The Hidden History of Women in South Jersey

Jersey is not without its reputations. Television shows – from The Sopranos to Jersey Shore to Boardwalk Empire – have only added to what people believe they know about New Jersey.

But long before Snookie and showgirls walked the boards, women were making history in South Jersey. South Jersey has written across its sandy beaches and blueberry fields the history of women change makers – from the woman who cultivated commercial blueberries to the woman who staged a sit-in at a prestigious mathematicians association.

While this does not claim to be a complete or comprehensive list of women’s history in South Jersey, it includes some of the little known chapters.

Anyone with a historical perspective of women in New Jersey will recognize the name of Alice Paul. She is the Quaker suffragist portrayed by Hillary Swank in the epic movie Iron Jawed Angels. She grew up in Mt. Laurel, where her house remains to the day as a central organizing agency around women’s history. If you’re a woman, next time you go to vote, thank Alice Paul. But no woman is a silo – Ms. Paul was part of the New Jersey Suffrage Association, which held its Founding Convention in 1867 in Vineland. It included such notables of the movement as Lucy Stone and Lucretia Mott.

Next time you’re traveling towards Cape May on Route 50, be sure to notice the beautiful mansion nestled in the woods just past the Estell Manor Park, part of the Atlantic County Park System. You won’t be able to miss it – it’s the only building with fluted columns. This is the birth home of Rebecca Estell Bourgeois Winston, the first female mayor in New Jersey. Her father owned the glass factory and land that now encompasses the park. Rebecca petitioned the state to recognize Estell Manor as a municipality, and then worked hard to get herself elected mayor – in 1924.

Incidentally, this was a banner time for women in politics in New Jersey – in 1921, the state elected not one, but two women, Margaret Laird and Jennie Van Ness, to the state legislature.

Agriculture has always been a part of South Jersey’s history. Women were depicted as early as 1878 in Harper’s Weekly harvesting cranberries in the bogs in Ocean County. But Elizabeth Coleman White, in the early part of last century, was a pioneer in agriculture. Coleman White grew up on a cranberry bog, and was very interested in the native plants of the Pine Barrens. She fought hard to rescue the American Holly tree from obscurity and was recognized by the State Agriculture department. Previously believed to be impossible to domesticate, she propagated wild blueberry plants to commercial success. Next time you enjoy a handful of wonderful blueberries, know that it was a woman who made it possible.

Atlantic City, up until a few years ago, was known for The Miss America Pageant. This was exactly what feminists in 1968 were banking on when they planned a protest on the boardwalk in front of The Convention Center (now Boardwalk Hall). Not only were they interested in demonstrating that the “personal is political,” for women, but for women of color as well. They wanted to know why a woman of color had never won The Miss America Pageant. Did people in the watching audience understand how the “ideal image” of women as blond and blue eyed with curvy figures impacted the rest of the world? A banner was unfurled in Convention Hall that read “WOMEN’S LIBERATION.”

Protests went on for five days. A sheep was crowned Miss America on the boardwalk. Bras were not actually burned, but thrown into a trashcan as an example of theatre of the oppressed, a la Augusto Baol. Bra burning was mistaken reported by a newspaper, the rumor spread, and before long the term “bra-burner” came to mean a radical feminist. Next time you conduct some feminist political action, know that it had its roots right here in South Jersey.

One of the best stories comes from the math and sciences department. Mathematics has long been an area where women have struggled to find a seat at the table. Finally, one group of women decided to stop looking for a seat, and to simply build their own table.

In 1971, academic and professional mathematicians held their annual Joint Mathematics Meeting in Atlantic City. This was a field dominated by men and who actively excluded women. Find that hard to believe? According to Lenore Blum, past president of the Association of Women in Mathematics (AWM), the running “joke” in graduate programs at the time was, “There have only ever been two women mathematicians in the history of mathematics. One wasn’t a woman and the other wasn’t a mathematician.” Needless to say, there weren’t many recognized or quickly advancing females in the math world.

Mary Gray, a professor of math at the American University, started the shift that
became the AWM by sitting in on an organizational session of the Joint Mathematics Meeting. When she was told she would have to leave or the cops would be called, she stated that she found nothing in the by-laws that restricted the attendance to men. The leadership at the time told her it was a “gentleman’s agreement.” Without blinking an eye, Mary Gray replied, “Well, obviously, I’m no gentleman.” The Association of Women in Mathematics was born.

The next time you’re laboring over the thought of academic math, remember that South Jersey had a hand in that legacy. See, our reputation’s not all that bad.