Three Floridians Have Been Chosen as National Women’s History Month 2016 Honorees
March is National Women's History Month and the 2016 theme is Working to Form a More Perfect Union: Honoring Women in Public Service and Government. This year’s Honorees were chosen for their influence in public service and government leadership. Often overlooked and undervalued, they have individually and collectively dramatically influenced our public policy and the building of viable institutions and organizations. Women from diverse backgrounds in all levels of public service and government are essential in forming a more perfect union. The three Floridians chosen include the first woman Chairman of the Seminole Tribe, the first woman attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the EEOC, and the executive Director of Equality Florida
Betty Mae Tiger Jumper who was born in 1923 and died in 2001 was the first woman to be elected Chief of a federally recognized tribe. She founded the first Seminole newspaper—the Seminole Indian News, using it to publish and distribute Seminole stories, insuring the traditions and oral history of the Seminole Tribe. She created the initial United Southeastern Tribes (USET) coalition, which today consists of more than 26 tribes. Through her political work and preservation of Seminole oral history, young people are learning and honoring their history.
Sonia Pressman Fuentes is a co-founder of NOW and was the first woman attorney in the Office of the General Counsel at the EEOC, a government agency dedicated to enforcing federal employment discrimination laws. While there, she became the staff person who stood for the aggressive enforcement of the gender discrimination prohibitions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. She is also a charter member of the advocacy group Federally Employed Women (FEW) and served on the advisory committees of the Veteran Feminists of America (VFA) and the Longboat Key Education Center. Fuentes is an author and spokesperson, who has dedicated her entire life to making equal rights for women in the work force a reality rather than just a promise.
Nadine Smith is a national leader in LGBT rights activism and is currently executive Director of Equality Florida. Smith began her activism in college, and in 1986 when she served on the founding board of the International Gay and Lesbian Youth Organization. She participated in the historic, first-ever meeting in the White House between LGBT leaders and President Bill Clinton. Smith has served four terms as co-chair of the Equality Federation. Smith is a lobbyist, activist, and leader who works tirelessly to improve the lives of Lesbian, Gay, bisexual, and Transgender Americans. In 2013, Smith was named by the Florida Diversity Council as one of the “Most Powerful and Influential Women” in Florida.
The 2016 National Women’s History Month Honorees will be honored at a special Awards Luncheon in Washington, DC on March 19th.
“Working to Form a More Perfect Union:
Honoring Women in Public Service
and Government” *
The National Women’s History Month theme for 2016 honors women who
have shaped America’s history and its future through their public service and
government leadership. Although often overlooked and undervalued, collectively
they have dramatically influenced our public policy and the building of viable
institutions and organizations. From championing basic human rights to ensuring
access and equal opportunity for all Americans, they have led the way in
establishing a stronger and more democratic country.
Each
of these public leaders succeeded against great odds. The diversity of their
experiences demonstrates both the challenges and the opportunities women in
public service have faced. Their ability to use the art of collaboration to
create inclusive solutions and non-partisan policies, as well as their skill
and determination, serve to inspire future generations. The tenacity of each
Honoree underlines the fact that women from all cultural backgrounds in all
levels of public service and government are essential in the continuing work of
forming a more perfect union.
2016
National Women’s History Month Honorees
Sister Mary Madonna Ashton, CSJ (1923-Present)
Public Health Leader and
Minnesota Commissioner of Health
Mary Madonna Ashton, CSJ has an impressive Minnesota-based career
in public and private service. She served as president and CEO of St. Mary’s
Hospital in Minneapolis, State Commissioner of Health under Governor
Perpich, and founded St. Mary’s Health Clinics.
Sister Mary Madonna earned a bachelor’s in sociology and
psychology from St. Catherine University (then the College of St. Catherine) in
1944. She holds a Master of Hospital Administration from the University of
Minnesota, and a Master of Science in Social Work from St. Louis University.
She worked in medical social work and hospital administration, ultimately
serving as president and CEO at St. Mary’s Hospital in Minneapolis from
1962–1982.
The following year she was contacted by then Minnesota Governor-Elect
Rudy Perpich who asked her to serve as Commissioner of Health, despite
tremendous opposition (she was not a physician, she was a woman and a nun!).
Sister Mary Madonna served as the Minnesota Commissioner of Health from
1983–1991, successfully addressing smoking cessation and AIDS prevention. She
helped pass landmark legislation outlawing smoking in public places and on
public property. Testifying for days against the tobacco industry, her
success on behalf of the state of Minnesota started a nationwide movement.
Sister Mary Madonna was a trustee of St. Mary’s Junior College
from 1974 to 1986 and at St. Catherine from 1986 to 1995 — shepherding both
institutions through the merger that would, in 2007, become the Henrietta
Schmoll School of Health.
After leaving state government in 1991, Sister Mary Madonna joined
other Sisters of St. Joseph in creating what would become St. Mary’s Health
Clinics (SMHC) in 1992. Through the ministry, she spearheaded an innovative and
compassionate effort to extend healthcare to uninsured citizens. By the time
Sister Mary Madonna retired in 2000, SMHC had 11 clinics throughout the Twin
Cities, which continue to serve families and individuals who have nowhere else
to turn for medical care.
Daisy Bates(1912-1999)
Civil Rights Organizer,
Leader of the Little Rock School Integration
Daisy Gatson Bates was a journalist and Civil Rights activist who
famously facilitated the 1957 integration of public schools in Little Rock,
Arkansas. Growing up in southern Arkansas during the early 20th century, Bates
experienced first hand the poor conditions and discrimination of the segregated
school system. She spent her entire adult life standing up to physical threats
and other forms of intimidation in order to champion causes of racial equality.
In 1941, Daisy Gatson married L.C. Bates, and moved with him to
Little Rock where she helped him run a weekly newspaper called The Arkansas State Press. The newspaper focused on social and economic
issues that particularly affected the black residents of the state, and often
reported incidents of police brutality. Because the Bates’ refused to censor
the details of these brutalities, many white businesses boycotted advertising
in their newspaper.
In 1952, Bates was elected President of the Arkansas Branch of the
NAACP. In that role she led the protest against the Little Rock School Board’s
plan for gradual integration. In 1957, after the school board
announced plans to commence desegregation at Central High School, Bates worked
with the chosen nine African American students, guiding and advising them as
they made their attempts to enter the school. On September 25, President Dwight
Eisenhower sent
1,000 U.S. Army paratroopers to enforce the integration of the
school, and Bates and the students were escorted and finally able, after many
failed attempts, to safely enter the school.
In 1962, Bates published her autobiography, “The Long Shadow of
Little Rock.” The following year she was the only woman selected to speak at
the 1963 March on Washington. She went on to work for the Democratic National
Committee’s voter education drive and for President Lyndon Johnson’s
anti-poverty programs. When Daisy Gatson Bates died in 1999, more than 2,000
guests attended her memorial service in Little Rock, AR
Sonia Pressman Fuentes
(1928 – Present)
NOW co-founder, first woman attorney
in the Office of the General Counsel at the EEOC
Sonia Pressman Fuentes is a lawyer, author, speaker and pioneering
feminist leader who fought for women’s equality in the work force and helped
initiate the Second Wave of the women’s rights movement.
Fuentes was born in 1928 in Berlin, Germany. When she was five
years old, she immigrated to the US with her parents and brother to escape the
Holocaust, arriving in New York City in 1934. In 1957 Fuentes graduated first
in her class at the University of Miami School of Law.
She was the first woman attorney to work in the Office of the
General Counsel at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a
government agency dedicated to enforcing federal employment discrimination
laws. While there, she became the staff person who stood for the aggressive enforcement of the
gender discrimination prohibitions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964. As the person who drafted a number of the initial landmark guidelines and
decisions, Fuentes played an extremely significant role in increasing the
opportunities for women in the work force in the second half of the 20th
century.
Fuentes was one of the founders of the National Organization
for Women (NOW) and was a charter member of the advocacy group Federally
Employed Women (FEW). Fuentes has also served on the advisory committees
of the Veteran Feminists of America (VFA) and the Longboat Key Education
Center.
In 1999 she published a memoir, Eat First – You Don’t
Know What They’ll Give You: The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their
Feminist Daughter. Fuentes has
dedicated her whole life to making equal rights for women in the work force, as
well as in other arenas of society, a reality rather than just a promise.
A key pioneer during the Second Wave of the women’s rights movement, the
enduring impact of her work is still evident today. For further
information on Fuentes, visit her website at http://www.erraticimpact.com/fuentes.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Isabel Gonzalez (1882-1971)
Champion of Puerto Ricans
securing American Citizenship
Isabel González was a Puerto Rican woman who fought for 15 years
to ensure full U.S. citizenship rights for all Puerto Ricans. The United
States acquired Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898 promising dignity to its people.
Isabel González left Puerto Rico in 1902, with plans to meet
family and wed the father of her yet-to-be-born child in New York. While she
was enroute, the U.S. tightened immigration restrictions on Puerto Ricans and
upon arrival her ship was sent to Ellis Island, where she and many others were
labeled aliens. González was additionally targeted as a feared “ward of the
state” because of her pregnancy. Her family vouched for her at multiple
hearings, confirming they had the financial means to support her and her child
and that she would not become a government burden, but the authorities refused
to release her from detention.
Her uncle, drawing on political connections, acquired a lawyer and
seven weeks later Gonzales’ case was heard before the Circuit Court for the
Southern District of New York. The court ruled against González, affirming her
status as an alien. The case of González v Williams was heard before the U.S.
Supreme Court in 1903; the court ruled only partially in González’ favor,
finding that Puerto Ricans should not be treated as aliens, but still not
granting them full citizenship. Her case was the first time the Supreme Court
considered the matter of residents of U.S. territories having full U.S.
citizenship.
Isabel González secretly married in 1903, gaining citizenship
through her marriage. Still she continued her
campaign for all Puerto Ricans to gain U.S. citizenship by writing countless
letters to the New York Times. The issue was finally resolved in 1917
when Congress passed, and President Woodrow Wilson signed, the Jones-Shafroth
Act, granting all Puerto Ricans American citizenship.
.
Ella Grasso
(1919-1981)
Governor of Connecticut, First Woman Governor
of any US State Elected in Her Own Right
Ella Grasso was the first woman elected governor of a U.S. state
in her own right, serving as Governor of Connecticut from 1974 through 1980.
Grasso’s political career spanned over 45 years and she won all ten elections
she ever ran in. The daughter of Italian immigrants, Ella Tambussi gained
a commitment to public service at her alma mater Mount Holyoke College.
After serving as a speechwriter for the Connecticut Democratic
Party during the 1940s, Grasso first ran for elected office in 1952 and won a
seat in the Connecticut General Assembly. Serving in the CT Assembly until
1959, she became the first woman elected Floor Leader in 1955.
Elected CT Secretary of State in 1958, she was reelected twice and
served in this role until in 1970 Grasso won election as a US
Representative and served 2 terms in the United State House of Representatives.
Grasso then won election as CT Governor in 1974 and was reelected to a second
term. Grasso resigned in 1980 after being diagnosed with terminal ovarian
cancer.
As governor Grasso had to make many challenging and unpopular
decisions, but her commitment to creating a more effective government,
balancing the budget, and adhering to the democratic process proved fruitful
and she won the admiration and trust of her constituents. She led CT through
tough economic times, making controversial cuts but also attracting new
industries and companies to the state, and the state economy steadily improved
under her leadership.
Ella Grasso is remembered as a trailblazing woman and a champion
of marginalized groups including minorities, women, young people, the elderly,
and the working class. Many believed Grasso would go on to serve in a national
leadership role such as Vice President or cabinet member. Sadly, Grasso’s
career and lifelong commitment to public service were cut short by her illness.
Suzan Shown Harjo (1945 – Present)
Native American Public Policy Advocate and Journalist
Suzan Shown Harjo is a Native American activist whose 50-year
career includes work in journalism, poetry, curating, and policy advocacy.
Descended from Cheyenne and Hodulgee Muscogee Nations, her accomplishments
include helping Native peoples regain more than one million acres of tribal
lands.
Harjo’s activism dates back to the mid 1960s when she co-produced
the nation’s first Native American news radio show. It was also around this
time that Harjo began her work with museums, first working with the Museum of
the American Indian in New York, where she helped return sacred garments
to their tribes and helped the museum change its policies to more respectfully
present Native artifacts. Harjo has continued working with museums throughout
her career, including working with the Smithsonian National Museum of the
American Indian, which opened in 2004.
In the 1970s Harjo and her husband moved to Washington, D.C.
where, after a few years working as a legislative assistant, she was appointed
Congressional liaison for Indian Affairs by President Jimmy Carter. Her
tireless lobbying efforts led to the 1978 passage of the American Indian
Religious Freedom Act.
From 1984-1989, Harjo served as Executive Director of the National
Congress of American Indians, where she continued to fight for the return of
Native lands. She also successfully secured increases in appropriations toward
Native American education programs.
Throughout her career, Harjo has spoken out against negative and
stereotypical portrayals of Native Americans in movies and on television. A
leader in efforts to remove negative Native names and images from sports teams;
by 2013 her public campaigns had succeeded in more than two-thirds of teams
moving away from Indian mascots. In 1984, Harjo founded the Morning Star
Institute in memory of her late husband. Still serving as the organization’s
president today, Harjo continues to promote sacred land claims and traditional
cultural rights. In 2014, Suzan Shown Harjo received the Presidential Medal of
Freedom from President Barack Obama.
Judy Hart (1941- Present)
National Park Founding Superintendent of
Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park
and Women’s Rights National Historical Park
Judy Hart is a civic activist and consultant whose 27-year career
with the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and other seminal work has helped
legitimize and raise awareness of women’s history in America.
After receiving a graduate degree in Law from Goddard College,
Hart began her career in publishing. After working as an editor at Little,
Brown and Company, Hart went on to work for the Federal Highway Administration
on Environmental Impact Statement reviews, later becoming the Director of the
Bureau of Relocation for Massachusetts. Hart began her career with the NPS in
1976, working both in Washington, D.C. and the Boston area. She helped
establish the Marsh Billings National Historical Park, the Mary McLeod Bethune
National Historic Site, the Petroglyphs National Monument, along with other
park units.
During her tenure at NPS Hart also became the first National
Program Coordinator for the National Heritage Area. Judy Hart moved to
Seneca Falls, NY, and after initially suggesting the idea, worked on the study
and legislation to establish the Women’s Rights National Historical Park,
becoming the first superintendent upon its inception in 1980.
Before retiring in 2005, Hart became the first superintendent of
the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Park in Richmond, CA,
and was instrumental in making the park a reality. Prior to becoming
Superintendent, Hart coordinated the study for the new park, which
is dedicated to recognizing the vital contributions that women
made on the home front during World War II.
Over 9,000 Rosies have contributed their stories to the park, and
more than 2,000 have donated their personal items and mementos for safekeeping
of the Park. Through Judy Hart’s tireless efforts, the stories and experiences
of countless women across the country now have a place to be physically
recognized and honored by the public through our National Park system.
Oveta Culp Hobby
(1905-1995)
WWII Director of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and
first Secretary of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
Oveta Culp Hobby was a pioneer military leader who helped define
women’s initial role in the Army during World War II. She served as the first
commanding officer of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), was the first secretary of
the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and was the Chairperson of the
Board of the Houston Post.
After receiving her law degree from the University of Texas in
1925, she worked as a parliamentarian for the Texas House of Representatives
and, in 1930, was appointed the assistant to the city attorney of Houston. A
year later she married William P. Hobby, a former Governor of Texas and then
publisher of the Houston Post. Hobby helped her husband run the Post for ten
years before moving to Washington, D.C. to work as the head of the War
Department’s Women’s Interest Section.
In 1942 Hobby became the first Director of the newly formed
Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, later the Women’s Army Corps, under which over
150,000 women served. For the first year all WACs were volunteers, and Hobby
often had to fight to get resources and recognition for the Corps. Challenging
all gender norms, the Corps faced opposition from both the public and male
service members, but as they freed up more men for combat the women quickly
proved their worthiness. At the end of Colonel Hobby’s tenure WACs filled 239
different army positions, more than four times initial estimates.
Colonel Hobby was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1945.
After the war she was appointed the first secretary of the Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare, a position that she held until 1955. She
returned to publishing and broadcasting, with several later positions,
including working as the president and editor of the Houston Post, and as the
director of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Oveta Culp Hobby passed
away in 1995 in Houston, Texas.
Barbara Mikulski (1936 – Present)
Longest Serving Woman in the United States Congress
Barbara Mikulski is the Senior Senator from Maryland representing
the Democratic Party. Starting her career as a social worker, In Congress
Mikulski has championed such efforts as equal pay, a woman’s right to choose,
improving health care for and medical research on women, and subsidizing
child-care for low-income families.
Mikulski earned a master’s of social work degree from the
University of Maryland in 1965 and returned to her hometown of Baltimore to
work with at–risk children and educate seniors about Medicare. Her work soon
evolved into community activism when she successfully organized communities
against a plan to build a 16–lane highway through the heart of Baltimore.
Mikulski used her community activism momentum to win her first
election to the Baltimore City Council in 1971. After serving Baltimore
for five years, Mikulski won her first Congressional campaign in 1976,
representing Maryland’s 3rd district for the next 10 years. In 1986, Mikulski
ran for Senate and won, becoming the first Democratic woman Senator elected in
her own right. She was re–elected with large majorities in 1992, 1998,
2004 and 2010.
A leader in the Senate, Mikulski is the Dean of the Women –
serving as a mentor to other women Senators and working to form bipartisan
coalitions. On January 5, 2011, Mikulski became the longest serving woman
Senator in U.S. history and on March 17, 2012 she became the longest–serving
woman in the history of the United States Congress. Of these milestones, she
says, “It’s not about how long I serve, but about how well I serve my state and
my nation.”
In November 2015, Mikulski received the Presidential Medal of
Freedom from President Obama. Senator Barbara Mikulski will retire after
finishing her fifth Senate term in December 2016.
Inez Milholland
(1886-1916)
Woman Suffrage Leader and Martyr
Woman Suffrage Leader & Martyr Inez Milholland Boissevain gave
her life working for the Woman Suffrage movement. Because of what she and other
suffragists did, women won the basic right to vote. Milholland was a lawyer who
also fought for the rights of working class women, spoke out for racial
equality, and worked for prison reform.
Milholland became active in the Suffrage movement as a student at
Vassar where her suffrage meetings were eventually banned from campus. For six
years, she was involved in the drive for Votes for Women in New York, memorably
lobbying state lawmakers and leading annual suffrage parades up Fifth Avenue.
In 1913, she helped plan the Woman Suffrage Parade in Washington, D.C., and she
famously led the parade wearing a cape and crown atop a white horse.
In 1916, she accepted the role of “Flying Envoy” on a speaking
tour of the western states. Across the West she addressed women who were new
voters with passion and conviction; “Now, for the first time in our history,
women have the power to enforce their demands, and the weapon with which to
fight for woman’s liberation.”
October 1916, after dramatically asking, “Mr. President, how long
must women wait for liberty,” she collapsed before a large audience in Los
Angeles, CA. She died a month later of pernicious anemia. Fellow suffragists
recognized that her love of democracy and devotion to women
made her a martyr for the cause. On Christmas Day, an
unprecedented memorial was held for her in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall,
the first woman to be honored there. A week later, suffragists carried her
final plea on their banners when they began to picketed the White House. Over
her brief life, Inez Milholland Boissevain personified the goal of Votes for
Women, and today she symbolizes the perseverance and sacrifices required to win
equality for women. Inez Milholland ~
Forward Into Light
Karen Narasaki
(1958 – Present )
Civil and Human Rights Leader
Karen Narasaki is a Civil Rights lawyer, lobbyist, and leader who
has dedicated her career to issues of Asian American equality. Her work has
focused on voting rights, affirmative action, family immigration, media
representation, and hate crimes prevention. Narasaki is currently a
Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Narasaki served as Washington, D.C., representative for the
Japanese American Civil Rights League (1986 1994) and as President and
Executive Director of the Asian American Justice League
(1995-2012). Her leadership led to passage of stronger hate crimes and voting
rights laws and helped defeat legislation that would erode the family
immigration system. She also helped ensure a more accurate counting of Asian
American and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Census and ensured that
these populations maintained access to affirmative action programs. In addition
to her work on legal issues, Narasaki is former chair of the Asian Pacific
American Media Coalition. Her efforts to improve AAPI representation in the
media led to 20% increases in regular and recurring AAPI characters
on network television.
In 2014, President Barack Obama appointed Narasaki to serve as a
Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. This eight-member
bi-partisan commission serves as a government watchdog, investigating,
reporting on, and making recommendations concerning civil rights issues facing
the nation. Previously, she advised President Bill Clinton on civil rights
issues and in 2009, she was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Diversity
for Communications in the Digital Age of the Federal Communications Commission.
Narasaki’s efforts on multiple occasions (such as her work on
voting rights) have worked to strengthen ties with African American, Latino,
Native American, and other minority communities.
Narasaki has received numerous awards and honors including the
National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Trailblazer Award(1994), the
U.S. Department of Justice Citizen Volunteer Service Award (2000), and the
Congressional Black Caucus Chair’s Award (2005). Washingtonian Magazine named
Karen Narasaki one of “the 100 most powerful women in Washington, D.C.” four
separate times.
Nancy Grace Roman (1925 – Present)
Chief of Astronomy at NASA
Nancy Grace Roman is an astronomer and was the first women
executive at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Roman is
known as the “Mother of Hubble” for her contributions to establishing the
Hubble Space Telescope. Throughout her career Roman has been an outspoken
advocate for women in the sciences.
Roman showed interest and talent in the sciences from an early
age, but like many women of her time she was discouraged by teachers at all
levels who thought women were not suited to study science. Roman persevered;
receiving a Bachelor’s degree in astronomy from Swarthmore College in 1946, and
completing a PhD in astronomy at the University of Chicago in 1949. Roman
stayed at the University for six years working as a researcher and instructor,
but left due to the limited opportunities for women.
Roman worked at the Naval Research Laboratory before being hired
by newly formed NASA in1959 to create the organization’s space astronomy
program. Roman worked at NASA for 21 years followed by working as a consultant
for companies contracted with NASA. She fully retired in 1997, and began
extensive volunteer work including conducting science programs in underserved
Washington, D.C. schools.
Nancy Grace Roman’s career was groundbreaking not only as a woman
scientist, but also in her research discoveries and the programs she created.
She discovered the first clues to the evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, mapped
the sky at 67 centimeters, and helped improve the accuracy of measurements to
the distance of the moon. At NASA Roman led a program that launched over 20
satellites and 3 orbiting solar observatories. Roman laid the early groundwork
for the Hubble Space Telescope, setting the program’s structure, recruiting
astronomers, and lobbying Congress to fund it. Roman’s many awards and honors
include The Federal Woman’s Award (1962), NASA’s Exceptional Scientific
Achievement Award (1969), and a NASA fellowship in astrophysics is named in her
honor.
Bernice Sandler (1928 – Present)
Women’s Rights Activist, “Godmother of Title IX”
Bernice (Bunny) Sandler is a women’s rights activist, best known
for her groundbreaking work fighting sexual harassment and discrimination
on college campuses. Labeled the “Godmother of Title IX,” Sandler both led
efforts for the legislation’s enactment and became a national expert on the
law’s implementation.
Despite holding a doctorate degree, Sandler was unable to obtain a
full-time faculty position because of the institutional sexism facing women in
academia. In the1960s.women held more terminal degrees than ever before, yet
female professors were routinely denied faculty jobs and tenure. Although Title
VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in employment
based on sex, it excluded educational institutions. Determined to legally fight
collegiate sexism, Dr. Sandler used an obscure Executive Order, issued in 1968
by President Lyndon Johnson prohibiting sex discrimination by federal
contractors, to file the first federal sex discrimination lawsuits against
every college with federal contracts, about 250 in all.
Dr. Sandler’s lawsuit got the attention of Congresswoman Edith
Green (D-Oregon), who assembled the first Congressional hearings on sex
discrimination in education and employed Sandler as an expert. From there the
idea for a law banning sex discrimination in federally-funded education
programs was born. Cosponsored by Congresswoman Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii), Title IX
passed two years later and was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in
1972.
Title IX immediately ended overt sex discrimination in educational
admissions and hiring practices. But in 1974, Sandler and others realized that
the law could also cover discrimination in scholastic athletics, ending a
system in which women’s programs were rarely funded or even offered. The law
has more recently been used to better address sexual violence on campus.
Through her long career Bunny Sandler has written three books and
more than 100 articles, given more than 2,500 presentations, and served as a
media expert on sex discrimination in education.
Nadine Smith
(1965 – Present)
LGBT Civil Rights Activist
and Executive Director of Equality Florida
Nadine Smith is a national leader in LGBT rights activism. She is
executive Director of Equality Florida and was executive director of its
predecessor organization, the Human Rights Task Force. As a lobbyist, activist,
and leader Smith works tirelessly to improve the lives of Lesbian, Gay, bisexual,
and Transgender Americans.
Smith began her activism in college, and in 1986 she served on the
founding board of the International Gay and Lesbian Youth Organization.
She served as one of four national co-chairs on the 1993 March on Washington,
coordinating national and international media coverage, and took part in the
historic, first-ever meeting between LGBT leaders and a sitting U.S. president,
President Bill Clinton, in the White House. Smith served four terms as co-chair
of the Equality Federation and served as a member of the Democratic National
Committee. Executive Director of Equality Florida since the organization’s
inception in 1997, Smith has led advocacy efforts in Florida at the state level
at a time of unprecedented attacks on the LGBT community. She led efforts to
stop discriminatory legislation and ballot measures and to overturn Florida’s
ban on adoption by gay and lesbian parents. Smith is an outspoken advocate for
hate crimes and bullying legislation. In 2008, Equality Florida’s efforts led
to passage of a state anti-bullying law that spurred school districts
across Florida to add sexual orientation and gender identity to their bullying
policies.
Smith has been recognized for her national and state leadership by
organizations including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Human
Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the National Black
Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum. A former award-winning journalist, she
has written syndicated columns for various LGBT and general audience
publications.
In 2013, Nadine Smith was named by the Florida Diversity Council
as one of the “Most Powerful and Influential Women” in Florida.
Dorothy C Stratton (1899-2006)
WWII Director of the SPARS (Coast Guard Women’s Reserve),
First full-time Dean of Women at Purdue University, and Executive Director
of the Girl Scouts of the USA
Dorothy C. Stratton was a trailblazer throughout her career, but
is perhaps best known for being Director of SPARS, the United States Coast
Guard Women’s Reserve during World War II. Prior to joining the military,
Stratton was Purdue University’s first full-time Dean of Women (1933 -1942).
She greatly expanded the female curriculum beyond Home Economics and female
enrollment at Purdue nearly tripled. She was still Dean of Women until she took
a leave of Absence in 1942 for WWII.
Stratton was the first woman to be accepted for service in U.S.
Navy after President Franklin Roosevelt signed the amendment creating a women’s
reserve program. After completing her initial training, she was assigned as the
Assistant to the Commanding Officer of the Radio School for enlisted WAVES
Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service) at Madison, WI. On November 14,
1942, she transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard and became the director of the
Women’s Reserve.
Her major and lasting contribution to the Coast Guard was the
development of the SPAR program, which allowed women to join the Coast Guard
for the first time in history. Enlistment in the program grew rapidly in a
short span of time; during the remaining years of the war more than 10,000
enlisted, and 1,000 officers served their country through this program. By
1944, one out of every 15 persons enlisted in the Coast Guard was a woman.
After the war, Stratton became the first Director of Personnel at
the International Monetary Fund, serving in that capacity until 1950. She then
went on to become the National Executive Director of the Girl Scouts of
America, remaining in that position for ten years before retiring in 1960. In
2001, the Coast Guard Women’s Leadership Association named the “Captain Dorothy
Stratton Leadership Award” in her honor. Dorothy Stratton died in 2006, at the
age of 107.
In 2012, First Lady Michelle Obama commissioned a coast guard
cutter in honor of Dorothy Stratton. It was the first time in history that a
Legend-class National Security Cutter was named after a woman, and the first
time that a first lady sponsored a coast guard or navy ship.Today, the Cutter
Stratton protects America’s shoreline.
See how Dorothy C. Stratton and SPARs changed women’s lives in
this short film with compelling vintage and current video,
Dorothy Stratton and the Spars, The Legend Continueshttps://vimeo.com/18510562
Betty Mae Tiger Jumper
(1923-2001)
First Woman Chairman of the Seminole Tribe and Presidential Adviser
Betty Mae Tiger Jumper was a Seminole woman who worked her entire
life to better the livelihood and commemorate the traditions of her tribe.
During her long career she became the first woman to be elected Chief of a
federally recognized tribe, integrated modern medicine into the community, and
insured the endurance of the traditions and oral history of the Seminole Tribe
through the publication of two books and the creation of the Seminole Indian News.
As a young girl, Betty Mae Tiger was eager to be educated.
Speaking only Creek and Miccosukee at age14, she entered the Indian boarding
school in Cherokee, NC. and was the first Florida Seminole to learn to read and
write English and graduate from high school. She trained as a nurse and upon
returning home she traveled between various reservations, bringing her
knowledge of modern medicine with her.
In 1967, after working as Vice Chair and with the encouragement of
fellow tribal women, Tiger Jumper ran against three male opponents for the seat
of Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman and won, becoming the first elected
female tribal chief in the U.S. During her tenure (1967- 1971)
she created the initial United Southeastern Tribes (USET)
coalition, which today consists of more than 26 tribes, and works at the
regional and federal level on health and educational efforts. Additionally,
Tiger Jumper managed to financially rescue the nearly bankrupt tribe through a
variety of efforts, including leasing Seminole lands to US highways and citrus
growers.
In addition to her political work, Betty Mae encouraged Seminole
oral history preservation, and particularly stressed the importance of young
people learning and honoring their history. She founded the first Seminole
newspaper, and used it as a way to publish and distribute Seminole stories.
Betty Mae Tiger Jumper’s work not only improved the well-being of thousands,
but also helped ensure the legacy of her tribe.
