Honor Your Mother
Procrastination? Grandiosity? Too many balls in the air? I had the idea at one point to post on “woman in history” each day last month. Now we are 8 days into April, and I am finishing this post that I started more than 2 weeks ago. Hence, instead of celebrating Women’s History Month (each March), we are preparing to honor our mothers (a weekend in May).
We lost two women who made history last month–Elizabeth Taylor and Geraldine Ferraro. Two women on very different ends of the spectrum. I think their deaths and their lives give a glimpse of the breadth and depth of the contributions of women, even over the last 60 years.
Years ago, we co-sponsored a Women’s History Month contest for people to celebrate a woman important to them. It was pretty cool. I still have the tee shirt. I think my daughter was about 10 years old. Now she IS a woman of history. She is a teacher at Scattergood Friends School, a little known place where women have made Iowa history.
We have good reason to celebrate the heroic mothers and women who have taken charge. So, here are some women to celebrate this month. How about making every month, not just March, Women’s History Month.
- Amiya Alexander, Social Entrepreneur
- Aviators Amelia Earhart, Elinor Smith and Elisabeth Thible
- Joanne Schafer, philanthropist
- Katie Spotz, Athlete, philanthropist
- Lilly Ledbetter, Activist
- Margaret Mead, Anthropologist and pioneering woman
- Sonia Sotomayor, US Supreme Court Justice
- Talia Lehman, who founded RandomKid.org
- Tara Donovan, Artist