Today is March 8th. “International Women’s Day (IWD), originally called International Working Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8 every year. It commemorates the movement for women’s rights. The earliest Women’s Day observance was held on February 28, 1909, in New York and organized by the Socialist Party of America.” I took this from Wikipedia.
Shame on me….I was not even aware of “International Working Women’s Day” until recently. I guess I was too busy working, “for the man.” This past week I have asked several women in my tribe if they were not going to go to work, stay home, do nothing. They had not heard of such a thing, work is too important, people are expecting us to show up. They must not read The Huffington post. I even looked on a website to see if there were any protest, marches in our area and there were none unless, again, they did not make it to the website in which The Huffington Post directed me. Me, I am now retired and can do whatever I want. So, instead of tending to my home I am writing this blog. I will not neglect the dogs, they would not understand and husband is in Tallahassee politicking so no dinner this evening. I need to ask him if anything is going on at the Capital.
To my thoughts….I remember the Women’s Movement of the 60’s. We had powerful women speaking out, Angela Davis, a professor at the University of California. She was the leader of the Communist Party, USA and very involved with the Black Panthers. She is quoted as saying “I am A Black Revolutionary Woman” (1971)
Then there was Gloria Steinem who was head of the Women’s Movement in the late 1960’s to 1970′. She was a journalist for the New York Times and co- founder of Ms. Magazine. I remember a time we demanded to be called Ms. We were neither Miss or Mrs, Ms. She remains strong in her beliefs as she spoke at the recent Women’s Movement. I am sitting here contemplating who our strong activist leaders are of today. Some would say Hillary Clinton, maybe, certainly not Madonna. I have jokingly made the comment that if you have not watched “Mad Men” then you need to, to get a reality check of how women in the workplace were treated. “We have come a long way, baby”. That was a slogan for a Virginia Slim commercial! Then there was that Hane’s pantyhose commercial about gentlemen preferring Hanes!! Oh, man…..
I was looking at one of the posters a woman was carrying at the New York march and it read equality for all, equal pay, stop the violence. I believe all this and more. I would have added, “keep your hands out of my skirt” maybe she did not have enough room on her poster. I am a Christian woman, or should I say a follower of Jesus, and I am pro-choice. Not pro-abortion but pro-choice. Women are going to get an abortion one way or another and I would rather them go to a clean sterile clinic than some back alley somewhere. I did tell my husband if they took that right away I was moving to some other country. I mean it too! He feels we need to do a better job as Christians, I offered up our 3 spare bedrooms to house young mothers to be, he didn’t say much afterwards.
Equality in pay; maybe I should ask my female gynecologist if she makes less than her male counterpart. Oh, right, she doesn’t have one she owns her own practice. I was telling my husband that the male actors of The Big Bang Theory, which I don’t watch, I think it is silly, had given up 20 percent of their salary so that the women of the show could share equal pay. How noble of them, I wondered out loud why they had not done that ten years ago. And again, husband has an opinion. If Jim Parson were not the lead character of the show would as many people turn in to watch Kaley Cuoco? He then stated that he deserves to make more, he’s the reason people watch the show. I don’t know but he has a point!!!
I was a bit confused about the “violence” part of her poster. I am aware that bad stuff happens to women every single day, and it is sickening. I do think that we have evolved a bit, when we were young, it was “it must have been your fault.” Heaven forbid we try and put the bastard in jail, “if you had not worn that skirt so short it would not have happened”. Today, I know that rape and abused women are treated with much more compassion by law enforcement with special training being mandatory. My heart goes out to women in the Middle East that are still murdered by their husbands for some minor infraction, or the women of Africa that are sexually mutilated in order to keep them unequal. That will be my march…..
There is a story in the Old Testament, Numbers 25:10 – 30:1 that tells of The Daughters of Zelophehad. There were five daughters and no brothers. The father dies and at the time the women had no right to the land. These sisters boldly went to Moses and demanded their land. Moses took the dilemma to God and God changed the law forever. Women, continue to make history!
Rock on, sista!
A Rebellious Retiree 