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Almanac
Sometimes Jewish, sometimes feminist, sometimes both.
February 10- February 16
Birthdays
February 10
- In 1907, Grace Hamilton, the first Black member of the Georgia state
legislature.
February 11
- In 1802, Lydia Maria Child, author/abolitionist (Juvenile Miscellany).
February 14
- In 1838, Margaret E. Knight. She held 27 patents including the machinery
that makes flat-bottomed paper bags (rather than the envelope type).
The basic machinery concept which she patented in 1870 is still in use
today.
- In 1941, Donna Shalala. She was appointed Secretary of the Department
of Health and Human Services by Bill Clinton, chancellor of the University
of Wisconsin and the first woman to head a Big 10 school, president
of Hunter College for seven years, and professor at Columbia.
February 15
- In 1935, Susan Brownmiller, feminist author (Against Our Wills).
- In 1820, Susan Brownell Anthony, affectionally known as Aunt Susan.
One of the primary figures of the 19th century battle for women's rights
and became its best known spokeswoman. She was elected to the Hall of
Fame for Great Americans in 1950. An pioneer crusader for women's rights,
women's suffrage, Negro suffrage and abolition who traveled this nation
constantly for 60 years for social justice. Her last public words: "Failure
is impossible."
Happenings
February 10
- In 1870, theYWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) was founded
(New York, NY).
- In 1917, Johanna Westerdijk was installed as Netherlands first female
professor.
- In 1855, the Women's Hospital in New York City, the first woman's
hospital in the world, was founded by women for the exclusive use of
women where women were normal and not "other."
February 11
- In 1852, the first British public female toilet opened (Bedford Street
London).
- In 1916, Emma Goldman, the noted anarchist, was arrested for publically
speaking about birth control. A New York state code forbade discussions
of health matters in public... and doctors refused to do it in private.
- In 1958, Ruth Carol Taylor was the first African-American woman hired
as a flight attendant.
- In 1989, the Rev. Barbara C. Harris, 58, was consecrated in Boston
as the first woman bishop in the Anglican Church. (In 1988 the Church
of England passed the first legislation which began opening the Anglican
priesthood to women.)
February 12
- In 1992, Sharon Kowalski finally went home. After an eight-year battle
to gain custody of her life partner who was badly injured in an accident,
Karen Thompson was named Sharon's guardian and took her home. Karen
had fought for the right of guardianship claiming Sharon's father -
who would have nothing to do with her before the accident - only gave
her warehousing, custodial care on the money awarded Sharon for her
accident and insufficient medical care. Karen showed that because of
the lack of physical therapy Sharon's muscles were shortening crippling
her further. And Sharon, though brain damaged, made it clear she wanted
to go with Karen. In the decision, the Minnesota Court of Appeals said
that the women were "...a family of affinity which ought to be
respected."
February 14
- In 1920, the League of Women Voters was formed in Chicago.
- In 1985, by a vote of 636-267, the U.S. Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative
Judaism voted to accept women as rabbis. The 1984 vote fell 22 short
of the 75% approval requirement.
February 15
- In 1879, Congress authorized women lawyers to practice before the
Supreme Court.
February 16
- In 1916, under the leadership of Henrietta Szold, 52, the Hadassah
Study Circle at New York's Temple Emanuel reconstituted itself. Szold
afterward made this sisterhood of US Jewish women a nationwide Zionist
organization. Szold herself headed the group until 1926.
- In 1944, Sue S. Dauser was appointed the first woman captain in the
US Navy.
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Almanac 
Ritual/Liturgy 