Calling a Truce

Mother's Day.


One year ago today, I cried in church thinking about women, mothers, and motherhood.


This year has given American women many reasons to cry. We live in a time when society doesn't vocally appreciate the people who hold up half the sky.

• Politicians want to regulate women's reproductive systems.
• They want to make policies restricting our access to health care--including access to mammograms, cancer screenings, contraceptives and reproductive counseling.
• They propose forcing women to have internal ultrasounds during procedures. (Apparently it doesn't matter if you feel uncomfortable having a giant dildo shoved up your vagina. It also doesn't matter if you've been sexually abused, raped or traumatized.) 



Look how much progress we've made towards gender equality.

• There were no women on the board to address Congress on the issues of women's healthcare. (However, there was a Catholic priest. Makes sense, right?)
• Talking heads call us sluts if we stand up for the right for women to have choices about their bodies (whether or not we take advantage of those choices makes no difference to them).

• When/if we take maternity leave, it is called "disability leave."
• In the U.S., women are paid for six weeks of maternity leave--and that's only because the medical community agrees that it takes that long for our bodies to heal. (Not because that is what is best for women or babies.)
• Politicians and others question the validity of having policies that ensure women receive equal pay in the workplace. (BTW, research shows that women DON'T receive equal pay now, even with current policies in place.)
• There are women who have publicly said that they think that women shouldn't have the right to vote--that things would be better if women didn't vote (one of those women: Ann Coulter).
• Businesses and the public put limits on breastfeeding mothers.
• And, this week Time magazine's cover article challenges some women's stance on breastfeeding and parenting.



How "Time" mag honors women this week.

 
These are only the incidents from the top of my head about how women have been treated over the course of this year in the United States. It makes me sad to see that "Mommy Wars" that started in the 1970s, when a majority of Americans feared that working mothers were a threat to domestic/social stability, are still going on. According to a Pew survey in 2009, that is no longer the case; 80% of Americans think that the presence of women in the workforce has been a positive development. (The number was higher among the younger generation.) The War on Mothers had diversified to include issues well beyond the workforce. Some continuing to pit women against men and women against women.

There appears to be a few solutions: 

• Men and women should take equal responsibility for protecting women's rights and the rights of children
• Men should take responsibility for their children (including childcare and parenting)
• Americans should have more parental leave/child care policies
• Politicians should reflect and rely on research) on policies protecting women to see if there is a reason to change/adjust (I know, relying on research is so radical!)
• Women should support each other
• Call a truce on Mommy Wars.

Peace to all women today. May you be loved, cherished, and honored for the power that you hold within you. May you always know: you are woman enough. You are amazing--and you deserve to know and experience that every single day of the year.