Description

Joy Hennessey is currently Vice President of the Sargent Murray Gillman House Board of Directors where she has been a board member since 2012. Her focus is education and events.

Ms. Hennessey’s career with the Brookline Public Schools of nearly 30 years, first as a teacher, then as an administrator and strong proponent of early literacy, led to recognition by the Goldin Foundation for Excellence in Education in 2004. Upon retiring from Brookline, and relocating to Gloucester, her lifelong dream of returning to the place of her childhood summers was realized. She continued her work in literacy working in the Grand Isle Public Schools in Vermont, and Rockport Public Schools. An invitation to join the board at the Sargent House seemed a fitting extension of her work in public education. Her belief in the transformative power of education aligns closely with Judith Sargent Murray’s views of equal educational opportunities for women. Having learned more about Judith, her writing on equality for women in relationships, a woman’s right to earn money, and her love for Gloucester, she has found Judith to be a kindred soul.

Ms. Hennessey will speak about the life and times of Judith Sargent Murray whose voice dominated the post-Revolution conversation regarding gender roles both public and private and the role of women in the new Republic. Born in Gloucester in 1751, JSM was a poet essayist, playwright and pioneering advocate of women’s education and equality. Was she a Feminist?