Mother Earth, mothers, grandmothers, Mother Nature, the Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Guadaloupe, Our Lady of Czestochowa, Tara, Quan Yin, Kali, Pele—on and on, all over the world, we give at least lip service to honoring the feminine.
All over the world, we connect to the primal force that generates life, be it Mother Earth or ma-ma, or the Divine Feminine in some form. While we venerate this source of life on the one hand, we fear its power on the other. And so, whether objectified as sex objects, or maligned as second class citizens, or worse, as non-entities, women and girls are dismissed, dis-empowered.
Studies show that where women and girls are able to flourish, the whole community thrives. Hillary Clinton, when she was Secretary of State acknowledged this in her work around the globe. Non-profit organizations such as MADRE, understand the importance of protecting women—mothers, and in turn, their children—to create a just world.
I know sexual harassment and sexual prejudice first hand. In grade school, I remember how girls were to defer to the expertise of boys. The boys cornered the future after all. In high school, my friend, a girl, won the popular vote for student council president. However, the principal, a conservative priest, was a one man electoral college, as it were, and he “gave” the position to the boy who was running. Ironic how history repeats itself, eh?
In the Catholic, all female college I commuted to, young women were to garner their M.R.S. degree, as well as their B.A. however, when the student council president—who was a senior when I was a freshman—got pregnant and did indeed get married (perhaps it was a “pre-conceived” marriage), she was forced by the nuns to resign from her elected position. It was not fitting to be both pregnant and have a place of leadership and power.
Ah the beat goes on. In graduate school, professors could make comments about a woman’s “seductive” ways or her “hysteria.” The woman was to blame no matter what. The workplace was no different. It was there that I was informed that even though I was more qualified for a promotion, I wouldn’t get it. I was told, “You’re married, you don’t need it.” The promotion was given to the “family man” instead. Of course, I couldn’t get a mortgage or a credit card on my own either. “After all, you could get pregnant any time and there goes your earning capacity. You don’t count.”
So why am I re-counting all this now? Because the veneer of civility and progress towards equality of the sexes and acceptance of diversity has been stripped away with the results of our recent election. The forces that despised progress toward higher consciousness, and conscience for that matter, as well as change for the good, are pushing for change back big time. White supremacy and demeaning of women and the feminine principle go hand in hand. Quite frankly, I fear not only for anyone who is other than white, I fear for anyone who is other than “white male.”
It would not be great again to go back to the 40’s or 50’s or 60’s—or even the 70’s—for me. I remember those times. They were not great for minorities—nor were they great for women and girls.
Will we go forward with all the progress in consciousness we have made? Or will we regress into a dark change back? Ask yourself that question. What do you choose?