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 From
Corsets to Congress
A determined Dorthea Dix once took four carriages, hiked five miles
and rode a log downstream in her quest to find the nation's mentally
ill and get them proper treatment. African American Elizabeth Jennings
refused to disembark from a horse-drawn trolley car and wait for one
reserved for "colored people" -- a century before Rosa Parks
would do the same. Schoolteacher Clara Barton had to stop and ring the
blood out of her skirts to move between the wounded she attended to
on the battlefields of the Civil War.
"These women just knock me out. … No one told them to do
these things," said Gail Collins when she came to campus in March
to discuss her bestselling book, "America's Women: 400 Years of
Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines" (Perennial, 2004).
Part of the San Francisco Urban Institute's "Great Minds: Leadership
and Civic Engagement" lecture series, the event in Jack Adams Hall
was a fitting celebration of Women's History Month; Collins is making
history herself as the first woman to serve as editor of The New
York Times' editorial page.
Collins pointed to strides women have made in recent years as well as
their remaining challenges. Women were once encouraged to "stay
home and radiate goodness," she said, "but now it's presumed
that women will have adventure. That's only in our generation that this
happened." And while much focus has been put on the often difficult
balance between career and family, Collins said that "the greatest
challenge for American women today is making alliances with women in
Third World countries" so that they might enjoy the same rights
and opportunities.
-- Adrianne Bee
 
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