March is Women’s History Month
By Debbie Adlof | 11th March 2008
March is Women’s History Month. It’s a time to celebrate the accomplishments and feats of all women before us, of all current women and of all women of the future. It’s also a time for us to take an inventory of sorts of the status of women. There have been some wonderfully courageous and unselfish women that have fought to gain women the rights they currently have. They fought for and won the right to vote, the right to be property owners, the right to inherit, as well as reproductive choice rights. They’re still working on the right to equal pay as well as other issues. Women (as well as men) have recently lost some of those rights during the tenure of the current administration. “They” have very consistently chipped away at those rights and it will be years, perhaps decades before they will be restored.
So, how far have women come? American women are considered to be a “minority.” Interesting, but factually untrue. As of 2006, American women actually outnumbered American men with 151,963,545 women and 147,434,940 men. So, what’s the deal, huh? If it’s not the actual population count that makes women a “minority,” what does? Could it be that they’re still considered to be second class citizens in their country? They’ve never had full and equal status with their male counterparts. But, will they ever? Women of previous generations have had to fight for every single right women currently have and women of this and future generations will have to continue to do so.
In the meantime, everyone should celebrate and acknowledge the accomplishments of women. After all, EVERYONE has been impacted by women in their lives: their mothers, sisters, wives, aunts, grandmothers, etc. Celebrate and appreciate!