Women’s History Month & Women’s Equality Day

by Dolores Klein, co-editor, Peoria National Organization for Women

Our progress on the road to equality has depended on both activism to change discrimination against women which has been enforced legally and through intimidating violence, and on individual citizens.

I think of the woman who walked by the Clothesline Project on display at the Mall, went to a quiet spot, made a shirt and enthusiastically hung it there, asserting her dignity, breaking the silence. And another who made her shirt that day, as one of those protesting against Mitsubishi’s “war against women.”

When Peoria NOW celebrates Women’s History Month and Women’s Equality Day, we honor local men and women who personify the fact that “the most important public office is that of private citizen.”

Nationally, and in state chapters, progressive leaders must push the envelope politically against entrenched sexism, while through continued consciousness-raising; the individual pushes ahead, feeling, as Eleanor Roosevelt put it, that no one can make you feel inferior without your consent!

We have honored a young woman who resisted sexual harassment at the local post office; a woman who fought against hiring and wage discrimination for years. We honored a man who, in one of many ways he worked for women’s equality, served on the board of the League of Women Voters. We have honored the editor of this paper for her vigorous support of women’s issues.

This year, among our wonderful honorees is a woman who week after week, shows up at the City Council Meetings, an advocate for neighborhood stability, who “speaks to power” without hesitation, who inspires admiration regardless of whether the observer agrees or disagrees with her!

Our role models are all around us, here and at the national level, where first ladies, except for a few, have been supportive of women’s equality. Betty Ford campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment; Hillary Clinton lectured China at the International Women’s Conference, upsetting President Bush (the first) who was there doing business. And, lest we forget, Laura Bush said publicly, that Roe v Wade should not be overturned!

Our progress depends on this two-pronged process. When younger women and men look at our history, they become more politically active. I remember my own light-bulb moment: 1920, that’s when women got the vote? That was only seven years before I was born!