Cerritos Library hosts 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day

By Larry Caballero

More than 200 women and guests attended Cerritos Library’s 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day Mar. 14, sponsored by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), Soroptimist International of Artesia-Cerritos and Woman’s Club of Artesia-Cerritos, to hear the real-life stories of famous women from 1911 to the present.
Attendees were encouraged to “see the last century through the eyes of the women who shaped it!”
On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire tragedy occurred when 146 women and children lost their lives after working in sweatshop conditions for $8 per week. After this horrific event, women began to organize and protest in larger numbers.
The women honored during this period were labor organizer Rose Schneiderman portrayed by Tobi Balma, suffragette Alice Paul portrayed by Phibun Ny, and Founder of the Women’s Club Jane Cunningham Croly portrayed by Kathie McGraw.
In the 1920’s, nurse Lillian Wald and Febb Ensminger Burn, the mother of a Tennessee State Congressman who cast the deciding vote that legalized the woman’s right to vote, were portrayed by Barbara Dunstan and Tammy Cannon.
In the 1930’s, photographer Dorothea Lange and Congresswoman Mary Norton were portrayed by Grancine DeFrance and Thea Siegal. In the 1940’s, photojournalist Dickey Chapelle, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jeanette Rankin-the first woman elected to Congress-were portrayed by Kathy Lovell, Diana Needham and Celia Spitzer.
Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks, portrayed by Brenda Hicks, represented the decade of the 50’s.
Mexican-American labor organizer Dolores Huerta, environmentalist Racheal Carson, and businesswoman Muriel Siebert, who were portrayed by Gloria Kappe, Christina Alosi and Susan Green, represented the 1960’s.
Joan Flax portrayed Peggy Williams-the first female graduate of Ringling Brothers Clown College-and Mabel Low portrayed female athlete Billie Jean King representing the 1970’s.
The 1980’s highlighted the lives of early astronaut trainee Jerri Cobb, first woman astronaut Sally Ride, and the first female Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor who were portrayed by Gail Wendland, Susan Sklar and Ruth Russell.
1990’s highlighted Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and breast cancer pioneer Dr. Susan Love, who were portrayed by Suzanne Seager, the President of the Los Cerritos Women’s Club and Joan Anderson.
2000 to the present recognized political activist and prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, portrayed by Dr. Terrisa Ha; media mogul and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey, portrayed by Julietta Williams; and television icon Barbara Walters, portrayed by Barbara Atherton.
Soroptimist President Lou Kaku thanked all of the performers. “A great deal of work went into the planning and execution of this program. We wish we could have included everyone who was suggested, but there was not enough time.
It is our hope, however, that you will be so enthralled by the women featured tonight that you start your own list of amazing women. And that you will live your life so that other women will consider you an amazing woman.”