International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day. Women make up more than half of the population, but in most countries are underrepresented and continue to be treated poorly due to domestic violence and abuse. The patriarchy is alive and well, and while women have made some advances in the last 100 years, it is good to remember that women couldn't have their own credit cards in the United States until the 1970s, they couldn't vote until the 1920s, and continue to have to fight the government, ignorance, and complacency simply for control over their own bodily functions.

We've come a long way, baby, but we've still got a long way to go, and many would like to see us go backwards. 

To celebrate the day, I thought I'd offer up some local history about women who have made great impact here. I'm using a book called Notable Women West of the Blue Ridge 1850-1950 for my source.

Lucy Breckinridge is celebrated locally because she kept a journal during the US Civil War. She began a diary on August 11, 1862. Her journals are one of the few documents we have about how women thought and were treated during that time. She was a wealthy upper-class woman, complete with servants, but she died at the age of 22 of typhoid fever, just after the Civil War ended. Her diary has been published and can be purchased on Amazon and other places.

Callie Wright of Troutdale, Virginia (which is not that close to me but is a rural community), is the first woman mayor in the Commonwealth. She served from 1930-1934. She was born in 1894 and died in 1986. She worked at the First National Bank. The town was facing bankruptcy and dissolution as a town when Wright took over as mayor. By the time her term ended, the town's debts had been paid and the community again took pride its town.

Martha Louisa Cocke grew up at Hollins Institute (later Hollins College and now Hollins University, my alma mater), and graduated from the college in 1874 with diplomas in English literature, French, history, Latin, mathematics, and natural science. She assisted in the administration of the college and taught English, French, German, and Mathematics there. She was named president of Hollins Institute in 1901.  She served for 32 years. During that time the school changed its name to Hollins College and built a theater and gymnasium and later erected another dozen new structures. She was the first woman college president in Virginia.

Georgia Meadows (1903-2001) was a Black woman in my county. She received education at Hughes Hill School, a one-room elementary school located here. She left the county to attend Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute (now Virginia State University) in Petersburg. She graduated with a BS in Education in 1922 and went on to earn a master's degree in Education from Columbia University in New York City. She also attended the University of Virginia, Northwestern University in Chicago, and worked on her Ph.D. in Education at Harvard. She returned to her home community where she taught school for 48 years. She was a consultant to the school administration with regards to education plans for the Black community. Additionally, she served as vice president of Total Action Against Poverty, served on the board of League of Older Americans, and organized the Fincastle Senior Citizens Club. In 1973, the US Federation of Colored Women's Clubs awarded her Clubwoman of the Year.

Viola Wick Painter (1904-1981) of this county was a music educator and choral director. She served as organist for the Fincastle Presbyterian Church for 32 years and for St. Mark's Episcopal Church for 27 years and directed the Fincastle Methodist Church Choir for 7 years. (I guess she didn't care about the differences in denominations!) She was President of the Botetourt County Red Cross for 10 years. (This woman would have been a distant cousin of mine. Unfortunately, I never met her. I know her grandchildren, though.)

Mary Johnston (1870-1936) was a novelist from my county. Her first book, Prisoner of Hope, was published in 1898. In 1899, her second novel, To Have and To Hold, was an overwhelming success - it was the best-selling book in 1900 - and the book was made into silent films in 1918 and 1921. She believed in equal rights for women and was a suffragette. She was the first woman to ever address the Virginia Legislature when it was in session, where she advocated for the right to vote. She wrote 23 novels and multiple short stories and articles. Some of her books can be found on Amazon.

Of course, to my mind (journalist that I was) every woman - every person - has a story and has contributed something to his or her community, even if it wasn't meant to benefit others! (I know some people like that.) Billions of people have lived on this planet, and at least half of them were female.

They - we - (and I) - have voices that deserve to be heard, acknowledged, and understood.