Women in the American Revolution

Despite not having a political voice, women played many important roles during the American Revolution by supporting its causes through their consumer power, by being outspoken about women’s rights and by fighting in the War of Independence.  Women boycotted British teas and other luxuries such as silk and satin.  During the war, skilled colonial women produced clothing and blankets for the soldiers, as well as soap. At home, most women tended the family farms and businesses, opened their homes to soldiers for a good night’s sleep, and formed patriotic women’s organizations such as the Philadelphia Ladies Association and the Whig Association of the Unmarried Ladies of America in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 

Image courtesy of Library of Congress First Ladies of the United States

In 1776, Abigail Adams sounded the first call for women’s equality when she wrote a letter to her husband, John, who was a member of the Continental Congress that declared independence from Britain.  She wrote:

“In the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.”

In May 1782, at the age of 21, Deborah Sampson enlisted to fight in the American Revolution under the name of her deceased brother, Robert Shurtleff Sampson, who died at the age of eight years old.  When her leg was injured, she tended it herself in order to not be discovered.  The wound worsened and she was sent to a physician, who “discovered, that she was a woman and made discreet arrangements that ended her military career.”  However, she was honorably discharged from the military.

In 1777, Sybil Ludington who was 16 years old, volunteered to warn the countryside of the attack and to alert the militia troops to muster at Ludington’s. She rode some 40 miles in the middle of the night, shouting that the British were burning Danbury and helped to gather enough volunteers to beat back the British.  Click here to read a poem about Sybil’s midnight ride.

Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley also known as “Molly Pitcher” was with her husband, William Hays, during the battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778.  Molly brought cool spring water to the exhausted and thirsty men and tended to the wounded. When she saw her husband wounded, she stepped forward and took the rammer staff from her fallen husband’s hands to man the gun. She stayed at her post in the face of heavy enemy fire. 

While honoring our country’s history and heroes this Independence Day, let us not forget the sacrifices made by these  and other women – along with men – to make our country free. 

Happy Fourth of July!

Pioneer Heroine “Mad Anne Bailey” Performance at the Johnson County Museum
 
Monday, July 11, 7 p.m.
135 N. Main St., Franklin
Free to the public

“Mad Anne” Bailey was a pioneer scout, spy and messenger during the American Revolution, known for handling a horse and weapons as well as any man on the frontier. In 1791, at the age of 50, she made a heroic 100 mile ride carrying much-needed gunpowder from Fort Savannah to Fort Lee. Historic re-enactor Suzanne Dennis performs a lively first-person characterization of this pioneer heroine. A portion of Dennis’ performance fee benefits the American Widow Project, supporting spouses of fallen servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For more information, visit www.johnsoncountymuseum.org or call (317) 346-4500.

A Word from a Father by Jay Riggs

In honor of Father’s Day, we asked Jay Riggs, a guest blogger, to give a few reflections on fatherhood.  As we continue to work to move Indiana women forward, we recognize the need for commitment from supportive men who believe in women’s full participation in all aspects of society in order to live, work and raise a family.

Mr. Riggs is an organizer with My Global Voice, an organization that does grassroots advocacy for humanitarian foreign policy initiatives.  My Global Voice is working on such foreign policy initiatives as The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), an international agreement affirming principles of fundamental human rights and equality for women around the world. For more information, please see their website at www.myglobalvoice.org.

With Fathers’ Day fast approaching, I have been thinking a lot about my role in the lives of my two young children.  It’s a role with which I struggled mightily at first, trying to hang on to vestiges of a time when perhaps the career ambitions of American fathers were not impacted dramatically by having children.  I tried to continue working 60-80 hours a week in an effort to secure the ambitious future that I had always seen for myself.  All this was done without taking the concerns of my wife into account (and it is not as if she didn’t raise them).  In reflecting about how far I have come as a father since my first son was born, there is no choice but to confront the realities of what women face both in the workplace and at home when they try to lead the double life of primary caretaker and ambitious career professional.

A July 2010 poll taken by Workplace Options explored in great detail many of the issues that women face when they attempt to balance caring for a child or an aging parent with a career.  While the results were by no means universal, they did indicate that women face a variety of barriers to their professional ambition.  Polls aside, my personal experience with this topic has left me to wonder how I can be more supportive of my wife in order for her to be able to live without such barriers, or at least to minimize them.

If you read much of feminist theory, you’ll find that a lot of the thinkers on this particular topic see little if any role for men in the movement to bring full equality for women in our society.  That is certainly a topic that is up for debate.  However, I will say this:  In order for my wife to realize her professional goals and for us to raise our children the way that both of us want, I have to step up my commitment to parenting.  With that in mind, I was faced with a difficult decision about a job transfer almost two years ago.  Instead of trying to convince my wife to quit her job so that I could keep mine, I chose to quit and stay home with the kids. To be honest, I had no idea how challenging this would be.  However, out of this unplanned adventure, I learned some very important lessons.

At first, my expectation was that I would stay home with the kids and my wife would leave every morning no earlier than 7:30 a.m. and be home promptly at 5:30 p.m.  I had surmised that this schedule was acceptable, if not ideal, for me to pursue finding the right job to replace the one I had just left. I would be able to sleep until 7:30 every morning and then leave, either physically or mentally, at 5:30 every evening to either search for work on the internet or attend after work networking opportunities. What I learned is that for years there had been commitments my wife had been skipping, to her detriment, in order to accommodate the demands of my career.  She didn’t come and go like clockwork and, at first, I was not pleased.

In the long run, I came to understand the realities of a give and take relationship (as opposed to just taking).  For the first five years we were married, we both supported each other’s careers without barrier or need to compromise.  Why not? We didn’t have any responsibilities beyond paying our monthly bills. What I learned staying home with the kids was the extent to which she had continued to support my professional goals after our kids were born and that I did not reciprocate. I realized the sacrifices that she had made for my happiness and the lack of support that I was providing.  With this new understanding, I have tried to change my attitudes and behaviors. I have learned that compromise is the best way to allow both of us to strive for our goals and that such compromise also allowed me to build on and improve my relationship with our boys.

Despite my inability to become the perfect husband and father, my commitment to compromise and my renewed efforts to live up to our lofty parenting goals has healed many of the wounds that the selfish behavior that preceded it had opened.  She is happier than ever in her career and at home.  I have made a career change that I am very excited about.  And the kids no longer come running around the corner yelling, “Mommy’s home,” regardless of which of us is returning. In the greater scheme of things, what I have learned is that in a family, everyone’s happiness is important.  If we are going to live in a society in which everyone’s happiness is taken into account, we, as men, must start to understand the struggles that the women in our lives endure when they try to couple caretaking with professional ambition and do our part to make that struggle less difficult.

Healthy BONES…Osteoporosis Prevention

Osteoporosis is a debilitating disease, which most often affects women.  The National Association of Commissions for Women (NACW) recently launched a Healthy BONES project, and the Indiana Commission for Women is on board letting Hoosiers know how to prevent osteoporosis from happening to them and providing resources with information regarding the disease.

Most people know that drinking milk can help to strengthen your bones, but exercise is also an extremely effective way to prevent the loss of bone mass or osteoporosis.  According to the U.S. Office on Women’s Health, “Weight-bearing exercises help strengthen bones and muscles by making them work against gravity.”  Other controllable factors that contribute to osteoporosis are smoking and drinking alcohol in excess.  In order to prevent osteoporosis, it is important to live and active lifestyle and eat a diet rich in calcium and vitamin D (Vitamin D helps the body absorb the calcium).  It is best to start these practices early in life; however, it is never too late to start!

A great health website is www.womenshealth.gov, which provides a list of foods that are high in vitamin D and calcium and the recommended dietary intake for women at each age:

IU = International Units.

To find out if you are at risk for osteoporosis, bone density tests, such as the dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA or dexa), can be easily performed by your health care provider.  It is recommended that all women, 65 and older, have this screening to determine their susceptibility to osteoporosis.

As mentioned earlier, prevention for osteoporosis is best began as a child, and the Office on Women’s Health has started a really cool program called Best Bones Forever!  – a campaign for girls and their BFF’s to, “grow strong and stay strong forever!”  This site includes facts on the skeletal system, as well as foods, recipes and activities of interest to girls, that will help them build strong bones.  Resources are also available specifically for parents, educators, partners and media to spread the information through social media, parties, and free fun stuff!

For more details on preventing osteoporosis and its devastating effects, you can read the Bone Health for Life publication, available in English and Spanish, from the National Institute for Health – your quality of life depends on it!

Envisioning Equality

Patzetta Trice shows future generations that women are just as powerful as men.  As a business woman at General Motors, she was able to see the company go full circle - from an organization with very few women and minorities in top level positions, to a firm that embraced and supported diversity at every level. “Being at General Motors helped to shape not only my cultural philosophies in terms of dealing in those environments, but also being a woman - that you don’t have to accept less than what you know you’re worth.” She was able to grow in the company and eventually became the Director of Communications and Public Affairs.

Patzetta knew from a young age there would be barriers that she would face in her life, but her father taught her never to reciprocate the actions of her adversaries.  Those early teachings helped her to establish standards in her life for how she expected to be treated and how she treated others.  “I had standards that no matter the consequence, I was not going to go against…I survived, but it wasn’t without a little bit of pain.”

Patzetta’s had many titles, including her current title of Chief Communications Officer for the Indianapolis Airport Authority, but names and recognitions not are important to her.  She gives credit to her staff and colleagues, for the roles they play in her life and the successes she experiences.

A very humble woman, Patzetta considers her greatest accomplishment in life to be her daughter, Erika.  “She is my best friend…She is a phenomenal human being and I am so blessed to have had her.”  Patzetta recognizes the importance of young women in our country.  She knows they are our future.  “I really want to teach the little girls; I want us to be concerned about the next generations.”

Patzetta is passionate about many issues, but at the top of her list are education and human rights.  She feels that education is the “root of our being,” and is necessary for us to realize our potential.  Her passion for human rights is influenced by her belief that we all need to live by the basic principles of life.  “Just treating people right – I don’t get why that is so difficult.”

Patzetta has served as a commissioner for the Indiana Commission for Women since 2005.  She believes the commission is a, “way to garner the energies of women in this state.  I’m not sure of another organization that’s born of state government that is doing that, that is empowered to do that, that has the tools and resources to do that.  For wherever we are today, we have an opportunity ahead to really make something of that existence.”  She feels that is it is important to serve as an advocate for women because, “there are still inequalities, there is still work to do and if I can in some small way help to change things for some little girl, I want to do that.”

Patzetta has helped to break down barriers in the business world so that women can sit at the table and fully participate in life, but she knows there is still more that needs to be done in order to help move Indiana women forward.

Women in Indiana have an important role to play.  You can make a difference by:

• Voicing your opinion
• Serving as an advocate for women
• Pursuing higher education
• Mentoring another woman
• Learning more about the issues that affect women in Indiana.

Go to www.in.gov/icw to learn more about the Indiana Commission for Women and their current initiatives.