Well, March is Women's History Month, so time for another celebratory post, this one in honor of 
one of my heroes, Amelia Earhart.
one of my heroes, Amelia Earhart. Like most students, I'd learned a little about her in school, mostly of her mysterious final around-the-world flight. I always thought she was cool, but she became a hero of mine when I found a 1989 calendar called The Freethinker's Calendar. Each month had a different 20th-century iconoclast, with a picture, brief bio and a quote.
Here's an excerpt from her bio:
Four years later she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. At a time when women's lives were defined by domesticity, Earhart rejected it and became an international symbol of her gender's untapped potential.
What really caught my attention, though, was the quote
—something she said to her fiance, George Putnam, regarding their impending marriage in 1931: In our life together I shall not hold you to any medieval code of faithfulness to me, nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly.…I cannot guarantee to endure at all times the confinement of even an attractive cage.
I was sold right then.
For more on her life and history-making flights, click here.
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And in case that's not enough history, here and here are some interesting posts on women's history in America by a diarist over at DailyKos.
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* I also want to give a shout out to Sappho, Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, Dorothy Parker, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jean Houston, Elaine Pagels, Sinead O'Connor, and my gorgeous wife Annie McIntyre.
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