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.

Gertrude Stein was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania in 1874. Her innovative writing was inspired by the exploration of time and place in cubist art, which she collected extensively at her welcoming salon in Paris. Along with her brother, she was among the first to recognize the genius of post- impressionist painters. At her salon she hosted artists and writers who were largely unknown at the time such as Ernest Hemingway,T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and of course Picasso, who painted her portrait (a rendition of which appears on the plate). Her innovative literary style employs heavy abstraction although her only commercial success was her memoir (The Autobiography of Alice B.Toklas) which is a standard narrative. Stein's legacy stands as much on the merit of her fearless work, as on her larger than life personality, and the cultivation of a generation of great writers and artists. She died in 1946 in France.

Harriet Hosmer American sculptor was born in Watertown Massachusetts, and is credited with opening the field of sculpture to women during the repressive Victorian era. She had to overcome gender prejudice and skepticism during the early years of her career, yet she persevered and went on to become one of America's most respected artists. Hosmer was one of a notable group of expatriate writers and artists who gathered in Rome in the mid-nineteenth century and she had close friendships with Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and fellow sculptors John Gibson, Emma Stebbins, Edmonia Lewis and William Wetmore Story. Hosmer inspired many by her classicized themes of female heroines such as Zenobia Queen of Palmyra and Beatrice Cenci. Though her many contributions and accomplishments had been overlooked and obscured by mainstream art history for years, Hosmer is now celebrated as a gifted sculptor and credited as having opened an important critique of women's position in nineteenth-century culture through her sculpture

I feel a bond over time and distance with Hrotsvitha- both of us single females of German extraction, dedicated to Christ,Education, and Drama living a thousand years apart. Her few known works reveal the same struggles we have today between the call of the World and the call of God. In her dramas, she specifically attempted to answer the question "why can't we write good theatre that encourages good behavior?" With the question of violence in media, and "sex,drugs and rock and roll" still plaguing society," I'd say we are still working on it. For me personally,it is nice to think of an ancestress "up there" cheering me on.

In 2006, Jefferts Schori was elected 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States (ECUSA). She is the first female primate in the Anglican Church worldwide. Jefferts Schori is an active supporter of same-sex marriage and has approved the blessing of same-sex unions within the church. In a recent statement, Katharine Jefferts Schori wrote, "Healing is the primary work of people of faith and the communities of which they are a part. Christians, as disciples of One who came to save (rescue, heal,make whole) the world and its inhabitants,seek to heal their relationships with one another and with all that is. Episcopalians believe this is God's mission and we are its ministers or servants. We are meant to seek to repair what is breached and broken, to stitch up what is torn,to heal what is sick,to release what is imprisoned and oppressed,to comfort the dying,to encourage the ignored,forlorn, and grieving. Our life finds meaning in responding to the cries around u

Lizzie Siddal's face is recognized the world over:she was the face of the Pre-Raphaelites, the first "super­ model" muse who inspired some of the greatest artistic achievements of her day. Yet few now know her name. In her own right,she was a poet and an artist whose work at one point garnered greater success than the man who later became her husband: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Struggling her entire adult life to navigate the Pre-Raphaelite artistic circle and her passionate relationship with Rossetti, it was the loss of a stillborn daughter and post-partum depression (considered shameful at the time) that irrevocably destroyed Siddal: she took her own life at the age of 32,possibly due to a second failed pregnancy. I celebrate Lizzie Siddal as one of the multitude of women whose accomplishments are overshadowed in life and death by the men whom they inspire.

Louisa May Alcott was a nineteenth-century American writer best known for the Little Women series and other fiction for children. She also wrote memoirs, adult fiction, and sensationalist fiction under the pseuclonym A. M. Barnard. What I most admire about Alcott is her independence. The quote on my plate reads "paddle my own canoe." In a journal entry, Alcott wrote that she'd rather be "a free spinster and paddle my own canoe." Along similar lines,she wanted her most famed character,Jo,to remain single avoiding the marriage plot. Pressures from her publisher made her marry Jo off, but Alcott remained single and lived a happy,successfullife. Ialso love that she grew up in a town of great American male writers--Emerson, Hawthorne,Thoreau,but she remains the most popular and arguably the most influential writer from Concord,MA. I also respect that Alcott wrote to raise her family out of poverty and remained dedicated to her family her entire life. And,finally,I am recognizing Alcott because she worked for social justice as a feminist and abolitionist.

My two siblings and I were all named after my aunt, Marjorie Ann Rickey, an artist and woman of faith who never married but traveled and painted in France, Hawaii, Ohio, Canada, louisiana, and elsewhere. She studied with artist Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, as well as at such institutions as Columbia University, Northwestern University, and Columbus School of Art and Design. Even today,her art graces my home and her influence my life. The niece of baseball legend Branch Rickey, who helped break the color barrier by signing Jackie Robinson, Marjorie (or "Mar," as we called her) was adventuresome, talented, independent,loving, funny, and supportive. During our frequent trips in her Volkswagen camper (accompanied by her constant companions,two dachshunds), she encouraged me to write. She would set up her easel;I would take out notebook and paper. In this way I learned, even as a child,the transformative power of art in all its wonderful and varied forms.

I first read the work of Margaret Atwood in the 1970s and was impressed by the way in which she was able to evoke deep thoughts and feelings in me. I particularly have found her poetry to be the best I have ever read. Her use of words and language is the most engaging I have ever read. l had the honor of hearing her deliver an address on the 'Future of Reading' five years ago and also had the pleasure of meeting her. One poem (not exactly quoted) that has struck me is:

I am honoring my great aunt, Maria Teresa Ruiz Rojas, born June 15, 1898 in Santa Clara,Cuba. In the early 1920s,Cuban women experienced profound prejudice and discrimination, and the majority of women of employment age did not work. Maria, however,graduated from the University of Havana Law School and became a lawyer in 1925. In the early 1940s, when only 100.16 of women were employed, she became the first female judge in Cuba. In 1960, her only son, Juan,had joined resistance efforts to stifle Castro's plans, and at age 18, had to escape late at night, on a cargo ship sailing to Spain to keep from being arrested and punished as a dissenter. He then came to the United States to live with our family. Maria was never allowed to leave Cuba,and passed away on March 7, 1968 in Havana, without ever seeing her son again.

I am honoring my great aunt, Maria Teresa Ruiz Rojas, born June 15, 1898 in Santa Clara,Cuba. In the early 1920s,Cuban women experienced profound prejudice and discrimination, and the majority of women of employment age did not work. Maria, however,graduated from the University of Havana Law School and became a lawyer in 1925. In the early 1940s, when only 100.16 of women were employed, she became the first female judge in Cuba. In 1960, her only son, Juan,had joined resistance efforts to stifle Castro's plans, and at age 18, had to escape late at night, on a cargo ship sailing to Spain to keep from being arrested and punished as a dissenter. He then came to the United States to live with our family. Maria was never allowed to leave Cuba,and passed away on March 7, 1968 in Havana, without ever seeing her son again.

Courtesan, Artist, Musician, Dancer, Model. When women (or men) are forced into a society that has marginalized them, some still thrive while looking out from their chosen profession (or professions) with inner pride and self respect. Victorine Meurent and many others were such persons.

It is generally agreed that the publication of Silent Spring in 1962 by Rachel Carson started the environmental movement in the U.S. By the time Rachel started working on this famous book in 1958, she was becoming increasingly concerned about the broad use of the pesticide DDT and its indiscriminate eradication of harmful and beneficial species. In one chapter,she described the damage to the ecosystem as organisms from flowers to birds being "silenced" when they succumbed to the toxins. Her thorough and meticulous research on the topic and eloquent descriptions of the unintended environmental damage caused by this pesticide prompted President John F. Kennedy to ask the President's Science Advisory Committee to examine the problem. Soon after that,new regulations were implemented to more tightly control chemical production and application in the environment. Shortly before her death in 1964 from breast cancer,she challenged the public to understand the interrelatedness of humans and nature and to live with it instead of warring against it. Rachel Carson took on the giants in the chemical industry and in 1972 DDT was finally banned in the U.S. for general agricultural application. She won the fight,but the battle continues today as we must be ever vigilant about protecting and conserving our fragile ecosystems.

Virginia served as Associate Professor Emerita of English and the "Intellectual Mother" of Women's Studies at Lock Haven University from 1969-1999. "My students challenged, stimulated, and inspired me-no matter in what context I met them. I never thought about looking for another job because I had found a lifetime of cultivation at LHU. I am a fortunate woman."- LHU Roll of Service acceptance speech, October 2011