[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 37 (Tuesday, April 5, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IN HONOR OF WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON KIND

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 5, 2005

  Mr. KIND. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Women's History 
Month. In 1987, Congress passed a resolution designating the month of 
March as Women's History Month and a time to honor, ``American women of 
every race, class and ethnic background [who] have made historic 
contributions to the growth and strength of our Nation in countless 
recorded and unrecorded ways.''
  For 2005, the theme of Women's History Month is ``Women Change 
America.'' In celebration of this month, I would like to focus on two 
women from Wisconsin's history and honor their contributions to 
society.
  First, I would like to recognize Cordelia Julia Grace Wales. 
Wisconsin resident Julia Grace Wales made her mark in Wisconsin as a 
peace activist, scholar, an English instructor at University of 
Wisconsin-Madison, and a dedicated Christian. In 1914, in light of WWI, 
Wales decided to write her famous Wisconsin peace plan, a plan that she 
believed would end WWI. Wales made a genuine contribution to women's 
history in Wisconsin and America's tradition of peace movements.
  Born in Portage, Wisconsin, Margery Latimer was a social movement 
activist and an accomplished novelist. Latimer became well-known in the 
literary world after writing three highly acclaimed novels dealing 
greatly with the romanticism era. She once said, ``There's only one 
possession that's worth having and that is the capacity to feel that 
life is a privilege and that each person in it is unique and will never 
appear again.''
  The third woman I would like to honor is Zona Gale. Also born in 
Portage, Wisconsin, Zona Gale was a great novelist and short-story 
writer. Gale's biggest success was her novel, Miss Lulu Bett. This 
novel was adapted as a play in 1920 and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize 
for Drama in 1921. As an activist for women's rights and the creation 
of the Wisconsin Equal Rights Law, prohibiting the discrimination of 
women, many of Gale's feminist politics were expressed in her novels 
and then plays. Zona Gale passed away in 1938 in Portage, Wisconsin, 
but her voice will live on through her novels and efforts for women's 
rights in Wisconsin and around the country.
  These three women, along with so many others, inspired hope and 
possibility not only in Wisconsin, but across the United States. 
Whether in art or literature, activism or teaching, they deserve our 
remembrance, not only during the month of March, but throughout the 
rest of the year as well.

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