Judy Chicago Dinner Party, 2014

Born to Hungarian immigrants in Manhattan’s upper east side, Alice Kober majored in Latin at Hunter College, and earned Masters and PhD degrees in Classics from Columbia University. She was appointed Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College, where she lived out her career. Described by one of her students as ‘aggressively nondescript’, she was a relentless philologist, mastering in addition to Greek and Latin, Sanskrit, Hittite, Akkadian, Old Irish. Tocharian, Sumerian, Old Persian, Basque, and Chinese.  Her dissertation was on the use of color terms in Homer, but her life’s work was resolutely focused on deciphering the Mycenean script known as Linear B, for which she won a Guggenheim in 1946.  She kept statistics on 180,000 hand cut cards, using a hole punch system to organize inflections.  Her premature death cut her research short, but her work led to eventual decipherment by Michael Ventris.  
 

First female police officer with arrest powers in the United States;Appointment in 1910- Retired in 1940
As the first female police officer in the U.S.,Alice brought attention to the fact that women had a place in law enforcement.After her appointment,she aided in creating the InternationalPolicewomen's Association,as well as convincing universities to offer courses on te work of female police officers.As if this wasn't enough ,Alice also created a halfway house of sorts for female offenders,especially juveniles, which helped in the rehabilitation of female offenders in society.

All Women

Visionary. Innovator. Champion. Professional tennis player who won 39 Grand Slam singles,doubles, and mixed doubles tennis titles, including a record 20 titles at Wimbledon.  As one of the 20th century's most respected and influential people, she has long been a champion for social justice and equality.  he created new inroads for both genders in and out of sports during her legendary career and she continues to make her mark today.

Among some of her many accomplishments are:in 2009 awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. In 1990, named one of the "100 Most Important Americans of the
20th Century" by life Magazine. Defeated Bobby Riggs in one of the greatest moments in sports history­
the Battle of the Sexes in 1973. This match is remembered for its effect on society and its contribution to the women's movement.

I played competitive tennis in high school and Billie Jean King was one of my role models.

Dr. Brown is an American scholar,author,and public speaker,who is currently a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work in Texas. Her research interests include topics such as vulnerability,courage,shame,and living wholeheartedly.  Dr. Brown has authored several books and has been featured in several TED  talks  .My favorite quote from Dr. Brown is:
"Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from  it.
Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy-the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light."

As a social worker, I am inspired by her messages and chose to honor her because I strongly  believe we have the capacity to live wholeheartedly when we allow vulnerability to transform us so we embrace courage,strength, forgiveness,and compassion.

Eleanor Roosevelt was an inspiring women who has been credited by President Truman as"First Lady of the World" because of all of her achievements within the human rights movement.  Most notably, she served as one of the first delegates to the United Nations and oversaw the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She began her political career as First Lady of New York, then to the United States. She eventually held her last political office of Chairwomen of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women in the early 1960s. One of my favorite quotes is from her autobiography, "This is My Story,1937" - "no one can make you feel infedor without your consent."

My plate honors American poet, Elizabeth Bishop, born in Worcester,Massachusetts on 8 February 1911, died 6 October 1979 in Boston. Her poetry, particularly in the collections Poems: North and South-A Cold Spring (1955) (for which she won the Pulitzer Prize),Questions of Travel (1965),and Geography Ill (1977) evokes her sensitivity to the power and inspiration of place. Made effectively homeless by the death of her father when she was an infant, and the loss of her mother to mental illness when Bishop was only five, Bishop's affection for places like Great Village,Nova Scotia; Key Largo,Florida; and Ouro Preto, Brazil served to fill the gap these losses created. Bishop's poems reflect the deep and sustaining mystery of discovering one's self in relationship to place and others. In addition,they attempt to fathom the unspeakable anxiety of unavoidable loss and the transience of human experience.

I admire her as an artist who was able to capture stunning photographs of many of her contemporaries (Susan B. Anthony, Mark Twain,Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Natalie Barney, George Washington Carver); as a photo-journalist who documented the lives of coal miners, iron and mill workers, American Indians, and the students and teachers at the Hampton Institute; and as a woman. who flaunted the dictates of her times by defining herself as 'lhe New Woman," one who lived independently and worked tirelessly to support herself through the practice of photography

My mom never considered herself a feminist, but she worked outside of the home and for many years raised her daughters by herself. She and her sisters were housewives and mothers, but they also were factory workers and business owners-often sacrificing their own desires for their chiidren's futures. Whether they knew it or not,they served as models for me, my sister, and my cousins.

Georgia O'Keefe's life has had an extended effect upon mine. As a younger woman, I looked for role models. I wanted to embrace feminism,but I was uncomfortable to shrug away the influence of my Mother and Aunt:women who had sacrificed their ambitions for the sake of their husband and brother (my father). Art was my refuge, and O'Keefe became my inspiration. She saw the Universe in minutiae. She was like ME,in that way. I picked up stones, wood, and flowers,and examined these things up­ close. I imagined that, like me,she felt natural things on her face. Maybe she would taste them,like I did. And, like me, she would lie down and look up- as I did,in a field, and take in the slightly earth scent of dirt,moss, trees, and sun.