When I reflect back on this week (September 7, 2008) I ask myself this question. Last Friday I confronted a man who, at my workplace, used the word “whore” to refer to a female staff member. I was apalled that no one objected. Last Saturday I had dinner with a couple of girlfriends, and upon leaving the restaurant one woman was approached by a man seeking prostitution. On Tuesday this week I joined a group of women for lunch at a local restaurant when a man approached a waitress behind the counter and screamed a seemingly endless series of profanities to publically humiliate her.

When I reflect on the status of women in this country, I must remember that the birthplace of women’s suffrage began in Seneca Falls in 1848 to claim voting rights for women not clearly specified in the Declaration of Independence. The first suffragettes placed the emancipation of African-Americans and Native Americans before themselves as these women first advocated on behalf of these groups. After 72 years of advocacy, lobbying, peaceful protesting out foremothers faced imprisonment, beatings, torture, and eventually the right to vote, secured by only 1 delegate vote in one state ratifying the 19th amendment of the US constitution in 1920. Upon that marginal victory, Alice Paul and other suffragettes drafted the Equal Rights Amendment or ERA. ERA was presented to Congress in 1923 and was finally passed by both houses in 1972, awaiting State ratification in 7 years. In 1979 ERA failed State ratification and died. It was reintroduced in Congress in 1982 and every year since without success.

Concurring with ERA, the United Nations drafted an International Women’s Bill of Rights in the late 1940’s following the human rights atrocities coming to light after the war. Today this known as the Convention for Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Today the vast majority of the nations of this planet have signed this Convention and committing to the elimination of all conceivable forms of dicrimation against women and to report each nation’s progress. Today the United States joins such nations as Afghanistan, Bahrain, Botswana, Chad, Haiti, Lesoto, Liberia, Mozambique, New Ginea, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland, and Sudan in refusing to address and be accountable for Women’s Rights.

Maybe it wouldn’t seem so bad to me if the woman who was called a whore at work hadn’t laughed it off and actually stood up for herself. Maybe it wouldn’t appear as bad except my friend was oblivious to the solicitation and never felt the insult or injustice. Maybe it wouldn’t seem so bad if I didn’t hear from so many women who said they never voted and have no intentions of ever doing so.

As a woman who is committed to Woman Within and empowering women, I wonder if we are missing the mark in focusing on reparative interventions to guide women to empowerment and integrity. Should we also seek to address the forces that disempower and disenfranchise women as well? As a woman who came to integrity by publically joining the female gender, the gender discrimination and inequality in our nation stings me fiercely and I must join with our feminist leaders and ask along with them, “Is feminism alive?”

Am I alone here?

September 8: Here is a good article discribing the historical perspective of American feminist fragmentation from inception to today’s presidential and vice-presidential nominees.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3890/mccains_feminist_mistake/.

What I can report from my own corner of the planet, is that the young man I confronted about calling women “whores” in the workplace, is now surprisingly polite and well behaved. From this experience, I am amazed how much women sublimate power. I am truly pleased to see how effective that power is once actualized. We are much stronger than we think.

Responses and discussion welcomed.

Margeaux May
(WWTW, March 2006, Trafalgar, IN., USA)
margeaux@earthling.net