Woman of Substance
I have been thinking about women tonight. I’m thinking about the women that I know and have known. My mother was a wonderful woman, strong, stable and determined. She had 14 children and managed to go back to teaching when I was just a youngster. I think she was an amazing woman. The truth be told there are many amazing women in our country right now. Some are out working jobs and some are home doing the ultimate job of raising children. Some manage to do both and some, like me, do it alone. The point I’m getting at is there are a lot of strong women in this country that are capable of doing pretty much anything they set their mind to do.
I personally think that we are under represented in Congress and because of it we have little influence on any branch of government. We may vote and think we have influence but the truth is the majority of the laws are made by men. No man really knows how a woman thinks and no woman would really want a man to speak for her. However, year after year, even though we have a little over half of the population, we continue to vote in these men to offices that control every aspect of our lives.
Tonight I came across this website which is very educational and a little disheartening. http://womenincongress.house.gov/
The really frightening part of the website can be found on this page. http://womenincongress.house.gov/historical-data/
This is where all of the historical data is about women in Congress. If you click on the interactive map you will be able to see all of the women from every state that have been elected to Congress. The data is scary because there are so many states that have had so few women representing them. In fact, Mississippi has never had a woman senator or representative. They may have some women at the state level as I have not looked that up. However, it is appalling to think that we have been a country for over two hundred years and even though women have had the vote for around ninety or so years, we still can’t get women elected at the federal level. Until this happens, the laws will always be made my men.
Maybe some of you think this is fine and dandy. From my perspective those men haven’t been doing all that great of a job. Maybe it’s time that women grabbed the checkbook and figured out how to balance the budget, educate our kids and keep us safe from the bad guys. Men just seem to keep that “good old boy” mentality going. I think it’s time for women to unite and create their own party! How about, “Women United for a Better America”.
Most women that are mothers have had to do battle with their young teens from time to time. They carry those battle scars with pride because they know that some day their child might thank them for it. If not, they still know they did what they were supposed to do. We’ve all heard our moms tell us to do something and when we asked we got that, “Because I told you so!” answer. It may have not been satisfying to hear as a youngster but it was consistent. As we grew up we might have even used it on our own kids. Many of us have had to be the bad cop when dad only wanted to be the good cop, so many know how to be tough when they have to be. Now I come to President Obama. He can’t say, “No” and he is so wishy, washy that he usually says, “Maybe!” and that is just indecisive. Mothers know that you just say, “No” because anything else could be a form of weakness. There will be times when you do say, “Yes!” but the kids will know they earned whatever it was they were trying to get.
Now, I know I sound like I’m just being funny here. This is just my attempt at humor, but really this is no laughing matter. We, as women, deserve to be fully represented in our country. Until we have a seat at the decision making table of government, we will always be second class citizens or the small children at the Thanksgiving dinner party that have to eat at the “little kid’s table”. We may laugh at that table, but we always are so happy when we are grown up enough to sit at the adult’s table.