This is not only a month of a variety of religious and secular holidays, it’s my birth month. But December isn’t only a month of gift giving and receiving, or a month enjoying sweats and specialty foods, it’s a month where many women marked their moment in history. A moment that not only affects all of us today, but shows us that there is a path for women but sometimes we have to make it for ourselves.
These aren’t the only women who made a mark in history. These are the women who made a big enough mark to be noticed in the news or historical documents. There are scores of women who made quieter moments, who left no mark except upon us as individuals. These events are listed by year so that we may appreciate the distance of women’s struggle.
1660
December 8 – Margaret Hughes (1630-1719),possibly Anne Marshall (1660-1682), performs the first recorded British professional performance of a woman’s role by a woman instead of a man in drag, in the role of Desdemona in a production of Shakespeare’s play Othello.
1815
December 15 – Emma by Jane Austin (1775-1817) is published.
1829
December 4 – British Governor-General Lord William Bentinck issues a regulation that anyone who abets suttee (widow burning herself to death on her husband’s funeral pyre) in Bengal is guilty of culpable homicide — the rest of British India soon follows.
1845
December 27 – Ether anesthetic is used for childbirthfor the first time by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia
1862
December 26 – The USS Red Rover is commissioned by the U.S. Navy as a hospital ship and takes aboard Sisters of the Order of the Holy Cross, the first women to serve as nurses aboard a navy ship
1869
December 10 – Wyoming became the first territory to grant women the right to vote. A victory for gender equality, but Wyoming legislators knew Wyomian men outnumbered women by 6:1.
1897
December 9 – Marguerite Durand (1864-1936) founds the feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde, in Paris.
1898
December 26 – Marie Curie (1867-1934) (and her husband Pierre,) announced to the French Academy of Sciences that she had isolated radium.
1901
December 16 – The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), is published
1902
December 10 – Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania
1906
December– Filene’s in Boston hired a Mrs. Claus to help its male Santa entertain young visitors as early as, a time when the notion that he even had a spouse was relatively new.
1907
December 26- Pauline Newman (1890-1986) organizes influential New York rent strike.
1908
December 6 – Gertrud “Trudy” Späth-Schweizer (1908-1990) is the first woman to hold elective office in Switzerland.
1909
December 10– Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Gösta Berling’s Saga.
1910
December 3– Freda du Faur (1882-1935) is the first woman to scale Aoraki (Mount Cook) in New Zealand.
1912
December 8— Immigrant Mary Anton (1881-1949), author of The Promised Land, packs the house at the Waldorf Astoria for lecture where she advocated for greater opportunities for immigrants, more liberal immigration policies, and for the Zionist movement.
1916
December 2 a group of suffragists met on Staten Island to engage in a publicity stunt; Leda Richberg-Hornsby (1886-1939) and Ida Blair(1874-1930)attempted to fly a biplane over President Woodrow Wilson’s yacht, and drop hundreds of pro-suffrage pamphlets on his deck.
1918
December 28– Constance Markievicz (1868-1927), while detained in Holloway prison, became the first woman to be elected MP to the British House of Commons.
1919
December 1– Lady Astor (1879-1964) becomes the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat in the U.K. House of Commons.
1922
December 4 – Lucile Atcherson (1894-1986) is the first woman US Diplomatic Consular Officer at Bern legation in Switzerland.
1931
December 10– Jane Addams (1860-1935) is the second woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1935
December 5– Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) creates the National Council of Negro Women
December 27– Regina Jonas (1902-1944) receives her semicha and is the first woman officially ordained and to serve as a rabbi.
1938
December 4— Tehilla Lichtenstein (1893-1973) becomes leader of Society of Jewish Science
December 10 – Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) wins Nobel Prize for Literature, The Good Earth
1941
December 7— Captain Annie Fox (1893-1987), head nurse of the Station hospital at Pearl Harbor, displayed notable courage and bravery as she tended to victims during the intense military bombing. For her actions on this day, Fox became the first women to receive a Purple Heart for her military service. At that time, no requirement for Purple Heart recipient to be injured, but requirements changed after Pearl Harbor and her Purple Heart was later replaced by a Bronze Star because she wasn’t wounded in the attack
1942
December— the Brooklyn Eagle reported that, “Unable to find a man suitable for the job,” an F.W. Woolworth store in Union, New Jersey, had also hired a female Santa, Mrs. Anna Michaelson, who wore a skirt and a white wig and beard.
1947
December 10— Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori (1896-1957) wins Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
December 17— Dorothy Fuldheim (1893-1989) becomes television’s first female news anchor.
1949
December 10— Brisbane’s Courier-Mail reported on a “Mother Christmas” (Mrs. E. J. Lewis) who visited children at a childcare centre.
1950
December 12— Paula Ackerman (1893-1989)becomes “spiritual leader” of Temple Beth Israel of Meridian, Mississippi.
1952
December 14— Dramatization of Anne Frank’s (1929-1945) diary broadcast on the radio.
1955
December 1— Rosa Parks (1913-2005) refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger.
1961
December 4 – The female contraceptive ‘pill’ becomes available on the National Health Service in Britain.
1961
December 14, 1961 – President’sCommission on the Status of Women is established to examine and eliminate discrimination against women.
1967
December 28– Muriel Siebert (1928-2013) becomes the first woman to own a seat on the N.Y. Stock Exchange.
December 9– Helen Reddy’s (1941-2020) “I Am Woman” tops the charts.
1977
December 8— Dr. Rosalyn S. Yalow (1921-2011) becomes first American-born woman to receive Nobel Prize in science.
December 11– Mairead Corrigan (1944- ) and Betty Williams (1943- ), leaders of ‘Peace People’ (pro-peaceful resolution of ‘the Troubles’ in Northern Ireland) receive Nobel Peace Prize.
1978
December 4– Dianne Feinstein (1933-2023)becomes San Francisco’s 1st female and first Jewish mayor, appointed after the assassinations of Mayor Moscone and Councilman Milk
1979
December 18— Amy Sheridan is the first American Jewish woman to gain aviator status in any branch of the Armed Services.
1985
December 14– Wilma Mankiller (1945-2010) becomes the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma’s principle chief – 1st woman leader in modern history of a major Native American tribe
1988
December 2– Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007) is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan
1993
December 13– Susan A. Maxman (1938- ) becomes first woman president of American Institute of Architects in its 135 year history.
December 17–Judith Rodin (1944- ) becomes the first woman president of an Ivy League institution, the University of Pennsylvania.
1997
December 15— Janet Jagan (1920-2009) elected president of Guyana
2002
December 9– Award-winning ABC News journalist, Michele Norris (1961- ), becomes the first African American female regular co-host of National Public Radio’s news magazine, All Things Considered.
2009
December 31— Amanda Simpson (1961- ), the first transgender, appointed by any administration and the first transgender individual to hold an executive branch position, is named by President Barack Obama to the position of Senior Technical Adviser in the Bureau of Industry and Security at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
2018
December 10—Disability Rights Activist, Shelly Christensen, publishes A Book on Inclusive Environments in Faith-Based Communities.
2020
December 8— Tory Burch (1966– ) appears on Forbes’ “World’s Most Powerful Women” List Founder of fashion label Tory Burch LLC.
Happy Celebrations
Whatever holiday you do or do not observe, also remember these women and events. Perhaps even take a moment of reflection and gratitude for the folks who had the courage and determination to follow their passions.
Your passion matters too.
Share the story of your passion or a bit of the story of someone you know.
References
Image Credits
Top image is collage including:
- Marie Curie portrait, author unknown, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
- Pearl S. Buck portrait by Agip, CC BY-SA 3.0 NL, via Wikimedia Commons
- Rosa Parks portrait, author unknown, uploaded by Ebony Magazine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Wilma Mankiller portrait, White House Television (WHTV) uploaded by Clinton Presidential Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Helen Reddy portrait, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- Benazir Bhutto portrait, america.gov, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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