Women’s Rights, Black Women Doctors

Women Fought for the Right to Vote

It’s hard to believe today, but 100 years ago women in the US could not vote. It took years of activism for the suffragists and their male allies to win the right.

The movement for women’s vote started in the US in 1848 with the Seneca Conference. But it took another seven decades before the right was granted.

Their speeches and writings brought no success. In the 1900’s they began more activism. A group of younger women formed the National Women’s Party, NWP.

“In January 1917, the NWP took the controversial step of picketing outside the White House — the first time any group had done so. . . The Silent Sentinels picketed six days a week in front of the White House for two and a half years, with nearly 2,000 women participating in the vigil at different times.”

One especially horrific event was the “Night of Terror,” November 14, 1917, when “33 suffragists from the National Women’s Party, who had been arrested for protesting outside of the White House, were brutally beaten and tortured.”

President Wilson finally gave in to the public pressure that followed these events. When the constitutional amendment was brought up for a vote, he “addressed the Senate in favor of suffrage. As reported in The New York Times on October 1, 1918, Wilson said, ‘I regard the extension of suffrage to women as vitally essential to the successful prosecution of the great war of humanity in which we are engaged.’ ”

You can read the fascinating full story here. And thanks to the Unitarian Universalist Women’s Federation for sending an email about it.

I sincerely hope that all readers who are entitled to vote on Tuesday in the US will do so!

Is She Really a Doctor?

On Friday I read The New York Times article about a Black woman doctor on Delta. A passenger needed help, and Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford was providing medical attention.

“But Dr. Stanford, who is black, said she had just started to help the passenger when a flight attendant approached and asked if she was a doctor. Dr. Stanford said yes and, without being asked, she took out her medical license, which says she is a physician registered in Massachusetts and has the letters “M.D.” after her name.”

Another flight attendant came and asked to see the license. Then the two flight attendants came together and questioned her.

I was angry. You have to read the article and you’ll see why. I couldn’t believe it.

But of course I could believe every word. I had just the night before helped my daughter organize her talk for the next day. She was the Friday morning keynote speaker at The Quorum Initiative conference in New York. (You can read her short or full bio – of course I recommend the full version! – on their website.)

She had decided to describe her bi-cultural upbringing, including stories about her grandparents, with lots of pictures. The highlight of her talk was how she has helped lead change as a gyn oncologist, assistant professor, researcher and now chief medical officer and senior vp for medical affairs at a pharma company.

But she also spoke about the racism she has experienced. She said,

A few instances stand out in my mind and have continued to shape me. One night I was the doctor in charge on the labor floor at Massachusetts General Hospital, and I had a young resident with me, a very tall, handsome young white man. We approached a patient who was in the triage room. She looked at Eric. ‘Are you in charge here tonight?’ She barely even noticed my presence.

I’ve been asked whether I was there to fix the television, or whether I was there to pick up the lab samples. I’ve been told, “Hey, orderly, come get a stretcher.”

Tonight I told Beth I was including the story of the woman doctor on Delta in my blog post. “I know Fatima,” Beth said!

Small world; they’ve been at the same conferences more than once. Dr. Stanford had posted a piece about the incident on LinkedIn, where she and Beth are connected, and Beth had read it.

Here’s what I wrote soon after reading the article. I thought of removing it, but I decided to leave it in!

“White people, wake up! Black people are just as capable, just as brilliant, and even just as nasty as you are! No difference! So stop making idiotic assumptions. Because a woman is Black does not mean she cannot be a doctor! She has more education, more intelligence, and more ability to help others, than any of the flight attendants who were questioning her!”

That’s how angry I was when I read the article. Maybe you can tell!

Let me know how you feel about it.