Saturday, March 8, 2025
Saturday, March 8 is International Women’s Day. This day is meant to mark the achievements women have made and continue to make in a male dominated world. It’s also a time to promote equal rights and to speak out against efforts to take those rights away.
I grew up in the 70s. It was a wild time. Moms, aunts, grandmothers, cousins, and sisters were standing up for their rights, burning their bras in protest, venturing out into the workforce, marching, going back to school, verbalizing their opinions, and demanding to be noticed.
Sexual and Domestic violence hotlines and emergency shelters were popping up, which gave women the courage to leave abusive relationships. Roe v Wade was passed in 1973, and paving the way for legal abortions was only a very small part of it. It broadened access to contraception, lifted limits on how to classify family living arrangements, expanded and protected various rights for marrying and remarrying, legalized the right to privacy regarding what two consensual adults do behind closed doors, and also guaranteed privacy regarding medical treatments.
Soon after, things really began to change for women. With the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974, women secured the right to open a bank account, purchase a home, and get a charge card all without a man’s signature. We were no longer barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, popping babies out at our husbands will, jumping to cater them when they demanded, “make me a sammich.” (poof! you’re a sandwich!)
The ’80s were a wild time where women embraced their independence and exerted their power. Sexually, professionally, personally with relationships. Women learned how to use their voice to march forward into a world ruled by the Patriarchy. Evidence can be found in many of the Billboard’s top hits of the day, where female vocal artists sang about sexual independence, and how they were in control of their own bodies and minds.
By the 1990s, marital rights were a thing of the past. Men were no longer allowed to rape their wives. Yes, you read that correctly. Prior to July 5, 1993, most rape statutes defined rape as forced sexual intercourse on a woman who was not your wife. That changed with the federal law created after states stared passing their own legislature outlawing this archaic practice.
All of this began back in the 1920s when women fought for and won the right to vote. From that point on our grandmothers did not look back. No longer were they forced to hand their successes for men to claim. No longer did they have to hide behind male pseudonyms.
Then in 2022, Roe v Wade was overturned, with the federal government now leaving the legality and illegality of abortions up to the states to police. But it won’t stop there. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe, Justice Clarence Thomas said that they should not stop there. That laws protecting contraception was equally as wrong and they would be looking into overturning that as well, along with same sex intimacy and same sex marriage.
Beginning in 2016, there has been an effort to strip the right to vote from women. Currently, the SAVE act is looking to do just that. Disguised as a move to curtail illegal voting, the act attacks women by removing their right to vote IF THEIR NAME IS DIFFERENT THAN THAT ON THEIR BIRTH CERTIFICATE. The drivers license won’t serve as legitimate identification, unless its the Enhanced Drivers License (which costs more to access). You can also use your passport to prove your identity. It is estimated that if this bill passes, approximately SIX MILLION WOMEN will not be allowed to vote.
There are other concerns and issues out there, but these are the things that keep me up at night. I read today that nearly one quarter of the countries in the world are experiencing similar attacks on women’s rights.
We have to fight back against the misogyny and internalized misogyny that is trying to silence women back into the days when we were breeding machines and housewives.
Speak up. Stand up. Be proud you are a woman. We’ve fought too hard to come this far, only to have it taken away by The Patriarchy.
So, starting today, celebrate being a woman. Celebrate the power of the feminine divine. Then keep that going. Every day should be women’s day.
If that looks like a manicure, go for it. But you know what, if you feel like taking out the trash, then do it. And don’t look back.
You’ve earned that right.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Janina Grey 