The Nineteenth

Work life balance has always been a consideration. Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first Native American Doctor balanced work, advocacy, raising a family, and her heritage on the Omaha tribe with grace. Still a continuing struggle for many women today. Interesting note, she was the first PERSON to get federal financial aid for higher education in America! Nebraska was the 14th state to Ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on August 2, 1919 alongside Montana. After time away from the Omaha tribe, Susan La Flesche Picotte’s father, Iron Eye, returned and advocated for assimilation to Western culture as Principal Leader of the Omaha tribe in 1855. Her mother was a woman that studied and practiced genuine Omaha tribe heritage, and taught the traditions to Susan La Flesche. However, her father and oldest sister insisted she spoke English and was held back from the traditional name and tattoos of the tribe. She was drawn to medicine as a young girl watching her tribal people ailing from mi

Montana women worked the farms, fields, and events just like the men. They pushed and risked their lives. And they did it on par with the men. Alice Greenough Orr was the "Queen of the Rodeo" right along the kings. Montana is the 13th state to ratify the 19th Amendment on August 2, 1919. Alice Greenough Orr, raised in a rancher family, embodied the lifestyle of the Montana land. One of seven children, five of them, including her sister, led the rodeo. Ms. Greenough Orr was one of the first inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Texas. Her career spanned the globe, introducing her to cultures and notable leaders. She spent a period of time in Spain at a time when local women feared women that wore pants. She enjoyed her travels to Australia the most in her life, seeing the people as “rugged and easy to get along with.” She had tea with the King and Queen of England. She formed the Greenough-Orr Rodeo which she produced with her husband. They created the ba

This story of support for people suffering with AIDS floored me by bringing me back to the early years of trying to understand what this disease is about to reminding me that no matter how much we think it is "under control", it is not. There is still a disease, and there is still fear. Arkansas was the 12 state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on July 28, 1919. Ruth Coker Burks grew up in Arkansas, losing her father at the early age of five. Following his death, her mother inherited the family plots in their cemetery after fighting with her uncle to ensure there was no potential that her mother and uncle’s family would be buried in the same land. Ms. Burks inherited a total of 262 burial plots. As “Gay-Related-Immune-Deficiency” (GRID), now AIDS, took hold, people refused to be near gay men in the hospital. Ostracized from society as different and affected people by this plague, they suffered alone without family or community around them. She reached out to the pati

My college state … Missouri was a new home for me. Bringing me into the South, I felt a new culture and community. And I do think she was felt by all. She was the voice of a century of change. So interesting. Missouri was the 11th state to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment on July 3, 1919. Maya Angelou was a prolific writer that shared her life experiences through seven autobiographies along with many others. Her hard life hit harder at 8 years old when her mother’s boyfriend raped. When released one day later from prison, he was found murdered. Fearing her admission to the family caused his death, she vowed silence to ensure not to send anyone else to their death. Though she was open through her writing of the experiences that formed her and the times of her life, she was very private about much of her life including her marriages. She worked in the sex trade as a prostitute for lesbian women, sharing these experiences in her autobiography, “Gather Together In My Name”. But h

Understanding the current state of voting in America, I made an infographic on voting trends for Women in America. And it is not as positive as I would have hoped. There are over 160.5 million women voters in America. There are more women than men in America. Women have a bigger voice. The change today in women as leaders is astounding. Women never being allowed in top leadership political positions have become the ground for women to take on. Is this encouraging to more women to vote? Winning the right to vote has not spread a culture of actively voting. The info-graphic below indicates the women in each state that participate in voting. The dark bar is the percentage of women registered to vote, and the orange bar indicates the percentage of those women that choose to vote. None of the bars are close to 100% registered. And none of the states have high turnouts for women that are registered to vote. California and Texas, the top two most populated state in the country, have th