Strong Women…#MondayBlogs

Okay, I try to post earlier, but I freely admit that Daylight Savings Time has thrown me for a loop. I may have caught up with my own schedule in a week or two. 🙂

History gives us a story told by the victor, in many cases. It’s the story telling version of “to the victor go the spoils.” In early days, women were supposed to be birthing the babies (sons) that would lead to dynasties, keeping the home fires burning, and generally being part of the historical background. At least, earlier history textbooks would have us think.

It seems impossible that this could have been true in all cases.

Queen Katherine of Aragon won an important battle for her husband, Henry VIII. Queen Elizabeth I reshaped the monarchy into a system that recognized a woman could rule without a King.

In literature and life, women have done much more than remain as part of the background.

Yet we still find ourselves uncomfortable with the strong woman. She’s a bitch, a ball-buster, a dyke, any number of unflattering terms that are applied when a woman is driven, intelligent, vocal, and successful. Sometimes I think that we are still much more comfortable with the old dichotomy of virgin or whore.

So, for those women from whom life emerged (yes, I still look at matriarchy as a good idea), some thoughts from bigger minds than my own.

“Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.” ~ Amelia Earhart

“I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t.” ~ Audre Lorde

“After all those years as a woman hearing ‘not thin enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not this enough, not that enough,’ almost overnight I woke up one morning and thought, ‘I’m enough.'” ~ Anna Quindlen

“Women have always been courageous… They are always fearless when protecting their children and in the last century they have been fearless in the fight for their rights.” ~ Isabel Allende

Happy International Women’s Day, and blessings to you all…