Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize strikes a note for
freedom in a world where equality is denied to women. Not long ago I wrote a column addressing our
daughters and grand daughters lack of awareness of the battles their mothers
and grand mothers waged on behalf of equal rights for women. Issues of gender equality and the principles
of feminism are not discussed in working class, poverty-laden or conservative
religious school and home environments.
While a fairly large percentage of teen girls in the U.S. begin using
alcohol and become sexually active by the age of fifteen, few of these same
girls understand how these behaviors can enslave them in a land where gender
inequality exists. Today, in the United
States the halls of government, our corporations and financial strongholds and
our religious institutions are male dominated.
Our daughters grow up hearing theirs is a free country and learn too
late that the freedom that applies to men does not apply to women. With out
reproductive freedom, gender equality cannot exist. In the United States as in the world at
large, it is the men who decide the fate of women.
When this column goes to press we will be days away from
exercising our power to vote for the leaders who best reflect our deepest wants
and hopes.
I talk with many of you throughout my day-to-day life. Some of you are conservative, some liberal, and
some moderate in your political views. I would guess, whoever you are, you’ve
had sorrow visit your life. I would
guess you’ve probably had some health scares, some financial woes—worries about
your folks or the kids. Your grand
daughter is trying to raise a child on her own. Your dear friend got caught up in addiction
and it’s taking her down. A neighbor or son was just diagnosed with pancreatic
cancer, and the co-payment for chemotherapy seems insurmountable. There are many of you impacted by the increasing
division between the poor and the wealthy in our society. Each of us would like this world to hold a
place for us where we are welcome, safe and have the potential to thrive.
For many of us without great wealth or the power that comes
from wealth, there exists a sense we cannot easily effect change. Even the candidates for office who decry the
power of big money constantly seek financial contributions because it is only
the almighty dollar that wins the race.
But your vote can make a difference even if your wallet cannot. Voter turn out in the U.S. is abysmal. But if ninety-nine percent of eligible voters show
up at the polls and vote, the one percent whose money rules the world will not
be able to buy power.
I dreamed the generation of women following mine would
embrace the gains made by their mothers and move further in the direction of
equal rights for all people. The high cost of education and childcare inequitably
affects women of childbearing age. Women
continue to receive less pay than men for the same work. The unequal representation of women, by women
in leadership roles results in laws repressive to women’s freedom to claim
their own destiny in and out of roles of child bearing and child rearing. Declaring oneself a feminist is now an
unpopular stance.
I want to see women and men of faith resist a
church/religion or belief system that keeps women from equality. All over the
world and in every existing religion people are confronting these principles of
inequality and creating churches and ways of living in relation to their
beliefs that recognize woman as man’s equal.
Let’s give our girls—these
emerging women—depth beyond the ability to attract men, have babies and raise children.
Beyond teaching our daughters and granddaughters to be devout, attractive,
homemakers, child-bearers and nurturers let’s teach them the history of women
in the world. Let’s urge them toward independence
and self-sufficiency and give them equality along with the potential to be
second to no one. When equality is
achieved a woman has the freedom to choose for or against abortion, for or
against childbirth, birth control, adoption, divorce, marriage, education and
employment. As with the remarkable
Malala, women are putting their lives on the line for freedom. We cannot effect
change without letting our voices be heard.
Our vote is our voice. In this month of Thanksgiving, let us raise
our voices in praise of our hard won freedom to vote.
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