8th March 2019 Here is the House to hold me – cradle of all the race: Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

 Nowadays, women still feel there's a glass ceiling at work, though their situation in first world countries has vastly improved. Indeed, many men are in favour  of gender equality and believe, like Gandhi, that "women are gifted with equal mental capacity"
On 8th March we want to remember those women who fought for equal rights.

On certain occasions, women confront certain actions on the part of men that are derogatory, and which  have been recently labelled as manspreading--when a mans spreads his legs to make room, particularly on trains, buses or planes-, or  mansplaining-when a man explains things to a woman, assuming she does not know the subject she is talking about.  However, to provide some comic relief , we've decided to include an amusing reference to one of these recently coined concepts: mansplaining,

 Finally, we wanted to remember some pioneering women,  as is the case of Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper,  or  Charlotte Perkins Gillman.

Watercolour portrait of Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, circa 1840, possibly by Alfred Edward Chalon.

Ada Lovelace-the first computer programmer
 (1815  London -1852 Marylebone, London, England)

As Ada was rejected by her father, world-famous poet Lord Byron, Annabella, her mother, decided to prevent her from becoming a romantic like her ex-husband. She was tutored in mathematics and science from the age of 4. Find out why she is renowned below.

You can learn about her life and contributions here.

Here you can see how Grace Hopper (New York City 1906-1992), a computer scientist and mathematician, coined the term "debug", created a compiler to translate source code into computer language. She  helped define a new computer language (COBOL) in 1959,

Finally, we wouldn't want to forget the role of housewives, about whom Gillman wrote  in her poems.

My grandmother spoiled my father rotten, and he grew up expecting women to do whatever he wanted. When he married my beautiful mother, Elsa, he expected her to give up her career as a champion ballroom dancer and become a good wife and mother, which she dutifully did. Joan Collins
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/good_wife

My grandmother spoiled my father rotten, and he grew up expecting women to do whatever he wanted. When he married my beautiful mother, Elsa, he expected her to give up her career as a champion ballroom dancer and become a good wife and mother, which she dutifully did. Joan Collins
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/good_wife

‘Bound with the bands of Duty, rivetted tight’ …

 Charlotte Perkins Gillman, circa 1896.

Photograph: Fotosearch/Getty Images

The poem below, "The Housewife", was written by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, author of "The Yellow Wallpaper", an utopian feminist.  In those times women were discouraged from pursuing  intellectual careers, so reading and writing for more than two hours a day was not advisable, or so Charlotte's doctor thought!

The Housewife

 Here is the House to hold me – cradle of all the race;

Here is my lord and my love, here are my children dear–

Here is the House enclosing, the dear-loved dwelling place;

Why should I ever weary for aught that I find not here?

Here for the hours of the day and the hours of the night;

Bound with the bands of Duty, rivetted tight;

Duty older than Adam – Duty that saw

Acceptance utter and hopeless in the eyes of the serving squaw.

Food and the serving of food – that is my daylong care;

What and when we shall eat, what and how we shall wear;

Soiling and cleaning of things – that is my task in the main –

Soil them and clean them and soil them – soil them and clean them again.

To work at my trade by the dozen and never a trade to know;

To plan like a Chinese puzzle – fitting and changing so;

To think of a thousand details, each in a thousand ways;

For my own immediate people and a possible love and praise.

My mind is trodden in circles, tiresome, narrow and hard,

Useful, commonplace, private – simply a small backyard;

And I the Mother of Nations! – Blind their struggle and vain!

I cover the earth with my children – each with a housewife’s brain.

Carol Rumens's poem of the week  
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/feb/12/poem-of-the-week-the-housewife-by-charlotte-perkins-gilman