A few weeks ago, after I spoke at their annual dinner, the Southern Illinois University School of Law Women In Leadership group gave me a beautiful interactive book entitled "Women - A Celebration of Strength," published in 2007 by Legal Momentum. I want to share with you merely a few of the fascinating quotes and statistics that graced this amazing book.

QUOTES

"This country can ill afford to continue to function using half of its human resources, brain power, and kinetic energy." Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, Keynote Address, Democratic National Convention, 1976

"My own career in public service was born of necessity. After graduating near the top of my class at Stanford Law School in 1952, I was unable to obtain employment in a private law firm. I did receive one contingent offer of employment - as a legal secretary." Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, 2004

"Women are like teabags, you never know their true strength until you put them in hot water." Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), internationally known stateswoman and wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt

"A woman's body could only handle a limited number of development tasks at a time - girls who spent too much energy developing their minds during puberty would end up with diseased reproductive systems." Dr. Edward Clark, Harvard Medical School, 1873  (my comment...yikes!)

"Sensible and reasonable women do not want to vote." President Grover Cleveland (again, yikes!)

FACTS

Until...

• 1837, no woman in the US had graduated from college.
• 1877, no woman in the US had a doctorate.
• 1920, no woman could vote in any national election.
• 1936, the National Recovery Act mandated that women working in government HAD to make 25% less than men doing the same job.
• 1965, states could outlaw birth control - even for married couples.
• 1974, women had no legal protection against sexual harassment in the workplace.
• 1984, no woman had ever run for one of the highest offices in the land on a national party ticket.
• 1994, there was no comprehensive national legislation to address the issue of violence against women.   

Unpaid homemaking work and caregiving are still not valued in the Gross National Product. If they were, the GNP would rise by an estimated 25-50%.

 

Once all male, after blind auditions were implemented, the New York Philharmonic is now nearly half female.

The Harvard Observatory astronomer who showed the world how to measure the brightness and distance of stars was a woman (Henrietta Leavitt, 1868-1921).

The undergraduate architecture student at Yale who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a woman (Maya Ying Lin).

The pilot who holds the most speed, altitude and distance records was a woman (Jacqueline Cochran).

The first computer programmer was a woman (Ada Byron Lovelace, 1815-1852).

In 2005, a CBS News poll found broad appreciation for feminism and the women's movement. According to the poll, when a feminist is defined as "someone who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes," 58% of men and 65% of women identified themselves as feminists. A record high 69% of women said the movement has improved their lives, compared with 43% in 1997 and 25% in 1983.

A few months ago, a male friend asked me for the definition of feminism. "Equality," I answered. "Nothing more, nothing less." I guess that makes me a feminist. How about you?

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