The political and financial chaos
in the world last week, continuing into today with the European plan to raid
private savings accounts to bail out inept governments while Syria attacks
Lebanon, both colossal messes brought on by weak male leaders, I began
wondering what has happened to the voice of women leaders in the world. Will
there ever come a time when the world’s women will say, “Enough,” and take
over?
From the inception of this
democracy in the 1700’s we cast our women in the role of the submissive, the
pious, the conciliators, concerned with family and children—a notion reserved
for the upper-class Victorians, because real life required a different set of
survival skills. Of necessity, women worked at low-paying, menial jobs, the
only ones open to them, because they had hungry children. They followed their
husbands westward to live in sod huts, because that what women did, and died
from the hardship.
But not always. History changed in
1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, when women claimed for themselves the inalienable rights men granted to themselves in the Declaration of
Independence. It began in a small way, most of it ignored by historians.
Were you taught in grade school
about the women in England who died in jail because they dared demand the right
to vote? Probably not.
And did you know that the Revolutionary
and Civil Wars in this country provided the chance for hundreds of women to
dress as men and enlist in the military? That 250 documented cases of women
serving as soldiers and the probability of many more is one of the best-kept
historical secrets of the Civil War?
They
Fought Like Demons, a book written by
DeAnne Blanton and Lauren Cook, Louisiana State University Press, 2002, tells
the story of these brave women who, disguised as men, fought and died, enduring
hardship without asking for any quarter.
Why did they do that? For many, it
was simple patriotism. Northern women fought to preserve the Union; Southerners
fought to preserve a way of life threatened by the hated Northerners. Some
joined to be near loved ones; others to escape the sheer boredom of Victorian
life as women knew it. The pay was better and often there was a signing bonus.
Many joined to escape unbearable marriages or an untenable lifestyle. Thus the
legend of the female warrior, which prevails in our literature today, was born.
After reading this book I asked,
“Where are women like that today--the ones willing to defy convention and persecution?” I can think of a brave Muslim teenager. Where are the rest? Surely we can see the state the world is in
after a thousand years of male dominance and incompetence. Catholic women are
speaking out, demanding a role in the church, why not Muslims?
You know that any five women in a
room can have the nation’s budget balanced in a week. Getting elected President
of the United States is not rocket science. You tell the electorate what they
want to hear. In this last election they wanted security, safety and
predictability in their life. Even though the one candidate was showing
alarming signs of not having a clue, his opponent was such a wimp he let the
other party beat up on him like a schoolyard bully. This was the guy who would
tell North Korea if they so much as lobbed one nuclear bomb at us they would be
a pile of dust within 24 hours? I don’t think so.
So, it’s time to take charge. You
will have to do it. I’m entering my eighth decade and find being a local
elected official is all I can handle, besides being a published author. If you
can find the courage to speak out, expect to be trashed by the liberal media
because we all know they’re terrified of what women united can do. Have at it
and the rest of us will rally the troops.
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