Reflecting on the History of Women

I’ve made a conscience effort to truly contemplate and study the story of women this month since it is nationally recognized as Women’s History Month. I expanded my studies beyond just the recent feminist history, which in my opinion is a definite highlight of our history to this point, to include our history since the start of written record.

However, this was not as easy as it would seem since the vast majority of surviving records are his-story and are very short on the details of her-story. In an attempt to keep women “in their place,” those who have followed the Judeo-Christian religions destroyed most records of the significance of women in early history. This is clearly seen in the Bible when numerous times the Jews are told to “completely destroy the nations” who worshiped these other gods, of which many were actually goddesses.

It’s significant, I think, that at one point in history females shared the title of divinity with males – and at times reigned as the sole divinity. This part of our history shows woman in all her glory, not as the fallen creature of the Bible who must forever submit to a subservient position to the man because she supposedly ate a forbidden fruit and coerced him to do the same.

It’s time the truth was known. Not the presupposed “truth” garnered from what we have always been told is reality. That reality is severely lacking in the other half of the story. We see reality as we have always been taught to see it. If someone teaches me from young that a certain color is blue, and subsequently others then reinforce that teaching in my family, community, church, government, school, etc. – then I will believe the color is actually blue.

But what if they are all wrong? What if blue is really yellow but no one wants to challenge the errant teaching because the one who said it was blue in the first place claimed to be speaking on behalf of God? In the end though, just because everyone believes this color to blue does not make it indeed blue. In fact, it is still yellow.

That is exactly what has happened in feminine history. Only this teaching has gone so long without being challenged, for fear of being ostracized or even at times killed, that it is now accepted as truth. In the process the real truth has been lost.

What is the real truth? What is reality? The truth is that “in the beginning” woman was indeed equal to man. She was just as intelligent. She was just as capable of dealing with life’s hardships. She was man’s partner, not his property or his slave. It wasn’t until she was denied basic human rights that she was demoted from equality and it wasn’t until she was denied an equal education that her intelligence was called into question.

What is the truth? The truth is that we have been taught that yellow is actually blue. We have been force fed a lie to the point we have hung our heads in original-sin guilt and accepted our plight as second rate citizens – as long as men have granted us at least that much. However, if that is all the fight we have left in us, our future will look much like our past.

We are at a significant point in history. For the last century, women in America have paved the road for us to work outside the house, vote, and even have equal legal rights with a man in the court system. Don’t take this for granted ladies, these are rights we did not have just a few short decades ago. And just as quickly as these rights emerged after thousands of years of degradation, they can slip back into oblivion with just a few court decisions.

Men have always been the ones to govern, but now we have that privilege too. Yes, at this point it is still a privilege we have been granted and can loose if we don’t take advantage of it by being active in governance and the voting process.

Our history is veiled and our present is fragile at best. Let’s make our future and our daughter’s future strong. Let’s equip them with a history worth telling and a mentality of true equality by finally standing against that old lie and teaching them the real truth.

About the Author

Stella loves to write. She joined her college newspaper where she took first place in News Writing and Editorials, as well as placing in several other areas, on a regional level. Stella’s bragging rights grew to include a national award for layout and design and the prestigious appointment as a Leader of the Student Press of North America by the Associated Collegiate Press.

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