The Fair Sex Calendar

from Vicki Leon

The Fair Sex Calendar, the latest brainchild from local author and historical detective Vicki Leon, is an audio adventure to celebrate the entire month of March, which is Women's History Month. 

"Having done nine books on real-life women achievers of long ago, I have the most amazing collection of true stories about them," says Leon. "Often at various crossroads in their lives. And so I thought, 'Why not dramatize them for radio? Hearing a story, rather than reading it, has a peculiar charm and an intimacy that transcends time and space.' " 

With that in mind, Leon began the often-daunting task of collecting stories about such women, each of which had to tie to a given day and date in history. 

"This was made much more challenging due to the fact that less biographical material exists about many of these women," notes Leon. Nevertheless, she was able to flesh out a generous number of stories, each of which is tied to a date in March. Most of the two-minute tales deal with a crossroads moment in a given life, although a few mark the birth or death of a given woman.

"My favorites tend to be crisis moments," admits Leon, who at age 70 has researched and written with gleeful abandon for more than 40 years. "For example, the March first broadcast opens with a witchcraft trial and a Caribbean slave woman named Tituba being declared guilty and thrown into prison. I won't tell you the end of the story except to say that she did not end up like many other women in Salem, Massachusetts, who were hanged as 'witches.' " 

Vicki worked with veteran broadcaster and radio personality Guy Rathbun, who produced the 31 spots, which are now posted at the national distribution clearinghouse PRX, on whose website the spots are offered to public and community radio stations across the nation. 

The stories themselves can also be found in the pages of Vicki's 4000 Years of Uppity Women (a "best of" compendium published in 2011 and available at Barnes & Noble) and in the pages of Vicki's earlier work, called Uppity Women of the New World. 

To listen to Vicki's two-minute tales, go to PRX.org and find the Fair Sex Calendar under the  offerings of Guy Rathbun, Rathbun Audio Productions. 

Fair Sex Calendar Intro Copy

Welcome to the Fair Sex Calendar, where today in history, WOMEN made the news. 

This audio journal celebrates Women's History Month all the days of March. You'll hear true stories of women from around the world, who chose to rock boats as well as rock cradles. Many are names you won't have heard of--but author and historical detective Vicki Leon brings their deeds to vivid life again. 

March 22, 1831

Today in London, a literary sensation by a former slave, goes into its second edition. Her autobiography is the earliest written narrative by an English-speaking slave. In it, Mary Prince recounts the day-to-day horrors of her life on Caribbean plantations. Bought and sold,  Mary has had a few kind masters, .including one who teaches her to read and write. More often, though, she suffers abuse at the hands of owners male AND female. While working as a household nurse, she meets and marries a carpenter named Dan James. He's a free black..and when Mary is forced to accompany her owners to England,  her husband follows. Once in London, Mary pleads with her master, offering to buy her freedom. He flatly refuses. In desperation, Mary, now nearly 40 and losing her eyesight, petitions the London parliament--and finally triumphs! here's what eloquent Mary Price wrote about slaveowners when she was one of the slaves on offer: "their light words fell like cayenne [pepper] on the fresh wounds of our hearts." 

March 30, 1830

Georgiana Molloy

A gently brought-up greenhorn, Georgiana Molloy arrives at her new home today — an appalling place on the Swan River in Western Australia. Sad to say, her new husband Jack does not have a good eye for choosing land grants. Over the next 13 years, pioneer Georgiana will have to pick up stakes three more times, experience the birth (and death) of numerous offspring, and more often than not, be forced to make the kangaroo soup herself. Fortunately, when Georgiana turns 31, she hears from an English botanist, who asks her to collect specimens for him. This gives her new enthusiasm for the vast and lonely countryside in which she lives. She befriends the aborigines, learning their herbal secrets. She gathers wild plants and flowers, collects seeds, and meticulously writes about them for horticulturists back in Europe. Georgiana does not even reach the age of 40 in the Outback but her passion for botany makes lasting contributions to the knowledge about Australian flora.

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