Monday, June 26, 2006

The women’s rights movement help or hindrance?

I’m sure that most of us a fairly versed on the women’s rights movement during the sixties and seventies. Bra burnings and abortion issues.


I was going to write on abortion only that’s a hot and difficult issue. I’m not afraid of that issue I just don’t want to cloud what the topic is.


Some feel that the movement was a time for lesbian, abortion getting, men’s clothing wearing, men haters. The loud and abrasive get the media’s attention.


We had women like Billy Jean King who’s husband encouraged her to fight for women’s rights. If you have a daughter in sports you can thank her for her pioneer spirit in women’s sports. They still don’t get the recognition they deserve. They have come a long way baby.
The movement pulled us apart also. If you were a housewife you were considered oppressed by your family according to the woman’s libbers. If you were for equality you were against family values.


Why can’t we all get along?


I believe part of it was fear. Fear that our values would slip away, because they were. We saw a war up close and personal. We had body counts and a government we could no longer trust. Drugs, sex, and free spirit were everywhere. Women that were marching into the work place and demanding to be treated equally were afraid that they would lose ground by the homemakers. Women were fighting from both extreme sides.


Did we win or lose? Yes and no.


Our values have dropped we can’t change what happened in the last forty plus years. It dropped for several reasons. The war, the knowledge of what the government has done, drugs, sex, and the fight for equality.


I’d love to say that women have stopped fighting. You know that we haven’t. Are you a stay at home mom? Do you home school? You work? What about you children and family? Public schools aren’t you afraid?


We should, all men and women alike, help each other, respect those choices that we make, we should love each other. Many of the women in the Bible worked. Lydia had a very lucrative business selling purple fabric, she brought her family to Christ.


Where is Milly is this?

Well my mother asked me to keep my maiden name because she wished that she had kept hers, I chose not to. She respected my decision. She asked that I return to work after my son was born because she regretted not going back herself. She wanted her children to have independence. So I returned to work and for those who might think that’s awful. Well it’s darn hard. I cried on the way to work and on the way home. I left my baby with my mother a loving woman who blessed us every moment of our lives. I gave up working with autistic children after her death, then left my house cleaning business when I was eight months pregnant with my daughter. Too big to pick up anything and it took way too long. I was blessed to be a stay at home mommy for six years. For those who don’t know you are far from being a stay at home mom. PTA, MOPS, church, children needing to be here and there. I’m actually less busy at times now that I work outside the home.

My mother and I could speak about anything. She told me that she didn’t want house wife in her obituary, she felt that she was more then that. I made darn sure it wasn’t. Pretty progressive for a southern raised COC woman. :-)

4 comments:

God's Woman said...

Until humans view all humans as equals, we will never stop fighting. Good points, Milly, good words, and thought-provoking, as usual.

Milly said...

patchouli,
Thank you I read some of you blog and I'm touched by your spirit. Your children are blessed.

jettybetty said...

I really like the way you've covered this issue--there are no easy answers.

However, I am with you--why can't we all get along? We may have different views--but fighting and rejecting each other is not the answer.

I think the women's movement brought us some positive things--even in the church--women were second class--not because God planned it that way--but because culture fed over into the church.

You've covered quite well some of the negatives to the movement, also.

I am soooo with you--let's quit the fighting--and support each other as Christian women--whatever place in life God calls us!

Unknown said...

Until humans view all humans as equals, we will never stop fighting. Good points, Milly, good words, and thought-provoking, as usual.

Nicely covered and good words used