Member-only story
Reflecting on how far we have come with the movement for women’s rights and also very proud of women’s achievement worldwide: I found myself writing this acrostic poem with the word “INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY” to celebrate this day while I #choosetochallenge.
This year’s theme, according to United Nations Women (unwomen.org), is “Women in Leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID -19 world.”
It is not surprising that this is the theme because the Covid-19 pandemic taught us that we see positive results when women lead.
However, a few weeks ago, my daughter referred me to a Bible passage that says women have no right to speak when men speak in the church. As a Christian, I was shocked to read this but my point is not to highlight the flaws in religion or in institutions but to imagine my great grandmothers’ reality, perhaps the reality of women many centuries ago and even today. It is hard to ignore that some cultures still live under the same circumstances in this 21st century.
I grew up thinking a male child was superior to a girl child. While my husband was gender-neutral during my first pregnancy, I myself wished to have a son first. The ideology that Women are not enough is woven into our unconscious bias, especially in many African cultures.
