Infl uential women of NYC: Our cup runneth over
BY HAZEL SHAHGHOLI
So many extraordinary
women are woven into the fabric
of NYC’s history and present
that it would require an
encyclopedia to document all
of those forgotten and then
remembered—as is the model
for acknowledgment of feminine
history, blindspots then
reclamations.
So, in honor of Women’s
History Month, amNewYork
Metro will focus, in part, on
women from two fi elds most
pertinent to our historical moment.
Let us fi rst turn to the fi eld
of medicine. Dr. Elizabeth
Blackwell (1821-1910) was the
very fi rst female MD in the
US, and resided on University
Place. On account of her gender,
Blackwell did not attract
many patients. And so she
did what many great women
do — she got inventive, deciding
to treat patients in the
squalid tenements of Manhattan’s
Lower East Side. Just as
her peers had abandoned her,
these poor souls living in abject
poverty had been abandoned
by society, and received
care at Blackwell’s dispensary.
Here she treated immigrants,
mostly Irish and German,
suffering from a range
of ailments from cholera to
typhoid. Blackwell assembled
an army of nurses. They made
deathbed house calls to ease
the sick into the afterlife and
educate the area’s indigent
about personal hygiene.
As is so often case, after
“proving herself,” powerful
male physicians and philanthropists
fi nally gave her the
time—and funds—to open the
New York Infi rmary for Indigent
Women and Children in
1857. In her writings of 1853,
Dr. Blackwell remarked on
the diffi culty of her chosen
path but of her, “high purpose,
to love against every species of
social opposition.”
Moving on, the backbones
that enabled the modern day,
female, New York City political
powerhouses—Hillary Clinton,
Gale Brewer, Carolyn Maloney,
Rebecca Seawright, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, just to
name but a few — dates back to
the 1820s when female liberation
movements began to fi ght
the patriarchy.
In mighty combination,
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-
1902), and Susan B. Anthony
(1820-1906) joined forces and
embodied the word “trailblazer”
by dedicating four and
a half decades of their lives in
the fi ght for female emancipation
and the expansion of the
women’s rights in NYC. Stanton
was the strategist and primary
speech writer, while Anthony
was the the “face” and
formidable speaker who would
spread her message “wherever
she could drum up a crowd.”
Taunted and sneered at by
the men that surrounded them,
the pair launched “The Revolution”
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, M 50 ARCH 26-APR. 1, 2021 BTR
newspaper; a pioneering
document in grass roots activism
eventually disseminated
worldwide, and passed on as
a mantle to their fearless activist
successors; those Nasty
Women we would proudly become.
Neither woman lived to cast
a ballot when women fi nally
won the right to vote in 1920,
but in their belief that men and
women were created equal,
they laid those tracks.
And then we have the
“famed”: Emily Warren Roebling
completed the construction
of the Brooklyn Bridge
when her engineer husband
fell ill; Jackie Onassis saved
Grand Central Station from demolition;
Peggy Guggenheim
ensured our city’s cultural
richness through her keen eye
for modern art; Edith Wharton
was the fi rst woman to win the
Pulitzer Prize for fi ction, and
Billie Holiday sent shockwaves
through Harlem nightclubs
with her unique jazz style infused
with political messages
in the 30s and 40s, before Debbie
Harry and Patti Smith
rocked our worlds at CBGB’s
with their fellow New Wavers
and Punks.
In terms of sexual suppression
and abuse, Bronxite Tamara
Burke’s #MeToo global
explosion ushered in a new age
that allowed survivors to fi nd
their voice, and is perhaps one
of the greatest contributions
of social media to humanity to
date.
Peel back the identity of all
of the “well-known” NYC heroes
and you’ll fi nd a web of
women whose incremental efforts
afforded them their freedoms.
If you want a deep knowledge
of the women that helped
build, expand and save our
glorious city, you have a lot of
reading to do — there are thousands
of stories waiting to be
“unearthed.”
The New York Public Library
is running a month-long series
in honor of these stellar women
in arms. Visit www.nypl.org for
more information.
REUTERS/Go Nakamura
Debbie Harry NYC 1978 photograph obtained by Reuter
USA Postage Stamp: Women Support War Effort – We Can Do It!
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