This article from thursday’s LATimes examined how immediate families of Iraq War soldiers are suffering but also live through their pain and recuperate.  The story chronicled Audrey Delgadillo, 20 year old daughter of an Iraq War soldier, takes care of her four younger sisters.   Whats more is that Delgadillo is filling in for her stepfather AND mother who are serving in Iraq.

Every day, Delgadillo wakes up and takes care of her youngest sisters, a three and four year old.  Her other sisters are 17 and 10 years old and usually make it to school on their own.   In addition to day to day child care, Delgadillo also works a full-time job and looks after housekeeping and financial obligations.

She returns home and checks her list of chores scribbled in her notebook. Some errands are already crossed out.

Clean my room. Mop. Pay house bills. Get oil changes for the Ford and Saturn. Send out mom’s package. Put drawer together. Clean frontyard.

Some could argue that Delgadillo is sacrificing too much for a woman who  is only 20.  She should be out partying with her friends, going to school, and spending time with a boyfriend–she does have a fiance.   But what Delgadillo is doing is providing a strong, female  role model for her younger sisters while their mother is away.  By assuming responsibilities of a primary caregiver, she is showing her younger sisters it is tough but possible to balance one’s familial, social, and personal lives.  Delgadillo is operating as an alternative to the kind of women that the media perpetuates on a regular basis: smart, brave, and not one to shy away from a seemingly insurmountable task which outwardly seems impossible.

Delgadillo does admit she does feel like she is missing out on typical parts of a 20 year old woman’s life but as she told her mother:

I told my mom, ‘Don’t ever feel like you put this on me,’ ” Delgadillo says. “It was my decision, and we knew since she joined the Army that one day she was going to be called.”

At a time when the Iraq war is  ending too may lives in  savage ways and causing so much political and ideological friction at home, this story reminds me that we need to be looking toward our families and the needs of the younger generations. Clearly, Delgadillo is helping her mother raise some lucky young girls who have two maternal figures to look up to.  The Delgadillo family is further proof that the face of the American family is changing whether we can keep up or not.

Whatever one’s political opinions are at the end of the day, it cannot be denied that Delgadillo is only further reinforcing the value  and variety of women’s contributions.

MinnieJean Trickey Brown
This past fall, I attended a conference in Little Rock, AR. While I was there, I went by the historic Central High School, where several African-American students were the first students of color at the all white high school. While facing certain adversity, the students attended the school and made history.

One in particular, Minnijean Brown Trickey committed her work as a teacher to peacemaking, diversity education and training, environmental issues, gender and social justice advocacy. She also served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Workforce Diversity at the Department of the Interior for the Clinton administration.

This year Minniejean is being honored by the National Women’s History Project for her life’s work so far. Their theme is Generations of Women Moving History Forward.

In an article from 2005, Minnijean commented on her role at Central High School:

“Our resistance was so powerful,” she recalled. “I was living history.”

She also expressed her views on the vitality of Black History Month:

“Black History Month is American history at its very core.”

Minniejean is also the definition of American History and why it should be studied.

Molly Ivins dies of cancer at 62

AUSTIN, Texas - Best-selling author and columnist Molly Ivins, the sharp-witted liberal who skewered the political establishment died Wednesday after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 62.

More than 400 newspapers subscribed to her nationally syndicated column, which combined strong liberal views and populist humor. Ivins’ illness did not seem to hurt her ability to deliver biting one-liners.

Some details about Ms. Ivins

• She worked was the first woman police reporter in the Minneapolis. Subsequently, the Minneapolis police force’s decided to name its mascot pig after her.
• She studied in Paris for a year at the Institute of Political Sciences.
• Sources say her humor and wit were a bit too much for The New York Times.

During my senior year of college in 2002, I interned at the Feminist Press in New York City. One of my projects included working on the reprint of Tillie Olsen’s Silences. I was just beginning to discover my passion for women’s history. Learning about Tillie Olsen’s Silences made me reconsider the way I had studied literature written by women up until that point.

Part of my work was to transcibe an essay written about Tillie Olsen’s work. In Silences, Olsen pointed out how succesful female writers either had no children or full time help.

She also initiated the movement to republish women’s forgotten work such as Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis. She suggested the Feminist Press publish the book and since then the Press has been dedicated to discovering women’s lost or ignored writing.

Tillie Olsen passed away on January 1, 2007 in Oakland, CA. I won’t ever forget how her work inspired me to reclaim history as women’s history. Here is her obituary.

“For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling,” she said. “For our daughters and our granddaughters now, the sky is the limit.”

Nancy Pelosi, January 4, 2007

Remembering some unforgettable women:

(1) How we got Women’s Equality Day–August 26th or Betty’s bourgeois antics.

(2) Everybody’s Wendy.

Frank Rich writes about Wendy Wasserstein’s desire for a private life and death, her powerful friendship and talent, and her contemplations about the “unfulfilled ideal of sisterhood among women of her generation” expressed through her exceptional and touching plays.

And because its news…

A Spanish woman has twins at 67

“No one has ever become poor by giving.”

- Anne Frank

When I was studying for my M.A. in history, I had the fortune of reading Other Powers by Barbara Goldsmith. It is definitely one of the best books I read while in graduate school. I would have to do a survey of all the books I’ve read to seriously determine this but it is possible Other Powers is one of my favorite books ever. Obviously, I recommend it.

It tells the story of Victoria Woodhull’s private life, professional life and delves into other key characters from her life. It is a historical book without being too stuffy, not bogged down with notes and nearly reads as a novel. Some historians don’t like this approach but Ms. Goldsmith’s book stands along other people’s work about Woodhull.

Victoria Woodhull is one of the women I chose to put up on my banner. I admire her because she was a true renaissance woman. She is mostly known as being the first female candidate for the US presidency but she also wore many other hats that set her apart. Instead of choosing one issue, she decided to take the world by storm.

Here is a highlight of some of her accomplishments:

• She was the first female Wall Street broker with her sister. They ran Woodhull Claflin & Company.

• She was a newspaper editor of Woodhull & Claflin’s Weekly which dealt with controversial topics like sexual education and free love.

• She was involved with the historically important movements of spiritualism and free love.

• And she ran for president for the Equal Rights Party in 1872.

I think I may reread Other Powers.

Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat.

It is also World AIDS Day.

And 31 days to 2007, 25 days to Kwanzaa begins, 24 days to Christmas, twenty to the Winter Solstice and fifteen to the beginning of Chanukah…if you were wondering.

it’s time to talk about women I chose to put at the top of the site. I was going to begin chronologically with Victoria Woodhull but today is Shirley Chisholm’s birthday, so it’s only appropriate to start with her. She was born on this day in 1924.  She passed away January 1, 2005.
I chose to honor women who are personally significant to me. Shirley Chisholm is widely known for being the first African-American congresswoman. She served for seven terms from 1968-1983 representing a New York district. But one of her most influential moves was becoming a founding member of Congressional Black Caucus in 1969. Here is a list of their priorities from their website:

* CLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT AND OPPORTUNITY GAPS IN EDUCATION
* ASSURING QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR EVERY AMERICAN
* FOCUSING ON EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC SECURITY, BUILDING WEALTH AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
* ENSURING JUSTICE FOR ALL
* GUARANTEEING RETIREMENT SECURITY FOR ALL AMERICANS
* INCREASING EQUITY IN FOREIGN POLICY

When the CBC started in 1969 it had nine members as of 2005 it had over 40 members. In 2000-1, the CBC provided one of the lonely voices of dissent from the American government about the way in which the US presidential election results were being resolved. In the January 6, 2001 CBC press conference/ event in which  presided over, Representative Hastings of Florida said:

I would have said to Vice President Gore that Harry Truman once said that what is popular is not always right, and what is right is not always popular. What we were doing here today is right… we stand proudly to say that we did what was right.” (Click here for full transcript.)

What Rep. Hastings is referring to is the CBC’s protest of the electoral vote count. While many private citizens were expressing dismay as to the way the process was unfolding, the CBC was the only political group to abandon concerns about their image and made their voice heard loud and clear.

The CBC only exists because of Shirley Chisholm and the other cofounders.  She helped create a space for politicians to speak up and take “unpopular” positions.  Similar to Virgina Woolf stating that women needed a room of their own to write, Shirley Chisholm was allowing politicians to have their own space to safely express their views in hopes that some voters felt that they and their beliefs were being properly represented.

Happy Birthday Shirley!