February 2007
A message from Director Dr. Cinda-Sue DavisThe last few months have been remarkable in political history. Senator Hilary Clinton has declared her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Representative Nancy Pelosi has become the first female Speaker of the House. Representative Louise Slaughter and Senator Dianne Feinstein are now the first women chairs of the powerful House and Senate Rules Committees. All of this would have made Estelle Ramey extremely proud, but unfortunately she passed away last October at the age of 89. Estelle Ramey was a Georgetown University endocrinologist and the third president of the Association for Women in Science. Her advocacy on behalf of women in STEM fields was legendary, matched only by her wit and quick one-liners In 1970, Dr. Edgar F. Berman, a member of the Democratic Party’s Committee on National Priorities, dismissed the idea of a female president by saying, “Suppose that we had a menopausal woman president who had to make the decision of the Bay of Pigs? All things being equal, I would still rather have had a male JFK make the Cuban Missile Crisis decisions than a female of similar age.” He added that women’s “raging storms of monthly hormonal imbalances” made them unsuitable for high office. Dr. Ramey, who knew a thing or two about hormones, wrote to the Washington Post, saying that she was “startled to learn that ovarian hormones are toxic to brain cells.” She also noted that Kennedy suffered from a serious hormonal disorder – Addison’s disease which affects the adrenal gland. Dr. Ramey later was quoted as saying, “If it’s testosterone the public wants in a president, as an endocrinologist I can’t recommend a 70-year-old man in the White House. They should get a 16-year-old boy instead. It seems the only thing the public doesn’t want to see in a president is estrogen.” Dr. Estelle Ramey was a pivotal influence in raising the public consciousness about the role of women in science, government and public life. She worked tirelessly to promote, encourage, and support women pursuing degrees in STEM fields through the AWIS Educational Foundation which she helped to establish in 1971. While she will be greatly missed, her legacy of young women studying science and engineering here at Michigan as well as elsewhere will be a lasting tribute to a remarkable woman.
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