Today in Feminist History
I've decided to start highlighting historical events in Feminism that happened on this day in the past.
Today's event is from July 31, 1916. On that day NASCAR's first woman driver was born, Louise Smith. From the History Channel:
Louise Smith, NASCAR's first female act, was born on this day in 1916. Known as racing's "Good ol' Gal" she competed in stock-car racing during its decidedly "good ol' boy" years. A native of Greenville, South Carolina, Smith raced various Modified, Sportsman, and Grand National series events between 1946 and 1956.
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She also became the first woman inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999.
(I admit NASCAR is my guilty (un)feminist pleasure. My brother is on a pit crew, and works as a fabricator -- so its a family affair on Sundays to watch.)
We love that idea! (Now if we could only get women into Formula One, right?)
Did you also know that on July 31, 1928, Canadian woman Bobbie Rosenfeld won an Olympic silver medal in first Olympics to allow women to compete in track & field events?
Check out the "This Week in History" feature at the Jewish Women's Archive!
http://jwa.org/thisweek/
Love the idea!
Wiki has Sara Christian as 1st, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Christian, but either way they were only a year apart.
However it lists Christian as participating in the very 1st NASCAR event, which is pretty rad IMHO.