Ernesta Drinker Ballard

Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize

Women's Way annually awards the Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize to a recently published female author who has helped make headway in the dialogue about women’s rights through her work. The 2012 winner was Rebecca Traister for her book Big Girls Don’t Cry.

Life

Ernesta Drinker had dedicated her life to her family which included her four children and her husband who earned a comfortable living. Even though, Ernesta felt like she was living the American dream, she was lacking accomplishments in her professional career. This was something that was important to her and she wanted to do something for herself to feel accomplished in her professional career.

At an early age, Ernesta’s father, Henry Drinker, instilled in her that the only meaningful role women can have is to be a wife and a mother. Ernesta’s father would pay little to no attention to her and would only spend time with his sons. Ernesta’s father was a well-known lawyer. Ernesta expressed her desire of becoming a lawyer and encountered no support from her father since she was only expected to get married and become a wife. Her father would constantly send hidden messages that women were only supposed to be nice and enchanting and that men’s capabilities were higher than women’s. Unconsciously, these hidden messages stayed with Ernesta for 30 years.

Surprisingly later in life, Ernesta’s mother, Sophie Drinker, became a feminist and she was ashamed of her mother’s new beliefs. Ernesta’s mother had never expressed to Ernesta that she was valuable as a woman and therefore, it was hard for her to understand feminism from her mother.

Ernesta’s husband supported and believed in her abilities as a professional. However, Ernesta would unintentionally sabotage herself due to the way she was taught to think about women since a young age.

Ernesta later decided to seek professional help from a psychiatrist who helped her process the reasons why she thought the way she did about herself and her capabilities as a woman. At this point, Ernesta had a breakthrough moment which led her to becoming a feminist and later an activist.

Ernesta Drinker Ballard later obtained her associates degree in science which helped her feel professionally accomplished. Her determination and passion for her job earned her the position of the organizer executive at the Pennsylvania Horticultural society which is historically dominated by men. Ernesta had a difficult time earning the respect of her male colleagues and experienced a lot of hostility from them because they had a hard time accepting the worth of women in the workplace.

Ultimately, Ernesta felt that the best legacy she could leave was to empower her own daughters to help to empower other women.