the digital giraffe

All About Women
Our Woman of the Month Award for April, 2024, goes to Sarah Chapman, first woman to lead a labor strike, Called the Match Girls' Strike in London in 1888 and immortalized in season 2 of "Enola Holmes".

Smithsonian magazine descrbes how women in the Middle Ages managed, against major obstructions, to express their feelings. Anger, for example, was considered one of the 7 deadly sins. It was said to indicate a woman's weakness. Women were not allowed to write or interpret religious texts. But letters were apparently a source of expression, although few of these letters have survived. In one of them, a woman wrote, "Don’t be born a woman if you want your own way.". Embroidery was another way of showing emotions - needles were used like pens, placing messages and symbols into designs.

A unique partnership between Los Alamos National Laboratory and Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, is bringing undergraduate indigenous women into the field of nuclear physics. Currently 4 women from across the Four Corners region are included in this pilot program. The women are given mentoring, an internship, and the ability to do research at CERN (the Center for European Research) in Switzerland, one of the world’s premier physics laboratories and the home of the Large Hadron Collider, a massive particle accelerator.

A woman named Cole Brauer has become the first American woman to race a sailboat nonstop and alone around the world. The trip took 130 days covering 30,000 miles and 3 oceans.

A trailbreaking story of 10 queer women is shown here, ranging from the year 1700 in the U.K. to today's New York Fire Island. Included are an avant-garde writer, the first Chinese American to become an M.D., a major performer in the Harlem Renaissance, and the first Black playwright and youngest American to win a New York Critics Circle Award.

National Public Radio alerts women to the extensive benefits of strength training, beyond building muscles. Strength training also lifts mood, adds to longevity, protects bones and joints, and boosts metabolism. Additionally, it appears that women get the most benefits.

A new technology allows researchers to see how fetuses are growing and whether conditions like spina bifida are present. Growing fetuses place cells into the amniotic fluid. These cells can be used to grow organoids, which are 3-dimensional objects that contain some of the characteristics of human organs, like small intestines, kidneys and lungs. Organoids have been produced previously from discarded fetal tissue. This is the first time. however, that cells have been harvested from amniotic tissue without harming the fetus.

Mexico City boasts the world's largest bullfighting arena. The sport is set to reappear, since a ban 2 years ago on bullfighting in the capital was recently reversed. The return will include female matadors, who are insisting that they be treated the same as the men. It seems that in the history of bullfighting only 16 women have become matadors. In fact, prior to 1974, women in Spain were not even allowed in the ring. As you can imagine, female matadors face considerable controversy. especially when they demand to fight at the same time as male contenders.

Lilian Bland was known as the Flying Feminist. In 1910 she built her own plane, made of bamboo, wood and fabric, flew in it, and then moved on to other challenges. This article about her exploits links you to a podcast about her. "Hoots and derision", she said, "did not worry me at all".

An exhibition called Legion at the British Museum lays to rest the claim that the Roman army was exclusively male. Evidence shows that army camps there were not "men-only" areas. From Empress to former slave, the presence of women is documented and examined in this article. Another revelation about women im ancient Rome comes from the Getty Museum as they recommend a book called, "A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women: How Women Transformed the Empire", and a podcast by the same author, Emma Southon, titled, "History is Sexy".

The increasingly strong presence of women in architecture around the world is gradually if reluctantly being accepted. The standard practice of all-male panels at conferences is being questioned, as well as the macho culture at building sites. A book titled, "100 Women: Architects in Practice", reveals the profound influence that some leading female architects are exerting in spite of the pressure to be "invisible" and in defiance of a history of being shunned.

There appears to be a profound lack of presence for women and nonbinary artists in the field of music technology, an industry in which females represent only 5% to 7% of audio engineers and producers. This article highlights some of the women who excel at audio technology.

Be sure to email giraffe@giraffe.com with your suggestions, be they articles, videos, images, cartoons, music, or comments, so that we can share our celebrations and our concerns with each other.

Last updated April 1, 2024 - 30 years of monthly Web publication

Corinne Whitaker - Artist, Editor, Author, Poet, Sculptor, Publisher, Composer, Betaphysician, Chief of the Newanderthal Tribe

Best of Foster City 2016
Best of Palo Alto 2013

Golden Web Award, 2001 and 2000

Artist of the Month, Artisan Bazaar, 2000

Best in Cyberart Award, 1999

winner of BATech's "Catch of the Day"

winner of Fractal Design's "Artist of the Month"and "Image of the Day"

Featured Master Artist, Shadowart Galleries, 1997 and 1998

Guest Artist of the Month, Hampton Click Salon Online
Exhibit below from Virtual Gallery online