Glass Ceiling - I Am Woman
2021 could not come fast enough for all of us as we look forward to putting 2020 in the rearview mirror.
Yet 2020 was the ripping away of the band aid, leaving bare the deep wounds and small areas of healing underneath for our country. Personally, the New Year also marks the passing of another birth year as it is my birthday. You can imagine the suis generis of celebrating the start of another calendar year and the start of another birth year on the same day. At this point in my life I’ve come to view all of it with a bit more equanimity since being provided another year on this planet is viewed truly as a gift and not a burden. Sadly I can’t say that was always the case. Like most people it is hard to not take stock of our own lives and our world since the new year, while it can be wistful as we acknowledge time’s passing, is also a moment of hope for the possibility that a new year provides.
As I think about this new year, there is no denying the collective hope we feel as we can see the slow thawing from what was a dark, dark, long winter, metaphorically speaking. This year also marks another milestone as we watch Kamala Harris become the first woman Vice President of our country. While other countries have had women leaders, our country, in spite of espousing democratic values and the cries for feminism, has, thus far, not seen a woman step into that leadership position, even with more of the glass ceiling shattering with Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. When we trace the history of woman’s rights in this country from the origins of the suffrage movement led by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Hillary Clinton’s candidacy and now the swearing in of Kamala Harris, it is a history that is, like most movements, not linear and complicated. What is known with the election of Vice President Kamala Harris, is that a page has been turned, although history has taught us how the turning of a page can create a backlash that feels like a regression against progress. The most obvious example of this type of dramatic backlash is the election of Trump after the election of President Barack Obama, our first African-American President.
While we may not know what awaits four years from now, what is apparent is that we may be closer to an era where women will be leaders and viewed as leaders without the usual baggage of stereotypes applied to women in leadership positions. As a high school student I was invited to attend a summit about feminism in the world hosted by the UN. It was during this summit that I heard Betty Friedan speak, along with other feminist leaders from around the globe. During the breakout sessions we were able to discuss the topics addressed by the various speakers. As an immigrant and also as a person who had lived overseas, I argued against western feminism being applied monolithically, that to ignore the different cultural, religious, economic realities of the many countries across the globe would be doing a disservice to achieving equality for the women of those nations. For some reason my arguments caught enough attention for me to be invited to speak in the UN’s General Assembly Hall for the student presentation on this topic of feminism. When I think back to that speech I gave as a high school senior, I can’t disagree with the main point of how feminism, as we understand it is mainly a western construct and one with many imperfections.
As we think about the tantalizing idea of the decade of the woman, it is only fitting that a biopic about Helen Reddy of ‘I am Woman’ fame is now available on Netflix. While her story and success can be viewed as a feminist story, it is the song, for which she is most identified, that told and continues to tell the story about women and our struggle for an equality that seems to be redefined decade by decade. In 1989 I was an undergrad in Washington DC. NOW, the National Organization for Women, held a rally in Washington to fight for women’s right to choose, which I had attended. I can still see the blue, circular posters we all held, that eventually ended up in my apartment window to let the world know that I was a supporter of the basic right for women to choose. Helen Reddy had come out of retirement to sing her anthem for the thousands of us, who had gathered to protest, to express our outrage, and to signal our solidarity. I had forgotten that Helen Reddy had come to sing for us until watching the biopic. As the movie showed her on that stage singing as the crowd sang along with her, I felt myself tearing up, remembering myself there in that crowd with all of my youthful optimism and outrage. 2016 saw another gathering of women in Washington DC, thousands of women wearing their pink pussy hats. Perhaps 2021 will also draw women together in our nation’s capital, this time to celebrate our first woman Vice President, but perhaps also to flex our collective muscle as we ready ourselves for this decade when we take the helm as leaders, supporters, and fighters for a true equal world where dignity is a given, hope is not just for those with dollar signs in front of their names, and each day is another opportunity to make the world better for the future generations that will follow. I don’t set personal resolutions since, like most, I end up breaking whatever ridiculous, restrictive thing within days after the new year. But, this year, instead of a personal resolution I am expressing my hope for all that needs to be fixed and all that is still possible in what I hope will be the decade of the woman.
