International Women's Day 2023

Today is International Women's Day, so I did what I do on some holidays--I checked my blogs to see what I had written before.  Here's a snippet from 2016:  "Let us also take a minute to consider how amazing it is that the most qualified candidate in this campaign season, in terms of experience, is a woman. In the past, it wouldn't have been possible for a woman to accumulate enough years of service to make that claim."  At that point, I wasn't sure that Hillary Clinton would win, the way I was later in 2016.  Sigh.

Until this year, I'd have assumed that rights that had been awarded by the Supreme Court were ours forever.  That belief is gone forever.  Yet I also know that I'm living in a better place than many women across the globe.  Part of that reason is because of my race and age and class.  But part of that reason is that women across the globe face much more bleaker circumstances than women on the lowest rung of U.S. society.

So, it's a hard year to be thinking about the status of women and celebrating accomplishments.  But it's important to remember that there have been accomplishments.  This year, unlike other years, we're having hard conversations about what it means to be a woman.  I have hopes that these conversations about gender might help us get to a place where life is safer for all of us, wherever we fall on the gender spectrum.

And once life is safer for all of us, perhaps we can think about ways that life can be more satisfying for all of us.

It's also important to remember how bleak life has been in the past, in the not too distant past.  We have not slid all the way back to bleaker days, and it's important to remember that.  We do have rights, we do have opportunities, and we can move fairly freely in the world if we're careful.  Of course, even as I type those words, I think about all the people who don't have rights, who don't have opportunities, who cannot move freely--that's especially true in countries like Afghanistan and Iran.

Will we look back and remember this year as being the one where women were given more rights and more access and more freedom in Iran?  I don't have much hope for Afghanistan this year, but there is an interesting upswelling in Iran.  I also understand the power structures that will try to crush those of us who want something better, something more free, something more open.

In my Queer Theology class, we've done a lot of analysis of oppressive social structures, of what we might call Powers and Principalities if we used theological terms.  We've talked about how these structures are self-perpetuating, about how hard it is to defeat them because they have power and accrue power simply by existing and because they have existed for so long.

No one said defeating them would be easy.  But many people have seen the vision of a better life for us all, and they can assure us the struggle is worth it, even though it's hard.  Future generations will thank us, even if we leave them tasks to finish.

And let me end on a positive note, even if I'm not feeling particularly positive.  

We know that the world can change very quickly.  I have often thought about how my 1987 self would be astonished at the fact that Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and went on to be elected president of South Africa and how there is no longer an East and West Germany. We are called to be part of the movement to change the world in ways that are better for all--and particularly for the vulnerable and powerless. We have made great progress on that front. But there is still more to do.

So, today, let us continue.