Stories of Strong Women

by Linda Harris Sittig

Each summer, I often think back to July 1969 and where I was when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

I was sitting with a bunch of friends, our eyes glued to a TV. I have seen the replay so many times, but nothing compared to the historic moment itself. And as I watched an American astronaut step on the moon, a planetary object that I could actually see myself, I became interested in space.

Fast forward to January 12, 1986: we were in Florida, standing near Cape Canaveral in the early morning with our two nine-year-old daughters to watch the launch of Columbia (the last successful launch before the Challenger tragedy).

When the rockets ignited and lifted off into space, it was an unforgettable experience. And thanks to Judith Love Cohen, the Columbia astronauts did not have to endure the gut-wrenching terror of re-entry that the three Apollo 13 astronauts experienced in April 1970.

Judith Love Cohen

Never heard of Judith? I’m not surprised. Part of the credit for the successful operation of Apollo 13 was attributed to the company she worked for – TRW. But without naming any of the aerospace engineers. So, I researched her, and then I watched the movie Apollo 13 (again).

Born in 1933 into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, Judith was gifted at math even from an early age. By fifth grade, other students were asking her to help them with their math homework. In high school, she approached a guidance counselor about majoring in math in college. The reply was that it would be more helpful if instead, she learned to be a lady. Judith left the room more intent than ever to go to college.

At the end of high school, she received a scholarship to study math at Brooklyn College, but once there, she decided engineering was more interesting and switched majors.

Within the next two years, she met and married Bernard Siegel, and they moved to California for his job. In California, she attended night classes at the University of Southern California, allowing her to take care of their children during the day. She received both a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Science, majoring in engineering. During her collegiate years, she said she never met another female engineering student. This would have been in the 1950s.

After completing her education, she accepted an engineering position at Space Technology Laboratories (which later became TRW). She stayed with them until her retirement in 1990.

Eventually, her marriage to Bernard Siegel did not last, and she remarried Thomas Black, with whom she had her fourth child, Jack Black (now a famous actor). An interesting tidbit that shows her dedication to her career is that while she went into labor with Jack, she was working on a complicated engineering problem. She took her engineering calculator with her to the hospital, figured out the answer, phoned it in to TRW, and THEN gave birth.

Now, let’s revisit Apollo 13

The mission occurred in April of 1970. Neil Armstrong had walked on the moon the previous year, and the goal of the Apollo astronauts was to do the same. But an explosion of an oxygen tank two days into the anticipated eight-day mission suddenly changed everything.

The explosion forced the three astronauts—Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise to move from the command module into the Lunar Module (Aquarius) and use it as a makeshift lifeboat. Gone was the dream of walking on the moon. The mission now became a recovery to return safely to Earth. However, there were more problems. NASA engineers now had to calculate how to get Apollo 13 to travel around the moon and use the moon’s gravity to enable a slingshot trajectory back to the correct angle for re-entry to Earth.

With less electric power than in the command module, the astronauts needed to align the lunar module with planet Earth so they could leave deep space and travel in a free return loop into the re-entry corridor.

But again, problems. The three men were breathing more C02 due to the limited supply of oxygen. The module had to operate in near-freezing temperatures, and they had to manually operate the critical ‘burns’ to hit the exact angle of re-entry without the module burning up.  At this point, they had been stuck in the smaller spacecraft for 3 days and were well aware of the potential failure to survive.

The Legacy

This is where we should all applaud Judith Love Cohen.

Judith helped to design the AGS – Abort Guidance System, which would manually align the spacecraft for the last critical burn and correct the trajectory of the lunar module on its path back to planet Earth. At this point, the spacecraft would be hurtling at a speed of 25,000 mph as they hit Earth’s atmosphere at 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

All of America waited and prayed for the spacecraft to become visible and intact.

After the successful splashdown occurred and the astronauts were retrieved, they publicly thanked TRW for saving their lives. Judith was there in the crowd, with the TRW team. And I am sure she was acutely aware that she represented the less than 1% of all aerospace engineers who were female. Today that number has swelled to 11–15%, but Judith Love Cohen was an early trailblazer.

Thank you to blog follower Mary Bowser who alerted me to Judith.

If you enjoyed learning about Judith and are not yet a follower of this blog, please sign up on the right sidebar. Once a month, you will receive another Strong Woman story.

As I finish this month’s blog, Judith is Woman #173 that I have researched during the 14 years of the blog. My other writing passion is my novels, all featuring strong women:

Cut From Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, Counting Crows, B-52 DOWN, Opening Closed Doors, and soon-to-be-released Chasing the Tides. All of them are available online and in bookstores.

~ Linda

by Linda Harris Sittig

In many families, siblings may compete with one another.

But in the Blackwell family, Elizabeth and Emily joined forces to become the first (Elizabeth) and third (Emily) college-trained female doctors in the United States.

And although they started out with the goal of being doctors for whoever needed them, their practice evolved to treating female patients.

And aren’t we lucky that they did, because together they began offering help to women and, in turn, set up the first hospital for Indigent Women and Children. Patients whom male doctors had refused to treat. And they did that with a 100% female staff.

To say that the sisters had a rocky start in entering the medical profession would be an understatement.

Born in England in the 1820s, the sisters emigrated to America with their family when they were still quite young. They, along with their other seven siblings, witnessed firsthand the physical demise of their father at a relatively early age. Perhaps that was a catalyst.

Elizabeth tried first. She applied to and was rejected by twenty-nine medical schools before being accepted at one – Geneva Medical College in upstate New York. She was unaware that her acceptance was a joke when the faculty allowed the all-male student body to vote on it. And, apparently, the men did so on a whim. However, she persevered and graduated in the two-year program.

Emily, then four years later, also applied to Geneva, but was denied. She was then accepted at Rush Medical College in Chicago. But when Rush decided to change its rules and NOT admit women, the school did not allow Emily to return for her second and final year.

By 1854, both sisters had graduated with medical degrees, with Emily graduating from Cleveland Medical College. The next problem was to get jobs in the field. The public was skeptical of female doctors, and wealthy patients kept to male physicians.

Also at this time in American history, women with gynecological problems were only treated by male doctors, with trials that literally bordered on brutal procedures (often the only accepted techniques available). Elizabeth and Emily wanted to change that. Unable to receive further training in the U.S., they both studied in England and France before returning to America intent on setting up their own practice.

In 1857, the two sisters, along with Marie Zakrzewska, opened the Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children in New York City. (Now New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital).

At this time in America, neither antibiotics nor antiseptics had been developed. Indeed, thermometers were still in their infancy. And handwashing between patients had not yet been established. At least by male doctors.

Elizabeth and Emily enforced strict handwashing at the Infirmary, and during their first year of operation, they successfully treated almost 1,000 patients.  

And while you might be thinking that Elizabeth and Emily were early feminists or even suffragists, they weren’t. Raised in an abolitionist family, they adhered to those principles, even giving up sugar because all sugar came from the plantations run on slave labor. And during the Civil War, they helped to train nurses for the Union Army.

But when it came to advocating for women’s rights to vote, the two sisters were too consumed with their medical careers to become involved with suffrage. Which honestly strikes me as odd. Their brothers married women who were keenly involved in the suffrage movement, but Elizabeth and Emily focused on their patients.

 And both women were highly skeptical of other women who wished to become doctors but were not enrolled in prestigious colleges.  

Neither sister married, choosing career over matrimony. They lived well into their 80s and died within months of each other in 1910. At the time of their death, approximately 9,000 female doctors were practicing in America, but Elizabeth and Emily had been the trailblazers.

Today, about 39% of all doctors in the United States are female. The two highest specialties are pediatrics and gynecology.  And 50% of all students in medical colleges today are women.

Thank you, Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell.

And thank you to JoAnn Whitener, blog follower from Virginia who clued me in about Elizabeth. It was in researching Elizabeth that I learned about Emily.

If you enjoyed learning about Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell and are not yet a follower of the Strong Women blog, please sign up on the right sidebar. Each month, you will receive another Strong Women story in your email. I am still celebrating that my book, B-52 DOWN, took first place in the 2025 Chanticleer International Book Award for narrative nonfiction.

Now finishing up edits on my newest book, Chasing the Tides.

Author of:

Cut From Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, Counting Crows, B-52 DOWN, Opening Closed Doors.

~ Linda

by Linda Harris Sittig

I grew up in the 1950s and ‘60s with certain family traditions. One was that we ate dinner together at the kitchen table every night, except on Sundays when we were allowed to pull out the TV trays. Then we dined on Swanson’s Chicken Pot Pies in front of the TV, and watched a program together: usually Bonanza.

But on certain occasions, we gathered in front of the TV on an alternative night and watched a family movie together. One of my favorites was Cheaper by the Dozen. Based on the real life of the Gilbreth family, the plot involved how the eccentric father was always trying to make the home more efficient for his wife and twelve children, sometimes to hilarious results.

I remember one scene where the wife went shopping and when she came home the husband had rearranged the entire kitchen for efficiency. Even as a kid I instinctively knew this was not a good idea – to rearrange a woman’s kitchen without her input. And I remember my mother giving my dad the stink eye – just in case.

But what I did not know, was how incredibly well educated the real Mrs. Gilbreth had  been. And how she was a talented efficiency engineer, all on her own.

LILLIAN’S STORY

Lillian Moller Gilbreth was born in May, 1878, the oldest of ten children, to parents in Oakland, California. From an early age it was quite apparent how bright she was and she sailed through her classes in public school. When it came time to think about college, her merchant father vetoed the idea for any of his daughters. Lillian, however, convinced him to let her try just one year and see how she would do.

At the end of that first year at the University of California, Lillian had one of the highest grade point averages in the freshman class. Her father relented and allowed her to stay and earn a degree. However, she still had to live at home and help out with the other children. As graduation neared, she was asked to speak at the Commencement Exercises, the first female to ever hold that honor. And the first of many honors she would receive in her lifetime.

She graduated from the University of California with a Bachelor’s Degree in Literature and then stayed two additional years to earn a Master’s Degree in the same discipline. But then life changed in 1904 when she met Frank Gilbreth, a self-taught construction engineer who specialized in the fledgling field of motion study. Lillian was fascinated by Frank’s projects and took a keen interest in his studies.

LILLIAN BEGINS TO STUDY ENGINEERING

Although Lillian’s university degrees were in literature, she possessed an uncanny talent for psychology. She shared her insights with Frank and together they agreed that there was a lack of psychology in engineering, and that the field could benefit from such.

Lillian decided to pursue a Doctorate in Psychology and wrote her thesis on The Psychology of Management. The University of California, however, required at least one full year of residency in order to achieve a Doctorate.  This would be impossible for Lillian since she and Frank had already started their family (which in time would number 12 children). Frank helped her turn her thesis instead into installment papers which were published in 1912 – 1913, and later published as a book.

It is interesting to note that her publisher stipulated they would only publish her book, if she used the initials L.M. Gilbreth, so no one would realize the author was a woman.

Hmmm.

Soon afterward Frank was offered a job near Brown University in Rhode Island. He would help to install a plan for scientific management at a large factory.  Lillian became friends with the President of Brown, and subsequently applied to be admitted for a Doctorate. She did receive her Ph.D. and gave birth to her next child just a few weeks later.

Together, Lillian and Frank made an impressive team and were hired for their expertise in the psychology of worker efficiency. They analyzed their own home, particularly the kitchen, to see how the space could be used more efficiently and often tried out experiments involving the children as well. (This would later be the basis for the book written by two of their children, and eventually the Hollywood movie, Cheaper by the Dozen).

The Gilbreths were well on their way to becoming internationally recognized for their expertise.

But then, the unthinkable happed.

At the age of 55, preparing to deliver a speech at a conference in Prague, Frank Gilbreth died of a sudden heart attack. Lillian, now a single mother of twelve, never hesitated. She asked family members to take care of the children while she traveled to Prague and delivered Frank’s speech.

ON HER OWN

From that moment on, Lillian Gilbreth worked tirelessly to continue on with the work that she and Frank had started together. She wrote or co-authored ten books on efficiency in both the home and the workplace, she gave hundreds of lectures, and she secured patents for her inventions that would improve the efficiency of a woman’s kitchen.

By the end of her long life, she had amassed many honors, including being the first female member inducted into the American Society of Industrial Engineers and a professor at Purdue University. Looking back now at Cheaper by the Dozen, I wish I had known as a young girl just how prolific Mrs. Gilbreth had been in the field of industrial engineering.

Today, I, like many of you, use her inventions every day.

LILLIAN’S LEGACY

Does your kitchen follow the L shape efficiency design where the sink, refrigerator, and oven/stove are arranged in a pattern where they are only a few steps away from each other? Thank you Lillian Gilbreth.

Do you have a foot pedal trash can? Thank you Lillian Gilbreth.

Do you have shelves in you refrigerator doors? Thank you Lillian Gilbreth.

Do you use a special shelf in your refrigerator for butter and eggs? Thank you Lillian Gilbreth.

Does your kitchen utilize wall switches for electric lighting? Thank you Lillan Gilbreth.

And lastly, while you may not know this, before Lillian Gilbreth, the height of kitchen counter tops were calculated based on the height of an average man. Thank goodness Lillian campaigned for all kitchen counter tops to be built based on the height of an average woman.

Hollywood may have portrayed Lillian Gilbreth as the model housewife of an industrial engineer, but the truth is that Lillian Gilbreth was herself the model of industrial engineering.

A strong woman whose influence from the 1920s still enhances our lives.

I hope you enjoyed Lillian’s story. If you are not yet a follower of the Strong Woman blog, please sign up on the right sidebar. Once a month you will receive another Strong Woman’s story.

Writing about Strong Women is my passion, and the protagonist in each of my five books was a woman who fought to overcome obstacles in achieving her life’s dream. Book number six is out for consideration with a publisher and features a dual time narrative with two strong women who tell their stories, eighty years apart.

~ linda:)

Author of: Cut From Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, Counting Crows, B 52 DOWN (finalist for the 2025 CIBA International Book Award), and Opening Closed Doors. Each title can be ordered from any bookstore or online through Amazon.

by Linda Harris Sittig

In celebration of Women’s History Month, a Windows Update released gremlins that have incapacitated my computer. Until it comes back from the shop, I am giving you this inspirational quote from Jane Walker that I keep in my office.

To Future First Women –

Against all odds, women have continued to break ground that shouldn’t have needed breaking, blazed trails that should have been well traveled, and shattered glass ceilings that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

Fearless women, past and present, brave enough to follow their passions.

Don’t just open the door, rip it off its hinges so it can’t be closed again.

signed Jane Walker.

So, to all the brave girls out there, regardless of age, I salute you!

signed Linda Harris Sittig

by Linda Harris Sittig

I am sitting by the back windows in our home, overlooking a grove of trees and the bird feeders attached to the deck railing. It’s bitterly cold, and the birds have been ravenous. Suddenly, a bluebird alights. His plumage is the most luminous shade of blue, and I find myself transfixed by his colors. This has been one of the perks of moving south to North Carolina, where bluebirds in winter are a daily delight.

However, years ago, especially during the Gilded Age of America (1870-1900), my friend the bluebird and countless other bird species were the victims of unregulated slaughter for their feathers.

Feathers? You may wonder. Yes, it was the beginning of the fashion trend in which women wore hats adorned with bird plumage.

How did this come to be?

THE FEATHER TRADE

In the late 1880s, store-bought women’s fashions first became available to the masses through department stores. No longer having to sew her own dresses, a woman could easily buy them in stores. But with identical outfits now available in various sizes, how would a woman stand out, so to speak, in her fashion choice? The answer: by her hat.

This conundrum helped the millinery business explode, and along the way, bird feathers became the rage. At the time, few people saw the huge injustice done to millions of birds each year and the future extinction of multiple species, all in the name of fashion.

Enter Florence Merriam Bailey, whom everyone called Merriam.

MERRIAM

Merriam was born near Utica, New York, in 1863, and, due to ill health, was educated at home. However, her family’s house was quite near the Adirondack Mountains, and from an early age, Merriam went on long walks with her brother in the nearby woods. Nature fascinated her, and most particularly the birds.

In 1882, Merriam was allowed to enter Smith, a women’s college in Massachusetts. However, she was only allowed to participate as a ‘special student’, meaning she could attend classes, but not receive a degree, since she did not possess a high school diploma. This turned out to be a boon, because as soon as the college offered science courses, Merriam signed up for any that would help her study ornithology.

The more she studied birds, the more diligent she became in their protection. Along with a friend, Fanny Hardie Eckstrom, they organized a club to observe and protect wild birds. Merriam began writing articles on the protection of birds and, at age 26, published her first book, Birds Through an Opera Glass. Today, her book is recognized as the first field guide to bird-watching intended for the general public. For Merriam, it was her first professional attempt to attract the public to watching birds in the wild.

After college, she spent several winters with her parents in New York City. Once more, she became ill, and on the family doctor’s advice, she and her mother journeyed out west for cleaner, fresher air. To her delight, not only did her health improve, but she became a diligent bird-watcher of western birds. And she continued to submit articles on bird protection. Her greatest talent was making the study of birds a pastime accessible to the general public.

MERRIAM’S CRUSADE

In 1899, she married a fellow naturalist, Vernon Bailey. The couple moved to Washington, D.C., and it was there that Merriam became involved in the conservation movement. Not just involved, she became an activist and supported the Lacey Act of 1900, which prohibited the trade of wild animals, including birds that had been killed illegally. She also taught workshops at the National Zoo.

The National Audubon Society was founded in 1905 by two female environmentalists in Massachusetts. Their goal to protect wild birds was a direct result of the widespread slaughter of waterbirds. It took four birds’ dead bodies to produce 1 ounce of plumage for a hat. The Audubon Society was a natural choice for Merriam, and she helped to co-organize several local chapters.

Merriam traveled extensively with her husband whenever his work took him to the American West, and she continued her study of birds of the western states. In 1916, the Biological Survey asked Florence to travel to New Mexico and compile a book on the birds of that state. Her Birds of New Mexico earned her the Brewster Medal from the American Ornithologists’ Union in 1931. She was the first woman to receive this award.

MERRIAM’S LEGACY

Merriam spent the rest of her life studying and writing about birds and their need for protection. She published her last book in 1939 and was the first woman elected a fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union. She died peacefully in Washington, D.C., at the age of 85.

So, the next time you glance up and see a bird perched on a branch, feasting at a feeder, or soaring through the sky, remember Merriam Bailey and her lifelong passion for protecting birds and making birdwatching an enjoyable activity for everyone.

If you enjoyed this month’s highlight of Merriam Bailey and are not yet a follower of this blog, please sign up on the right sidebar. Once a month, a Strong Women in History story will appear in your email inbox.

~ Linda

For those of you who have asked… my newest book, Chasing the Tides, is now in the hands of 12 publishers (in manuscript form). It is about two strong women, eighty years apart, who are both part of a legacy through a beachside cottage on St. Simons Island, Georgia. Stay tuned:)

In the meantime, you can find my other books in bookstores and online.

Cut From Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, Counting Crows, B52 DOWN, Opening Closed Doors: the Story of Josie Murray.