Women in History This Month – November

  • November 1, 1848 – First medical school for women, the New England Female Medical School, opens, in 1874 it merges with Boston University to become one of the world’s first co-ed medical schools
  • November 2, 1936 (1999) – Rose Elizabeth Bird, attorney, first woman in California to hold a cabinet position (Secretary of Agriculture), allowed workers to unionize, appointed Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court in 1977, defeated in 1987 by conservatives because she opposed the death penalty  Image result for rose elizabeth bird attorney image
  • November 8, 1910 – The state of Washington passes a constitutional amendment to guarantee woman suffrage
  • November 8, 1984 – Dr. Anna L. Fisher, a physician on the shuttle Discovery, becomes the first American mother and third American woman to fly into space
    Image result for dr anna fisher imageNovember 11, 1979 – Bethune Museum and Archives opens in Washington D.C. as a center for African-American women’s history, honoring Mary McLeod Bethune
  • November 11, 1993 – The Vietnam Women’s Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. after being conceived by former army combat nurse Diane Carlson Evans and sculpted by Glenna Goodacre to honor the 265,000 women who voluntarily served during the Vietnam era
  • November 13, 1938 – Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini is beatified, the first American woman citizen to become a saint
  • November 14, 1889 – Journalist Elizabeth Cochran, aka Nellie Bly, sails around the world in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds, beating the fictional record set by Phineas Fogg in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days
    November 14, 1903 – The U.S. Women’s Trade Union League is established
  • November 14, 1946 – Emily Greene Balch, co-founder of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
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  • November 28, 1881 – The first organizational meeting is held for the predecessor group to the American Association of University Women (AAUW)
  • November 30, 1924 (2005) – Shirley Chisholm, first African-American Congresswoman, (D-NY, 1969-83), first woman and first African-American Democratic presidential nominee, received 151 delegate votes at the Democratic Convention in 1972 
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