Why International Women's Day is important
When Abby Kelley, a 19th-century abolitionist, expressed a
desire to address the Connecticut Anti-Slavery Society, this is how a
local minister argued against her right to do so:
No woman will speak or vote where I am moderator. It is
enough for a woman to rule at home… she has no business to come into
this meeting and by speaking and voting lord it over men. Where woman’s
enticing eloquence is heard, men are incapable of right and efficient
action. She beguiles and binds men by her smiles and her bland winning
voice… I will not sit in a meeting where the sorcery of a woman’s tongue
is thrown around my heart. I will not submit to PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT.
No woman shall ever lord it over me. I am Major-Domo in my own house. cited here
When I read that quote recently, it at first of course angered me and
made me grateful to not be living in those times. Then as I reflected
on it, I began to think on the ways a similar message is conveyed today.
The words may be different and the attitude less contemptuous and harsh
(but not always), but the effect is often the same.
