At least as
wonderful as these histories is the unbounded admiration that we give these women
for their accomplishments. There’s no instantaneous accounting of how
much makeup Amelia Earhart wore. There’s
no attempt to downgrade the courage of Susan B. Anthony or Eleanor Roosevelt in
proportion to any support they may have received from men. There’s no asterisk next to
Queen Liliuokalani's name to indicate that she could not have made her strong stand against imperialism if she hadn't come from a powerful family. We don’t compulsively slap labels like “girly
girl,” “sell-out” or “man-hater” on Elizabeth Blackwell, Ella Baker, Rachel
Carson, Victoria Woodhull, Abigail Adams, or Sandra Day O’Connor.
There are some
who suggest that such conversations about contemporary women emanate from a well
of aggression hidden deep within the hearts of women. But these are not conversations of the heart.
They are reactions to the pressures of
our own historical moment. In the
1970s-1990s women dreamed of “having it all.”
As this vision evolves into an expectation, we find ourselves juggling family,
education/career, and community life. Not
only must we never drop a ball, we are to look, feel, and simply be fabulous while keeping everything
aloft.
Some women are
reckoning with the fact that “having it all” may be more struggle than juggle. Many of us, years into our own attempts to “do
it all,” find ourselves making on-the-spot decisions about what we really can
and cannot pull off in the narrow span of time between high school graduation
and late middle age (with only twenty-four hours in each day in that interval).
Anxiety and fear are the foes of wisdom
and compassion. Every projection or
judgment about whether a juggler’s costume is cut sexy or dowdy, or gets extra practice time by being “careeristly
childless,” or receives unearned praise for “just” being a mother is a lost
opportunity for the kind of mutual support and solidarity that could bring an
end to the whole exhausting performance.
As in every
historical era, women are making history with everything that they give life
to, whether babies, ideas, artworks, collaborations, movements, conversations, communities,
homes, cultures, celebrations, or relationships. We’re all in this era together (men, too!)
and whether it’s at the forefront of our consciousness or not, we are creating the
stuff of the Women’s History Months of the future. So why wait?—Let’s celebrate the history that
we are making together every day!
Kindly,
Dr. Heather Fryer
Professor, Department of History and
Women's & Gender Studies
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