Edith Nourse Rogers (1881 – 1960)

“Fight hard, fight fair and persevere.” – Edith Nourse Rogers (1881 – 1960) – On June 30, 1925, Rogers became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress from the state of Massachusetts assuming her late husband’s seat. She won by 72% of the vote against the former governor (because now her Girlfriends had Power!). S…he was the first to speak out against Hitler’s treatment of Jews. “She supported local economic autonomy; on April 19, 1934 she read a petition against the expanded business regulations of the New Deal, and all 1,200 signatures, into the Congressional Record.”

She was a staunch advocate for veterans, co-sponsoring the GI Bill in 1944. She also sponsored a bill establishing the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp which took several years to get support. Even after the creation of WAAC, it was marred by “vicious gossip and bad publicity in 1943.” “Investigations by the War Department and Edith Rogers uncovered nothing; and the incidence of disorderly and criminal conduct among the WAACs was a tiny fraction of that among the male military population, venereal disease was almost non-existent, and the pregnancy rate was far below civilian women. Despite this, the June 30, 1943 enlistment reached 60,000,” less than half of the initial 150,000 hoped for.

Unfortunately, she was not always on the right side, she supported McCarthy’s the House Committee on Un-American Activities, but she did much good. She died three days before the primary for her 19th term. And, there was a delicious scandal regarding her during a divorce

Who was Emily Wilding Davison

At one time or another, many of us have had a friend like Emily Wilding Davison (1872—1913), labeled in her bio as a “militant suffragette.” A friend who is unafraid of consequences, that will do the unthinkable while we look on from the sidelines shaking our heads, but silently cheering them on. It could have been the fact that Davison was denied admission to Oxford because she was a woman that set her on the path of destruction, but more likely it went deeper. Because when she joined the the Pankhurst’s militant Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) she clearly jumped in with both feet.

Arrested many times, she was charged with violently attacking a man she thought to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George (he wasn’t). George had voted against a measure that would have given women the right to vote in Britain (1910), but he felt women would favor the opposition party. In 1913, she was believed to have been involved (with the Pankhursts) in burning down a home being built for Lloyd George.

Davison was a ardent supporter in all WSPU activities, going on a hunger strike in Strangeways Prison and throwing herself down an iron staircase as a protest in Holloway prison landing 30 feet below on wire netting and suffering severe injuries.

On April 2, the night of the 1911 census, Davison hid in a cupboard in the Palace of Westminster overnight so that she could honestly give her place of residence that night as the “House of Commons.”

Sadly, as with most friends like Davison, her blind enthusiasm for a worthy cause led to her untimely death. Today, she is considered a martyr in her native Britain. See the video below of what happened the day she died.

Who would you trade places with?

Question Posed to Me and My 1000 Girlfriends on Facebook –  If you could trade places with one woman for a day and essentially become her, who would it be?  You might be surprised by the answers.  So far, no Mother Theresa, but we do have Marilyn Monroe, Rachel Maddow and Kelly Ripa.  Visit our Facebook page to see more.  Hmmm…Rachel Maddow seems to be the far and away winner.  I guess I need to watch her.