chair of the UK Independence Party (2016); UK Independence Party Home Affairs and Justice Spokesperson (2014-2016)
- November 20, 1999 – Gwendolyn Ann Smith promotes the first Transgender Day of Remembrance to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman murdered in 1998 – vigils and other events are now promoted by GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)
_________________________________
- November 21, 1897 – Mollie Steimer born in Tsarist Russia, U.S. anarchist, trade unionist, and advocate for prisoners’ rights; arrested with five others in 1918 for printing and distributing leaflets denouncing U.S. military action against the Bolshevik revolution. Their trial became a cause célèbre, the first major prosecution under the Sedition Act, notable for the blatant infringement of the defendants’ rights. They were all were represented by attorney Harry Weinberger, well-known for defending conscientious objectors, pacifists, and radicals. The two-week trial was in October, 1918. Weinberger argued that, since the defendants’ actions did not directly interfere with the war effort, they were not punishable under the provisions of the Sedition Act. Despite his defense, all but one of the defendants were found guilty, and four were given major sentences, including Steimer. She was convicted and sentenced to prison. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court. Steimer was deported to Russia in 1921. She protested in Russia against Bolshevik persecutions of Russian anarchists, and was deported again. She went first to Germany, then to Paris, aiding political prisoners and anarchist exiles. After the Germans took Paris in 1940, she was arrested and sent to an internment camp, but was released. She fled from Europe, and spent the rest of her life in Mexico
- November 21, 1924 – Milka Planinc born, Yugoslav politician from Croatia; first woman Prime Minister of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1982-1986); Secretary of the League of Communists of Croatia (1971-1982); President of the Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (1968–1971); member of the Presidium of the League of Communists of Croatia (1966-1968); Secretary for Education of the Socialist Republic of Croatia (1963-1965); Secretary of Cultural Affairs of the City of Zagreb (1961-1963); elected to the Croatian Central Committee in 1959
- November 21, 1933 – Etta Zuber Falconer born, American mathematician and educator; one of the first African American women to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics, in 1969, from Emory University, with a dissertation on abstract algebra; she was as a mathematics instructor at Spelman College in 1965, and later became a professor, and then head of the department there; she earned a Master of Science degree in computer science in 1982 to enable her to set up a computer science department at Spelman. In 1995, Falconer was honored by the Association for Women in Mathematics, who awarded her the Louise Hay Award for outstanding achievement in mathematics education
- November 21, 1942 – Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul born, German Social Democratic politician, from the left wing of the party (nicknamed ‘Red Heidi’ for her red hair and love of wearing red, was well as her leftist politics); Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development (1998-2009); Member of the German Bundestag (1987-2013); Socialist Member of the European Parliament (1979-1987); President of the European Coordination Bureau of International Youth Organisation (1977-1979)
- November 21, 1952 – Janne Kristiansen born, Norwegian jurist; head of the Norwegian Police Security Service (2009-2012); first head of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (2004-2009)
- November 21, 1954 – Fiona Pitt-Kettle born, British poet, novelist, travel writer, anthology editor and freelance journalist; Sky Ray Lully, The Misfortunes of Nigel, and The Pan Principle
- November 21, 1970 – Karen Dávila born, Filipina journalist, radio broadcaster, and news reader; winner of over 20 awards for professional journalism from local and international organizations
- November 21, 1977 – Yolande James born, Canadian Quebec Liberal Party politician; first black woman and youngest Member of the National Assembly of Quebec, representing Nelligan (2004-20014); first black cabinet member in Quebec, as Minister of Immigration and Cultural Communities & Minister Of Family; political commentator on CBC programs
_________________________________
- November 22, 1861 – Queen Ranavalona III born Princess Razafindrahety, last sovereign of the Kingdom of Madagascar (1883-1897). Her reign was marked by ongoing resistance to the colonial designs of the French. She was in a political marriage with Rainilaiarivony, a member of the Hova caste elite, who served as Prime Minister. She strengthened trade and diplomatic relations with the U.S. and Great Britain, but French attacks on coastal port towns and their assault on Anatananarivo, the capital city, led to the capture of the royal palace in 1895, ending the sovereignty and political autonomy of the century-old kingdom. France’s newly installed colonial government promptly exiled Rainilaiarivony to Algiers. Ranavalona and her court were initially permitted to remain as symbolic figureheads, but the outbreak of a popular resistance movement – the Menalamba Rebellion – and discovery of anti-French political intrigues at court led the French to exile the queen to the island of Réunion in 1897. Rainilaiarivony died that same year and shortly thereafter Ranavalona was relocated to a villa in Algiers, along with several members of her family. The queen, her family and the servants accompanying her were provided an allowance and enjoyed a comfortable standard of living, but in spite of her repeated requests, she was never allowed to return home to Madagascar. She died in 1917 at the age of 55, and was buried in Algiers, but 21 years later, her remains were disinterred and shipped to Madagascar, then placed within the tomb of Queen Rasoherina, who reigned 1863-1868
- November 22, 1909 – The “Uprising of the 20,000,” aka the New York Shirtwaist Strike, begins when Clara Lemlich, tired of hearing male speakers talk about the disadvantages to striking, takes the podium, moving that the shirtwaist workers strike. She receives a standing ovation and 2 days later thousands of workers walk off their jobs
- November 22, 1919 – Máire McAteer Drumm born, Northern Irish civil rights leader, orator, and a figure in the republican movement; vice president (1972-1976) of Sinn Féin, and a commander in Cumann na mBan (The Irishwomen’s Council, a paramilitary auxiliary of the Irish Volunteers); involved with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association, helping Catholics forced from their homes by loyalist intimidation to find new housing; She was jailed twice for seditious speeches, and raids on her home by security forces became frequent. She was admitted to Belfast’s Mater Hospital in 1976 for an eye operation, and was shot to death in her hospital bed by the Ulster loyalist group Red Hand Commando, six days after her 57th birthday
- November 22, 1954 – Denise Epoté born, Cameroonian journalist who heads the Africa management of the French pay television network, TV5 Monde; the first journalist in Cameroon to present the news in French on Cameroon Television; worked for Radio Cameroon (1981-1993), becoming the first woman to present the news on Radio Cameroon in 1985
- November 22, 1968 – Sarah MacDonald born, Canadian conductor and organist, living in the UK since 1992; Fellow and Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, and Director of Ely Cathedral Girls’ Choir; the first woman to hold such a post at an Oxbridge Chapel
- November 22, 1969 – Marjane Satrapi born in Iran, Iranian-French graphic novelist, cartoonist, illustrator, film director, and children’s book author; noted for her autobiographical graphic novels, first published in French, and her novel Poulet aux prunes (Chicken with Plums), which won the Fauve d’Or/Prix du meilleur (Best Album) from the Angoulême International Comics Festival
_________________________________
- November 23, 1915 – Anne Burns born, British aeronautical engineer and glider pilot; during WWI, worked for Ministry of Supply, in the Structures and Mechanical Department at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, concentrating on flutter problems and load stress measurements, but also developing windscreen wipers for bombers, and the double windscreen enclosing a supply of warm air to improve visibility. She made test flights on Hawker Typhoons and Gloster Meteors. In the 1950s, she became a Principal Scientific Officer, and worked on the crashes of early de Havilland Comet jet airliners in 1954; awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air in 1955, and Royal Aeronautical Society R.P. Alston Medal in 1958
- November 23, 1925 – Elaine Horseman born, English children’s book author in the fantasy genre, for her Hubble series, featuring 5 siblings
- November 23, 1963 – Gwynne Shotwell born, American businesswoman and mechanical engineer with an additional degree in applied mathematics; President and CEO of SpaceX, a U.S. space transportation company, which she joined in 2002; worked for Microcosm Inc (1998-2002) as director of the space systems division; did technical work on military space research and development, and thermal analysis at Aerospace Corporation (1988 -1998)
- November 23, 1965 – Jennifer Michael Hecht born, American historian, author, and poet; The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France, 1876-1936
- November 23, 1968 – Kirsty Young born, Scottish television and radio presenter, best known as one of the original newsreaders of 5 News on Channel 5 (1997-2007), and as the presenter of the BBC series, Crimewatch (2008-2015)
- November 23, 1993 – Rachel Whiteread wins both the £20,000 Turner Prize for Best British Modern Artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the Worst Artist of the Year. She originally refused the K Foundation prize, but when told that the money would otherwise be burnt, she relented, and accepted the prize, then donated some of the prize money to a housing charity, and used the rest to set up grants for needy artists
_________________________________
- November 24, 1895 – Esther Applin, American geologist and paleontologist; a leader in the use of microfossils to determine the age of rock formation, crucial to successful drilling operations in the oil industry, in the Gulf of Mexico region in particular. Her considerable contributions to micropaleontology greatly increased respect for women in the geological field. In spite of skepticism and even ridicule from the established men in her field when she first presented her ideas in 1921, her work for the Rio Bravo Oil Company (1920-1927) proved the effectiveness of her theory in finding the best oil bearing stratigraphic layers. Her discoveries became essential to drilling operation, and were the irreplaceable until electric logs became feasible in the 1950s. After leaving Rio Bravo, she worked as a consultant to other oil companies (1927-1944), then went to work for the U.S. Geological Survey (1944-1962) until her retirement
- November 24, 1943 – Margaret E. M. Tolbert born, American biochemist, professor and the first woman director of the Carver Research Foundation at Tuskegee University (1979-1987). She was also an administrative chemist at British Petroleum, and was part of the transition planning for its merger with Standard Oil of Ohio (1987-1993). Served as director of the New Brunswick Laboratory (1996-2002), the first African American and first woman in charge of a Department of Energy laboratory. Her study of signal transduction in liver cells was among the first to discover the rapid effects of ligands that did not involve RNA or protein synthesis and occur by some intracellular messenger other than cyclic AMP
- November 24, 1949 – Dame Sally Davies born, British physician and haematologist, expert on sickle cell disease; Chief Medical Officer of England since 2010 (the most senior doctor in the English Civil Service, equivalent in rank to Permanent Secretary)
- November 24, 1952 – Parveen Shakir born, Urdu poet and Pakistani civil servant; published six collections of poetry, often using the Urdu first-person, feminine pronoun in her verses which, though common in prose, was rarely used in poetry, even by female poets, before her; recipient of Pakistan’s distinguished Pride of Performance award for outstanding contributions to literature in 1976; killed in a car accident in 1994
- November 24, 1955 – Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth born, Swedish politician, Member of the Moderate Party; Minister for Culture and Sports (2006-2014); Member of the Swedish Riksdag for Stockholm Municipality (2002-2014); advocate for increased funding for gender studies, and outspoken opponent of graffiti vandalism
- November 24, 1958 – Margaret P. Curran born, Scottish Labour politician; elected in 1999 to the new Scottish Parliament; Minister for Parliamentary Business (2004-2007); Minister for Communities (2003-2003); Minister for Social Justice (2002-2003); Member of Parliament for Glasgow East (2010-2015), for Glasgow Baillieston (1999-2011)
- November 24, 1961 – Arundhati Roy born, Indian author and screenwriter, noted for her best-selling novel, The God of Small Things, which won the 1997 Man Booker Prize for Fiction, and her second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, which was a 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist; she wrote a television serial, The Banyan Tree, and the documentary, DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati Roy, in 2002; she is also a political activist for human rights and the environment
_________________________________
- November 25, 1454 – Queen Catarina Cornaro born, last monarch of the Kingdom of Cyprus (reign 1474-1489); she had no heir, so she was pressured into ceding her rights as ruler of Cyprus to the Doge of Venice
- November 25, 1715 – Sybilla Thomas Masters, American inventor, becomes the first American colonist to be granted an English patent (under her husband’s name), for cleaning and curing maize (Indian corn): Letters patent to Thomas Masters, of Pennsylvania, Planter, his Execrs., Amrs. and Assignees, of the sole Vse and Benefit of ‘A new Invention found out by Sybilla, his wife, for cleaning and curing the Indian Corn, growing in the several Colonies of America, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, and the Colonies of America.’
- November 25, 1905 – Samiha Ayverdi born, Turkish author and Sufi mystic; noted for her novels and short story collections, including Aşk Bu İmiş, Mabette Bir Gece, and Batmayan Gün
- November 25, 1945 – Gail Collins born, American journalist, columnist at the New York Times; first woman Editorial Page Editor for the New York Times (2001-2007)
- November 25, 1950 – Alexis Wright born, Indigenous Australian author and land rights activist of the Waanyi people; noted for her novels, Plains of Promise, and Carpentaria, which won the Miles Franklin Award, and for Tracker, her “collective memoir” of Aboriginal activist Leigh Bruce “Tracker” Tilmouth, which won the 2018 Stella Prize
- November 25, 1955 – Connie Palmen born, Dutch author; noted for her novels De wetten (The Laws), De vriendschap (The Friendship), and Jij zegt het (If You Say So), winner of 2016 Libris Prize
- November 25, 1958 – Naomi Oreskes born, American science historian; Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University since 2013
- November 25, 1999 – The U.N. General Assembly recognizes and supports a campaign started in the Dominican Republic to honor “Las Mariposas” (the butterflies), the three Mirabal sisters, who were political activists ordered killed by dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1960, which has grown into an international campaign to stop violence against women. The General Assembly designates November 25 as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the first day of the U.N. campaign “16 Days of Activism” leading up to Human Rights Day
_________________________________
- November 26, 783 – Queen Adosinda, Kingdom of Asturias (now an autonomous community in NW Spain), had not given Asturia an heir before her husband died, so her nephew Alfonso II had been proclaimed king. Mauregatus, the illegitimate son of Alfonso I, usurps the throne by force and drives Alfonso II into exile in Álava in Basque territory. Fearing her popularity with the people, Mauregatus sends Queen Adosinda to the monastery of San Juan de Pravia, where she is held until she dies
- November 26, 1943 – Marilynne Robinson born, American author and essayist; winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Gilead, the 2012 National Humanities Medal, and the 2016 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction; also noted for novels Housekeeping and Home
- November 26, 1944 – Joyce Quin born, Baroness Quin, Member of the European Parliament for Tyne and Wear (1979-1984); British Labour Party MP for Gateshead East (1987-1997); Minister of State for Europe (1998-1999); author of a 2010 book on the British Constitution
- November 26, 1948 – Elizabeth Blackburn born in Tasmania, Australian-American molecular biologist, President of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies; discoverer of the enzyme telomerase, which replenishes telomeres, the protectors for the ends of chromosomes from DNA damage or fusion; shared 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- November 26, 1953 – Desiré Wilson born, South African racecar driver; one of only six women to compete in Formula One racing; she became the only woman to win a Formula One race, the 1980 British Aurora F1 Championship at the Brands Hatch racing circuit, in West Kingsdown, Kent, England
- November 26, 1955 – Gisela Stuart born in Bavaria; British Labour politician; Chair of Change Britain organization; Member of Parliament for Birmingham Edgbaston (1997-2017)
- November 26, 1959 – Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs born, American poet, cultural studies scholar and feminist theorist; a commissioner for the Washington State Arts Commission and a professor at Seattle University
- November 26, 1969 – Kara Walker born, African-American contemporary artist and filmmaker
- November 26, 1971 – Vicki Pettersson born, Urban Fantasy novelist; known for her Signs of the Zodiac series and Celestial Blues trilogy
_________________________________
- November 27, 1877 – Katharine Anthony born, American author of histories and biographies, including: Feminism in Germany and Scandinavia, Margaret Fuller: A Psychological Biography, Catherine the Great, Louisa May Alcott, First Lady of the Revolution: The Life of Mercy Otis Warren, The Lambs, and Susan B. Anthony: Her Personal History and Her Era
- November 27, 1911 – Fé del Mundo born, Filipina pediatrician; the first woman admitted to Harvard Medical School (1936-1938, then returned for a 2-year research fellowship, 1939-1940, after her residency) because the admissions office assumed she was a man, but she was allowed to stay because her strong record earned the approval of the head of pediatrics. Harvard Medical School did not officially accept women students until 1945. She was also the founder of the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines. During WWII, she joined the International Red Cross, and set up a makeshift hospice within an internment camp until 1943, when the Japanese shut it down. She then started a children’s hospital in Manila, which was converted temporarily to a medical center to cope with casualties during the Battle of Manila. Her medical career spanned almost 8 decades; honored with the 1977 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, and conferred with the rank of National Scientist of the Philippines in 1980. She died at age 99
- November 27, 1917 – In response to public outcry and jailers’ inability to stop the National Woman’s Party picketers’ hunger strikes, the government begins unconditionally releasing the women protesters
- November 27, 1937 – Gail Sheehy born, American author and journalist; she covered Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign and Woodstock for New York magazine; her book Passages (1976) was on the New Times Bestseller List for three years, and was named one of the ten most influential books of our times by the Library of Congress
- November 27, 1957 – Caroline Kennedy born, American attorney, author and diplomat; U.S. Ambassador to Japan (2013-2017)
- November 27, 1957 – Callie Khouri born, American film and television screenwriter, producer, and director; won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Thelma & Louise; made her directorial debut with her adaptation of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood; developed the TV series Nashville
- November 27, 1960 – Yulia Tymoshenko born, Ukranian politician; Prime Minister of Ukraine (2007-2010); Vice Prime Minister in regards to fuel and energy complex (1999-2001)
- November 27, 1969 – Ruth George born, British Labour politician; Member of Parliament for High Peak since 2017; the first woman MP elected from High Peak
- November 27, 2015 – An armed anti-abortion extremist invades the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, CO, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, fatally shot three people and wounded nine others two day earlier. One of the dead was a police officer responding to the attack, and the other two victims were accompanying friends. All the victims left behind families with young children. After five hours, SWAT teams crash vehicles into the lobby and the shooter surrenders. The shooter, who had been living in North Carolina, was held without bond. Authorities in North and South Carolina had previously investigated him numerous times. State psychiatrists would later determine that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial, and he was confined in a state mental hospital
_________________________________
- November 28, 1891 – Mabel Alvarez born in Hawaii to a Spanish family (her father was a doctor involved in leprosy research), American painter; noted for her contributions to Southern California Modernism and California Impressionism;, she painted a mural for the 1915-1916 Panama-California Exposition, which won a Gold Medal; one of the original members of the ‘Group of Eight’ formed as part of California’s progressive art movement
- November 28, 1896 – Dawn Powell born, American author; after her mother’s death when she was seven, she lived with a series of relatives until her father remarried; when her stepmother destroyed her notebooks and diaries, she ran away to live with an aunt who encouraged her writing. Powell later wrote the semi-autobiographical novel, My Home is Far Away. She, her husband and their mentally challenged son moved to Greenwich Village in the 1920s. Though she wrote hundreds of short stories, ten plays and a dozen novels, she still had to earn money working a variety of jobs, from book reviewer, freelance writer, and silent film extra to radio personality. Her books include She Walks in Beauty, Dance Night (which was her favorite), Walking Down Broadway, made into the 1933 film Hello, Sister!, directed by Eric von Stroheim, and her first commercially successful book, A Time to Be Born, published in 1942
- November 28, 1904 – Nancy Mitford born, English satiric novelist, essayist, and social commentator
- November 28, 1910 – Elsie Quarterman born, American botanist and plant ecologist, noted for her work on the ecology of Tennessee cedar glades, a rare habitat dominated by herbs on shallow soils and limestone outcrops, containing many unique plant species; in 1969 she rediscovered the native Tennessee coneflower, Echinacea tennesseensis, which was thought to be extinct. Conservation efforts led to the coneflower being removed from the endangered species list in 2011. She was the first woman head of a department at Vanderbilt University when she became chair of the Biology Department in 1964
- November 28, 1924 – Johanna Döbereiner born a German-Czech, became a Brazilian citizen in 1956; agronomist and microbiologist who studied how Azospirillum and other bacteria could improve the soil, which played an important role in Brazil’s soybean production because the bacteria reduced the need for fertilizer; honored with the 1989 UNESCO Science Prize and the Brazilian Order of Scientific Merit in 1992
- November 28, 1947 – Gladys Kokorwe born, Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) politician and stateswoman; Speaker of the National Assembly of Botswana since 2014; elected to the National Assembly in 1994, also serving in various ministries in the government between 1999 and 2009, and as Deputy Speaker (2004-2008). Notably she was the author and sponsor of the Domestic Violence Act, which became law in 2008. She left the assembly to become Botswana’s ambassador to Zimbabwe (2009-2014), then was returned to the assembly as its speaker in the 2014 elections
- November 28, 1948 – Agnieszka Holland born, Polish film and television director and screenwriter; best known for Europa Europa, her drama In Darkness, which was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, and Spoor, which won the 2017 Alfred Bauer Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival
- November 28, 1951 – Barbara Morgan born, American schoolteacher and NASA Astronaut as part of the Teacher in Space program. She was a Mission Specialist on STS-118 in 2007
- November 28, 1964 – Sian Williams born, Welsh journalist and current affairs presenter for the BBC and News 5, on programs which include BBC Breakfast, Sunday Morning Live, 5 News and Save Money: Good Health
_________________________________
- November 29, 1843 – Gertrude Jekyll born, British horticulturalist, designer described as a “premier influence in garden design,” artist, photographer and author; created over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and the U.S., and contributed over 1,000 articles to magazines like Country Life and The Garden; frequently designed gardens for projects of English architect Edwin Lutyens; she was one of the first garden designers to pay major attention to the progression of colour and textures which created the experience of the garden; her 15 books, such as Colour in the Flower Garden, were widely read
- November 29, 1908 – Afet İnan born, Turkish historian and sociologist; she got her teaching qualification in 1922, and was assigned as a teacher at Elmali Girls’ School. After graduating from Bursa Teachers College for Girls in 1925, she taught primary school in Izmir, where she met Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first president of Turkey, a strong believer in women’s education and equality. İnan became one of his eight adopted daughters. He arranged for her to study French in Switzerland (1925-1927), and then at the French Lycée Notre Dame de Sion, Istanbul. She was appointed as a secondary school teacher for history. In 1935, İnan went to Switzerland again to the University of Geneva (1936-1938). In 1939, after graduating, she obtained a PhD in sociology. In 1950, she became a professor at the University of Ankara. She was a co-founder and leading member of the Turkish Historical Society. The “Afet İnan Historical Studies Award” is given biennially by the Turkish History Foundation
- November 29,1915 – Ludu Daw Amar born, Burmese dissident writer and journalist; noted for her outspoken anti-government views and radical left wing journalism besides her outstanding work on traditional Burmese arts, theatre, dance and music, and several works of translation from English, both fiction and non-fiction; her political activism began during the 1936 university student strike, in which she and her friend M.A. Ma Ohn were the most prominent women student leaders; she and Ludu U Hia, the editor of the university’s magazine, became close during the strike, and were married in 1939. WWII broke out in Burma in1942, they joined the Resistance. Her husband was arrestged briefly, but let go. During this time, she translated several books by Japanese author Hino Ashihei, and Czech author Wanda Wasilewska. In 1945, her husband launched a fortnightly newspaper called the Ludu Journal, with Amar as assistant editor, noted for their incisive political commentaries and analyses, and so successful it became the Ludu Daily the following year. After Burmese independence from Britain in 1948, the unsettled situation led to government troops dynamiting their press, and regime changes further destabilized the situation. At one point, they and their family were saved from being shot by the intervention of a number of Buddhist monks and their neighbors. Amar traveled in the 1950s to the World Democratic Women’s Conference in Copenhagen, World Peace Conference in Budapest, and 4th World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest. In 1953, her husband was arrested and imprisoned for sedition and spent three years in jail. In 1959, the paper was sealed off by authorities, and wasn’t printed again until over a year later. It was closed down by the military government in 1967. They continued to write, give seminars and remained active in community affairs. Their oldest son joined an underground Communist group, and was killed in a purge, and their second son was sent to prison for his part in student political activities. In 1975, the government invited the couple to speak to university students helping with the reconstruction of the Bagan temples damaged by an earthquake. Her husband died in 1982, but she lived until 2008, dying at age 92
- November 29, 1919 – Pearl Primus born, choreographer, dancer, fused modern dance with African dance. Her debut in 1943 created public demand for African American women in dance; also increased interest in anthropology, which helped preserve African dance tradition
- November 29, 1924 – Jane Freilicher born, American representational painter, noted for urban and country scenes
- November 29, 1926 – Michi Weglyn born, costume designer and author; wrote Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of American Concentration Camps, about WWII internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry
- November 29, 1940 – Dame Janet H. Smith born, English judge, called to the Bar in 1972, practicing law before being appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1986; appointed in 1991 by Lancashire County Council to hold a public inquiry into reported abuse of autistic children at Scotforth House. In 1992, she was appointed as a High Court judge and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Probably best known as chair of the Shipman Inquiry, a year-long investigation into British serial killer Dr. Harold Shipman, which concluded that he had murdered at least 215 patients, and possibly as many as 260 people. In 2002, she was the 4th woman promoted to the Court of Appeal (2002-2011) In 2011, she became the independent assessor for miscarriages of justice compensation for England and Wales. In 2012, she became Treasurer of Lincoln’s Court Inn, and was also asked by the BBC to lead an inquiry into sexual abuse charges against radio and television personality Jimmy Savile. Her review concluded that he had sexually abused 72 people and raped 8 people, including an 8-year-old, and that BBC staff members who were aware of complaints about his behavior did not pass them on to senior management due to an atmosphere of fear, and a culture of not complaining. She also provided a number of recommendations for reform of the BBC’s internal processes
- November 29, 1942 – Maggie Thompson born, librarian and editor of the Comic Buyers Guide, Fantasy Empire magazine and Movie Collector’s World newspaper, as well as collector’s price guides for science fiction and fantasy
- November 29, 1943 – Janet Holmes à Court born, Australian philanthropist and businesswoman; supporter of medical research and the Arts
- November 29, 1943 – Sue Miller born, American author of best-selling novels, and short stories. Noted for her novels The Good Mother, While I Was Gone, and The Arsonist
- November 29, 1953 – Jackie French born, prolific Australian author of fiction and nonfiction books, primarily for young readers, including her eight-book nonfiction series Fair Dinkum, which covers over 60,000 years of Australian history
- November 29, 1956 – Yvonne Fovargue born, British Labour politician, Member of Parliament for Makerfield since 2010, served as Opposition Whip in 2011
- November 29, 1956 – Katrin Saks born, Estonian politician; currently vice-chair of the Social Democratic Party; Member of the European Parliament (2006-2009 and 2014); Minister of Population and Ethnic Affairs (1999-2002); Member of the Estonian Parliament (2003-2006); Open Estonia Fund project manager (1998-2000)
- November 29, 1957 – Janet Napolitano born, American lawyer, Democratic politician and university administrator; President of the University of California since 2013; U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security (2009-2013); Chair of the National Governors Association (2006-2007); Governor of Arizona (2003-2009); Attorney General of Arizona (1999-2003); U.S Attorney for the District of Arizona (1993-1997)
- November 29, 1965 – Lauren Child born, English awarding-winning children’s author and artist; in 2000, she won the Kate Greenaway medal for I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato, the first book in her Charlie and Lola series
- November 29, 1973 – Sarah Jones born, African American playwright, poet and actress; noted for her one-woman theatre shows, including Bridge & Tunnel, produced Off-Broadway by Meryl Streep, which went on to Broadway and won a Special Tony Award
_________________________________
- November 30, 1485 – Veronica Gambara born, Italian political leader and poet; when her husband the Count of Correggio died in 1518, she took over running the city-state, including the condottieri (the military), and turned her court into a salon, drawing important Renaissance thinkers and artists; when the city was attacked in 1538 by the forces of Galeotto Pico II, she organized a successful defense, then oversaw improving the fortifications; 80 of her poems and 150 of her letters have survived
- November 30, 1916 – Dena Epstein born, American musicologist, music librarian, and author; noted for her research on the historic origins of American slave music, author of Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: black folk music to the Civil War; president of the Music Library Association (1977-1979)
- November 30, 1926 – Teresa Gisbert Carbonell born, Bolivian historian of art and architecture, and author, specializing in the Andean region; director of the National Art Museum of La Paz (1970-1976); director od the Bolivian Cultural Institute (1986-1989); president of the International Council on Monument and Sites in Bolivia (1986-1992); her books include Iconografía y mitos indígenas en el arte (Indigenous Iconography and Myths in Art), and Arte textil y mundo Andino (Textile Art and the Andean World)
- November 30, 1931 – Margot Zemach born, prolific American children’s book illustrator and author of books often adapted from folk tales; won the 1974 Caldecott Medal for Duffy and the Devil, on which she collaborated with her husband, Harve Zemach
- November 30, 1937 – Adeline Yen Mah born in China, Chinese-American physician, anesthesiologist and author, known for her bestselling autobiographical works, Falling Leaves and Chinese Cinderella. She also wrote a book on Chinese philosophy and children’s books
- November 30, 1945 – Hilary J. Armstrong born, Baroness Armstrong; British Labour politician; Lord Temporal of House of Lords (2010); Member of Parliament for Durham NW (1987-2010); Minister of various departments, including Minister for Local Government (1997-2001), and Chief Whip of House of Commons/Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (2001-2006)
- November 30, 1950 – Patricia Ann Tracey born, American naval officer; first U.S. woman promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral in 1996; Director of Navy Staff (2001-2004); Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Manpower and Personnel Policy, the Pentagon (1998-2001); Director of Naval Training, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (1996-1998); Commander of the Naval Training Center, Great Lakes (1995-1996)
- November 30, 1976 – Marta Burgay born, Italian radio astronomer; discoverer of PSR J0737-3039, first known double pulsar; her thesis on radio pulsars won 2005 Pietro Tacchini Prize, awarded by Società Astronomica Italiana
_________________________________
SOURCES: