Happy Wednesday everyone! Hopefully your week is going well and that you have a nice weekend to look forward to.
There is a topic that I want to talk about because ALL of us experience it in one form or another. The “it” in question is the so-called “Battle of the Sexes”. First, let’s get this out of the way: Men and Women are EQUALLY important! If you don’t agree with that simple statement, then now is the time for you to stop reading and find something more suitable for your sensibilities. I will not argue with anyone about my basic beliefs. So no, this one is not “open for discussion”. So let’s take a dive into the background, the history, and the current state of things.
Dating back across eastern and western societies (and millennia), women were considered the possession of men. Most Religious entities reinforced that in their Holy Books, and their teachings. Society reinforced it by such measures as calling women who strayed from those social expectations as witches. Obviously, we know what happened to a woman convicted of being a witch! She was burned at the stake, or hanged. Here, in the United States, we had the Salem Witch Trials in the late 1600’s during Colonial times. In that case, there were several men executed by the rope too. But it all started with accusations of “unnatural” behavior of some women. Sadly, the accusers were little girls, in many of those cases.
Let’s fast forward a little bit! When the United States was created by those Colonies, women were not mentioned in our founding documents. Women were not allowed to own property in most cases, unless it was left to her by a man. Women were not allowed to vote! Basically, women had very little role outside of the home. During the 19th Century, one of the few allowable jobs (outside the home) was to become a school teacher. However, if she got married, she was NOT allowed to continue her career. Her “job” then reverted to the job every other wife had: keeping the house, bearing and raising children, and anything else that her role required. By 1848 many women had gotten the idea that they were being deprived of the most basic rights of citizenship, and they began pushing for those basic rights. It all came together in a town called Seneca Falls, NY. After Seneca Falls, word spread, and more and more women started pushing for the right to vote, and be free to choose something other than being a housewife. Fast forward to the 19th Amendment, which finally gave women a voice (and a vote). Since the 1920 election, women have consistently voted in higher number than men.
During World War 2, when men were being sent off to fight totalitarian regimes, their places in factory, and farm were taken by women. For the first time in American history, women were working in jobs that had been “man jobs”. Women made airplanes, ships, tanks, bombs, guns, and everything else needed to keep the men at the front lines supplied. Oh, and some of those women actually flew the planes over to those men who were fighting. After the war ended, many of those women weren’t all that enthusiastic to just put the tool belt down and grab her apron, as if nothing ever happened. They had experienced financial freedom, and an independence that had really never been considered possible before. Many of them chose a new path, and never went “back to the kitchen”. A woman could now actually have her own place, her own career, and her own freedom. She didn’t have to marry to have financial security!
Here we are, in 2022, and even with all of those advances in our society, and there are still women who are bitter toward men. And there are men who are bitter toward women. Why? I really don’t get it!
The things our grand parents and even great grandparents went through are history. They happened! We have evolved as a society!
The Battle of the Sexes is a battle that can never be “won”, but we will all “lose” if it doesn’t stop.
I am a woman! I am proud, not because of my sex, but because of the things that I have been able to accomplish BECAUSE of the women before me who questioned why things were the way they were. Those women, and the men who supported the ideas of equality for both sexes, as well as racial equality made it possible for me to be able to write these things. They made it possible for me to get an education, a career, and my own sense of person. Yes, I am married, and I love my husband. But being his wife does not diminish the other things that people know me for professionally.
It is 2022, we all have equal worth in society, and in the eyes of the Almighty. So please, can we start acting like human beings toward each other? Men are important! Women are important! One is no better, or more virtuous than the other. One is no worse, or evil than the other.
I hope this isn’t too babbling, but I’m seriously tired of bashing an entire sex. It’s counter productive to a healthy society. Let’s take each person for who they are as an individual, rather than hating an entire group of people. Imagine that!
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