Dame is a Four Letter Word

Dames Deferred - The Mercury 13  Further Reading:Ackmann, Martha (2003). The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight.Nolen, Stephanie (2002). Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race Music:I Should Fly - Vermillion LiesClick to listen in new window

'Queen' Bess Coleman and Pancho BarnesClick to listen in new window Further Reading: Bessie Coleman:Queen Bess: Daredevil Aviator by Doris L. Rich Pancho Barnes:The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Times of Pancho Barnes by Lauren Kessler (2001)The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club directed by Amanda Pope (2009)Music: "Don't Stop" by the Parting Gifts 

Mamie "Peanut" Johnson and Lyudmilla PavlichenkoClick to listen in new window Further Reading:Mamie "Peanut" JohnsonA Strong Right Arm by Michelle GreenInterview on Youtube by Visionary ProjectMamie 'Peanut' Johnson, Pitching Pioneer, Interview Fresh Air, NPR 2/18/2003Mamie Johnson: Peanut Who Stood Tall in Negro LeaguesPodcast interview of Mamie before an elementary school class.  Lyudmilla Pavlichenko Women in War and Resistance by Kazimiera J. Cottam

Lady Hester Stanhope and La MaupinClick to listen in new windowFurther Reading:Lady Hester: Lady Hester: Queen of the East by Lorna Gibb. (2005)Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope by Dr. Meyron. (1845) La MaupinBy the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions by Richard Cohen (2003)Queens of Song by Ellen Clayton (1865)Wonderful Characters: Comprising Memoirs and Anecdotes of the Most Remarkable Persons of Every Age and Nation by Henry Wilson (1830)The Sketchbook of Character by E.L. Carey and A. Hart (1835)Dictionnaire des Theatres de Paris and Anecdotes Dramatiques by Francois ParfaictWomen in Men's Guise by Oscar Gilbert (1932)Gallant Ladies by Rogers  

Cora Hubbard and Belle Starr: Wild West Outlaws.Click to listen in new windowFurther Reading: Cora Hubbard:Bedside Book of Bad Girls: Outlaw Women of the Old West by Michael RutterTales Never Told Around the Campfire: True Stories of Frontier America by Mark DuganOzarks, Gunfire and Other Notorious Incidents by Larry WoodCora Hubbard: Female Bank Robber in Missouri by Larry WoodBelle Starr: Women of the Wild West by Katherine Kohnhttp://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/star-bel.htmMusic: The Devil Had a Hold of Me - Gillian Welch

Dames of the Circus: Lillian Leitzel and Millie-Christine McCoyClick to listen in new windowFurther reading:Millie-Christine: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made; Joanne Martell; John F. Blair Publisher (2001)Biographical Sketch of Millie Christine, the Carolina Twin, Surnamed the Two-Headed Nightingale and the Eighth Wonder of the WorldMusic: Little Egypt by the Coasters

Tallulah Bankhead and Dorothy Parker: Droll dames.Click to listen in new windowFurther Reading:Tallulah BankheadTallulah Bankhead: My Autobiography by Tallulah Bankhead (1952)Tallulah Bankhead by Byrony Lavery (1999)Tallulah Bankhead: A Scandalous Life by David Bret (1996)Tallulah ragging on Bette Davis on The Big ShowTallulah and Marlena sparring on the radioTallulah and Groucho sparring on the radio Tallulah on Batman. The Black Widow Strikes Again 1,2,3 and Caught in the Spider's Web 1,2,3Dorothy Parker'What Fresh Hell Is This?' by Marion Meade. (2006).Music: This Party Took a Turn for the Douche - Garfunkel and Oates

Sr. Lt. Lydia Vladimirovna aka Lilya LitvyakRight click here and save as to downloadFurther Reading:Wings Women and War by Reina Pennington (1997)Soviet Women in Combat in WWII by Kazimiera J. Cottam (1983)Also, online commentary by Ms. Cottam on the likelihood of the cheating death rumors. 

Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu and The Harvard ComputersSpecial thanks to Bil Sanford for putting science into English for us.Dame is a Four Letter Word - Episode 14 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive Right click here and save as to downloadFurther Reading:Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu:Question of Parity Conservation in Weak Interactions by T.D. Lee and C.N. Yang; The Physical Review (October 1, 1956) Reversal of the Parity Conservation Law in Nuclear Physics prepared by Ralph P. Hudson.Famed Physicist Chien-Shiung Wu Dies at 84 by Bob Nelson; The Columbia University Record. (1997)Beta Decay and Quark-Antiquark Non-Parity in Collision-Induced Gravity by Gary C. Vezzoli; Progress in Physics. (April 2009)The Harvard ComputersMiss Leavitt's Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe by George Johnson (2005)Woman Astronomer: The Harvard ComputersWellesley College Astronomy Department: Annie Jump CannonAntonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira Maury - Vassar College Encyclopedia - Vassar CollegeCharacteristics of the spectral classes - SpectraMusic: Doris Day: Tic,Tic,TicHum: Stars

Nellie Bly and Anna Politkovskaya: Plucky investigative journalists.Right click here and save as to downloadFurther Reading:Nellie Bly:Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist by Brooke Kroeger (1994)10 Days in a Madhouse by Nellie BlyAround the World in 72 Days by Nellie BlySix Months in Mexico by Nellie BlyNellie Bly Resource Site (online archive of Nellie's writing)Transcript of PBS American ExperienceI'm not the only one curious about McGinty - There's a children's book about him.And the tradition of stunt reporting continues to the modern ageAnna Politkovskaya"A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya" by Anna Politkovskaya, The University of Chicago Press (2003). Whose Truth? by Georgi M. Derluguian (2003)"Nothing But the Truth" by Anna Politkovksaya, Novaya Gazeta (2007)"A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia" by Anna Politkovskaya (2006)Music: Monster Hospital by Metric

The Trung Women and The Night Witches:Right click here and save as to downloadFurther Reading:The Trung WarriorsWhen Heroism is Not Enough: Three Women Warriors of Vietnam, Their Historians and World History by Professor Marc Jason Gilbert.From Co-Loa to the Trung Sisters' Revolt: Viet-Nam as the Chinese Found It by Stephen O'Harrow. (1978)Hai Ba Trung (The Trung Sisters) The Night Witches"We, of course, would have preferred to have been called 'night beauties,' but, whichever, we did our job." - Galina Beltsova, pilotA Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in WWII edited by Anne Noggle and Christine White (2001)Wings Women and War by Reina Pennington (1997)Unit Cohesion Among the Three Soviet Women's Air Regiments During World War II, by Jessica Bhuvasorakul (2004)Soviet Women in Combat in WWII by Kazimiera J. Cottam (1983)For pretty pictures:Some awesome soul's Flickr: Some of these are Night Witches, some are other Soviet women who served in WWII.Battlefields: Night Witches and Motherland, Garth Ennis and Russ BraunMusic: PJ Harvey - Meet Ze MonstaPhotoshop didn't pulp it up enough, moved on to acrylics - LP

Trieu Thi Trinh and Maria Quitéria de Jesus Meideiros: Women in combat? Yea, they've been tearing up battlefields for centuries upon centuries. Listen up.Right click here and save as to downloadFurther Reading:Trieu Thi TrinhVietnam, A Long History by Khac Vien NguyenVietnam, A Comprehensive History by Kim Vinh PhamThe Birth of Vietnam by Keith TaylorVietnamese Tradition on Trial by David MarrMaria QuiteriaCross-dressing to Liberate Her Country and Herself: Revisiting the Life Trajectory of the Joan d' Arc of Brazil by Ivani Vassoler (2004).Biography of Quiterias by Lima (1976).Historical fiction based on Quiterias by Helio Polvora (2004).Music: Rebel Girl by Bikini Kill

Lindsay, Sasha and Laurin with a snowman-spy caught not far from the banks of the Neva.Right click here and save as to download*This travelogue is dedicated to Crystal Veytia, who was one of our traveling buddies and who left this world far too soon shortly after our trip to St. Petersburg. RIP and much love mija.Old Nevsky Prospect - 1905Music: DDT-Black Dog Petersburg

When Sophia of Stettin came over to Russia to be the heir’s betrothed, she took her new name of Catherine upon converting to Russian Orthodoxy. She could have kept her old name, Sophia was a proper Russian name, but some think Elizabeth felt it an imprudent choice, considering the history of another woman with that name who was quite the usurper. She probably didn’t want to give Catherine any ideas in that area.Little did she know.Well, whether Catherine thought much on her name change at the time, I don’t know, but later on in her life, there was a work attributed to her where she commented on the regent Sophia  - “Much has been said about this princess, but I believe that she has not been given the credit she deserves...she conducted the affairs of the Empire for a number of years with all the sagacity that one could hope for. When one considers the business that passed through her hands, one cannot but concede that she was capable of ruling.”I had my own little geek out over Sophia, on my previous journey to Moscow. There was a very particular exhibit at the Kremlin Arsenal that I was excited to see. It was hardly unassuming. A double seated throne covered in ornamentation of snakes and eagles. But carved out of it, a tiny square window, and that was what I came to see. A singularly perfect physical manifestation of one woman’s attempt at power.See, Sophia would have been in a pretty sweet spot, if she’d been born with a  Y chromosome. When her brother Feodor II died, she would have had a straight shot at the throne. The only other male offspring were her younger brother Ivan, and a half-brother Peter.Ivan was nearly an invalid, partially blind and not in complete control of his wits.That’s what inbreeding gets you. Peter on the other hand, had the strikes against him of being only 10, and being a child of the Tsar’s less legitimate second wife. Other than that, as you might guess from his later nickname of Peter the Great he was pretty capable.A story from the time of when the Swedish king visited, and when the two tsars had to ask about his health as per custom "the hand of the elder tsar had to be raised to his cap by his young attendant, and a babbling noise issued from his lips." In contrast, the king took eleven year old Peter to be around 16.So, appearances aside, Russia couldn’t really be ruled by a child and a half-wit, but fortunately, elder sister Sophia was more than happy to step up and be regent. She was 27 at the time of her accession to power, and it was a move pretty much unprecedented for women in Russia.On that double-seated throne sat  young Peter and foolish Ivan. Either in front on a lower bench, or in the back, whispering through that hole (that would be covered by a curtain) would be Sophia. Sophia was the real ear for nobles to catch if they wanted anything done, and she sought to catch the public’s eye as well, putting herself on coinage and seals next to the two young tsars. Most of the sources I find that mention the hole in the throne tend towards saying Sophia’s whispers through it were more a symbolic story than her actual method of rule. Rats, shoulda known a symbol that perfect was fake.How well she actually ruled is a murky subject. Much the same way that any history of Peter III’s brief reign is colored by whether or not the writer liked his successor Catherine, any history of Sophia is colored by the writer’s opinion of Peter the Great, which as you can guess by the sobriquet is usually at the least deep respect, if not outright worship.But in her time behind the throne, roughly from 1682-89, Moscow began to be a more organized metropolis and the building and art styles known as Moscow baroque became the dominant one. She was a very pious woman, but that didn’t stop her from executing anyone who had opposed her taking over as regent, nor acquiring Kiev, nor warring with Turkey, nor annexing a chunk of Poland (but what Russian ruler doesn’t at least try that?)Peter however was growing older, and began to dislike the idea of having a regent. He also, being none too dumb himself, recognized that she might not like being a regent much longer, and might prefer another title. One that would be easier to get if he was dead. By 1688, when the Crimean campaigns took a turn for the worst, and the taxes they were costing the people began to feel burdensome, Peter, in some eyes, no longer seemed to need a regent.In July of 1689, he confronted her during a church feast, and then fled to a nearby town. With his own personal regiment. That he threatened to unleash to deal with her  “dishonorably” if she came anywhere near his stronghold. Sophia, who was holed up in the Kremlin, started issuing decrees that were contrary to the decrees of Peter, who was holed up in the Trinity Monastery. She even at one point flirted with the idea of becoming sovereign herself, the proposed coronation engravings surviving to be used against her later.She spent that summer behind the walls of the Kremlin, watching desperately as her supporters one by one either defected or were arrested and made to confess to intrigues against Peter. Her advisor and possible lover Vasily Galitzine, was implicated and exiled to Siberia.In September of that year, she was confined to the Novodivechy convent. As prisons go, it was a fitting and elegant one. She’d spent a lot of her rule embellishing the convent with new buildings, towers, icons, cathedrals, and now she’d never leave it alive.She didn’t take the veil, and hardly seems to have taken the vow of poverty, taking much of her possessions with her, and financing further constructions in the convent.I recorded a small bit while walking through the convent, and here it is.Right click here and save as to downloadIn 1697, a plot against Peter was discovered. The conspirators admitted under torture that their ultimate goal was to put Sophia on the throne. Peter came in to question her, and though evidence was discovered that she’d been being passed secret messages by her sisters, no evidence was found that she had a hand in the attempted coup. If they wanted to put her on the throne, she maintained, it wasn’t on her request.Still in October of 1697, she took the veil, to try to place herself on more blameless ground. Maybe she felt that she’d made the right decision when hundreds were executed. Three of the ringleaders were hung in view of her window, one of them had the petition inviting Sophia to take the helm of the state clasped in his hand "perhaps in order that remorse for the past may gnaw Sophia with perpetual grief."She died in 1704, still within the convent walls, and despite having taken the veil, still found a way to pay for handsome renovations to the various churches and towers within in the years leading up to her death.Not making any argument here that she would have been a better ruler than Peter, seemed like she was more an old-school, hang onto power by its' short and curlies as long as possible type ruler than any kind of reformer. But it’s interesting that for the rest of the 18th century after Peter's death, the country was ruled predominantly by women. Is this because of Sophia's legacy, or in spite of it?

Queen Boudica (aka: Boudicca or Boadicea) and Catherine the Great (Ekaterina the 2nd)Right click here and save as to downloadFurther Reading:Queen Boudica:"Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen" by Richard Hingley and Christina Unwin."The Annals" by Tacitus. (Boudica's story was rediscovered in this book around 1360)Catherine the GreatCatherine the Great: A Short History by Isabel de MadriagaCatherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K MassieCatherine the Great: Love, Sex and Power by Virginia RoundingCatherine the Great (PBS Documentary)Music: Etta James - Pay Back

Ada Lovelace and Emmy Noether - Dames of Mathematics Right click here and save as to downloadFurther Reading:Ada Lovelace"Ada: The Enchantress of Numbers" by Betty Toole (2010)"The Calculating Passion of Ada Byron" by Joan Baum (1986)"Ada, Countess of Lovelace, Byron's only Legitimate Daughter" by Doris Langley Moore (1977)"Ada: A Life and Legacy" by Dorothy Stein (1985)Sketch of the Analytical Engine by L. Menebrea. Notes by Ada Lovelace. (1843)Great comic on Hark a VagrantUnbelievably thorough historiography of Ada Lovelace on Victorian Geek, invaluable resource on who said what when about Ada's much-contended legacy.An Archetypal Bad Death: The Case of Ada Lovelace from Death in the Victorian Family by Patricia Jailand (2000)Emmy Noether"Modern Mathematicians" by Harry Henderson. (1996)."The Mother of Modern Algebra" by M.B.W Tent (2008).Great video lecture with Ransom Stephens:Music: "Don't Make me Prove it" - Veruca Salt

Simone de Beauvoir and Hannah Arendt: Logical ladies possessing giant intellects.Forget the teachings which say that women are solely emotional creatures, incapable of sophisticated reasoning. The fact is that females have repeatedly proved throughout history that they're just as logical as their male counterparts. Listen up.Note: Apologies on the delay, we had some sound quality/technical issues while recording.Right click here and save as to downloadFurther Reading:Simone de Beauvoir:"A Dangerous Liaison: A Biography of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre" by Carole Seymour-Jones (2008). The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., New York. (2009)"The Second Sex." (1949) translated by H M Parshley, Penguin (1972); published by Jonathan Cape in 1953."Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter." by Simone de Beauvoir"The Prime of Life."  By Simone de Beauvoir"Philosophy as Passion" by Simone de BeauvoirStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Simone de Beauvoir Hannah Arendt:Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah ArendtEichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah ArendtThe Human Condition by Hannah ArendtMen in Dark Times by Hannah ArendtReflections on Violence by Hannah ArendtReflections on Little Rock by Hannah ArendtHannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger by Elzbieta EttingerFembio on Hannah ArendtArendt's Judgment by Mark Greif, Dissent MagazineStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Hannah ArendtInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Hannah ArendtMusic: Beethoven Kreutzer Sonata*Pictures done up by LP*Thanks to Sasha for audio help.