GEEZ Louise!

Herstory...Women have always made history, but they haven't always made it into the history books.  The following are women we think we should all know.  

Abigail Adams:  Abigail cautioned her husband, President John Adams to "Remember the ladies...we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by and laws in which we have no voice or representation."  She wrote hundreds of letters describing life during the American Revolution and in the early days of our nation.  Her love, ideas, and opinions had an important influence on her husband and on her son, John Quincy Adams, the nation's sixth president.

Elizabeth Freeman: Elizabeth was a slave in Massachusetts.  During the Revolutionary War she decided that the state constitution that said, " All are born free and equal..." included her.  She found an attorney who would plead her case and a judge and jury who would hear it. The final verdict:  freedom.  She also was given back wages, damages and court costs.

Mary Wollstonecraft: Originally a schoolteacher and governess in England and Ireland, she wrote her masterpiece, A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792.  The book attacks social conventions that oppress women, including inequality in education and proposed that marriage should be a partnership of intellectual equals.

Wilma Mankiller: On her quest to become the first female leader of a Native American tribe in modern history, Wilma Mankiller endured death threats, a serious car accident, the dianosis of a neuromuscular disease, and a kidney transplant.  She became Chief of the Cherokee Nation in 1985.  Wilma likened her job to "running a small country, a medium corporation and being a social worker."  Her most important legacy is her example:  "Prior to my election, young Cherokee girls would never have thought that they might grow up and become chief."

Angie Brooks:  A determined child from an impoverished family, she put herself through high school by typing in government offices.  She appealed to Liberian president William Tubman to finance her higher education in the United States.  She earned degrees at Shaw University and the University of Wisconsin and studied law at the University of London.  In 1969 she became the second woman and the first African woman to be president of the United Nations General Assembly.

Barbara Jordan: Barbara Jordan was a strong proponent of those disadvantaged by the social and economic conditions.  In 1966, she became the first African American woman elected to the Texas state senate; her subsequent election as president pro tempore made her the first African American to preside over a US legislative body.  She was elected to the US Congress in 1972.  Barbara was the first black keynote speaker at a major political convention - Democratic - in 1976.