International Women’s Day
Today March 8 is International Women’s Day -
International Women’s Day is dedicated to the celebration of women’s social, economic and political achievements worldwide. In the United States, this official day of observance is rooted in women’s efforts to campaign for rights to work, vote and hold public office, culminating on March 8, 1908, when 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter work hours, better pay, voting rights, and an end to sweatshop conditions and child labor. In the early 1910s, the concept gained recognition in the international community and grew momentum as women across Europe continued to fight for the right to work and protest against ensuing world conflict.
While this day is a bit of a big deal around the world, it gets little press in the US. This is the third year in which I’ve participated in blogging projects related to this day. In 2006 I participated in the Gridblog to Dismantle Patriarchy and in 2007 the Blog Against Sexism. This year I’ve heard calls for comments on what it means for women to have a voice.
For women to have a voice is of utmost importance. Without women using their voice and demanding to be heard those calls for labor reforms of 100 years ago would never have been heard. Women knew what needed to happen and were in the position to effect change, I shudder to think what would have happened if they had been silenced. Many sought to silence them - appealing to assumptions about nature and what was appropriate behavior for “nice” women. Thankfully enough people believed that we are people too (as opposed to property to be managed or protected) and the voice of women was eventually heard.
So these days I am finding it harder and harder to even begin to comprehend the men who seek to silence women and especially the women who support the “right” to be silenced. What has happened to these women that they can say “my voice is worthless, I want to throw it away and give up any chance of using it for good in this world”? I understand fighting for the right to have a voice and overcoming the fear of using one’s voice, but to actively campaign to deny other women a voice is incomprehensible to me. Oh, I know all the intellectual arguments, it’s the basic assumption that women are inferior that I truly don’t get.
There are many issues that I try to be open minded about. I respect differences of opinion in theology and politics and disdain single issue voting, but this is a deal breaking issue for me. If a church sees women as inferior and denies them their voice, I honestly could not join as a member of that community. I could not worship week after week alongside those that denied my full humanity. I don’t deny their faith or anything, but it’s not worth it to me to subject myself to such life-denying forces. Others with far more patience are attempting to bring hope to those situations, but (at least for now) I can’t be a part of that world.
On days like today I want to celebrate and encourage women. I want to help women use their voice - for their own sake and for the sake of others. I wish this day could just be a universal celebration alongside women, not tainted with the reminder that our voices are still silenced by some. But for many women there still is a long way to go. That’s why we still need to make a big deal about having a voice - to use our voice and to empower others to use theirs - lest our voices be taken for granted and silenced by our own indifference.
Edited to add -
Check out these other outstanding posts by women bloggers on women’s issues and IWD (and let me know if there are others I should add to this list):
igniting the ember: emerging women finding their voice Kathy Escobar
the world handicapped by half and The Voice Makeesha Fisher
I Don’t Have the Balls to Be a Leader Kingdom Grace
Complementarianism Sucks: Telling Women to be Quiet in the name of Jesus Pam Hogeweide
Are Women Human? Sonja
Julie Clawson
Topics: Gender Issues, Church |
March 8th, 2008 at 6:28 am
No doubt there are many nations, communities, corporations, even churches, where the voices of women are “silenced” “ignored” or “dismissed”.
I happen to be in a peculiar minority, however. I serve in a church with well over 60% female members, a denomination now graduating well over 50% female seminary students. I’m in a Presbytery where nearly 2/3 of the clergy are women.
I find that my voice is, if not silenced, at least filtered through a particular liberal lens. If found wanting, I am simply disregarded as “one of those small-minded conservatives”.
I don’t pretend to know by any means what such women in third world nations (or other places, for that matter) go through, but I can say the experience of being in the minority in any setting can be unsettling.
March 8th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
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March 8th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
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March 8th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
“If a church sees women as inferior and denies them their voice, I honestly could not join as a member of that community. I could not worship week after week alongside those that denied my full humanity.”
Oh boy, Julie, am I ever struggling with this issue right now! About a month ago, I subscribed to your blog and a few others to help me think through this kind of thing.
As an adult, the churches I have chosen have all supported women in leadership positions. A little more than a year ago, we moved to a new church. I was aware that the church was not egalitarian in practice, but I thought I could live with it. (Looking back, I don’t know WHY I thought that!) We’re now being nudged toward membership and I know that I absolutely cannot become a member of this church for this reason. Which leads me to wonder why I’m still there.
The problem is that we’re in a small city where the churches are mostly cut from the same cloth. In a pickle, that’s for sure.
March 8th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I find that my area has “open-to-women” churches only in the pentacostal/charismatic circles. Unless I want to be in one of those, I’m stuck attending places that think women’s silence is a good and holy thing (though in different degrees of severity).
This is not to say anything against the charismatic. I am one, in a closet sort of way, in that I believe all the Biblical gifts are “for today” and have operated in some of them from time to time. I just have problems with most of the churches (too subjective for me, when it comes down to it).
I’m in a place of just not wanting to go anywhere, right now. The “women’s issue” plays no small part in that. As you yourself expressed, others may be able to sit contentedly in that kind of environment (and more power to them), but after being silenced and finding my voice, I’m no longer one of them.
Bleh.
March 8th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Mel, I’m in a small area as well. There are a lot of churches, but they are all fairly similar…
March 8th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Exactly!
March 8th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I understand, and do find it sad that there are so many communities where there is no place for women to be fully who God created them to be as they worship alongside other believers. I don’t know what I would do in that situation.
March 9th, 2008 at 5:46 am
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March 9th, 2008 at 8:14 am
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