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| The Precursor of Women's Pant-Suits - as defiantly worn by Lucy Stone in 1853 |
What gives me hope for the future of women?
When women were disadvised
against careers such as medicine, because they might lose their “feminity” and
become “unsexed”, Alice Blackwell decided to rock the boat.
Alice Blackwell persisted even when everyone thought she
was a joke, and got admitted in medical school; She persisted again to
be able to practice medicine - becoming the first woman doctor in America.
When women were denied higher callings, here was a woman who refused to be
denied a higher calling - who by her defiant pursuit of what she wanted, paved the way for all the woman doctors, engineers, etc. of the future.
That’s
what gives me hope for the future of women.
What gives me hope for the future of women?
When women were believed to
be too feeble-minded to vote, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and a band of brave women, including Lucretia Mott and Susan B Anthony among others, decided
to rock the boat.
Stanton drafted the Declaration of Sentiments, and 68 women and 32 men signed it at the first women’s convention
in Seneca Falls New York. Stanton
and the National Woman Suffrage Association ceaselessly pursued woman’s suffrage throughout their lives, leading to the passing
of the 19thAmendment, 17 years after Stanton's death.
When women did not have representation in government, here was a band of women who defiantly fought
for it, until that representation was finally won.
That’s
what gives me hope for the future of women.
What gives me hope for the future of women?
When women had no property
rights, earned less than half of what men earned for the same work, and had to
subordinate themselves first to their father’s will, and then their husband’s, when it came to everything including personal decisions such as what to
wear, whether to have children, and how many children to have, Lucy Stone
decided to rock the boat.
This tireless woman’s rights activist fought for the right to vote, for equal pay, for property rights, for more comfortable clothing, and refused marriage until the enlightened Henry
Blackwell came along and won her over by believing in everything she did, and
drawing up a contract with Lucy, to make
sure her rights were protected, even were their marriage to end by divorce or
death.
When women were not on an equal footing to men and had few rights, here was a woman who defiantly refused to accept the status quo, and did everything in her power to
change it; going for victory on every front, including the right to keep and use her maiden name after marriage.
That’s
what gives me hope for the future of women
What gives me hope for the future of women?
When segregation laws stipulated
that black folks give up their seats to white folks in buses, Rosa Parks decided to rock the boat.
She refused to give up her seat,
and in having the courage to do so, was arrested for civil disobedience. By this inspiring act of courage, Rosa Parks
showed Black Americans that they should stand up for their rights as American citizens
and human beings; the Civil Rights movement was born, eventually leading to the passing of the Civil Rights Bill in 1964, ending segregation.
Yes,when black Americans were treated differently from whites under the law, here was a woman who defiantly disobeyed the law and refused to take it anymore.
That’s
what gives me hope for the future of women.
What gives me hope for the future of women?
When everyone - from Freud to
Mead to the media to business to advertising pundits - were steering women back
to “home” and “kids” and “family”, Betty Friedan decided to rock the boat.
She wrote her famous 516 page tome to expose the false premises behind the idea that “home” and “family”
are the primary sources of a woman’s satisfactions or dissatisfactions.
Yes,
when women were being brainwashed back to home and hearth, here was a woman who
refused to sit back and let the brainwashing happen and was outspoken about it.
That’s
what gives me hope for the future of women.
What gives me hope for the future of women?
When
most women still believe they can’t play like the big boys, and run a business and also have a family,
women such as Meg Whitman and Stephanie Fohn and Marissa Meyer have been rocking the
boat.
Meg
Whitman as the former CEO of Ebay, and now CEO at HP, Stephanie Fohn as the CEO of
White Hat Security and Marissa Mayer as the CEO of Yahoo, have shown us that it is possible to manage companies and have a family.
Yes,
when most women still believe that a woman can’t have it all, these
women have led by example.
That’s
what gives me hope for the future of women.
Dear Reader - the course of a
woman’s life is based as much on what she rejects as on what she accepts.
All through history, women have
accepted the idea that men’s needs are more important than theirs, men’s
roles are more important than theirs, men are equipped more than women
to shoulder responsibilities, men need to be educated more than women for work
outside the home, women need to do the work of the home, and men have
divine and legal rights to dictate what a woman can and cannot do, and should and should not do.
Women like the ones mentioned in
this post, risked being ridiculed, shunned, ostracized, imprisoned and
criticized, but still decided to challenge the status quo and rock the boat. Labelled idiotic, unladylike, unpatriotic,
foolhardy, trouble-making, unfeminine and misguided for their efforts – they didn't let anything stop them.
Today, as we enjoy the fruits of
their work, whether it’s the right to property, the right to vote, the right to equal pay for equal work, the right to be treated
fairly in death or divorce, we should imbue ourselves with the spirit of these
courageous and determined women, so if a time comes when we need to Lucy Stone or Cady
Stanton an issue, in either the public or the personal sphere, we're up for it and can do it. I hope you will read the histories of these remarkable women and be inspired to blaze your own trails. Cheers and a high-five to that….. …...M…..a Pearl Seeker like you.
As always, thanks for reading and have a great day.
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