Three Women, Same Birth Date

The 24th is my birth date.

There are three women who share the day, not the year. 

There's nothing magic about the date, but nevertheless, I like to think I've some of their spirit combined with mine. More probably, because in reading about their lives, I knew I could break boundaries too. Here are three women born on 24 July.

 

Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) She was the first woman to fly non stop across the Atlantic when it was considered an accomplishment for anyone. 

Her childhood was filled with activities often left to boys including a worm collection. As a high school student she kept a scrapbook with clippings about successful women in male dominated roles.

She started a medical career, but quit after a year.

"By the time I had got two or three hundred feet [60–90 m] off the ground ... I knew I had to fly," she said of her first 10-minute flight in 1920. She worked several jobs to pay for her flight training and became the 16th woman to get a pilot's license.

On 2 July 1937, on one of her many flights, her plane disappeared and was never found.  

As an Associate Editor of Cosmopolitan she championed women's role in aviation. 

 

Zelda Fitzgerald  (1900–1948) Sometimes called the First American Flapper, she lived in the shadow of F. Scott Fitzgerald despite writing both novels and plays. She also painted. The couple lived a scandalous life. Zelda was often hospitalized and underwent both electric shock and insulin shock treatments. At the time, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but modern thought has promoted that she might have been bipolar. 

Her reputation of flaunting conventional southern female roles began in school. Her first creative activity was ballet, although she was described as being more interested in boys and swimming. 

She was in and out of institutions throughout the end of life and died in a fire. 

Her creative work was not well received, however modern review has given it a much higher opinion. How much of her mental instability was increased by the time she lived in and how much by her refusal to accept those limitations, will never be known.

Bella Abzug  (1920-1998) "A woman's place is in the house - The House of Representatives" is a great quote from this lawyer, politician and activist. The daughter of Jewish immigrants, when her father died, she said the mourning pray at synagogue although it was reserved for sons. 

One of the few women to become a lawyer in 1945, she handled mainly tenant, labor and civil rights cases. She was against McCarthy and Vietnam. When she ran for the house, she was known as Battling Bella.

Once in the House, she supported gay rights and equal credit for all.

Although hats were banned on the House floor, she was almost never without hers. 

She failed in her attempt to become a U.S. Senator.

Two illnesses were her final battle: breast cancer for years and heart problems.

Am I like these woman? I hope I have some of their pluck, although I want to pick and select my own path as they chose theirs.

I've only flown an airplane simulator, landing it perfectly on Long Island. The graphics, as I handled the instrument, were so realistic that for a second, I thought I really would have to find a ride back to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey where the simulator was located. Any other flights after that I take in my future will be accomplished by real pilots.

Like Zelda, I write. I've spent much time in Paris and would have loved to be there when Hemingway and Fitzgerald, etc. were, but their lifestyle has less appeal. I'm happy to see Catalonia in Spain which Hemingway covered. It is enough, that some 100,000 people ended up on the Argelès plage escaping Franco. As for a bullfight, no way. I'd want to save the bull.

Bella is another story. She and I are almost identical in our beliefs. We both fought breast cancer, although where I live in Switzerland, one in eight women have been diagnosed. I wish she were cloned several times over and in the House today. 

Feminism taught me that all women are sisters, although there are some sisters whom I will never understand. We share menstrual cramps monthly, fight gender barriers and even today our accomplishments are being erased by the Trump administration. 

When I wrote 300 Unsung Women about those sisters who fought gender barriers, I was amazed what we as a gender can accomplish. What a gift it would be for my birthday, if being a woman made no difference on how we were treated.