A Femminine March

It's no secret that I am a very proud woman and feminist. My gender has fought a strong fight for centuries against religions, cultures, politics & business. And I feel that it's important that everyone of both genders learns the history of women. Our world needs strive further for proper education to lead to true equal rights.

Found this on this website.

There are as many different aspects to women's history as there are different roles for women. And when you include different parts of the world, different ethnicities, different times, it can get overwhelming. So I'm hoping for the rest of this month to shed some light on women's experiences. That will include my own along with other amazing women I know. But I implore you to do some of your own research of women's history & share it with others. It's only through knowing where we came from that we can move forward. And one good place to start is the U.S. Library of Congress's women's history site.

One thing that amazes me is how much can change over time, when pushed. My mother has told me stories of when she was a girl. Back in the 1950's, it wasn't socially acceptable for her to wear slacks outside of home for quite some time. And in when it came to physical education, they only used half a court to play basketball (back then they didn't think women were strong enough). While just those two experiences amaze me, she was still one of the lucky ones. My mother was raised in a strong environment & went on to get her teaching degree in a university. She didn't jump into being a housewife. She got married at the age of 30, had me a few years later & was never a stay at home mom. I always remember her holding her head high & never let difficult times (plus dealing with me) ever get her down. Mom is truly the strongest woman I know.

At the same time, I can't help but wonder what my grandmother had to face during the Great Depression. She was four when the 19th amendment for women's suffrage was ratified by the necessary amount of states. After the family farm was sold, she went on to get her teaching degree. She was able to pay her tuition with  help from her brother & working at a dime store. That experience lead to her pledging to pay for her children's college costs. In fact, she didn't let my Mom work while attending college. I can't imagine the cultural barriers she took on, much less other amazing women in my family that I unfortunately was not able to meet.

My grandmother holding my Mother.

With that being said, it's amazing how we as mothers, daughters, friends, employees, sisters have dealt with for centuries much less the past 400 some years. Everything from acceptable rape & violence, to deadly witch trials, to the horrors in maternity rooms like twilight sleep.

Now, don't get me wrong. Being an woman is walking a very fine line. On one side you have conservatives judging you for wearing pants and being outside the home. On the other, modern women who think it's a shame that you want to be a stay at home mom. Frankly, other women can be our worst enemy. Over time I've learned to let fellow women do as they feel is right & hope others will give me the same courtesy.

And while we've made leaps and bounds, it's sad to see that sexism is still an issue. And yes, it is still an issue. Today's modern woman still faces discrimination at work, abuse at home, and is forced into submission by business, media, politics & culture over all. Not to mention the focus on body image. Back in October, I mentioned that most of us don't want to see & recognize that these are still issues, especially in today's western society. But unless we take off the veil & really look at what is going on in our own backyard, how do we expect it to change? The rest of this month is dedicated to women's history & where we really stand in modern times. I would love to hear your own experiences & stance on some of the issues women face.