More Women from They Persisted

Hello All, thanks for stopping by. I am late today because the beautiful fall day hijacked most of my earlier plans. It was delightful. Fall is my favorite season! I hope that you are enjoying it too.

They Persisted is progressing nicely. That really makes me happy and I'm so anxious to hold that new, beautiful version in my hand. Soon!

Today I am sharing a few more women you will find in that book when it comes off the press. The women haven't changed. They are the same. The copy is just cleaned up a bit and more like what I originally intended. As I said last week- I am loving it again!

Martha "Mattie" Haria Hughes Cannon was an immigrant,wife, mother, physician, chemist, orator and politician.

* Immigrated to a Mormon Community in Utah and was supported by her community to get an education

* At 14 worked as a typesetter for the Women's Exponent which was published by Emmeline B.

and was a woman run paper

* Graduated first, with a degree in chemistry, then earned her M.D. at 23, and went on to earn a B.S. in pharmacy

* Worked as resident physician in Salt Lake City for 4 years, establishing the first training school for nurses at the Deseret Hospital

* Met Angus Cannon, hospital superintendent, and they married

* Angus was arrested on polygamy charges. She was his 4th wife. To avoid testifying, she escaped town with her young daughter, under a blanket, in the back of a hay wagon and was in exile for two years

* When Mattie returned home, she ran on the Democratic ticket for a senate seat. Her husband, Angus ran as well. Mattie won the election hands down!

* Served two terms in the Senate

* Addressed issues of public health and raised funds for hearing impaired students

* Established a state board of health

Belle Jennings Benchley was a Zoo Director, visionary, animal rights activist and reformer

* Single mother

* Worked at the San Diego Zoo and fed 600-800 animals each day

* Promoted to Zoo Director and performed every job of her 125 employees to understand how things worked

* Believed that zoos were for animals and not for people

* Made vast changes to the housing accommodations of the animals, making them more like their natural environment, with private spaces and free of stress

* Opened the largest bird cage in the world, complete with hills, cliffs, and trees

* Authored many articles on creating the best life possible for animals in a zoo setting

* Established an elaborate zoo neonatal hospital

* Insisted that all staff aways use "a soft word instead of a club, a gentle twinkle of the eye instead of a whip"

* Every zoo today, in some way - and to some degree, is an echo of the Bencheley Model

Lillian Moller Gilbreth was an architect, author, human behaviorist and Inventor

* Graduate in 1900 from U of CA, the first female commencement speaker

* Earned a Master's degree from Columbia University, where some professors refused to teach her because she was a woman

* Ph.D from Brown University

* Authored the Psychology of Movement

* Cheaper by the Dozen was written by two of her twelve children about their family

* Was a "genius in the art of living"

* First female member of the Society of Industrial Engineers

* Received 22 honorary degrees from universities such as Princeton, Brown, and the University of Michigan

* Visiting professor at Stanford, Harvard and MIT

* Honored as the "Worlds Greatest Woman Engineer"

* Invented shelves in refrigerator doors, the egg keeper and butter tray, the foot-pedal trash can, and much more

Now don't you want to know more about these women and the others in They Persisted?