36 THE QUEENS COURIER • WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH • MARCH 25, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Women’s History Month
Infl uential women of NYC: Our cup runneth over
BY HAZEL SHAHGHOLI
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
So many extraordinary women
are woven into the fabric of NYC’s
history and present that it would
require an encyclopedia to document
Maloney celebrates Women’s
History Month in D.C.
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Since she was elected to the U.S. House of
Representative in 1993, Congresswoman
Carolyn Maloney has immersed herself in
women’s issues.
As lead House sponsor of the Equal
Rights Amendment (ERA) and author
of the Smithsonian Women’s History
Museum Act, which was recently signed
into law, Maloney spoke on the House
fl oor last week in celebration of Women’s
History Month.
She highlighted the ERA, the forthcoming
Smithsonian Women’s History
Museum, and the achievements women
across the country have made in the
advancement of equality.
“In 1921 — exactly 100 years ago, just
aft er ratifying the 19th Amendment, the
suff ragists set their sights on another
constitutional change. Th e vote was
not enough for them; they knew we
needed to put gender equality into our
Constitution. And so, these women —
among them my relative, Alice Paul
— wrote the Equal Rights Amendment,”
Maloney said. “It was fi rst introduced
in Congress in 1923, in celebration of
the 75th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls
Convention, the fi rst women’s rights
convention in our country. It was introduced
in the House by Representative
Daniel Anthony, nephew of the great
suff ragist leader Susan B. Anthony, to
honor her work, as well as the work
of many others like the great suff rage
leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton, also of
New York.
“Today, during History Month for
Women, we honor these women as constitution
makers, but verbal praise alone
is not enough,” she said. “We must also
carry out their wishes. Because now —
a full 100 years later— the Equal Rights
Amendment is still not part of the U.S.
Constitution.”
Later that day, the House approved legislation
to remove the arbitrary deadline
imposed on the ERA.
“Th e suff ragists knew specifi c language
was needed in the Constitution in order
to achieve equality of rights under the law.
And they were right,” Maloney said. “For
the last four generations, feminists like
myself and all the like-minded men and
women here today have been marching,
lobbying, attempting to win lawsuits and
defeating anti-ERA legislators. And today,
we say enough is enough.”
Earlier this month, Maloney announced
a milestone for the proposed Smithsonian
Women’s History Museum on the National
Mall. Lisa Sasaki was appointed to serve as
the interim director of the Smithsonian
American Women’s History Museum.
“Aft er more than two decades of working
to pass legislation establishing a muse-
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, suff ering
from a range of ailments from
cholera to typhoid. Blackwell
assembled an army of nurses.
Th ey made deathbed house calls
to ease the sick into the aft erlife
and educate the area’s indigent
about personal hygiene.
As is so oft en case, aft er “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 “Th e Revolution”
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 eff orts aff orded
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.”
Th e 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.
Photo via Getty Images
Rosie the Riveter
Celebrating
50 years in Business
Lois Christie is President, CEO of CHRISTIE & CO,
one of the largest salons in New York City.
She is an award-winning businesswoman and lecturer who has was elected
as the first female President of the prestigious Intercoiffure America/Canada,
which represents the best salons in North America.
Honors include "Top Ten Women in Business", "Business Women of the
Year" by Michael Bloomberg, and Best of the Boro’s "Best Hair Salon
Queen”s, "Best Day Spa", "Best Nail Salon", "Best Bridal Hair Styling",
"Best Skin Care", "Best Hair Color", and "Best Makeup Artist"
amongst many other awards.
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
/www.nypl.org
link
/www.nypl.org
link
link
