East of Omaha

womenandsports:

An Iraqi weightlifter lifts a loaded barbell during a training session at a gym in Sadr city in Baghdad. In this Shi’ite neighbourhood in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, eight women from Iraq’s first female weightlifting team train hard to bring back medals for their country. The team of female weightlifters are set to represent Iraq in the Asian Championship in Qatar next month (via The week in sport – in pictures | Sport | guardian.co.uk)

mypubliclands:

In today’s society, it’s easy to forget the historic accomplishments of those who broke down barriers  for women to enter the field of natural resources management.  Thank you Hallie!

“One of the most untiring and enthusiastic applicants which I have for the position is Miss Hallie Morse Daggett, a wide-awake woman of 30 years, who knows and has traversed every trail on the Salmon River watershed, and is thoroughly familiar with every foot of the District.” M. H. McCarthy, Assistant Fire Ranger for the Salmon River District of the Klamath National Forest

Miss Hallie Morse Daggett was born in 1878 in Liberty, CA. She grew up at the Klamath Mine, also known as Black Bear Mine, very near to where she later worked as a lookout. Her childhood years were spent exploring every inch of the Salmon River drainage with her brothers, which undoubtedly influenced her desire to do her part to protect the forest as an adult.

In describing her life as a lookout, Hallie said: “I grew up with a fierce hatred of the devastating fires and welcomed the Forest Service force which arrived to combat them. But not until the lookout stations were installed did there come an opportunity to join what had up till then been a man’s fight; although my sister and I had frequently been able to help on the small things, such as extinguishing spreading campfires or carrying supplies to the firing line.” Because of the times, Hallie was not allowed to be in the line of work that she truly desired, but through her persistence and the liberal-mindedness of the District Ranger, she was hired. She was the first woman ever employed as a “Forest Guard” by the US Forest Service. Her first day on the job was June 1, 1913, just over 100 years ago.

Hallie was a pioneer in natural resource employment for women who, at the time of her employment, had only just started to vote. Some of the men predicted that after a few days of life on the peak she would telephone them to say that she was frightened by the loneliness and danger of staffing the lookout. To their surprise she was full of “pluck and high spirit”. She grew more and more in love with the work. She didn’t lose heart even when the telephone wires were broken and she was cut off from communication with the world below for weeks at a time. She performed the duties of the position with all of the skill that trained men could have shown in hopes of being reappointed for the 1914 fire season.

Hallie worked 15 seasons at the Eddy Gulch Lookout atop Klamath Peak on the Klamath National Forest. During her first season she spotted 40 fires, keeping the total acres burned to less than 5. In her later years (around 1951) residents of Hallie’s home town in Etna, California, banded together to build her a cabin on Main Street next to her sister Leslie’s home. She lived in this house until her death in 1964. The cabin was donated to the City of Etna by the Rosemary Holsinger family in 1993. Through efforts by the volunteer citizen’s committee, the City of Etna moved the cabin to the city park and developed a historical interpretive site that was completed in 1996. This project was identified as a priority in the Etna community action plan and was funded by Forest Service grants from President Clinton’s Northwest Economic Adjustment Initiative and the Ore-Cal Resource Conservation Development Area. The project was also sponsored by the Native Daughters of the American West. The site continues to honor Hallie’s legacy today.

-Story courtesy of the Klamath National Forest.

(via coolchicksfromhistory)

think-progress:

Susan B. Anthony, badass.

plutovka:

16 June 1963 - Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.

“If women can be railroad workers in Russia, why can’t they fly in space?”

(via falling-towers)

todaysdocument:

Sally Ride, the first female American astronaut to go into space, blasted off aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger 30 years ago, on June 18, 1983, as a mission specialist for Space Transportation System Mission 7 (STS-7).

starryeyedmariam:

The oldest academic degree-granting university existing today founded by muslim woman in Fes, Morocco

Twelve hundred years ago, a young, wealthy and well educated woman named Fatima Al-Fihiyya (also known as Fatima Al-Fihri) inherited a big fortune from her businessman father. Her interest was neither in shoes or handbags, nor in any celebrity lifestyle, neither to woe a man for marriage, nor in any of the stereotypes that are usually associated with women. Fatima had a vision that was cultivated and allowed to grow because of the Islamic society she lived in and encouraged her. Her vision did not remain a dream but was accomplished and the results can still be seen today. In 859 CE, Fatima Al-Fihriyya founded the oldest academic degree-granting university existing today, the University of Al-Qarawiyyin in Fes, Morocco.

The Al-Qarawiyyin Mosque is one of the largest mosques in Africa and the oldest true university in the world. Al-Qarawiyyin is the perfect example of how Islam combines the spiritual with education and that Islam is not separate from life’s affairs. This is not only an example of how education and religion merge in this small corner of the globe, but it sheds light on the esteemed role that women played in the Islamic community - an aspect of Islam that is often misunderstood.

Note: There are older universities founded on the world from times of Babylonia, Greece, Syria, Arabia, India and China - but, they can not apply as the oldest ones - since they do not exist today anymore.

 Oldest Universities in the World:

1. University of Al-Karaouine - Morocco

2. Al-Azhar University - Egypt

3. Nizamiyya  - Iraq

4. University of Bologna - Italy

5. University of Paris - France

 

Artwork and partial text credit: Nayzak.

(via prozacpark)

blackfemalecoders:

“Without Women, Computing as We Know It Would Not Exist.”

(Source: womenrockscience, via falling-towers)

mresundance:

reckonedrightly:

indypendenthistory:

On Sep 13, 1944, a princess from India lay dead at Dachau concentration camp. She had been tortured by the Nazis, then shot in the head. Her name was Noor Inayat Khan. The Germans knew her only as Nora Baker, a British spy who had gone into occupied France using the code name Madeline. She carried her transmitter from safe house to safe house with the Gestapo trailing her, providing communications for her Resistance unit.

Oh my God, yes. Let’s talk about Noor Inayat Khan.

• Wireless operators in France had a life expectancy of six weeks. Noor was actively transmitting for over three times as long.
• While she was in France, every other wireless operator in her network was slowly picked off until she was the last radio link between London and Paris. It was “the most dangerous and important post in France”.  
• She was offered a way back to Britain and refused.
• In fact, in her transmissions to London, she once said that she was having the time of her life, and thanked them for giving her the opportunity to do this.
• She was captured by the Gestapo, but never gave up: she made three attempt escapes. One involved asking to take a bath, insisting on being allowed to close the door to preserve her modesty, and then clambering onto the roof of the Gestapo HQ in Paris.
• Her last word before being shot was, “Liberté!”

The term BAMF was coined for such persons. 

(via governorofwis)

(Source: smellslikegirlriot, via mondaymonkeylives)

occupygezipics:

Istanbul Feminist Collective to PM Erdogan:

(via arathesane)