11-R139

2011 -- S 0754

Enacted 03/23/11

S E N A T E R E S O L U T I O N

CELEBRATING MARCH, 2011, AS "WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH" IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

Introduced By: Senators Paiva Weed, Goodwin, Crowley, and Lynch

Date Introduced: March 23, 2011

     WHEREAS, Throughout the history of this great state and our nation, women have

pursued just and noble goals, significantly contributing to the very bedrock of our history.

Women faced a unique set of obstacles in having their views recognized and in managing work

and family, but possessed the strength and initiative to imagine the future's possibilities while still

handling the enormity of their day-to-day responsibilities. They challenged gender barriers,

fought inequality, won the right to vote, overcame job discrimination, and gave birth to a more

enlightened world; and

     WHEREAS, Women such as Rhode Island’s founding mother, Anne Hutchinson, who,

after being banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony for her views on religious freedom and

gender equality, helped to settle Aquidneck Island in 1637. This great woman was considered a

rebel for voicing an alternate view of religion and promoting equality against a male-dominated

society, whose law was based on church doctrine. She did this over a century before our

"founding fathers" and at a time when women were chattel and questioning the church was

unlawful. Her efforts helped to form the cornerstone of Rhode Island and America's historic

acceptance of equality for the numerous religious beliefs and various cultures that make this

country great; and

     WHEREAS, Elizabeth Buffum Chace (1806-1899) was often referred to as "the

conscience of Rhode Island." She battled slavery, fought for women's suffrage, and defended mill

workers' rights. Abolitionist Christiana Carteaux Bannister (1820-1902) spent her life battling

social inequities and prejudice, and rose to become a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist;

and

     WHEREAS, More recently, some of the great women shaping our state and broadening

the horizon for all women include the late retired Supreme Court Justice Florence Murray, a

former legislator who became Rhode Island's first female Chief Judge of the Superior Court in

1978, and the first woman to become a member of the Rhode Island Supreme Court in November

1999. Senator Lila M. Sapinsley was the first female Minority Leader in Rhode Island. Known

as a true "Grande Dame" of Rhode Island Democratic politics, the late Honorable Eleanor F.

Slater was a former Rhode Island State Representative and State Senator who significantly

contributed to Rhode Island's elderly and fair housing laws. Most recently, the Honorable Senator

M. Teresa Paiva Weed became and currently serves as the first woman President of the Rhode

Island Senate; and

     WHEREAS, Our foremothers have often been unsung heroines who sacrificed and

endured immense hardships in order to build a robust and equitable nation, and their efforts have

paved the way for all women, in every walk of life, to succeed and be recognized; and

     WHEREAS, Women have demonstrated accomplishments in sports, industry, and the

arts, including Mary Katherine Goddard and her widowed mother, who became publishers of the

Providence Gazette newspaper, making them the first women publishers in America; Mary Kies,

the first woman to receive a patent; Elizabeth Blackwell, the first women to receive a medical

degree in the United States; Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first black woman to receive an M.D.

degree; Arabella Mansfield, the first women granted admission to practice law, making her the

first woman lawyer; Edith Wharton, the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Gertrude

Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel; Amelia Earhart, the first woman to

fly solo across the Atlantic; Muriel "Mickey" Siebert, the first woman to own a seat on the New

York Stock Exchange; Pearl S. Buck, the first women to receive the Nobel Prize in literature;

Rosa Parks, whose brave refusal to yield her seat on a bus ignited the civil rights movement; and

Diane Crump, the first female jockey to ride in the Kentucky Derby, have helped to strengthen

and enrich this nation; and

      WHEREAS, Great women in government such as Victoria Claflin Woodhull, who was

the first woman presidential candidate in the United States; Susanna Medora Salter, the first

woman elected mayor of an American town; Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to be elected to

the U.S. House of Representatives; and Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman Justice of the

Supreme Court, have all helped to mold and shape our democracy; and

     WHEREAS, Let us also never forget all the brave Rhode Island women and women

across America who have served and are serving in the United States military, facing grave

dangers, and whose actions are courageous and noble beyond words; and

     WHEREAS, Women have thoroughly encompassed every undertaking, advancement,

and triumph, historically and currently attained in this country, and the magnificent women from

Rhode Island's past played a major role in sculpting Rhode Island's history. They are all truly

deserving of our recognition and praise; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

hereby recognizes the month of March, 2011, as "Women’s History Month" and proclaims such

in the State of Rhode Island. We invite the citizens of the state to join us in celebrating the myriad

of contributions women have made in our state and nation's history; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and he hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the League of Women Voters, the Rhode Island

Commission on Women, the Rhode Island Chapter of the National Organization of Women, and

the Rhode Island General Assembly Women's Caucus.

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LC02281

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