One of the quirks of my father was how he pronounced the word, “women;” he said it as “wee men.” Charming.
Although the pronunciation never changed, my father’s attitude towards women was healthy. He encouraged all of his children to get an education, he supported and cheered his youngest daughter in breaking the gender barrier to play “Little League” baseball and was a regular at the games, and he raised his daughters to be strong, independent, and resourceful.
I read that today was when suffragettes, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the “National Woman Suffrage Association” in 1869. It has always amazed me that the work for women’s equality in this country began in earnest in the 19th Century. Consider that 1920, when women gained the right to vote, in the large scope of things really isn’t that long ago.
All this leads to the big question of what has brought about the current backlash against women being evidenced in archaic, invasive and patriarchal legislation impacting women’s health care and the Pope’s attack on American Women Religious. It’s enough to set blaze to bras and to join the cause of women’s equality!
I am of the age when I clearly remember significant “women firsts” --- Janet Guthrie, first woman to drive in the Indy 500; Sandra Day O’Connor, first woman on the US Supreme Court; Geraldine Ferraro, first woman Vice Presidential candidate; Sally Ride, first woman astronaut. Being clergy in a still heavily dominated male field, I can tell stories of misogynistic treatment such as having my office be referred to as the “witch’s broom closet” and being asked by a male congregational leader not to wear my white alb because it reminded him of a nightie.
With the wired-in and 24/7 news coverage, women in the millennial generation have grown up seeing women in key leadership positions and running and holding political office. However, they seem to miss the fact that percentage wise women have still not even come close to anything even resembling fair and balanced representation in terms of leadership in Fortune 500 companies and political office. The ladies of this generation mistakenly feel that women have made it and the marches and movements around the ERA were of the past……….you know, way back in the ‘70’s…..sigh…..
In the high-time of my feminist activism (and perhaps that needs to rise again) we had found and purchased roles of purple stickers imprinted with the words, “This insults women.” Imagine where women could place these stickers today.
sj:
