Have you heard this name before?  Odds are, if you haven't, you will in the not too distant furure.

Perez Sanchez is a 12-year-old Mexican child prodigy with an IQ of 162 - higher than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.  Her mother says she started to learn algebra at age three and had finished high school at age five.  Perez Sanchez then enrolled in Mexico's National Polytechnic Institute where she earned two degrees in systems and industrial engineering.  She is now working on her master's degree. 

When she was age seven, seeing a picture of Stephen Hawking at her Doctor's office, inspired her to pursue a career in engineering and space exploration.  Her dream is to become an astronaut.

For more stories of remarkable women, see HERSTORY on womensvoicesmedia.org

Underpaid and Discriminated Against

Annie Jump Cannon was a pioneering astronomer who specializesd in the classification of stellar spectra.

Born in 1863, she was the eldest daughter of Deleware State Senator Wilson Cannon and Mary.  Annie Cannon was inspired by her mother to pursue science.  They would often open the trapdoor to the roof of their home so they could watch the stars in the small observatory the two of them had built.

 One of the first women from Delaware to attend college, she was her class valedictorian when she graduated from Wellesley College, where she studied physics and astronomy despite the fact she experienced progressive hearing loss starting at a young age.

In 1896, she was hired as a “woman computer” at the Harvard College Observatory, along with another prominent deaf astronomer, Henrietta Swan Leavitt.

The work involved looking at photos of stars and calculating their brightness, position, and color. Unfortunately the two were paid between 25 and 50 cents an hour—half the rate paid to men doing similar work.  This, however, did not stop Cannon from making major scientific discoveries.

In a catalog of 1,122 stars published in 1901 Cannon drastically simplified classifying stars.  It was soon recognized that Cannon was actually classifying stars according to their temperature and her spectral classifications were universally adopted.  In 1922 the International Astronomical Union adopted Cannon's method as the official spectral classification system.

She eventually obtained and classified spectra for more than 225,000 stars.  Her work was published in nine volumes as the Henry Draper Catalogue (1918-24).

In addition to her scientific work, Cannon also worked for women’s rights. She was dedicated to fighting for women’s suffrage and was a member of the National Women’s Party. In 1923, Cannon was voted one of the 12 greatest living women in America by the National League of Women Voters.

After decades of hard work, Cannon was finally appointed a permanent faculty position at the Harvard College Observatory in 1938. Although she officially retired two years later, Cannon worked in the observatory all the way up until her death in 1941.

Annie Jump Cannon died in April of 1941 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was seventy-seven years old.

For more stories of remarkable women, see HERSTORY on womensvoicesmedia.org

Edith Windsor (1929 - 2017)

Edith Windsor, called Edie, was born in 1929, the youngest of three children, to James and Celia Schlain in Philadelphia. Her parents were immigrants from Russia who owned and lived above a candy and ice cream store, both lost during the depression. Despite hard times, her parents valued their children’s education, making financial sacrifices to buy them books and send them to college.

Edie was a very attractive young lady, dating many boys in high school. But during college at Temple University, she became aware of her homosexuality. In the 1950s, afraid to live her life as a gay person, Edie married her brother’s best friend. Within a year, she confided to him that she longed to be with women, and they parted amicably.

Edie moved to New York City, hoping to find other gay people. However, Edie was uncomfortable with gay life in New York City in the 1950s, outwardly a part of the rough gay bar scene in New York that frequently was raided by the police. She studied applied mathematics and received a master’s degree from New York University in 1955. She was one of the very few women at the heart of the revolution in computer programming, working for IBM starting in 1958 and becoming a senior systems programmer. Edie received the first IBM PC delivered in New York City, and in 1987 was honored by the National Computing Conference as a pioneer in operating  systems. After leaving IBM, she founded and became president of PC Classics, Inc, a software house specializing in consulting and major software development projects.

At a West Village restaurant, she met Thea Spyer, a PhD psychologist and an accomplished violinist whose family fled Amsterdam ahead of Hitler’s invasion. Two years later, in 1967, they began what turned out to be a very long engagement Thea proposed to Edie with a diamond pin, because a ring would have prompted unwelcome questions. Edie and Thea kept a low profile, leading a life typical of upwardly mobile professional couples in Manhattan, hosting dinner parties for friends, traveling, and spending summer weekends at their beach house in South Hampton. But life changed when Thea developed multiple sclerosis. In 1977, Edie left IBM to care for Thea, who gradually became quadriplegic.

The AIDS crisis in the 1980s built solidarity among the gay community. Although Edie largely kept her private life secret in the past, she now decided to volunteer for many gay rights organizations. Numerous awards attest to her advocacy over more than two decades, including an award named for her: the Edie Windsor Equality Award.

Windsor and Spyer registered as domestic partners when it became possible in New York in the 1990s. In 2007, when Thea’s medical condition became terminal, they traveled to Canada to officially marry, accompanied by three health aides and a small group of close friends. Their marriage in Toronto, as well as their decades-long devotion, is chronicled in an award-winning documentary titled: Edie and Thea—A very Long Engagement.

Thea died in 2009. A short time later, Edie suffered a serious heart attack, leaving her in fragile health with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.

When Spyer died, she left her entire estate to Windsor, primarily her share in the couple’s New York apartment. However, in 1996, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, defining marriage for all federal purposes as a union between a man and a woman. Despite being married in Canada and having a domestic partnership in New York, DOMA prohibited Edie from the benefit of a tax exemption for surviving spouses, resulting in a federal estate tax bill of more than $300,000. In 2010, at age 81, Windsor decided to challenge the unfair tax in court.

She met lawyer Roberta Kaplan, also a Jewish lesbian, who agreed to take her case. They became close friends while working on the case, celebrating Jewish holidays together with Kaplan’s family. After two lower court victories, her case was accepted by the Supreme Court. Windsor’s case had the backing of many Jewish organizations, including the Anti-defamation League, Hadassah, and the Conservative and Reform movements.

The Supreme Court victory for Edith Windsor was a landmark victory for gay marriage, declaring DOMA—which excluded gay married couples from over 1,000 federal provisions—unconstitutional. The decision marked the first time that the U.S. federal government recognized same sex marriage. Gay couples now could file joint tax returns, get access to veteran’s and Social Security benefits, hold on to their homes when their spouses died, and get green cards for their foreign spouses.

After the Supreme Court victory, worshipers packed Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in Manhattan for Friday night services to celebrate. Kaplan and Windsor spoke, comparing their efforts to the daughters of Zelophehad in the Torah, women who fought for their inheritance rights and won. “Inherent in Jewish belief is the view that people, communities, and even the law must and should change when times and ethical circumstances require it,” said Kaplan.

Now Edith Windsor’s living room was filled with mementos of a battle she never expected to fight, including a pile of thank-you letters and a photo of Michelle Obama giving her a congratulatory hug. In 2013, Edie was named one of the Forward 50 most important Jewish people and was nominated for Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. Her life is an inspiration to all seniors that it is never too late to make a difference!

On September 26, 2016, Windsor married Judith Kasen at New York City Hall. At the time of the wedding, Windsor was age 87 and Kasen was age 51.

On September 12, 2017, Windsor's wife Judith Kasen-Windsor confirmed that Windsor had died in Manhattan, but did not specify a cause.  Former US President Bill Clinton, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, California US Senator Dianne Feinstein, and various politicians and celebrities posted words of tribute on their Twitter accounts.^[1] Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at her funeral.

Among Windsor’s many accomplishments and awards are:

Windsor was honored by the National Computing Conference in 1987 as a "pioneer in operating systems.

A 2009 documentary, Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement, by Susan Muska and Greta Olfsdottir, documents Windsor and Spyer's life and wedding. The DVD of the film contains a full-length interview with Justice Harvey Brownstone, the Canadian judge who officiated at the Windsor/Spyer wedding.

She was a runner-up, to Pope Francis, for 2013 Time Person of the Year.

In 2016, Lesbians Who Tech initiated the Edie Windsor Coding Scholarship Fund

In 2018, a block of South 13th Street in Philadelphia was designated as Edie Windsor Way.

In June 2019, Windsor was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn  The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history.  Tthe Wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots..

The information above came largely from:

(1)  The LOFT: LGBTQ+ Community Center

https://www.loftgaycenter.org/edie_windsor

252 Bryant Avenue
White Plains, NY 10605
(914) 948-2932

(2)  Wikipedia      The Free Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Windsor

Sondra Akins (1944- )

Today we are celebrating the lifelong achievements of science educator Sondra Akins!

Akins was born on March 16, 1944 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. At a time when few women of color were pursuing a career in science Akins was inspired to study chemistry by her high school science teacher.

"But just before twelfth grade [at Atkins High School, Winston-Salem, North Carolina] is when I had my, I had Inez Scales (ph.) for a chemistry teacher, female chemistry teacher whom I had seen in the hallways, even from ninth grade with her white jacket on. And I thought she was--, in the days, language I would--she was cool. I mean there was just something very interesting about that lady. And once I got into her class, I knew chemistry was it. That was the subject. I knew it."

Akins earned her B.S. degree in chemistry in 1967 from the University of California, Berkeley and then her M.S. degree in chemistry with a minor in higher education from Florida State University in 1970. After earning her master’s degree, she taught physical science at Greco Junior High School in Tampa, Florida. Between 1971 and 1974, she served as an instructor in chemistry at St. Petersburg Junior College (now known as St. Petersburg College).

Akins went on to teach science at both the secondary and college level and had a long career as an educator in the Englewood, New Jersey school district, serving as a teacher, principal, and staff developer. In 1993, she received her Ed.D. degree in science education from Columbia University. Since 2001, Akins has been a professor in the Department of Secondary and Middle School Education at William Paterson University. She has written numerous essays on science education including a chapter in the National Science Teachers Association book, Exemplary Science: Best Practices in Professional Development

Over her long career in science education, Akins has been recognized many times by her community including the Award for Dedication to Science Teaching from Sigma Xi of Ramapo College. She has been a member of the American Chemical Society, the National Science Teachers Association and the Association of Science Teacher Educators.