Women's Lib: Don't Forget to Pass It On

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Growing up in the age of women’s lib I was part of a sisterhood, a sisterhood that was for all women. A movement where women ban together, stood up for other women and fought for any woman that was wronged or oppressed, what happen? Have we skipped some generations?

In the past several years I have been exposed to the next few generations of ladies to join this sisterhood and I have a fear. A nagging suspicion someone forgot to explain this sisterhood and what these women did to achieve it. Someone forgot to tell them female injustices still exist and the future is up to them. Young ladies allow me explain this sisterhood, as apparently someone has failed to do so.

During the seventies, the age of female unity, women ban together for one common cause, women’s rights. We did not dish, whine or look at what each other were wearing because we all wore tie dyed maternity tops with bell-bottoms and NO bras. If a man said, “Because I said so,” we balked. The glass ceiling you now know was raised so high the altitude has started to crack it but it is not broken yet.

This sisterhood is a right you were given at birth it is not a sorority you choose to join. We did not select a woman on any basis other than she was a woman. Stop trashing each other because of your differences and embrace those differences to become stronger. This is not a “me” thing but rather an “us” thing, except each other for whom you are.

We did not whine, we did not say I couldn’t because I’m a woman; we said we could because we are women. That glass ceiling you now have to look up at was once something we woman ran into. Women uniting, fighting and overcoming, not whining lifted it.

Other women are not your nemesis they are your sisters. You should not plot or belittle them for a man, job or social status. Ask yourself, “Would I do this to my mother?” If you would not do it to your mother do not do it to another woman. We do not want the title of “Catty,” catty means spiteful and being spiteful should be left to the hunters and gathers of the species.

As I said before we all pretty much wore the same things in the seventies but we still had beauty. We just did not equate it to designer labels, trendy fashions, social clicks or how many friends we had on Facebook. We equated beauty to the cause of women being equal in the world and the fact we were women. I urge you to burn those ill-fitting stiletto heels and take up the cause.

In a nutshell, you now enjoy the freedoms you have thanks to women banning together and overcoming. Whatever the issue that oppressed a woman, they fought and won as a sisterhood. Breaking the remaining glass is up to you, or are you happy with having limits?



Going UP