How Some Women Have Pursued Their Ambitions Throughout History

The continuing saga of discrimination against women around the world…

Women have had to improvise for centuries to pursue their ambitions and what some knew was their destiny; I was one of those women. I succeeded in an all-male dominated Carpentry trade by passing as a man in the 1970s. It was the only way I could get hired as a carpenter. There have been many more women before me doing exactly the same in many different professions. Their stories are spread out across history with very little attention given…Most of the stories are just getting recognition today in the 21^st Century. There are still many more women that will not be recognized for their capabilities in this Century either, this is because of religious and/or social beliefs their parents have passed down to them from childhood as so called norms in their society.

Make no mistake; we can include the 21^st Century in the continuing saga of discrimination against women in the United States, Canada and around the World, no matter how many laws are passed to stop it…

Below is an article describing what some of these women had to do to be accepted into their society or all male dominated professions?

National Geographic Article[i]

Quote from article posted September 2013:

“For centuries female explorers got to pursue their ambitions only in disguise or against fierce resistance. If they somehow succeeded, society often ignored them or, worse, treated them as superwomen, because that was the way, Egyptian feminist Hunda Shaarawi wrote, “to avoid recognizing the capabilities of all women.”

1.    What people do not know about Joan of Arc

Jeanne Sybille D'Arc (1412–1431)

Summary: Contrary to popular belief, Joan of Arc wasn’t burned at the stake for witchcraft—at least not technically. She dressed in men’s clothing; an act unacceptable to society so they killed her.

After falling into enemy hands in 1430, Joan of Arc was tried in the English stronghold of Rouen by an ecclesiastical court. The 70 charges against her ranged from sorcery to horse theft, but by May 1431 they had been whittled down to just 12, most related to her wearing of men’s clothing and claims that God had directly contacted her. Offered life imprisonment in exchange for an admission of guilt, Joan signed a document confessing her alleged sins and promising to change her ways. (It has been speculated that the illiterate Joan never knew what she’d put her name—or, more accurately, her mark of a cross—to.) Several days later, possibly due to threats of violence or rape from her guards, Joan put her male attire back on; she then told the angry judges who visited her cell that her voices had reappeared. It was these two acts that earned Joan a conviction as a “relapsed heretic” and sent her to the stake.

Resources

History https://www.history.com/news/7-surprising-facts-about-joan-of-arc

2.    Jeanne Baret 1740- 1807  When French botanist Philibert Commerson joined Louis-Antoine de Bougainville’s 1766-1769 expedition around the world, Baret disguised herself as a man and signed on as Commerson’s valet. She was evidently both his lover an expert botanist, and she did much of the work of collecting plants, probably including the flowering vine now known as bougainvillea also known as Napoleón.

3.   Isabelle Eberhardt 1877-1904     A Swiss-born convert to Islam, Eberhardt traveled in northern Algeria dressed as a man. Calling herself Si Mahmoud Essadi, she joined a Sufi order, the Qadiriyya, which focused on spiritual well-being for Muslims. She documented her travels in articles and books before drowning in a flood. Her life inspired the opera “Song From Uproar” and a 1991 film.

4.   Sue Hendrickson   Self-taught explorer specializing in fossils trapped in amber and marine archaeology. In 1990, while searching in the Black Hills of South Dakota, she and her golden retriever found what turned out to be the largest known specimen of T. Rex, “Sue, as the find was named in Hendrickson’s honor, is now on display at the Field Museum, in Chicago, Illinois.

7.   Julie D’Aubigny      Julie d’Aubigny was a sword fighter and opera singer who lived during the late 1600s and early 1700s. Julie dressed as a boy from an early age and frequently learned alongside boys, being taught dancing, reading, drawing, and fencing. Julie d’Aubigny was, of course, very shocking during her day and caused plenty of uproar, once even being sentenced to death by fire. She died tragically young, having only lived to her thirties.

More ordinary women doing extraordinary doing things

2.   Miss Annie Smith Peck    In 1910 a cigarette company featured her on its trading series of “The World’s Greatest Explorers.” She was a pioneering mountain climber. Born to a prominent Rhode Island family, Peck discovered her love for climbing at the age of 44. She went on to make many difficult climbs in South America and elsewhere. She once planted a suffragist’s flag saying, “Votes for Women” at the top of Mount Coropuna in Peru.

5.   Harriet Chalmers Adams The New York Times named her one of the leading women explorers in the world. Between 1907 and 1935, Adams contributed 21 articles to National Geographic magazine. Traveling mainly through South America, often on horseback, Adams was bitten by vampire bats and suffered a broken back. But she also declared that she had “never faced difficulty which a woman, as well as a man, could not surmount.” She helped form the Society of Women Geographers in 1925.

6.   Barbary Hillary        Having survived both breast and lung cancer and then retiring from her nursing career some years ago, she decided to travel…at the age of 79 she became the first black women to visit the North in 2007and South Poles in 2011. Her quote, “Wouldn’t it be better to die doing something interesting, “she said, “than to drop dead in an office and the last thing you see is someone you don’t like?”

You can read more on discrimination of women through the centuries under RESOURCES.[ii] [iii]

RESOURCES