"Always Ready"

After the United States entered World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor, women stepped up and took jobs usually held only  by men, but with men drafted into and enlisting in the military, the home front was in desperate need of a workforce. Women served in the Armed Forces in both world wars but there were more opportunities for women during World War II. In 1942, the US Coast Guard established its Women's Reserve program. 

 Photo: uscg.mil

The Women's Reserve program hired women to serve in the Coast Guard offices as secretaries and clerks, which allowed more men to be deployed overseas. On December 7, 1942, Dorothy Tuttle was the first enlistee in the program. The first director of the program was Dorothy Stratton, who had originally enlisted in the the Women's Reserve of the US Naval Reserves (WAVES).

By the end of the war, Stratton rose from the rank of senior lieutenant to captain. She is credited with the nickname for the Coast Guard's Women's Reserve, SPARS. It came from the Coast Guard's motto in Latin and English; Semper Paratus, which means "Always Ready." As Stratton stated in her memo to the Commandant, Vice Admiral Russell Waesche, "a spar is...a supporting beam and that is what we hope each member of the Women's Reserve will be." (http://www.uscg.mil/history/people/DStrattonBio.asp)

 Photo: uscg.mil

Under Stratton's command, the SPARS program grew at an incredible rate. More than 10,000 women enlisted and over 900 women served as officers. During the war, the Coast Guard saw the highest ratio of women to men out of all of the Armed Services. Stratton is often referred as the commanding officer of the SPARS but she actually had no command authority. 

 Photo: womenofwwii.com

By 1944, African Americans were allowed to enlist, though not as officer candidates. Within the first six months, five women, Olivia Hooker, D. Winnifred Byrd, Julia Mosley, Yvonne Cumberbatch and Aileen Cook, enlisted as the fist African American women in the Coast Guard.

Women continued to serve in the SPARS until the program was disbanded after the war in 1946. However, in 1948 the Women's Armed Services Integration Act was signed into law by President Truman. Originally, it was only meant to allow women to serve in the Army (as they had in the Women's Army Corps) but it included all of the branches except for the Coast Guard. It was not until 1949 that women were allowed to serve in the Coast Guard again. 

Photo: newpitssburghcourieronline.com

Last week, Rear Admiral Joanna Nunan spoke at FEMA HQ in the agency's Women's History Speaker series. Nunan was one of the first one hundred women to graduate from the Coast Guard Academy. When she was a captain, she commanded a Coast Guard cutter "SPAR," which was named to honor the women in the Coast Guard during WWII. Rear Admiral Nunan was recently appointed as Military Adviser to the Secretary of Homeland Security and it was an honor to meet her.

Photo: Hilary Grabowska

Education is a Woman's Right

On October 9, 2012, a Taliban gunman stopped a school bus transporting girls home from school in Pakistan. He and the other men with him demanded to know which girl was Malala Yousafzai. When she was identified, he shot her. Malala was 15 years old when the Taliban issued a "fatwa" for her because she was advocating for women's education.

Photo: one.org

Born to a father who is an education activist, Malala's involvement in human rights began at a very young age. At the age of 11, she gave a speech in Peshawar where she asked "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?"

In 2004, after the US had toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan, Taliban insurgents appeared in Pakistan and began to spread throughout the country, promoting ultraconservative political and religious beliefs. In Malala's own words, she described the spread of the Taliban as "developing day by day. It started just by talking about Islam and its teaching. But then later on when we used to have the summons they were saying that the girls should not go to school. They were against the women's rights."

Photo: rebellesociety.com 

Speaking up for women's education meant that Malala was speaking against the Taliban, but her father encouraged her to continue because he did not see education as Eastern or Western but rather something that is for everyone. In addition to her speech, Malala became a blogger for the BBC and wrote about life under the Taliban and their denial of education to women. She used a pen name but her identity was revealed and she was known to the Taliban.

Despite numerous death threats, Malala continued to speak out against the denial of her right to education. She and her family, despite the threats, did not believe the group would harm a child. Instead, Malala feared that her father would be targeted for being pro-education and an anti-Taliban activist. 

Photo: bbc.com


When she was shot, Pakistanis supported her by raising banners with the phrase "I am Malala." Generally, Pakistanis were in support of education and were proud of Malala and her strength. She was shot in the face and was transported to England where she underwent a number of surgeries, and survived. She was not deterred by the attack and has continued to speak out against the Taliban and in favor of education for women.

In 2014, she was nominated for the second time for the Nobel Peace Prize and won, making her the youngest Nobel Laureate.

 Photo: dailymail.co.uk

Betty Reid Soskin

During the government shutdown of October 2013, about 800,000 government employees were furloughed, but one in particular spoke up and her voice was heard: that of Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest full-time park ranger in the National Park Service. Today, at the age of 94, Soskin is still working and loving every minute of it because "she feels she is still alive for a purpose - to give a firsthand account about working women during WWII - since she lived through that herself." (http://tinyurl.com/kyhcdrs)

Photo: npr.org

The great-granddaughter of a slave, Soskin was born in 1921 and grew up in New Orleans until a hurricane destroyed her home and her family moved to California. By World War II, Soskin was married to her husband Mel Reid. When the war broke out, they both entered military service but encountered problems due to their race. Mel enlisted in the Navy but because he was black, he wasn't allowed in combat. He chose to leave the service and received an honorable discharge. Soskin worked for the Air Force and her coworkers even said they were comfortable working with an African American, but admitted they wouldn't be if she were in a supervisory position above them. She too walked out of this job. 

Photo: theboldatlsntic.com

Instead, she worked as a clerk for the segregated Boilermakers Union A-36 until she and her husband opened Reid's Records in 1945. In the following years, she and her husband built a home in a white neighborhood so their children could go to better schools, but they were subjected to racism. Soskin's action during WWII, and subsequent move into a segregated neighborhood, set her up to be an activist during the tumultuous 1960s. She became a well-known civil rights songwriter. 

Photo: theboldatlantic.com

In the early 2000s, Soskin sat down to help plan the formation of Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park. She had lived through the Home Front experience and brought a unique side of the story: she never considered herself a "Rosie" because that was a white woman's story, but she did contribute to the Home Front war effort and could tell the story of African American women during the war. Today, Soskin splits her work week between the visitor center and the administrative offices of Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front, and she has a sense of urgency to share her stories.

Photo: theboldatlantic.com

Anna J. Cooper, Pathfinder of Education

Just before the American Civil War broke out, Anna Cooper was born in Raleigh, North Carolina to an enslaved mother. It is believed that her father was the owner of her family, George Washington Haywood. 

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After the war, when she was eight years old, she won a scholarship to Saint Augustine's Normal School and Collegiate Institute, which was established in Raleigh to educate former slaves by training them as teachers for other former slaves. Anna attended the school for fourteen years and excelled in her studies. Eventually, though, she had to make a decision: remain on the women's path or fight for her right to continue in academic courses that were reserved for men. She chose the latter. 

Photo: goodnightraleigh.com

Anna eventually taught at Saint Augustine's before attending Oberlin College in Ohio. When she wasn't studying or teaching, she was working for civil and women's rights. She gave many speeches but she is best known for her book, "A Voice from the South." In it, she advocated for education as well as social advancement for African American women. The book is considered one of the most influential works of black feminism in the 19th century. 

Photo: goodreads.com

Even with the publication of the book and her numerous speaking engagements, Anna continued her education. In 1924 she finished the coursework for her Ph.D and became the fourth African American woman to earn a Doctorate of Philosophy. 

Photo: npr.org

In DC she is known for starting and running the first all black public high school, which today is called Dunbar High School. She defied the all white, all male school board that wanted her school to offer only vocational courses. Instead, she taught literature, advanced mathematics and languages. Her pursuit of an education and her directing a school in segregated DC demonstrated that African Americans could succeed outside of the world whites attempted impose on blacks. 

Photo: wamu.org

Anna died in 1964 at the age of 105 in Washington, DC. In her lifetime, she experienced slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, both World Wars and the Civil Rights Movement. 

Photo: blackpast.org

Amelia Boynton and Bloody Sunday

50 years ago today, the eyes of the nation turned to Selma, Alabama. Civil rights activists led by John Lewis and the  Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had attempted to march to Montgomery, Alabama but were halted by a violent and racist posse. The SCLC and the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) hoped that the success of passing the Civil Rights Act would help gain federal support and protection of the voting status of blacks. 

Photo: nbcnews.com

Ever since 1961, SNCC had been active in the rural South attempting to register black voters. However, the students were met with violence because they were challenging the Jim Crow structure of southern culture that emerged after the Civil War. The SCLC was brought in to help bring national attention to the situation. 

Photo: blackhandside.net

Activists planned to march 54 miles from Selma to Montgomery to raise awareness about how black citizens were not represented because although they were a majority of the population, a majority of them could not vote. The march took place on March 7, 1965. 

Photo: dailykos.com

As the march began, the protestors were halted on the Edmund Pettus Bridge by state troopers and a posse. The marchers were informed that they were an unlawful assembly and ordered to disperse. The marchers refused and the troopers advanced. Tear gas, horses and makeshift weapons were used on the protestors, who had been taught non-violence and did not fight back. 

Photo: Cleveland.com

Civil rights activist Amelia Boynton was beaten until she was unconscious. A photo of her lying on the bridge, battered and bloody, was printed on the front page of newspapers around the world, helping the incident earn the name "Bloody Sunday." Boynton had helped to plan the march and was one of few blacks in Selma who had successfully registered to vote. The photo of Amelia Boynton and other bloodied protestors helped incite a reaction from the rest of the country, leading to a second attempt at a March to Montgomery and resulting in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

Photo: ameliaboynton.org

On the 50th anniversary of the march, John Lewis returned to Selma, along with President Barak Obama. President Obama spoke on the Edmund Pettus Bridge where he said Congressman John Lewis is a living hero. He also addressed the issue of racial equality in America. "There are places and moments in America where this nation's destiny has been decided. Selma is such a place." But, "five decades after Bloody Sunday, the march is not finished." 

Photo: cnn.com

Women's History Is Women's Rights

March is International Women's Month, a time to recognize the achievements of and to honor women. There is a saying by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: "Well behaved women seldom make history," and the exploits of the women who are remembered during March demonstrate that they were not well behaved. 

Photo: depts.ttu.edu

The start of International Women's Month originated as just a day to recognize women and grew out of an industrialized and socialist world. The first "Women's Day" in the US occurred in 1908 when the Women's National Committee asked the Socialist Party to designate a day for women. This took place in a time when women were marching and going on strikes in order to gain the right to vote and equal treatment. 

Photo: loc.gov

"From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well."

So said President Jimmy Carter when in 1980 he designated the week of March 2 to March 8 as National Women's week. The next year, Congress passed a joint resolution to establish National Women's Week and continued to do so for the next couple of years. Eventually, schools began teaching and promoting women's history during the month of March, creating a Women's History Month. 

Photo: depts.ttu.edu

Women have been an integral part of history since the beginning of human history, not just the beginning of American history. Just like African American history, women's history is American history but there will be a month dedicated to the study of women's accomplishments until there is full gender equality. 

Photo: depts.ttu.edu