It Seems to Me: What young women may not know
It came to my attention recently, after the March on Washington, that
many young women are completely satisfied with their lives right now. I
will refer to this as their “status quo.” But first a crash course in
women’s history and a mention of many past marches and the influence
they have had. I beg them, and you, to read on.
One thing I want to point out, as I am going to discuss women’s
rights from more than a hundred years ago to 2017, is what I think these
young women are missing. Women’s history has been basically excluded
from the classroom text books in public schools. Many people are not
aware that a select group of white men, a board of education in Texas,
has been charged with the job of editing all of the history textbooks
for decades. Their editing is final. (See Bill Moyers, “Messing with
Textbooks,” June 2012)
That is the reason you probably didn’t know that in the 1870s women
could not own property, could not sign contracts, could not vote, file
law suits, nor have their own money. Under their father’s roof, he had
control and that control was passed to her husband upon marriage. A
woman running away from violent domestic abuse was hunted down by the
law and returned to her husband as she was his property.
From the 1840s to 1920 women fought for the vote. The struggle to
gain the right to vote began nearly 200 years ago. Attempts to vote in
1870 were turned away. The Supreme Court ruled against them in 1875. In
1916 Alice Paul formed the National Women’s Party. They marched. Over
200 supporters were arrested while picketing the White House. They were
beaten with clubs and thrown in prison. Some went on hunger strikes and
endured forced feedings. Forty prison guards wielding clubs went on a
rampage against 33 women known as the “Night of Terror” on Nov. 15,
1917. (See HBO movie, “Iron Jawed Angels”).
In the 1960s women fought for birth control. It was illegal in many
parts of the country then, you see. Margaret Sanger, a pioneer in the
struggle for a woman’s right to birth control in an era “when it was
illegal to discuss the topic,” was arrested many times for her
publications and her New York City clinic.
Civil rights marches (1960s)
Again people were beaten, drowned and hanged. Because of the media,
there was more attention and the marches for these rights were better
known. After the Civil War, the 14th and 15th amendments adopted in 1868
and 1878 granted citizenship and suffrage to blacks, but not to women. A
suffrage amendment to the federal Constitution was presented to
Congress and repeatedly failed to pass.
1972: Title IX is a landmark federal civil right
that prohibits sex discrimination in education. Title IX is not just
about sports and it protects all students; the federal government
threatened to stop aid to all public schools that did not correct this.
1973: Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal and safe.
Women stopped dying from abortions. The government is planning to stop
funding for Planned Parenthood and tens of thousands of women will not
only lose coverage for basic health care, but they will also no longer
have access to birth control. That pretty much means there will be more
unwanted pregnancies and if Roe vs. Wade is overturned, which seems
likely with the appointment of a new Supreme Court judge by this
administration, there will be more women dying from abortions again.
Gay rights marches
Again people were beaten and killed, even when not participating in
marches, but while just trying to live their lives like people of color
before them. Eventually gains were made and gays were given the right to
marry and the same rights and benefits as heterosexual couples. LGBT
people and their rights are now being subject to reversal.
Now it is 2017 and people are marching. Women, their husbands,
children and fathers descended upon Washington, D.C., to march for
women’s rights. There were people marching in 57 other countries around
the world. They marched for women who still make less money than men for
the same work; for Muslim women and their families who fear deportation
and being sent back to the terribly dangerous places they were trying
so hard to flee; for Mexican families who live in fear of being deported
and being torn from their children; and to raise awareness for women in
other countries who have few, if any, rights.
Every march, every right that was fought for, that women died for,
was for your “status quo,” for the life you have now, that you take for
granted. Please know that every one of these rights that let you live
the life you have can be erased with the swipe of a pen. Don’t let all
those who died, the fighting and suffering be for naught.
Guess what? The Equal Rights Amendment did not pass. It won the
two-thirds vote from the House of Representatives in October 1971. In
March of 1972 it was approved by the Senate and sent to the states for
ratification. It failed to achieve ratification by 38, or
three-quarters, of the states. It was not brought to a vote again.
Because of that rejection, sexual equality, with the exception of
when it pertains to the right to vote, is not protected by the
Constitution. However, in the late 20th century the federal government
and all states have passed legislation protecting women’s rights. These
protections are not amendments to the Constitution. They, too, can be
wiped away with the swipe of a pen.
Please don’t be complacent and too comfortable with your life. Be
aware of what has happened over the years, decades and literally
centuries to get you here. Women fought and died. People march to make
other people aware; pay attention, please, lest you lose it all. Lest we
all lose it all.
Leader Telegram, from Wisconsin, USA, of all places :)
