Women on Wall Street by National Women's History Museum

SUMMER 2014 | VOLUME XVI

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

President’s Letter.............................. 2 Museum Happenings................... 3-4

Tracing the Roots of Women on Wall Street............ 5-8 Biographies...................................9-11 Making History Today: Janet Yellen......................................11 Spotlight: Elana Pianko‑Ginsburg.................. 12 Welcome to the Board................... 13 We Hear You.................................... 14

LETTER FROM JOAN WAGES NWHM President

SAVE T HE D ATES

Dear Friends,

SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER 2701 N SEPULVEDA BLVD. LOS ANGELES, CA 90049

SATURDAY • AUGUST 23, 2014 11AM – 2PM HONORING PHILANTHROPIST AND ACTRESS SOPHIA BUSH AND CEO OF INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY CORPORATION AND VICE CHAIR AND EVP OF NASCAR LESA FRANCE KENNEDY AND PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, AND ACADEMY AWARD WINNING WRITER CALLIE KHOURI

I hope this issue of A Different Point of View finds you well and enjoying all the beauty of summer. The staff and I have been busy working to advance the Museum’s mission and I’m happy to report, we’re making great progress! As you’ve undoubtedly heard, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of our legislation in early May. We are forever grateful to Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Marsha Blackburn for their tireless efforts on behalf of the National Women’s History Museum. We are also grateful to the 383 Representatives who voted “Yes,” and in particular, Representatives Cynthia Lummis, Donna Edwards, Grace Meng and Eleanor Holmes Norton who joined Representatives Blackburn and Maloney in speaking on the House floor just prior to the vote. You can read more about the House passage and current status of our Senate bill on the next page. In the meantime, we’re particularly excited about another project — the redesign of our website. While nearly one million people visited nwhm.org in 2013, the site has not been meeting its potential. The technology that supports it is outdated, teacher/student resources need to be updated to reflect changes in national K-12 curriculum, and the navigation and content needs to better represent NWHM’s mission and vision, the importance of women’s history and the need for the Museum in a way that will better resonate with all of our audiences and help to inspire the support needed to make the Museum a reality. Recognizing the critical importance of the site to furthering our mission, NWHM partnered with one of the nation’s leading digital agencies last fall to ensure that the new site would most effectively meet our needs. The nearly year-long process, managed seamlessly by NWHM Program Director Liz Maurer consisted of multiple off-site work sessions and extensive research including competitive reviews of other websites, stakeholder interviews, site analytics reviews, an online survey and more.

THE MEAD CENTER FOR AMERICAN THEATER HOME OF ARENA STAGE 1101 SIXTH STREET, SW WASHINGTON, DC 20024

Having clearly defined the goals and objectives of the site, identified our primary and secondary audiences (as well as their needs and interests), and outlined meaningful and influential content intended to raise awareness about the lack of women’s history, educate visitors about why women’s history needs to be integrated into the national narrative, and ultimately inspire robust support, we now have a clear and effective site map from which to create the new site. I look forward to sharing the changes with you as they are phased-in later this year.

AND

Finally, I hope you’ll enjoy reading about the history of women on Wall Street as much as I did. I’d like to thank Sheri Caplan for this issue’s feature article. Sheri is the author of the award-winning Petticoats and Pinstripes: Portraits of Women in Wall Street’s History, a groundbreaking book that surveyed the evolution of women’s roles in U.S. financial history. We are grateful to Sheri for so generously contributing her time and knowledge and delighted to be able to share this terrific feature with you.

CEO & FOUNDER OF GOLDIEBLOX DEBBIE STERLING

Wishing you a wonderful summer!

AND OTHERS

Gratefully,

MONDAY • NOVEMBER 17, 2014 7PM (PROGRAM) HONORING CEO OF GENERAL MOTORS MARY BARRA

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THESE EVENTS PLEASE CONTACT KATE CLINTON AT KCLINTON@NWHM.ORG OR 703-461-1920.

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House Votes Overwhelmingly in Favor of NWHM Legislation On Wednesday, May 7, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of H.R. 863, which would create a congressional commission to study and provide recommendations on the governance, operations, organizational structure, fundraising, and location of the National Women’s History Museum in Washington, DC. The bipartisan legislation, cosponsored by Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), has gone to the Senate, where Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) are leading the charge on the passage of S. 398, the Senate companion bill.

Lobby Day Less than twenty-four hours after the House of Representative passed our bill, NWHM supporters from throughout the country joined Joan Wages and the museum’s staff on Capitol Hill to encourage support for and the passage of S. 398 in the Senate. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported the Museum! Your senators heard you!

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NWHM at “The Big Berks” NWHM President & CEO Joan Wages and Program Director Liz Maurer traveled to Toronto, Canada, over Memorial Day weekend to attend the Sixteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. (This triennial conference— also known as “The Big Berks”—is one of the best-known aspects of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, an organization for female historians. The Berkshire Conference welcomes women historians from all fields, not just the history of women and gender.) Ms. Wages joined a number of experts with varying degrees of museum and exhibit experience for a panel discussion entitled “Making the Case for a National Women’s History Museum on the National Mall.” The panel was chaired by Jean Pfaelzer, PhD (University of Delaware), and included Kathleen Franz, PhD (American University), Karen Offen, PhD (Stanford University and the International Museum of Women), Gail Reimer, PhD (Jewish Women’s Archive), Faith Davis Ruffins (National Museum of American History), and Jennifer Brier, PhD (University of Illinois at Chicago). During the conference, Wages and Maurer also hosted a coffee reception in order to meet with scholars one-on-one.

Tracing the Roots of

WOMEN ON

WALL STREET

By Sheri J. Caplan

buttonwood tree that once stood in lower Manhattan symbolizes the formal beginning of what would later become the New York Stock Exchange. There, in 1792, twenty-four men met below its branches and signed an agreement that established a new market for a more orderly system of buying and selling securities. No women numbered among them. Even then, however, many women were participating in the formation of the young nation’s capital structure. They did so in various ways. Some invested in government securities and bank shares—Abigail Adams, for example, secured large gains through her financial activities. Moreover, women comprised 61% of investors in the 1759–60 Pennsylvania Indian Commission Loan, and they represented 11% of stockholders of the Insurance Company of North America between 1792 and 1799. Abigail Adams Women also took part in the colonial economy by directly engaging in commerce despite certain legal restrictions. As early as the 1600s, many women who were single or widowed managed small businesses as “she-merchants’ and “deputy husbands.” During the American Revolution, personal necessity and patriotic duty encouraged women to take a more active role in managing financial matters. Women helped raise funds for the Continental Army and took care of their families’ farms and businesses while their husbands fought in the war. These responsibilities raised their confidence, broadened their abilities, and gave them a sense of empowerment—even if shortlived. Their experience foreshadowed what would become a recurrent theme underscoring the historical relationship between American women and finance: political or personal necessity may foster financial empowerment, but it is not always warmly welcomed, easily endured, ultimately appreciated, or long lasting.

Victoria Woodhull

Hetty Green

only a few years, and they were largely dismissed as a joke. Hetty Green, dubbed “The Witch of Wall Street,” is usually regarded as little more than a wealthy heiress and a miserly eccentric. Typically shrouded in a black veil and shabby attire, her fashion choices and dour nature did nothing to help her image. But her knowledge of money matters, which she gleaned at a young age by immersing herself in the financial news of the day, later enabled her to vastly increase her fortune through shrewd investments. The unfortunate nickname bestowed upon her by the public has concealed her keen financial mind and participation in key financial dealings of the times. Another woman of the same era goes for the most part unnoticed. The daughter of a former slave, Maggie Walker grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and recognized as a young woman

Tennessee Claflin

Maggie Walker

the importance of financial literacy and empowerment, particularly for black women. She founded the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank in 1903. Her professional legacy, although not based in Manhattan or primarily in securities, endures to a much greater extent than that of her otherwise better-known counterparts. The entity that she founded lasted into the twenty-first century as the country’s longest continually owned and operated African American bank. The business dealings of these women helped to draw the attention of other women to finance and raised public scrutiny of whether a woman “belonged” on Wall Street, but did not give rise to an influx of women financial leaders. Not until wartime did American women make further WOMEN ON WALL STREET continues on page 7

As the country entered the nineteenth century, it was still believed that a woman’s place was in the home. While women remained entrenched in their domestic duties, the country’s financial infrastructure matured. The invention of the telegraph in 1844, the rise of industrialization, and federal spending during the Civil War lavished riches on Wall Street and gave way to the Gilded Age. By then, the term “Wall Street” had become symbolic of the nation’s securities market, which attracted both male and female investors. The era also provided the backdrop for a few women to pursue professional financial paths as they sought their share of the Gilded Age’s riches. Victoria Woodhull and Hetty Green are two of the better-known women in financial history. Woodhull, also the first woman to run for U.S. president, and her sister Tennessee Claflin had made the acquaintance of Commodore Vanderbilt. The sisters aimed to get rich, and Woodhull wanted to fund her political aspirations. They opened the first female-owned brokerage in the heart of lower Manhattan in 1870. More keen on courting publicity than analyzing earnings, their firm lasted

significant headway in finance. World War I provided the watershed moment at which more women were introduced to finance—again, personal necessity and patriotic duty coincided to make this happen. In this case, it was the women who powered the Liberty Bond sales during World War I who deserve much of the credit. They focused public attention on the skills and prowess of women and broadened the financial vocabulary of the volunteers and the public at large. Soon, many of the women who had once worked on the bond drives became the first women to enter the expanding commercial banking workforce. Although professional networking is often thought of as a modern-day development, the first organizations for women in finance originated in 1921 with the beginnings of the Association of Bank Women and the formation of the Women’s Bond Club. According to rumor, a woman even sought membership on the New York Stock Exchange in 1927, forty years before female membership became a reality. Women made inroads, particularly in commercial banking, during the interwar years.

Isabel Benham became the first female railroad analyst in 1934 and embarked on a successful career that spanned six decades. Mary Roebling became the first woman president of a major commercial bank, Trenton Trust, in 1937. When World War II came, a familiar story unfolded. Women answered the country’s call to duty and even filled empty posts on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, but were booted out when the war ended and men returned home. In the ensuing decades, however, both a booming economy and a growing acceptance of women’s professional roles helped power further progress. From the 1950s through the 1970s, both Wall Street and American women staked their positions amid a changing landscape. A few intrepid leaders broke new ground at the crossroads. Of particular note are Mary Roebling, who became the first woman governor of the American Stock Exchange in 1958, and Julia Montgomery Walsh and Phyllis Peterson, who in 1965 became the first women members there. In 1967, Muriel Siebert became the first woman to purchase a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. By the late 1960s, the investor base had become increasingly democratized, and the WASPish preserve of Wall Street had consequently begun to fade. Women pursued their careers against the backdrop of the women’s liberation movement and other calls for societal change. Nevertheless, Wall Street could still be characterized in 1970 as “a feminist organizer’s Waterloo [because of] the tendency for its female minority elite to grin and bear the system.”1 When the economy boomed in the 1 Marilyn Bender, “Women’s Lib Bearish in Wall St.,” New York Times,

Women monitoring ticker tape, 1918

“Men at the top of industry and government should be more willing to risk sharing leadership with women and minority members who are not merely clones of their white male buddies. In these fastchanging times we need the different viewpoints and experiences, we need the enlarged talent bank. The real risk lies in continuing to do things the way they’ve always been done.” – Muriel Siebert 1980s, Wall Street gained a measure of popular fascination. For the first time, women numbered among its stars. Elaine Garzarelli, who predicted the 1987 market crash, and Abby Joseph Cohen, who foresaw a prolonged economic expansion and bull market run during the 1990s, became household names. Other women, however, faced inhospitable workplaces. Beginning in 1996, the first gender-based class-action lawsuits were brought against major Wall Street firms and focused public attention on the way some women were treated in the financial industry. For the first time, women in finance had gone from quietly seeking to advance their personal careers to becoming more vocal and challenging the status quo. By the turn of the twenty-first century, an amalgam of political, legal, economic, and cultural advances raised female professional aspirations. Wall Street women now embarked on engineering their own careers, forging strong identities, and advocating for a greater examination of gender-based inequities in the financial industry.

Overtly hostile workplaces largely disappeared, and firms stepped up their attempts to increase workforce diversity and encourage significant mentoring. In the public sector, many of the leading regulators of the financialservices industry have been women in recent years. However, the corner suites of Wall Street firms remain lonely places for women. They remain underrepresented at senior ranks and endure a significant pay gap within the industry. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial downturn, they shouldered a disproportionate share of industry layoffs even though pundits questioned whether the crisis would have occurred at all had they occupied more positions of power. The roots of women on Wall Street run deep. Recognizing female accomplishments in finance may further accelerate their ascent by inspiring others, dispelling outdated notions of female inadequacy in this realm, and emphasizing the importance of financial literacy for everyone.

Sheri J. Caplan is the author of the award-winning Petticoats and Pinstripes: Portraits of Women in Wall Street’s History (Praeger, 2013), the groundbreaking book that surveyed the evolution of women’s roles in U.S. financial history. The book won the 2014 Bronze Medal in the women/ minorities category of the Axiom Business Book Awards.

Roebling died in Trenton, New Jersey, on October 25, 1994, at the age of 89.

about the railroad industry. Upon her supervisor’s firing, she was promoted to railroad analyst. Although she earned $3,920 less per year than her supervisor had been paid for the same work, she was grateful for the position and remained with the company for thirty years, becoming a partner (the firm’s first female partner) in 1964.

Muriel Siebert (1928–2013) Muriel Siebert’s long and successful career on Wall Street included becoming the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and founding the prestigious Muriel Siebert & Co. stock brokerage firm— the only nationally known brokerage firm ever led by a woman.

“There was much more loyalty to employers then, when jobs were scarce,” she said.

ISABEL BENHAM Courtesy of Museum of American Finance, NYC.

BIOGRAPHIES Isabel Benham (1909–2013) Despite the widespread devastation of the Great Depression, an ambitious young woman by the name of Isabel Benham defied the odds stacked against her and went to work on Wall Street during the 1930s. She became the first woman on Wall Street to study the railroad industry. Her expertise led to an immensely successful and influential career as a railroad-bond analyst. Benham was born on August 4, 1909, in Buffalo, New York. She studied economics at Bryn Mawr College in the late 1920s, and despite the urging of many to “go home to Mother, join the Junior League, get married and live happily ever,” she enrolled in a class for college graduates interested in selling bonds. One year later, she was selling subscriptions to the New Yorker for $20 a week while looking for a job on Wall Street. She eventually landed an interview with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a company that loaned money to struggling banks and railroads. Although they initially turned her down, the job was hers two weeks later. After a few years at Reconstruction Finance Corporation, she accepted a statistician position at R. W. Pressprich & Co., where she learned a great deal

Benham continued working at Pressprich until 1968, when she joined Shearson Hammill & Co., eventually becoming vice president and establishing a railroad department. In 1978, she went on to Printon, Kane Research, Inc., where she was promoted to president and remained until her retirement from Wall Street in 1991. Coming full circle, Isabel Benham returned to her alma mater, Bryn Mawr, to teach a course in U.S. history and the railroad industry. Benham died in New York City on May 18, 2013, at the age of 103.

Mary Roebling (1905–1994) Mary Roebling was the first American woman to head a major commercial bank (Trenton Trust Company). When she took the reins in 1937, the bank held $17 million in assets. That figure had risen to $1.3 billion by the time she retired as board chairman in 1984. Mary Gindhart Herbert Roebling was born in West Collinswood, New Jersey, on July 29, 1905. She was introduced as a young girl to the world of business when her father, who was the president of the Keystone & Eastern Telephone Company, would bring her along to business and civil events. While still a teenager, she married a musician, Arthur Herbert, but he died only three years later in 1924, leaving her with a daughter to support. Herbert returned to her parents’ home and took a secretarial position at a Philadelphia brokerage firm, where she met Siegfried Roebling, whose grandfather, Colonel Washington Roebling, had built the

MARY ROEBLING Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.

Brooklyn Bridge. Siegfried headed the Trenton Trust Company (one of the family’s many businesses). The two married in 1931, but just five years later, Siegfried died. Mary took on her late husband’s role at the Trenton Trust in 1937. Just four years later, she became the first woman to serve as both president and chairman of the board of a major commercial bank. Time magazine called her “probably the prettiest bank president in the land.”1 During the first two years of her tenure, she attended banking courses at New York University and hired a private tutor to study law. As president of Trenton Trust Company, Roebling held “financial teas” to encourage affluent women to invest in trust funds.

Siebert was born on September 12, 1928, in Cleveland, Ohio. She studied accounting at Case Western Reserve University, but withdrew after her father was diagnosed with cancer and could no longer afford her tuition. Armed with only $500 and a dream to work on Wall Street, Siebert moved in 1954 to New York City, where she was hired by Bache & Co. as an analyst earning $65 per week. Over the next ten years, Siebert would work for a number of firms before becoming a partner at Fickle & Co. Although Siebert had achieved her dream of working on Wall Street, the barriers to both equal pay and promotional opportunities faced by women were all too real. Convinced that the proverbial glass ceiling would prevent her from achieving BIOGRAPHIES continues on page 11

In 1958, Roebling became the first female governor of the American Stock Exchange, and Fortune magazine named her one of the fifty most powerful women of the century. The Trenton Trust Company merged with the National State Bank in 1972, and Roebling acted as chairman of the board for the combined institution until her retirement in 1984.2 She also founded the Women’s Bank NA of Denver, the first nationally chartered bank founded by women, and served as its chair until 1983.

MURIEL SEIBERT Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

SPOTLIGHT ON

further growth, she founded her own firm in 1967. During the same year, Siebert made several attempts to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Because purchasing a seat requires sponsorship by an existing seat holder, she asked ten men to sponsor her. Only one accepted. Several members even asked her not to purchase a seat simply because she was a woman. Ignoring their requests, on December 28, 1967, Muriel Siebert became the first woman to own a seat on the Stock Exchange.3 Siebert & Co. continued to thrive, and in 1977, just ten years after founding her own firm, Muriel Siebert accepted a fiveyear position as the New York State superintendent of banks, making her the highest-ranking female regulator in history.4 Throughout her career, Siebert advocated for the rights of women and minorities in business. In a statement regarding leadership opportunities for women and minorities in business, Siebert said, “Men at the top of industry and government should be more willing to risk sharing leadership with women and minority members who are not merely clones of their white male buddies. In these fast-changing times we need the different viewpoints and experiences, we need the enlarged talent bank. The real risk lies in continuing to do things the way they’ve always been done.” Siebert’s tremendous achievements garnered many honors, including membership in the National Women’s Hall of Fame, seventeen honorary doctorates, and induction into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame. Ms. Siebert died in New York City on August 24, 2013, at the age of 84. 1 http://www.wellsfargomedia.com/wmfh/ womenBankers.html 2 https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/ roebling/roebling_main.shtml 3 http://www.makers.com/muriel-siebert/ moments/sob%E2%80%99s 4 http://www.makers.com/muriel-siebert/ moments/sob%E2%80%99s

This issue of A Different Point of View wouldn’t be complete without recognizing the current chair of the Board of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen. Sworn in on February 3, 2014, Chairman Yellen has made history as the first woman to serve in this position and stands on the shoulders of the trailblazers profiled in our feature article and biographies—women who broke barriers in the world of finance and paved the way for subsequent generations to take it a step further. An exhibit at the Museum of American Finance commemorating 100 Years of the Fed includes a wonderful story about Ms. Madeline McWhinney, the first female Federal Reserve officer. The year was 1960, and as she tells it: “[My boss] had told the Chicago Fed that I would go in his place, as a substitute for him, and I happened to be in his office when the Chicago Fed called and said, ‘No women allowed.’ And he said, ‘She’s going to represent the New York Fed, period.’ When I got out there I found somebody’s elderly secretary was there to chaperone me. She sat behind me at all the meetings and she sat next to me at dinner. They wanted to make sure I was behaving, I guess.” Clearly, we’ve come a long way! As the first woman to serve as Fed chair, Janet Yellen has made it possible for young girls to dream bigger and reach higher. When it comes to pursuing a degree in economics, men continue to outnumber women by a ratio of nearly three to one. Chairman Yellen’s achievements in this traditionally male-dominated field demonstrate what is truly possible, and we believe that as a result, more young women will be inspired to pursue economics and help establish a better balance at the university level and beyond.

Elana Pianko - Ginsburg Elana Pianko-Ginsburg joined the NWHM Board in March 2013 and chairs the Museum’s LA Regional Council. As a successful financial advisor at Morgan Stanley, Ms. Pianko-Ginsburg has pioneered the creation of socially responsible financial investment strategies for high-networth clients, corporations, and foundations. In an effort to provide a contemporary perspective on women in finance, we’ve asked Elana to share her thoughts. Here’s what she had to say… As a board member of the NWHM and a woman in finance, I’m delighted to see women on Wall Street featured in this issue of A Different Point of View! The incredible women highlighted here paved the way for me and so many other women working in the financial industry today. The positive impact women have made on the financial industry remains largely unknown. Hence, many still perceive the industry to be a male industry. Women have become a powerful economic force. We are learning, working, earning and controlling more wealth than at any other time in history. Bloomberg reports the number of women serving as chief financial officers increased 35 percent at big U.S. companies in just the past year, putting more female executives in the top ranks of management after decades of slow gains. (Sarah Frier and Carol Hymowitz, Bloomberg, Feb 5, 2013) According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal (The Rise of the Female Investor, 2/22/2013) “Financial services companies admit that, historically, they haven’t done a great job of attracting women as customers, but with women rising fast in the income and managerial ranks, they’re now paying more attention. The number of women-owned firms increased by 54% between 1997 and 2012—that’s a rate 1½ times the national average. As of 2012, it is estimated that there are over 8.3 million womenowned businesses in the U.S., generating nearly $1.3 trillion in revenue.” Furthermore, according to Joe Keefe, president & CEO of Pax World Management, a recognized leader in sustainable investing, “The simple fact of the matter is that, when women are at the table, the discussion is richer, the decision-making process is better and the organization is stronger. Companies that empower and advance women are better-run companies that will better reward shareholders over the long term. Thus, investors should care about advancing women.” I believe that a woman’s ability to be both analytical and compassionate enhances the advisory relationship and is one of the reasons why women are so well-suited for careers in financial planning. Women advisors tend to focus on stability and the big picture to help clients reach their financial goals. They understand and easily relate to a variety of family-related issues, such as the challenges of trying to balance work and home-life, saving for children’s college versus saving for retirement, and caring for elderly parents – an increasingly important issue as Americans are living longer. Clearly, there are unique advantages for clients with women advisors on their team. Women have changed the financial services landscape and in doing so, have brought about significant, gains for each other, for the industry, and for all of society. I am grateful to all the women who came before me and broke down the barriers so that more and more of us could follow. Documenting and preserving their stories will help to educate and inspire young women to pursue careers in finance and as a result, the industry (and society as a whole) will be that much better. Disclaimer: Elana Ginsburg is a Financial Advisor with Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in Beverly Hills. The information contained in this article is not a solicitation to purchase or sell investments. The views expressed herein are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect the views of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, Member SIPC, or its affiliates.

We Hear You!

WELCOME TO THE BOARD! We are delighted to welcome Susan Danish to NWHM’s Board of Directors. Ms. Danish has served for more than a decade as executive director of the Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. (AJLI), one of the largest, oldest, and most respected women’s organizations in the world. Prior to joining AJLI, Susan served as executive director of the Center for Women’s Leadership at Babson College. She has also held senior management and marketing positions with Christie’s, the world’s oldest fine-art auction house, and Express, the six-hundred-store fashion retailer. She has built several successful brands, including Calvin Klein hosiery and tights and HUE. “I am thrilled to join the board of an organization dedicated to celebrating the contributions of women at all levels of our country’s history, from contemporary life to its earliest days,” says Ms. Danish. “Beginning with our founder, Mary Harriman, Junior League members have included women like Eleanor Roosevelt, Katharine Hepburn, and Sandra Day O’Connor, among many others, who refused to conform to the roles that many expected of them and, instead, went on to blaze trails so others could follow.”

We are equally delighted to welcome Dr. Gretchen Green, MD, MMS, back to the board following a personal leave. Dr. Green is an attending radiologist at Greensboro Radiology, PA, specializing in women’s imaging. While serving as chief resident in diagnostic radiology at Yale, she was awarded the national Lucy Frank Squire Distinguished Resident Award and the RSNA Roentgen Resident/Fellow Research Award. Dr. Green has actively advocated for women physicians and patients for more than two decades and has lectured nationally on a variety of topics, including the history of women in medicine. “It is an honor to rejoin the NWHM team,” Dr. Green tells us. “I bring renewed enthusiasm for our goal of integrating women’s history (and its impact) into the national narrative and am committed to working with my fellow board members to secure a permanent home for the Museum.”

We were thrilled to hear about the National Women’s History Museum. A great way to honor incredible American women! nydailynews.com/opinion/women-...

We really need the National Women’s History Museum to become a reality. #onthisday pic.twitter.com/fjvrlmrzvq What a waste of a good arm. As usual, discrimination isn’t rational.

Will you visit?? Washington rules in favor of a National Women’s History Museum: on.elle.com/Qi231m

Write your members of Congress to help @womenshistory become a permanent Museum on the National Mall! congressweb.com/nwhm #OnThisDay in 1931, 17-year-old Jackie Mitchell struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig during an exhibition game against the Yankees. A few days later, her contract was voided and women were declared unfit to play baseball. (Photo: Library of Congress)

Snaps to @womenshistory on your blog: “Putting Women in Their Place” bit.ly/P9qAW4

About Lobby Day “ We had a fantastic day and learned so much. All the offices we went to were very receptive and supportive. We shared pictures and facts about the experience with our entire school.” – Shawn (Mom) with daughters Katie & Tara, Pennsylvania “ It was good to be able to share our information on the Hill. It was amazing how generous the staff were with their time and seemed appreciative of the information we shared. I even got a thank you email by 4pm the same day!” – Diana, North Carolina

Sending our thanks to all who have served our country. Women played an integral role in creating #Memorial Day. Learn more via National Women’s History Museum “We shall not forget.”

The Story of Memorial Day: A Forgotten History

NWHM celebrates this year’s Memorial Day by exploring the holiday’s origin, customs and legacy, as well as the significant roles women played in bringing it...

About H.R. 863’s Passage • “ Hooray! Bipartisanship at work!” – Sonia • “ Thank you for the amazing, amazing effort you made and will continue to make.” – Pat • “ Onward and upward to the Senate.” – Enid

WE’VE BECOME QUITE SOCIAL! NWHM’s presence on Social Media has grown tremendously this year. In fact, we have more than 100,000 followers on Facebook alone! If you’re not yet following us on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr, we hope you will. @womenshistory

facebook.com/womenshistory

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Editorial Staff Editor: Susan Murphy, NWHM Director of Communications Assistant Editor: Sydnee Winston, NWHM Project Coordinator Art Director: Brandon Scott, Envision Marketing

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