March is Women's History Month!!!!

[Melissa]

Margaret Thatcher...even though I don't agree with her politics she was a powerhouse.

When I was a kid in school in England, Margaret Thatcher cut the free milk program to schools. She was called Margaret Thatcher the child milk snatcher. From my point of view, I was relieved not to be forced to drink milk everyday at school. Urgh.

Melissa

[Melissa]

Jeanette Winterson. Her book Oranges are not the only Fruit made me laugh and cry. I think it is still one of the funniest, strange, and memorable books I have ever read.

Originally Posted by Melissa

Margaret Thatcher...even though I don't agree with her politics she was a powerhouse.

When I was a kid in school in England, Margaret Thatcher cut the free milk program to schools. She was called Margaret Thatcher the child milk snatcher. From my point of view, I was relieved not to be forced to drink milk everyday at school. Urgh.

Melissa

Margaret Thatcher set the Women's Movement back a decade or more when she was in power. I and many I know would never had called her 'sister' back in the day. There are also many of us who will rejoice and dance on her grave when the biatch finally carks it.

Originally Posted by Melissa

Jeanette Winterson. Her book Oranges are not the only Fruit made me laugh and cry. I think it is still one of the funniest, strange, and memorable books I have ever read.

I loved the book and the wonderful tv series. RIP Charlotte Coleman

[The_Lady_Snow]

[The_Lady_Snow]

[Melissa]

Golda Meir. I hadn't thought about her in ages. She is a political figure and many may not agree with her role in Israel. But I'm including women who have had a significant impact in politics and the world and she is one.

[girl_dee]

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Harriet Ross; 1820 – March 10, 1913) was an African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, and Union spy during the American Civil War. After escaping from slavery, into which she was born, she made thirteen missions to rescue more than 70 slaves[1] using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. She later helped John Brown recruit men for his raid on Harpers Ferry, and in the post-war era struggled for women's suffrage.
As a child in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman was beaten by masters to whom she was hired out. Early in her life, she suffered a head wound when hit by a heavy metal weight. The injury caused disabling seizures, narcoleptic attacks, headaches, and powerful visionary and dream activity, which occurred throughout her life. A devout Christian, Tubman ascribed the visions and vivid dreams to revelations from God.
In 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia, then immediately returned to Maryland to rescue her family. Slowly, one group at a time, she brought relatives out of the state, and eventually guided dozens of other slaves to freedom. Traveling by night, Tubman (or "Moses", as she was called) "never lost a passenger".[2] Large rewards were offered for the return of many of the fugitive slaves, but no one then knew that Tubman was the one helping them. When the Southern-dominated Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, requiring law officials in free states to aid efforts to recapture slaves, she helped guide fugitives farther north into Canada, where slavery was prohibited.
When the American Civil War began, Tubman worked for the Union Army, first as a cook and nurse, and then as an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the Combahee River Raid, which liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina. After the war, she retired to the family home in Auburn, New York, where she cared for her aging parents. She became active in the women's suffrage movement in New York until illness overtook her. Near the end of her life, she lived in a home for elderly African-Americans that she had helped found years earlier.

[Rook]

[The_Lady_Snow]

Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY) became the first woman to chair the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She also served as House Minority Whip-at-Large.

[femmeInterrupted]

[The_Lady_Snow]

Destruction of Personal Property

The Ms. Foundation for Women is celebrating Women’s History Month with a blog carnival featuring the voices and profiles of women across the country. This Month of Action is generously supported by our friends in Seattle.

By Valerie Deering

I am a survivor of domestic violence.

It started with my family of origin and culminated in one brave act to call law enforcement after I had been thrown down stairs by a man who “loved” me.

During my month-long stay with him, while I was being treated for breast cancer, he said and did many disturbing things to me. Luckily, once the police were called, the situation became a state matter.

Like many women, I began to feel guilty about calling the police because the man became even more abusive and threatened to throw me out if I didn’t recant my story. So I did, on paper.

The man became even more violent. It was as if the paper were a permission slip to treat me as an object, his property.

Finally, I escaped – but only after he made more threats to my safety, causing me to experience an enormous moment of clarity.

Despite the evidence of cuts and bruises and the police testimony, this man was exonerated from domestic violence. However, he had broken a piece of my furniture in his rage.

The final verdict?

Guilty of destruction of personal property.

I’m glad to hear that he was handed some sort of consequence for his violent behavior. But how telling is it that his consequence was for destroying a piece of furniture rather than tossing a woman down the stairs?

Surviving domestic violence taught me that I have power. I just gave it away for so long. Now I use it for good in the world, helping others realize their own power. A year ago, I started a women's foundation for the education, empowerment and rehabilitation of women and girls who have been touched by domestic violence – which is way too many, as you know.

Valerie Deering lives in Overland Park, KS.

[Soon]

Tomorrow is International Women's Day!