Women's Rights: A Continuing Story

Once you are declared a girl the world begins treating you as one.  “Act like a lady,” I have heard it before more when I was younger and was told not to lift my dress over my head at church.  Acting like a lady has changed significantly in the last century.    If you look at each decade you can tell how moments in history have shaped women.  I have been drawn to the women’s perspective in history partly because I was born a girl. 

In the 1940s women left their families and homes to become factory workers.  They did this to help the country survive because the men went to war.  This obviously is not the first time a woman had set foot in a factory but it did change the way the world viewed femininity.  A woman could raise a family and support one with a laboring job. 

In the 50s and 60s women were still viewed as homemakers and to raise children but more women began the pursuit of education.  This also changed the way a woman was viewed.  Although it may not have been easy to go against the grain and put education first, women succeeded in the academic world.

Fast forward to present day women are in the highest positions they have ever been in.  It is easy to forget how far we have come as gender, or take the privileges we have for granted.  Malala Yousafzai, a teenage girl, was shot by the Taliban, for receiving an education and promoting that every child should have the right to an education.  She survived that attack and now is a spokesperson spreading her message of equal access to and education for all people.

Sometimes it is hard to remember the simple acts and choices that we take for granted are simply not easy options for other people.  I am thankful for the choices that I can make about continuing my education, when I would like to start a family, and to be born at a time when women around the world are making an effort to expand women rights.

Malala once said “We call upon our sisters around the world to be brave – to embrace the strength within themselves and realize their full potential” In the wake of women’s history month “Go get’ em girl!”