The Ascent of Woman

Women were kept out of the mainstream of world events
because they are physically and mentally unfit to do
men's work. They had to be protected by men from the
harshness of work outside of the home, and governed
by his superior mind. Early in this century their
obvious frailties and dim wits were given by some
politicians as reasons why women should not be allowed
to vote.

BALDERDASH! Sojourner Truth, a woman, a black slave
who was forced to labor in the fields, answered that
idiocy with: "And ain't I a woman?"

All through history, women have risen to the challenges
that threatened their homes and families. There have
been outstanding women that we are only now learning
about, who left us letters and diaries; who wrote
books; and who gallantly fought against the stigma that
their culture placed on their gender. However, mostly,
they were little known outside of their immediate
locality, and were largely ignored by history and
certainly not presented as exemplary womanhood to
school children.

From our recent history, we know how the pioneer women
opened the west alongside the men. We know how women
have always worked the fields and farms when the men
were absent in war. Always, after the crisis had passed
and the men came home, the women were forced back into
"their place."

That is, until events such as WW-1; a terrible depres-
sion and the courage of some remarkable women who
fought for, and won a Constitutional change that enfran-
chised women occurred. Then, we began to hear about
women and reproduction control; about the viciousness
of child labor and the terrible violence allowed but
kept hidden in our traditional family (values) structure.

Following WW-2, "Rosy the Riveter" and many of her
sisters refused to relinquish their hard-won person-
hood. This time, "Jeannie" would NOT be stuffed back
into the bottle. The woman's movement sprouted all
over the country and burst vigorously upon a hostile
world in the 60's and 70's.

Women not only attended college but went on to advanced
degrees; entered the professions in greater numbers and
fought for, and won the right to reproductive freedom.
The Pill and other forms of birth control freed women
to express their sexuality as only men had here-to-for
been allowed by our culture. There were laws passed so
women could sue employers for wage, race and sexual
discrimination as well as sexual harassment. No-fault
divorce freed many women from the dependency that kept
them in cruel marriages. Women started to run for, and be
elected to political office but to the present date,
our National Congressional Rotunda still has no statue
of a woman -- although one was donated years ago and
was put into storage in the basement of our House of
Representatives. We are told that it is to be brought
up to the rotunda any day now. (sigh)

There is still no United State's holiday that commemorates
the life of any woman. There has just recently been a
statue dedicated in Washington to the women who served in
a war.

The Assent of Women was not taken kindly by many people
dedicated to the *profitable* status quo, so women started
to experience a backlash of hate and violence. This came
from many directions and took many forms but had, and still
has, its basis in economics and control.

Businesses, such as insurance companies and institu-
tions, such as universities which had made huge profits
by discriminating against women to preserve the status
quo, were and still are the power behind the backlash.
They utilize and fund PURELY POLITICAL religious groups
who are determined to put women back under the control
and direction of their church's doctrines. They encourage
and incite intergender disagreements that lead to violence.

But the greatest threat to the hegemony (values and
ideals of the power groups in a culture) were/are the
***Women's Clinics*** which began to spread all over the
country. They provided reproductive services to women as
well as general health care and advice, but they also
became sites that the paternal power structure of this
country feared. They became places where women started
to ***bond***, and this had to be stopped. Women joining
together was a political force that had to be stopped.