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A Salute to Women . . . Today and the
Future
This year’s Women’s History Month Commission offers us an inspiring theme: "Women Inspiring Hope and Possibility," reminding us to acknowledge through words or deeds, the women who have made a difference in our lives; who looked beyond our female-ness and believed we could be whatever it was we wanted to be; who gave us the confidence to try. This page would be filled with names and remembrances should we both have the time. Such as the woman called Ethel, who nurtured her children with an iron hand, and a heart as wide as Lake Michigan; or, the wise young teacher named Rosie Jones who showed me the power of words, and the magic of reading; and, a mentor named Daisy Bates, who showed me that only if I had the “fire in the belly,” could I do the un-doable, in the hard world of black newspaper publishing. As we celebrate Women’s History Month, and remember the strong and courageous women who signify its importance; we should not forget that the campaign for women’s right, launched 150 years ago, is still a struggle worth winning - for the white women who birthed it, during an afternoon tea, and the black women who cleaned their homes…and, washed their tea cups. Scholars and historians have said black women were free before the rest of black America. A hard pill to swallow, when one remembers we were more harnessed than others, with the burden of being the last to eat, the last to rest, the last to cry …or, love. And, we ain’t there, yet. Ask the young girls who wear the skin-tight jeans and belly-rings; or, the up and coming twenty-somethings, who wear three-piece suits, and tailored dresses as they work beside their male colleagues. When our attorney general protects the virtue of our Statue of Liberty by covering her bared breast…we know we have not yet arrived. A sure indication that equality of the sexes is in real danger of retrograde. Our healthcare systems and health insurance companies have yet to figure out that women are the caretakers of our future. They still make it impossible for so many to live healthy, disease-free lives…or, raise healthy, disease-free future leaders. Our education systems have not kept the promise of quality education for all. Women are victimized most by this breach of promise because uneducated women are more likely to become impoverished mothers; and, impoverished mothers live shorter, lives; live in more dangerous neighborhoods, and have the least to offer their young. While progresses have truly been made; while many women are successfully pulling themselves out of their social mires; while the American dream may, indeed, touch one child out of every five households… we still have a long way to go. Because, the facts remain that only a miniscule number of women are afforded the livelihoods, the environments that most of us dream of; the money, power, and freedom to march to our own drum beat. There is yet a distance America must go before women can believe in the preamble… freedom and justice for all. It took 72 years of hard work and struggle before America officially recognized women as equal in the eyes of the law… and we’re still waiting for reality to follow. One of life’s blessings is our ability to gain insight from the people and experiences that come our way. Women, historically, have done great things without the least bit of recognition or fanfare. We have always realized it was the day to day, plodding, quiet acts that changes the world, makes it a better place. Even with the broken promises, the unfinished business of full equality under the law, we have to move on. We have to be the architects, construction engineers, mathematicians … of our lives, and our successes. All the laws in the world won’t change what we owe to ourselves and our children. Somebody, a long time ago, taught us that the fish we receive from others, is never as good as the ones we catch for ourselves. If that is not the premise we begin with, then, breaking all the glass ceilings in the world won’t bring us the kind of lasting success that matters. Among the many things this month means to America’s women… our responsibility to be the architects of our lives, and our futures, should surely sit at the top of that list.
Janis F. Kearney is a Chicago writer, former journalist and diarist to President Bill Clinton. A Harvard W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow, she is currently completing William Jefferson Clinton: From Hope to Harlem; and a personal memoir, Cotton Field of Dreams.
Kearney Communications 5138 S. Kenwood Ave.#2 Chicago, IL 60615 (773) 493-2007 -- ph (773) 493-5747 -- fax janisfk@aol.com |
