Happy Women's Day!

How exactly does one celebrate Women's Day? Are there greeting cards that I should purchase and distribute to all of the important women in my life? I don't really know. But I do know that women have getting the short end of stick (you know what I mean!) for almost all of recorded history. So here are a few highlights that were shared around my workplace today.

(www.historychannel.com/exhibits/womenhist):

1826 – The first public high schools for girls open in New York and Boston

1833 – Oberlin College in Ohio, is the first co-educational college in the U.S.

1840 – Lucretia Mott is one of several women delegates to attend the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London. As a woman, she is forced to sit in the gallery and cannot participate.

1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to receive a medical degree in the U.S.

1850 – Women are granted the right to own land in a state (Oregon).

1890 – Wyoming is the first state to allow women to vote.

1920 – The 19^th Amendment is ratified, allowing women the right to vote in federal elections.

1972 – U.S. Congress passes the Equal Employment Opportunity Act.

1981 – Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

1995 – Lt. Col. Eileen Collins becomes the first American woman to pilot a Space Shuttle.

2005 – Condoleezza Rice becomes the first African-American woman to be appointed Secretary of State.

Ummm, Wyoming was the first state that allowed women to vote!?!? And THAT wasn't even until 1890!??! Ok, my grandfather is 80, which means he was born in 1926. His mother (who was a missionary to the country of Burma) grew up in a time when she was not considered a full-fledged citizen, and was not allowed to vote. That still amazes me. Astounding.
Even more astounding, there are STILL places in the world where women are not allowed to vote, or even go to school. GO TO SCHOOL!?!?! Ok, I'm in a bad mood already (rough day at work, much fighting on many fronts, some of them against women), so I'll just stop here, and let YOU get angry for me. And as the bumper sticker says, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention!"