We will through the study of our respective significant women in American history demonstrate their struggles with indentifying with and conforming to the "true womanhood" ideals of their particular historical period from the mid-1800s until the modern era.

Furthermore, we will demonstrate that these women through their struggles perpetuated significant era changing events.

SIGNIFICANT WOMEN CHANGING STEREOTYPES

Morgan WatkinsPhillip BautistaAnna SteinAnna TretyakovNicholas KoehlerRobert Martinez

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman 1843-1864

WHAT IS HER SIGNIFICANCE?

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman was known as Private Lyons Wakeman

She is a female that disguised herself as a man to serve in the Civil War in 1862

She was one of over 100 documented female soldiers though the number is thought to be closer to 400

WHAT INFLUENCED HER?

Her family was poor She went to work as a man because

she knew she could make more money for her family

She was a hard worker and grew up on a farm doing the same work as the rest of her family

WHY SHE DECIDED TO GO

She was approached by soldiers while working at another job in New York where also pretending to be a man

She was intrigued by the enlistment bonus and monthly amount of money she was promised

HER CHALLENGE TO TRUE WOMANHOOD She broke out of the traditional roles of

patriotism Most women were making quilts and

selling baked goods She was one of few on the battlefield

TRUE WOMANHOOD

She did not do any fighting for public recognition

Strictly for the money she could make to send back to her family

No one knew she was a woman until after her death

AT HER DEATH

Private Lyons Wakeman passed away from Dysentery after she served two years in the War

She was a courageous woman that broke the mold for what it means to be patriotic and she challenged what it means to be a woman in the Civil War

Not all women had such unconventional contributions to the war effort

CLARA BARTON 1821-1912

Founder of the Red Cross

Clara was born in 1821 as the youngest of

five children. At the age of 12 her older

brother fell off a barn roof and was badly

injured. For the next two years Clara

provided his care. This set the stage for

what would become her life work.

Clara became a schoolteacher at around the age of 25. This was not uncommon for women at this time, but Clara took her career one step beyond just teaching at schools.In 1852 she established the first free school in Bordertown, NJ and became the principal.

At this time in American history, women were allowed to teach in schools, but society believed that a man was more qualified to be a principal of a school. Clara gave up her position as principal to a male counterpart, and when she gave up the position, she gave up teaching for good.

After leaving education, Clara worked for the government from 1855-1861. Secretary of the Interior, Robert McClelland opposed women working in government, and Clara was demoted from her position. Another turning point in her life came on April 19th, 1861 when she left government service at the USPO.

An attack on the Massachusetts infantry resulted in Clara providing care with bandages and supplies to soldiers from her house. Clara left her office work and focused on providing care for the soldiers. This work continued through the rest of the Civil War.

After falling ill from diseases contracted in the Civil War, Clara recuperates in Europe. At this time she learns about the Red Cross and encourages President Hayes to join the Geneva Convention and establishes the US Red Cross in 1881.

While the environment that we grow up in shapes who we are and what we become, we choose our own method of how we respond with our actions. Clara chose to act in a political manner to effect change for women. If society didn’t approve of her position in a man’s role, that wasn’t enough to stop her from following her heart.

Clara demonstrated throughout her life that women had the power to effect change and policy. From changing military policies regarding battlegrounds to presidential influence on foreign policies Clara was able to show women were able to stand for their beliefs and create change within their environments.

From an explicit challenge to politics to passively changing womanhood through natural individuality

ANNIE OAKLEY(1860-1926)

WHY IS SHE SIGNIFICANT?

Her extraordinary skill in shooting, which outreached most male shooters, helped to change American’s views about women’s involvement in sports.

“It is largely a matter of determination and practice that makes good marksmen or women.” – Annie Oakley

INFLUENCES ON OAKLEY’S LIFE

Her father allowed her to play like a boy and even encouraged her to gain skill in trapping small game.

INFLUENCES ON OAKLEY’S LIFE

Oakley’s Quaker upbringing instilled the belief that women could make important contributions as well as men.

INFLUENCES ON OAKLEY’S LIFE

Poverty allowed her to get a job shooting and trapping game, to earn income for her family.

FAME VS. SHAME

Oakley appealed to audiences male and female alike because she dressed modestly and had a very ladylike manner.

CHALLENGES TO “TRUE WOMANHOOD”

She excelled at a sport in which women weren’t allowed to participate, and made a considerable amount of money during her career.

CHALLENGES TO “TRUE WOMANHOOD”

She married Frank Butler, but never had any children, which was expected of women in the Victorian Era.

CHALLENGES TO “TRUE WOMANHOOD”

She was an outspoken advocate, in her later years, for a woman’s right to bear and use firearms for both sport and self-defense.

“God intended women to be outside as well as men, and they do not know what they are missing when they stay cooped up in the house enjoying themselves with a novel.” – Annie Oakley

THE ANNIE OAKLEY MOTTO “Aim at a high mark and you will hit it.

No, not the first time, nor the second, and maybe not the third. But keep on aiming and keep on shooting for only practice will make you perfect. Finally, you’ll hit the Bull’s Eye of Success.”

A change in attitude toward women in sports paved the way for differently abled African American women to excel in sports

Wilma Rudolph

(1940-1994)

EARLY YEARS

Wilma Rudolph was born in a poor African American family in Tennessee. She had many illnesses since childhood. One of them was paralytic polio. It crippled her legs and her doctors predicted that she would never walk again. But her mother still always encouraged her, and her family too. Wilma once said, “My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.”

FIRST VICTORIES

Wilma overcame that disease by the age of 12. She surprised the doctors when she took off her braces and walked. "By the time I was 12," she told the Chicago Tribune, "I was challenging every boy in our neighborhood at running, jumping, everything." She started to be deeply involved in sports. She played basketball and ran track in high school.

In high school, Wilma got noticed by the Tennessee State University track coach Ed Temple. He started training her during the summer.

COMPETITION

COMPETITIONWilma had to work hard in order to win. She said once, “The triumph can't be had without the struggle. And I know what struggle is. I have spent a lifetime trying to share what it has meant to be a woman first in the world of sports so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams.”

COMPETITION

“I loved the feeling of freedom in running, the fresh air, the feeling that the only person I'm competing with is me.”

THE TIME OF GLORYAt the Olympic games, Wilma won 3 gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter sprints, and also the 400 meter relay. She was named “La Gazelle” and other names which were given to her by astonished viewers. At the finish line, she was always ahead of her followers by at least 3 yards. She got very many fans. People asked her for her autograph a lot. She became instantly famous all around the world.

AWARDS United Press Athlete of the Year 1960 Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year 1960 James E. Sullivan Award for Good Sportsmanship 1961 The Babe Zaharias Award 1962 European Sportswriters' Sportsman of the Year Christopher Columbus Award for Most Outstanding

International Sports Personality 1960 The Penn Relays 1961 New York Athletic Club Track Meet The Millrose Games Black Sports Hall of Fame 1980 U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame 1983 Vitalis Cup for Sports Excellence 1983 Women's Sports Foundation Award 1984

LATER YEARS

After Wilma retired from the Olympic competitions, she returned home. There she taught at her old elementary school, and was the track coach at her old high school. Later, she moved on to coaching positions, first in Maine, and then in Indiana. She was invited to be a guest speaker at many schools and universities. She also started to do broadcasting and became a sports commentator on national television and the co-host of a network radio show. She organized an organization for young athletes, especially minorities, called the Wilma Rudolph Foundation.

DEATH

Unfortunately, Wilma died from

brain cancer when she was 54, which

was shortly after her mother’s

death.

IMPACT AND SIGNIFICANCE

Wilma Rulolph’s achievements in personal life (overcoming polio), sports, and helping others in different ways had a strong influence on today’s society. Now, more people are fighting their diseases, and go into sports than before. Also, many women and African American athletes were inspired by Wilma, and many athletes today view her as their motivation and role model. Wilma’s Foundation has also helped many young athletes to overcome barriers in order to achieve their dreams. Women athletes got more respect and recognition and more chances because of what Wilma had accomplished.

A medical evolution pioneered the need for more medical professionals and healthier working environments

ALICE HAMILTON(1869-1970)

WHY IS SHE SIGNIFICANT?

◘ Research and evidence by Dr. Hamilton pioneered occupational epidemiology and industrial hygiene in the United States.

SIGNIFICANCE

◘ Her findings were scientifically persuasive and influenced reforms, both voluntary and regulatory, to improve the health of workers.

INFLUENCES ON HER LIFE◘ While working in Hull House, she

overheard many awful stories about carbon-monoxide gassing in steel mills, lead palsy poisoning in the painting industry, or people acquiring pneumonia from work in the stockyards.

◘ Alice went to medical school and became a Doctor instead of taking the “traditional” role of being a teacher, nurse, or housewife.

CHALLENGES TO “TRUE WOMANHOOD”

CHALLENGES TO “TRUE WOMANHOOD”

◘ In 1910, she was appointed to the Occupational Diseases Commission of Illinois- the first one in the United States.

◘ This was a position of power for a woman in a time when women were supposed to be subordinate to men.

CHALLENGES TO “TRUE WOMANHOOD”

◘ In 1919, she was hired as assistant professor in a new Department of Industrial Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

◘ She was the first woman to be hired into a male dominated school of higher education as Assistant Professor Emeritus of Industrial Medicine.

“A Woman on Harvard Faculty-The Last Citadel Has Fallen-The Sex Has Come Into Its Own” – New York Tribune Headline

A culmination of medical advancement and women’s rights leads to a legal and educational challenge in the freedom of choice

NORMA MCCORVEY

Roe v. Wade and the struggle for freedom of choice

NORMA MCCORVEY

Born September 22, 1947 in Simmesport, Louisiana.

From an early age Norma struggled with emotional, and physical abuse from both parents. These abuses undoubtedly are the reason for Norma’s trouble with the law and her education, indeed Norma would be sent to several reform schools and eventually drop out in the 9th grade

In Norma’s early teens, Norma had a lesbian experience with a friend who later accused her of raping her

Norma would be obscure if it were not for her participation in the Roe v. Wade decision and thus any study of her life is incomplete without discussing it.

NORMA CONTINUED

From an early age Norma would struggle with her sexual identity, bouncing back and forth between dating men and women, never sure whether to follow her heart or do what society told her to and date a man.

Norma would bear three children, of these all three were given up for adoption

ABORTION, A STATUS QUO

In 1812 Massachusetts a woman could have an abortion before quickening, that is the first sign of movement by the baby, occurred.

By 1910 however every state except for Kentucky had made abortion a felony (O’Connor, 2006).

An 1871 study by the American Medical Association found that nearly 20% of all pregnancies were deliberately terminated (O’Connor 2006).

1970 Alaska, Hawaii, New York, and Washington joined Colorado as the only states that had liberalized their abortion laws to allow a self initiated abortion (National Abortion Federation).

ABORTION, A SAD INSTITUTION

It is estimated that 200,000 to 1.2 million illegal or self induced abortions occurred in the 50s and 60s (O’Connor, 2006).

Prior to the decision in Roe V. Wade, it is estimated that 5,000 women a year died from illegal back alley abortions (O’Connor). If extrapolated from 1950 until 1973 when Roe was decided that is 115,000 deaths, more than the combined Allied and German deaths on the D-Day landing

ROE V. WADE, 410 U.S. 113 (1973),

In September of 1969 Norma McCorvey attempted to obtain an abortion in Texas under the guise that she was raped. Because there was no police record, her request was denied and she attempted to have an illegal abortion but found the clinic was shut down.

Texas Penal codes 1191-1194 and 1196 stated that abortions were illegal, except to save a mothers life as defined by her physician.

Norma and her attorney Linda Coffee brought suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The court agreed with her but declined to issue an injunction allowing her to procure an abortion. The district attorney, Wade, appealed the decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and was appealed to the United States Supreme Court.

ROE, THE DECISION

The Court issued its opinion on January 22, 1973 The Court held that the Texas law that Norma McCorvey brought suit against violated the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution because it makes no exception other than maternal health in its prohibition of abortions, and that it was entirely too vague. Furthermore the Court held that: women have a right to receive an abortion for any reason in the first trimester of pregnancy; a state may, at its own discretion in “promoting its interest” elect to restrict abortions during the second trimester except for cases involving maternal health ; and a state may, at its own discretion prohibit abortion in the third trimester unless compelling medical issue related to the mother’s health is present (Roe V. Wade).

SIGNIFICANCE IN HISTORY…?

It is difficult for anybody to maneuver their way through the American legal system, let alone a high school drop out with only a 9th grade education. Norma was constantly told as a child that she was worthless and would never amount to anything.

Though it is accepted that abortion is a divisive issue with both sides raising valid concerns, the legacy of Norma should not necessarily be Roe, but rather that she had the strength to persevere through a national 4-year trial and even bear the child she sought to have aborted.

Many studies find that women have immense reservations about procuring abortions and immense feelings of guilt about it; it is difficult to imagine having something as personal as a medical procedure put in the national spotlight and have to eventually bear that child.

After Norma came out as the Roe in Roe v. Wade, she faced constant harassment, pro life supporters would frequently call her names and even scatter baby clothes on her lawn.

“CROSSING THE LINE” On August 8, 1995 Norma McCorvey was baptized and joined the

pro life group, “Operation Rescue” McCorvey now claims she never would have obtained that last

abortion, even if she could have, because it was too late in the pregnancy.

McCorvey is now a staunch pro life supporter and blames all abortion clinic violence on the pro choice side. The fact is however that Religious fanatics have murdered approximately 11 doctors who provide abortion services, bombed or set fire to more than 200 reproductive health care clinics since the mid 1970s , sent nearly 654 suspicious letters to reproductive health care clinics, causing them to be shut down for days and spilled Butyric acid in approximately 100 clinics. Butyric acid is a clear, odorless acid which makes humans sick and requires expensive, time consuming clean up costing countless amounts of time and money in repairs.

In 2008 Norma was arrested for protesting at University of Notre Dame during the campaign debate of Barack Obama and again in 2009 during the confirmation hearing for Justice Sonia Sotomayor, both for their alleged abortion views.

THE LEGACY OF NORMA AND ROE Whatever your opinion is regarding the so-called

“morality” behind abortion, we must understand that for someone of McCorvey’s place in the 70s, scared, pregnant, uneducated and broke it took great courage and strength to stand up to an entire edifice of anti-abortion laws.

Roe v. Wade paved the way for thousands of women to procure, safe abortions by trained physicians in clean operating rooms. Earlier it was mentioned that approximately 5,000 women a year died from unsafe abortions prior to Roe v. Wade. Today women still face harassment by religion fanatics at clinics even here in the valley. Pro-life supporters spread lies about abortion claiming it undoubtedly leads to cancer.

From pretending to be male to assuming men’s responsibilities to excelling in recreational sports to revolutionizing occupational medicine which leads to women’s rights our women have been an integral part of the continual changing of mindset of women in America.