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In the 1870’s and 1880’s women’s suffrage became the prime issue of consideration in the women’s move ment although there were still many societies and groups devoted to various social reform causes such as penal reforms, temperance, aid to orphans and widows and the rescue of “fallen women.” Some leaders in the women’s movment felt that the time had come to coordi nate and unite this work on an international basis. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony did just that with the prime intention of first organizing an International Women’s Suffrage Meeting with the coop eration of the National Women’s Suffrage Association of the United States. However, at their Annual Convention it was decided to “extend the invitation to all associa tions of women in the trades, professions and reforms as well as those advocating political rights.” In March 1888 a meeting was held in Washington DC, the first International Council of Women Confer ence, presided by Susan B. Anthony. Fifty-three differ ent national organizations of women were represented, with 49 delegates’ hailing from England, France, Den mark, Norway, Finland, India, Canada and U.S. The Council accepted a proposal put forth by May Wright Sewall, educator and social reformer, to form two per manent bodies — national and international — which The first woman appointed to a United States Fed eral trial court died at the age of 93 in Washington D.C. Burnita Sheldon Matthews was named to the bench by President Harry Truman in 1949. Since the 1970’s she sat on the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In the early part of her career Judge Matthews had developed a reputation as an advocate of women’s rights. Judge Matthews presided over numerous notable cases and made rulings in others that effected the wel fare of large groups within our population. In 1971 the Judge ruled that disabled persons receiving Social Security benefits were entitled to hearings before their benefits were terminated. In the celebrated category of cases presided over by Judge Matthews was the trial of mobster Jimmy Hoffa in 1957, when Hoffa was charged with bribing his way into the files of a Senate committee that was investigating him. He was acquitted by the jury. In another notable case (1955) Judge Matthews refused to order the State Department to issue a passport to singer/actor Paul Robeson, who had been accused of membership in the Communist Party. Judge Burnita Shelton Matthews studied law at the National University Law School, now part of George Washington University and received her degree in 1919. *************** would “incalculably increase the world’s sum of wom anly courage, efficiency and esprit de corps.” At the first Conference discussions concentrated on education, temperance, professions, philanthropies, in dustries, political conditions and social purity. The Council favored equal wages to be paid for equal work for both men and women, favored the free opening of all institutions of learning to women, and equivalent stand ards of personal purity and morality for men and women. “We, women of all Nations, sincerely believing that the best good of humanity will be advanced by greater unity of thought, sympathy and purpose, and that an organized movement of women will best conserve the highest good of the family and the State, do hereby band ourselves in a confederation of workers to further the application of the Golden Rule to society, custom and law: DO UNTO OTHERS AS YE WOULD THAT THEY SHOULD DO UNTO YOU.” The Preamble to the Constitution of the ICW, 1888. In 1963 the word "workers” was amended to read “women of all races, nations and creeds...” At that initial Conference of the ICW, the U.S. became the first affiliate Council member with the for mation of the National Council of Women of the United State of America. ABOUT WOMEN One of the most unusual, prolific women architects of this century was Julia Morgan. The diminutive, yet strong willed and enormously talented woman is cre dited with the design of nearly 800 buildings in Califor nia, including the monumental estate of publisher Wil liam Randolph Hearst, San Simeon. Miss Morgan was the first woman to study engineer ing at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1890’s. She went to Europe to study architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where she became the first women in 1898 to achieve that distinction. Upon her return to the United States, Miss Morgan found enormous opportunity to practice her craft in the wake of the devastating San Francisco earthquake in 1906. For the next five decades the city on the hills benefited from her creative ability. Initially, she incorporated native building material, particularly redwoods, in informal and rustic style designs. However, being an expert of past architectural trends, Miss Morgan satisfied her clients with ornate adornments, which came with all the revi vals of styles popular with the builders of her day. She was fond of English half-timbering, chalet-style carved balconies, Gothic window treatments and Tudor arches. After 1924, her designs in cast concrete reflected strong Renaissance and Italian Gothic influence. Julia Morgan and magnate William Randolph-Hearst formed an extremely fascinating, enduring and unusual collaborative partnership, which began in 1919 and
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