What a Difference Today Makes

What a Difference Today Makes

Before March takes a bow and makes an exit, I wanted to make a shout out to my fellow ladies in support of Women’s History Month. “Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives” is the theme for National Women’s History Month March 2015. When I re-read the theme, I envision women of every shade, every culture, every sexual orientation, every economic status, and every ability, woven together into this colorful patchwork quilt. This patchwork quilt encompasses all of our tears, feats, and future dreams that have gotten us to where we are today. 

As I flip through my favorite undergraduate textbook, “Women- Images and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology,” I get excited over names like Margaret Sanger, Maria Stewart, and Betty Friedan. I think about the women within my ancestry, who have paved the way to get me to where I am today. My great, great aunt, a Caucasian woman, who married an African-American man, continually fought against oppression. She believed that the women’s suffrage organization must involve all women of every color. My maternal grandmother was all about the “new woman,” and embodied self reliance. She went to work despite having four children, which was something women did not so easily do during that time period. She would wake up at four in the morning to cook that night’s dinner, leave it on the stove all day (gasp!) and would work as a bookkeeper for her synagogue. My mother in turn followed her footsteps by returning to work as a teacher when my sisters and I were quite young. My mom, a rebel when it comes to subordination, worked hard to become the “breadwinner,” and left the “female” house chores to my father. Growing up people would chuckle that my dad did the cooking, grocery shopping, and laundry.  I did not know any other way of living. I feel that all of my female ancestors had taken a stance in their lives, to inspire future female generations to make a difference in their lives. 

I asked friends, what women they know of, past or present, who also challenged stereotypes, made sacrifices, or went beyond social assumptions, and it is astounding to see how decades of women made and still make a difference. Whether it is changing the politics of a state to introduce life-saving medicine to numerous people, spreading the understanding of race and class privilege, or simply going back to a school or job, leaving an oppressive marriage, developing emotional and sexual relationships with other women, the strong women we know have built this road toward a right. With still such a long way to go, I think we can learn from the strong women who gave us a backbone. 

We all make a difference, whether we mean to or not. Let’s make it meaningful then. Don’t wait for tomorrow, make the difference today. I am a feminist, so I’m going to say it: let’s change HIStory to HERstory. Do it for your daughters and all of the little girls out there that still cannot have equal privileges because of their color or ethnicity, be given the chance to marry another woman in any state she chooses, receive equal pay for equal work, and name a female president. I hope the patchwork of women reading this, mesh together to create a true equality, whereas one day we can look back and think, wow, we have finally done it.