A Female President!
Women Can Make It Happen

Dr. Ann Moliver Ruben, a well-known psychologist and educator, is president of the non-profit Women Are Wonderful Foundation, Inc. Identified in 2001 as a Woman of Impact by the Women's History Coalition of Miami-Dade County, she was honored for the positive character education she provided in promoting female leadership skills locally and nationally.

In 1993, Dr. Ann M. Ruben surveyed 1,500 children attending five different elementary schools in Miami, Florida and after she and her husband, Gershon Ruben, sat night after night computing the results they discovered that more girls than boys thought about becoming President of the United States and many boys thought that only boys were smart enough to become president. They also learned that close to fifty percent of the boys and girls had been told by others that only a boy could become president.

Dr. Ann M. Ruben recognized the lack of character education and leadership skills in girls, therefore she self-published an illustrated booklet called How I Grew Up Feeling Some Day I Could Be President that features a unisex child who successfully becomes President of the United States of America because of encouragement received from parents, teachers and friends. First-grade teachers and school counselors use this booklet to change boys' misperception of girls, to enhance female self-esteem and to build leadership skills in both genders.

Four months after Dr. Ann M. Ruben completed her study, her husband showed her the "Dennis the Menace" Sunday cartoon in which the red-haired, bespectacled, feisty icon, Margaret, makes it clear to Dennis that she believes "Someday a Woman Will Be President!" After she shared the results of her study with the late Hank Ketcham, the cartoonist who produced this comic strip for over fifty years, he agreed to permit her to put Margaret's image and message on a T-shirt.

The Margaret T-shirt gained national notoriety in 1994 after one Wal-Mart store in Miramar, Florida carried it and when the national office of the company discovered that fact, they banned the Margaret T-shirt saying the message promoting female leadership went against their philosophy of family values. Dr. Ruben bought three shares of Wal-Mart stock and complained of this practice as a stockholder in a letter to the president of the company. She gave him three weeks to lift the ban and during that time she got a call from a senior vice-president of Wal-Mart offering her a bribe to shut up. She refused the bribe and instead after four weeks gave the story to Associated Press. Women from California to Connecticut marched in front of Wal-Mart stores. They threatened to boycott, tear up their Mr. Sam's cards and sell their Wal-Mart stock. Within 24 hours, the company changed its position and ended up buying 50,000 T-shirts in 1995. WOMEN ARE WONDERFUL.

Since 1994, Women Are Wonderful Foundation, Inc. has had the late Hank Ketcham's permission to produce the Margaret T-shirt and in 1998 approved the license to manufacture the Margaret Doll. Of course the doll wears the infamous message, Someday a woman will be President! Wal-Mart no longer buys the Margaret T-shirt but women's organizations like AAUW, NOW, Feminist Majority, National Women's Hall of Fame and Brandeis Women's Clubs make money selling the T-shirt and Margaret Dolls.

For more information on Dr. Ann M. Ruben, contact her at 561-498-0676