WStimeline7

Women's StudiesTable of ContentsHistorical Timelines

Part VII: Women in the 1990s
& Sources and Resources for Further Study

Learn more about selected WS topics by clicking the hyperlinks embedded in these timelines.
And if you find inaccuracies, bugs, or other websites relevant to timeline topics, please let me know: cagatucci@cocc.edu
The timeline pages are under construction and probably always will be...

1990	Ms. Magazine took a new stance by dropping all advertising (see also Ms Magazine homepage)
1992	Petra Kelly, founder of the German Green Party, was shot to death while sleeping.
1992	Mae Jemison (b. 1956) left her medical practice and became the first black woman in space.
"Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiousity. It's your place in the world, it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live." Dr. Mae Jemison, former astronaut
1992	Rigoberta Menchú Tum (b. 1959), Guatemalan leader internationally known for her work in the promotion of the defense of human rights, peace and Indigenous Peoples' rights, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, becoming the first Indigenous and the youngest person ever to receive this distinction. (see Interview with Rigoberta Menchu and another hyperlinked
1993	President Bill Clinton commissioned Maya Angelou to compose a poem "On the Pulse of the Morning" [The Rock Cries Out to Us Today'] for his inauguration.

"What I treasure most in life is being able to dream.
During my most difficult moments and complex situations
I have been able to dream of a more beautiful future."
Rigoberta Menchú (b. 1959), winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize

1993	The photo of 5-year- old Irma Hadzimuratovic, a victim of the Bosnian war, turned attention to the plight of noncombatants. Irma died April 1 after being airlifted to a London hospital. (See also 1994 Los Angeles Times "World View: The Littlest Victims of Global 'Progress" by Robin Wright.)
1993	Donna E. Shalala (1941- ) was selected by President Bill Clinton to be U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. A dynamic leader, she outlined five major policy initiatives for her first year: revision of health-care financing, expansion of the Head Start program for preschool children, universal childhood immunizations, expansion of AIDS research, and welfare reform. In the 1960s, he served two years in the Peace Corps in Iran, and after graduating from Syracuse Univ. in 1970, she taught political science at Bernard Baruch College, then taught politics and education at Columbia Teacher's College. In 1975, Shalala became director and treasurer of the Municipal Assistance Corporation, which helped reverse New York City's financial collapse. In 1977 she became assistant secretary for policy research and development at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where she promoted women's issues, working toward the creation of battered women's shelters, mortgage credits for women, and anti-discrimination measures. Shalala served as president of Hunter College in New York City (1980-1988), then became chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the first woman to head a Big Ten school.
1993	Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933- ), American jurist and professor of law, was appointed the United States Supreme Court, the second woman on the Court after Sandra Day O'Connor (photo), who was nominated in 1981. Ginsburg has worked toward ending institutionalized discrimination against women. Educated at Cornell, Harvard, and Columbia, and despite graduating from Columbia Law School at the top of her class, she encountered difficulties in finding a job in a traditionally male profession.. Ginsburg attracted notice in the 1970s for her teachings and litigation aimed at ending institutionalized discrimination against women. Between 1973 and 1976 she argued six cases on women's rights before the Supreme Court, winning five of them.
1993	Toni Morrison (b. 1931) won the Nobel Prize for Literature (see Web Page of Toni Morrison's novel Beloved

I really think the range of emotions and perceptions
I have had access to as a black person and a female person are
greater than those of people who are neither.... My world did not shrink
because I was a black female writer. It just got bigger."
Toni Morrison (b. 1931), celebrated U.S. novelist

1993-94	Title IX requirements raised the number of women participating in basketball (see 1924 photo), cross country, diving, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track, and volleyball. Signed into law by Pres. Nixon in 1972, Title IX of the Educational Amendments prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity within an institution receiving any type of federal financial assistance.
1994	The women inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York include former Congresswomen Geraldine Ferraro and Bella Abzug, entertainer Oprah Winfrey, Olympic runner Wilma Rudolph, first female surgeon general Dr. Antonia Novello, ERA supporter Catherine East, financier Muriel Siebert, and the Reverend Betty Bone Schiess, first female Episcopal priest. Fighter pilot Lt. Kara Hultgreen was killed while landing an F-14A Tomcat on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
1995	Dr. Yvonne Bryson led a study at UCLA of a newborn who beat the HIV virus. Signing a program to deaf children, Miss America 1995 Heather Whitestone, was the first deaf woman to win the title. NASA's Eileen Collins prepared to be the first female shuttle pilot. Myrlie Evers-Williams advanced to the presidency of the NAACP (see her 1996 welcoming address to the 87th National NAACP Convention and her Jan. 1997 speech to Miami-Dade Community College).
"Women have always struggled with their men-folk for the abolition of slavery, the liberation of countries from colonialism, the dismantling of apartheid and the attainment of peace. It is now the turn of men to join women in their struggle for equality." Gertrude Mongella (Tanzania), Secretary General of the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women
1995	Gertrude Mongella of Tanzania selected to head the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women (4-15 September 1995, Beijing, China). President Clinton appointed Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky to head the American delegation. Over 17,000 people registered for the event, including delegates from nearly 200 countries. The Platform for Action that emerged from the conference focused on the removal of obstacles to women’s equal participation in society. The most controversial sections of the platform concerned reproductive rights, particularly the right to have an abortion.; and the final document declared that "the ability of women to control their own fertility forms an important basis for the enjoyment of other rights." (See Beijing '95 - Women, Power, and Change; Background & Objectives: Action for Equality,Development and Peace; Critical Areas of Concern; Beijing '95 - Women, Power, and Change: Follow-Up and Implementation; and United Nations Commission on the Status of Women) Beijing Declaration of Indigenous Women developed by an NGO Forum, UN Fourth World Conference on Women; approved and signed on 7 September 1995 at the Indigenous Women's Tent, Huairou, Beijing, China.
1995	President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton (see photo)broke ground at Arlington Cemetery for a semi-circular monument and reflecting pool, to be tended by curator Kathryn Sheldon. The memorial, designed by Marion Gail Weiss and Michael Manfredi, honors the 1.8 million women who served the military since 1776, of whom 350,000 are active, 200,000 are dead and 1.2 million are veterans.

1995	Jeanne Calment of Arles, France reached the age of 120.
1995	The Miami community mourned the death of Cuban painter Antonia Eiriz.
1995	Winnie Mandela's role in South Africa was overshadowed by charges of abuse of power, kidnapping, and terrorism (see Sept. 1997 article).
1995	Attorney Christine Loh joined Hong Kong legislator Emily Lau in protesting the 1997 dissolution of the Hong Kong government
1995	Nobel Peace Prize winner (in 1991) and freedom fighter Aung Suu Kyi of Burma (Myanmar) ended six years of house arrest.
"It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts." Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991, Burma (Myanmar)
1996	The International Year for the Eradication of Poverty, declared in 1993, was followed by the United Nations proclamation of the first Decade for the Eradication of Poverty, "Emphasizing that empowering women will be a critical factor in the eradication of poverty, since women constitute a majority of people living in poverty and since they contribute to the economy and to combating poverty through both their remunerated and their unremunerated work at home, in the community and in the workplace,..." from the Resolution adopted by the United Nations' General Assembly, Jan. 1996.
1996	Women's Equality Day is August 26, celebrating a successful non-violent civil rights movement -- the passage of the 19th Amendment of the United States Constitution which gave women the right to vote. (Visit Ohio Historical Sites "dedicated to women trailblazers.")
"To stereotype is the easiest to do, but is not a rational thinking. What Baoyu said ``men are made of earth, women are made of water'' is simply not true. Every individual, no matter man or woman, is made of both ``earth'' and ``water''. Nothing good comes naturally. Good manners, high quality of an individual do not come naturally either. It takes great efforts. As almost every adult has experienced, to grow is a painfully struggling process. That is why education, sense of family, sense of community are so important in one's growing process during which women and men hold equal responsibilities." Jianmin Li, "Women and Men Are Equal," Chinese Community Forum 9607, February 14, 1996.
1997	On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the 1948 U. N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, women's groups from Latin America and the Caribbean have prepared a contribution the theoretical construction of human rights, "Declaration Of Human Rights From A Gender Perspective " that they hope to have adopted to strengthen world women's economic and social rights.

I gratefully acknowledge inspiration and content for these hyperlinked timelines from the following sources:

WS 101 M/W- Cora Agatucci