Geraldine, the picture of competency!
A lot of people don’t even realize that March is Women’s History month. http://www.womenshistorymonth.gov/index.html
It isn’t surprising to me because so many months have become something dedicated to this cause or that cause. After awhile, they all start blending together. As a woman, I am partial to the cause of women’s issues. Some people think that the glass ceiling was shattered when Geraldine Ferraro ran for Vice President in 1984. However, that is just not true. It is fitting that Geraldine died during “Women’s History” month though because we have an opportunity to think about just how far we have or haven’t come. This is the Geraldine that I will choose to remember. She was a strong advocate for the issues and she called things as she saw them. I wish we had more women politicians and advocates that are willing to stand up for the issues like Geraldine.
You can read more about Geraldine here. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/us/politics/27geraldine-ferraro.html?hp
On my website I have a link for the equal rights amendment that sadly has never been ratified. At the rate the Republicans are going a fetus will have equal rights before women do. http://thestir.cafemom.com/in_the_news/116904/this_ohio_fetus_can_walk
Our country is still a male dominated country. The laws are made mostly by men. Until women can reach the top and become the legislators that actually pass and create the laws, we will continue to be second class citizens. I think we all could learn something from Sojourner Truth. Here is Alice Walker reading “Ain’t I a Woman”. It’s amazing that we haven’t really reached that glass ceiling and shattered it after all these years. This is a great tribute, so watch it.
I worry about the young women today and the images that they see for women. It seems like equality is more about being able to act like a man than being able to discover who you are as a woman. On one hand women have these images that they are told they should live up to that are designed to attract men. These images are of young “air head” type women that share their sexual escapades. These women like Paris Hilton, the Kardashian sisters and all the other young starlets send a message that women are more about sex than brains. Freedom for women seems to be more about that “sex” thing than it is about that “thinking” thing. Young women today may think they have broken barriers but so many are still asking a male for permission to do whatever they need to do in their lives. Until women stand up for themselves and use their brains and not their sexuality to get what they want, they will always be marginalized.
During the 2008 election both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin were sexualized in a way that a male politician would never be. We, the women of the world, have to demand that this stop. When we see pictures of Sarah’s ankles, and hear talk about Hillary’s “cankles”, we as women, have to scream bloody murder that this is sexism and it has to stop. We cannot allow our female children to be constantly bombarded with the images that sexualize them without demanding that it stop as well. Women have to start voting in blocks. We just cannot let men keep running the world.
Right now in Michigan we have men telling us that education has to take a big hit. The politicians in Lansing want to give big tax breaks to business and take the money out of the mouth of our children through education. Everyone should be offended by this. However, women should be even more offended as we are way under represented in state politics. Here is our list of representatives. http://house.michigan.gov/replist.asp
It’s fairly obvious that most of the “deciders” in our state are MEN. If you need more proof, here is the list of our senators. http://www.senate.michigan.gov/members/alphamemberlist.htm
I think we need to stick together as women and try to change the policies and politics in Lansing and of course, across this country in Washington D.C. We have more women in this country, but we are kept apart in our thinking by men who push an agenda that is called “family values”. We get all worked up over social political issues like abortion and gay marriage that we are left controlled by politicians that use these issues just to get votes. If women would get together and talk about the issues that are important to them on a daily basis like education, jobs, police protection, and the issues based around the cost of living and raising our children in a positive environment, we could probably agree on more things than we disagree. Instead, we sit back and tend to let those male “deciders” make all the big decisions for us. I, for one, am tired of a government that makes crazy decisions about education and everything else in my life that may not be in the best interest of our country or state. We need to stand together as women or we will fall again for that “big daddy decider” that isn’t as smart as we are on the issues! We have “skin in this game”, one of those sport’s analogy that the men like to use. We have the future of our children at stake. What kind of life do we want for them? Do we want them to have less than we have had? Do we want them to be servants to the master of big business, just another little spoke in the wheel of business progress or do we want to keep their dreams alive? I for one want this country to transform into the country that it was meant to be that serves for the good of all and not just the few. I want our country to stand for peoples’ rights, not corporations’ rights. I want women to have the same opportunities as men and that includes even in politics! You may or may not agree with anything I write about, but if you think about it women still have a long way to go. It’s time that women stand up and become the shakers and movers of this country. Our country needs us because without women in the game of politics, men will walk all over us! We must vote and we must encourage those strong women we know to seek public office.