BlogHer - Women's Equality Day - Comments

Say it loud!

Suzanne Reisman — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:54:05 -0500

Not to get all cheesy, but thanks for all the great comments. It is so important to get our voices out there, both during elections and for the rest of the time, which is more often than elections. I'm glad BlogHer and blogging in general gives us another medium in which to SHOUT! (Productively, of course.)

Suzanne, BlogHer Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants

Wow, How Interesting and Timely

abswyg — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:38:29 -0500

Thanks for this great post. I had no idea it was Women's Equality Day or that Women's Equality Day even existed. But it got me thinking about the true meaning of feminism and whether or I not I even considered myself one. I guess I do, but never realized it.

I also appreciated Sharon Brogan's words and the point you made about people needing to be heard in order to be represented. Coincidentally, I just posted this on my blog, encouraging moms to let their voices be heard. Having the right to vote is one way to shape our world, but continuing to speak out in between election years is another.

I agree that we should honor the pioneers who fought for the right to vote and the others who came afterward. But we should also continue to carry on that mantel until there is a world where, "opportunity is not a reward for race, gender, class, family, money, or power."

Amy S.
Up With Moms (http://upwithmoms.blogspot.com/)

Thanks for the Mention

Glennia — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:53:27 -0500

Thanks for linking to my post! I hope that women will be inspired to exercise that hard-won right to vote in the next election.

Glennia
The Silent I
Silicon Valley Moms Blog
Kimchi Mamas

Great Post!

A Elliot — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:31:28 -0500

Great post, Suzanne! I wonder how many people knew that this was the anniversary of the right to vote. I bet a lot more people could tell you the date of the finale for American Idol. I'm really hoping that women exercise this right in the next presidential election.
A. Elliot

Thanks for the link,

sbpoet — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:11:27 -0500

Thanks for the link, Suzanne! And I see some others up there that I'm about to click...

~ sbpoet

Watermark

Thanks for remembering!

suebob — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:34:07 -0500

And check out what we have got going on for Women's Equality Day in comments at Queen of Spain's blog!

http://queenofspainblog.com/2007/08/26/womens-equality-day/#comments

happy Equality Day to all!

super des — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 18:19:34 -0500

I knew that today was the anniversary of the amendment, but I did not know that it had extended into a whole day of Equality.

My favorite bumper sticker says "feminism is the radical notion that women are people too."

Indeed.

Women's Equality Day

Suzanne Reisman — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 17:41:11 -0500

Today is the 31st birthday of one of my closest friends. Dr. P is a woman I admire greatly. She finished her five year surgery residency this past June and is a currently a Fellow at a prestigious hospital in Florida. Today also happens to be slightly more well known across the blogosphere as Women’s Equality Day, which I find very fitting because so many of Dr. P’s achievements would likely not have been possible if not for ongoing pressure for gender equality. As Glennia Campbell of The Silent “I” explains:

This day commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, giving women the right to vote. The right for women to vote was first proposed in 1848, but did not become law until 1920, 72 years later. For 72 years, American women organized, rallied, and fought for the right to vote, something we take for granted today.

What does the right to vote have to do with the right to practice medicine? One need only look at today’s political environment to see how social justice is impacted by the right to vote. Sharon Brogan at Watermark: a poet’s notebook wrote:

It's tough to imagine a world where everyone gets an equal shot; where each person's potential has a chance to fulfill itself; and where opportunity is not a reward for race, gender, class, family, money, or power.

This ideal situation only happens when all people have voices. Enfranchisement is one way to make your voice heard. Without the right to vote, politicians would not even bother to (pretend to?) care about issues that concern women. It is not just straight policy. The right to vote enables people to elect representatives who then go on to select who serves on our nation’s courts. These decisions as often as not dictate how we can live our lives. Back to my (admittedly labored) example, if medical schools continued to admit only men, Dr. P would certainly not be where she is today, and many of her patients would have been deprived of care from a skilled and compassionate physician.

The right to vote is just one step towards creating a world in which women and men are recognized as equals, and it’s impossible to deny that this right came from the feminist movement. In early June, Morra Aarons wrote an inspiring essay on BlogHer, "I’m not a feminist, but… F-that!" that inspired dozens of fantastic comments about what women like about being feminists. Along those lines, Peggy at Peggy’s Musings sponsored an essay contest about what feminism means (“Just share how you'd teach your children, or how you'd like to teach our next generation, about feminism”).

The deadline was August 21, and winners will be announced on August 30. It is definitely worth checking out to see the different ways that feminism is making people’s lives – both women’s and men’s – better.

On a sadder note, The Fringe Blog reported on the loss of a great humanist writer and activist, Grace Paley. Paley died on Thursday, Aug. 23. Her New York Times obituary noted that Paley “focused especially on single mothers, whose days were an exquisite mix of sexual yearning and pulverizing fatigue. In a sense, her work was about what happened to the women that Roth and Bellow and Malamud’s men had loved and left behind.” Of course, these are exactly the types of people that tend to get ignored in literature because they are considered less important that the men created by Roth, Bellow, and Malamud.

On Women’s Equality Day, let’s honor the pioneering women who fought bravely for the right to vote, as well as every day women like Grace Paley and my friend Dr. P, whose hard work continues to prove that old feminist slogan - women are people, too.

Suzanne also blogs at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants