The Modern Historical Roots of the War on Women

 There has, of late, been a great deal of discussion about the so-called "war on women" There seems to be widespread agreement that it exists but what are its origins? It did not emerge ex nihilo. On the contrary, the modern roots of the war on women go back to the early 20th century.

The date of August 26, 1920  signaled the beginning of great changes for American women and thus for the country as a whole. The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment meant that women could vote for the first time. No one could perceive what the future would hold (1) but the power of the vote meant that women had a direct voice at the table, perhaps for the first time in history. 

In the 1940's, during World War II. many women in the United States went to work outside the home.  With so many men being enlisted and drafted for the war effort women were asked to step in and fill the void.  Indeed, they were crucial as war production had to be stepped up and maintained. Women were heralded as very important to the war effort. The most visible symbol was Rosie the Riveter, the iconic figure who graced ubiquitous posters. What wasn't clear then was what would happen to those jobs when the men came home ( 2).

As it turned out, women were expected to return to the home and go back to being dutiful wives and mothers. And so they did - to some extent- but only after an extensive propaganda campaign by the government.   The Baby Boom emerged from this phenomenon as men came home from overseas and women from the workplace. The reunited families made up for lost time.  Television shows as "Father Knows Best," "I Love Lucy" and "December Bride" to name just a few all depicted women as housewives, deferentially following the lead of the husband. The message was that this was as it should be. Women, however, were now aware of what it was like to have a sense of independence and it would be impossible to turn the clock back. Many women started taking jobs outside the home as soon as their children were in school for full days. Many remained working for their entire lives. (3)

In 1960, the first birth control pill went on the market. It had substantial funding by Margaret Sanger, who had opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in 1916 (4 ). The "Pill" changed almost everything about home life, human sexuality and women. For the first time, women could enter the workforce for prolonged periods and actually establish careers of their own without needing to take a long break to raise their children.. The Women's Movement followed right on the heels of the advent of birth control pills and the IUD. So did the Sexual Revolution. The birth control pill meant that sexuality was not restricted to procreation. Recreational sex was on the rise and women were free on yet another level (5).

Both the Women's Movement and the Sexual Revolution opened doors for women in the United States, allowing for the exploration of self. Women were free to think and act for themselves in ways not true ever before. Women went to work, went to college, had careers and could put off having children until a time in the future when they were both planned and desired. It wasn't until the late 1970's, however, that women decided that they no longer had to choose between motherhood and having a career (6). The mantra became,  "We can have it all." 

This led to the demand for full equality with men. The Equal Rights Amendment, originally written by Alice Paul in 1923 was reintroduced in Congress and passed both Houses in 1972. It failed, however, to be ratified by the required number of states in the requisite amount of time. This was thanks, in part, to the conservative organizing effort of Phyllis Schlafly (7).  Nevertheless, as it is impossible to kill an idea, the ERA lived on in spirit and in the continued struggle of women for full inclusion and equality.

In 1973, there was a blockbuster Supreme Court decision that moved that ideal forward. Roe v. Wade codified the right of women to control their own bodies and reproductive processes. Abortions were made legal and because they were now legal they were made safe, taken out of the back alleys where countless women had suffered and died. (8).  In conjunction with effective birth control, legalized abortion meant that women were able to decide when and how they became mothers.

All these monumental leaps forward for women also affected men. With women in the workforce men had to compete for jobs. With women pursuing higher education, men had to compete for places in colleges and universities. Women were increasingly away from home and therefore started seeking help for running the household from their husbands. In short, women had greater freedom and choices and men noticed.

The decade of the 1970's also saw the first discussion of what is now referred to as the "rape culture." Feminists began a consciousness raising discussion of rape. Up until then rape was rarely talked about. During this period, rape was shown to be far more prevalent than previously believed and the underlying causes like misogyny, sexism and the objectification of women were brought out into the open. "In rape culture, sexualized violence towards women is regarded as a continuum in a society that regards women's bodies as sexually available by default" (9). Rape culture  is thus "...a culture in which rape and sexual violence are common and in which prevalent attitudes, norms, practices, and media normalize, excuse, tolerate, or even condone rape" (10)

Behaviors that correlate with rape culture include: victim blaming ("she must be at fault because she wore..."), slut shaming, objectification of women and the trivialization of rape. Other behaviors that show up frequently include:  "...racism, homophobia, ageism, classism, religious intolerance and other forms of discrimination (11)

Feminists also point to the distribution and use of pornography as a way in which rape culture is expressed since pornography objectifies women and reduces their bodies to commodities (12). At bottom, rape culture devalues women and makes them objects and things to be used. In this environment women are not self-actualized, intelligent, independent human beings. Rape culture seeks to put women down, to oppress them. "Sociologists posit that rape culture links non consensual sex to the cultural fabric of a society, where patriarchal world views, laced with misogyny and gender inequality, are passed from generation to generation, leading to widespread social and institutional acceptance of rape" (13).  Rape culture is one factor in the war on women.

The 1980's marked the germination of a backlash against the feminist movement. The Right-To Life movement merged with the Moral Majority and with the opposition to the ERA by conservatives. The Right To Life movement was a direct reaction to Roe v. Wade, supported by conservative, evangelical Christians, the Roman Catholic Church and conservative Republicans. (14) The so-called Moral Majority was a movement started by Rev. Jerry Falwell aimed at overturning abortion rights, the ERA and was the modern origin of the Tea Party mentality. It was the first time in modern history that a part of the "Christian" tradition attempted to deliberately overstep the Constitutional boundary between Church and State. In fact, the intersection between Right to Life, conservative Republicans and the Moral Majority were the paternalistic and misogynistic parents of the Tea Party.

The intersection of RTL, Moral Majority and Republican conservatism were joined by the rape culture to create a quadrilateral of oppression and objectification. Right To Life would give the fetus priority over the woman which, in essence, revokes her autonomy and rights to self-determination. The Moral Majority (which is neither moral or a majority) would obliterate the line between Church and State and impose fundamentalist values on the entire country. Republicans would do anything within their power to diminish the power of women who are a strong base for the Democratic Party. Each group had their own motivations but, in the end, all were seeking to diminish the autonomy, freedom and rights of women.

Currently, state level attacks on women's freedom, autonomy, access to reproductive health care, birth control and abortion are all being orchestrated by conservative elements like the Tea Party and those who fund it as well as the ultra right wing GOP. (15) They are all products of the past and seem to want to take us all back to before the time when women had rights. Apparently they think that regression is the answer, which it is not. The answer is acceptance not denial. The answer is not repression and oppression. The answer is to accept reality. They need to get with the movement of history towards freedom for all.

All of us, however, need to understand that this contemporary "war on women" was born out of historical events and settings. They didn't arise out of nowhere. It is important for us all to understand the "how" and "why" which can allow us to move beyond and overcome. Without this understanding, however, we are, as the saying goes, doomed to repeat history.

ENDNOTES

 



1.   ("August 26, 1920,"  About. com,  http://bit.ly/16UO7yF  24 March 2013 .)

2.     ( "I Am Woman",

       http://iamwoman-mxtodis123.blogspot.com/2010/05/women-and-workforce-1940-1950.html 24 March 2013.)

3.   ( Ibid. )

4.   (Our Bodies Ourselves,  http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?id=18&compid=53 ,   24 March 2013.

 

5.   (“ The Pill”, American Experience, PBS3 http://to.pbs.org/wU3386 ,24 March 2013 )

6.    ("Has The Sexual Revolution Been Good For Women? Yes", WSJ, March 30, 2012: http://on.wsj.com/GLovU6 ,24 March 2013)

7.  ("Equal Rights Amendment", Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment , 24 March 2013 ).

8.  (“Leeches, Lye and Spanish Fly”, by Kate Manning, New York Times, 21 January 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/opinion/leeches-lye-and-spanish-fly.html, 24 March 2013.)

9.  (Chris O'Sullivan, "Fraternities and the Rape Culture", in Transforming a Rape Culture, edited by Emilie Buchwald, Pamela R. Fletcher & Martha Roth in "Rape Culture", Wikipedia,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture.  24 March 2013 )

10.   (Wikipedia, "Rape Culture", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture, 24 March 2013 )

11.  "(Aosved, Allison C.; Long, Patricia J. (28 November 2006). "Co-occurrence of Rape Myth Acceptance, Sexism, Racism, Homophobia, Ageism, Classism, and Religious Intolerance". Sex Roles (7–8): 481–492. and  Suarez, E.; Gadalla, T. M. (11 January 2010). "Stop Blaming the Victim: A Meta-Analysis on Rape Myths". Journal of Interpersonal Violence: 2010–2035.c From “Rape Culture”, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture, 24 March 2013.)

12. (Ibid).

13. ( "Rape Culture", Wikipedia,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture  24 March 2013.

 

14.  (“Rev. Falwell’s Moral Majority: How It Changed Politics and Religion,” by

Patricia Zapor, Catholic Online, 20 May 2007, http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=24153, 28 March 2013.)

 

 

15.  (“The Ongoing GOP War on Women” by Alisha Mims, Ring of Fire, 13 February 2013, http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2013/02/13/the-ongoing-gop-war-on-women/, 28 March 2013)

Cause and Effect

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." -Gandhi

 If Gandhi is correct then the Koch Brothers, the Tea Party and the GOP have achieved: debasement, degradation, derision, disgrace and dishonor, all the opposites of greatness.  They have actually SOUGHT austerity in this country and applauded when sequestration took effect. 

 "In an email, Koch brothers’ front group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), sent congratulations to Republicans and their supporters around the country for helping push sequester cuts AFP says are “an important step forward for economic growth.” The email continued, “Americans for Prosperity thanks Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans for standing up to President Obama and making sure the $85 billion in much-needed sequester spending cuts took effect,” and it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Koch brothers and Republicans own the sequester and are giddy at the prospect of a recession and killing millions of jobs." (Rmuse, The Koch Brothers Take Credit for Imposing Economic Hardship on Millions of Americans, in Politicususa, March 4, 2013) 

The Koch brothers and their ilk are trying their best to bring about the same decimation of the economy via austerity as in Europe. The misery, the hardship on the people, especially the poor, is intentional. The more misery for the 99% the greater the wealth for the 1%. As Rmuse describes,

 "Republicans won the austerity battle, and Americans will now know what it feels like to live in “socialist Europe” that imposed austerity, massive unemployment, negative growth, double and triple-dip recessions, and no hope for recovery anytime soon."

What these modern day "robber barons" do not realize (or  care about)  is the spiritual price they pay and will continue to pay  for their arrogance, greed and disregard for the welfare of the weakest in our land. 

 "Shame on you! you who make unjust laws and publish burdensome decrees, depriving the poor of justice, robbing the weakest of my people of their rights, despoiling the widow and plundering the orphan. What will you do when called to account..." (Isaiah 10: 1-3b NEB)

What WILL they do when called into account, and they will be one of these days.  It is inevitable. It is a spiritual truth and it is a law of physics: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." The equal and opposite reaction in this case is yet unknown, though history tends to point to rebellion or revolution.  Regardless, it has to happen, it cannot be averted. Call it what you will; God's judgement or a law of physics, the actions of the 1% will catch up with them.

The Tea Party, the Republicans and the Koch Brothers have all made their austerity bed and now they must lie in it.

Peril and Hope

The latest projections by the Huffington Post have the GOP retaining control of the House of Representatives, even adding a few seats to their majority. It is unclear whether the Democrats will retain control of the Senate. I can see now why Sandy Levin wants to retire: he might not want to continue to fight the Republicans on every single thing. I read that he refuses to play political games and that's all the GOP knows how to do. I might be tired of it too if I were him. I know how tired of it I am as a citizen. But that is precisely why we need him to win this election. We desperately need people like him. We need his decency, his competency and the refusal to play games. This county's only hope is in people like Sandy Levin. If the worst happens and Romney also, somehow (by hook or by CROOK) wins and the House GOP maintains and extends their control and the Democrats lose control of the Senate then this country is doomed without voices like his. Still, I would understand at his age the desire to retire. I see it regularly in my own mother.

People like Sandy are our hope inside the government. But the ultimate hope is in the people of the United States of America:. the hope that we will fight to keep our voices for truth and social justice alive and strong so that we might fight the corruption and greed and lust for power of the GOP and their corporate masters. We must fight to reverse the trend towards government surveillance of citizens whether or not  we are guilty of anything other than patriotism . The Patriot Act was but one example of this trend. There have been many others: NDAA, FISA,the projected use of drones in American cities...all are efforts to control an increasingly restive population. But they are doomed to failure just like the dictators in Africa and the Middle East if we fight for our rights as they are given to us by God and the US Constitution. It is a fight of faith, personal and civil. It doesn't mean violating the separation of church and state. It means the exact opposite: it means upholding that gulf between the two in order to preserve our liberties. When the forces of religion, corporations and government merge, heaven help the people of the United States. We must be the voices and bodies to stop that awful possibility and reality. Occupy Wall Street may be one of the shining examples in this struggle; citizens uniting for a greater cause than themselves. That is, and will continue to be, the great hope for this country, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.


P.S.  I realize Sandy Levin voted FOR all the above awful legislation but on all other matters he has been and is on the side of justice and fairness. In addition, his opponent in the new MI 9th district is just awful and a Tea Party advocate. 

Mental Health and ACA

I have been to forum after forum about health care reform over the last three years and one thing I have noticed: All the talk is about physical health care. Literally NONE of the discussion has focused on MENTAL health. Yet, people without health insurance are just as much in need of mental health care services as they are for physical illness. 

This is demonstrated best by someone like me. I have been unemployed for 3 1/2 years and lost my health insurance about 18 months in. I lost my unemployment benefits six months later. So, I have NO personal income, no assets, no bank account but lots of stresses: creditors who harass me constantly, an elderly mother who has to work part time to keep us housed and fed, even though she has Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a condo worth only 1/5 of what we originally mortgaged it for. The longer I go without employment, the worse it gets, in every way. With no health care, my asthma remains unmanaged and uncontrolled. I am no longer able to see my primary care physician on a regular basis, so the anti-depression and anti-anxiety medications she prescribed for me are not monitored regularly.

The consequences of this combination of circumstances has been rather disastrous for me.  The longer I am unable to find a job, the worse I feel about myself and my circumstances. The more hopeless I feel. The more useless I feel. The longer I have no income, the more stress creditors put on me and the more desperate I feel. The longer  this goes on, the guiltier I feel about my mom and the more I feel that she's be better off without me. The worse I feel about myself, the less likely I am to be able to find a job. This cycle of despair and hopelessness has led me to become extremely depressed and suicidal. The depression indicates that perhaps my meds are not working or need to be adjusted, but I have been unable to afford to go to the doctor. So, last week, I planned to commit suicide. I decided to jump off an overpass head first. All my research showed that even at a relatively low altitude, a head first jump is most likely to be successful. Yes, I researched it. If I am going to do it, I do not want to fail and make things worse. 

As it happens, I chickened out because of my fear of heights. And also, because I am not unlike most people who attempt suicide. I don't necessarily want to die, I just want the pain to end. But the pain never ends, or so it seems. Fortunately, a person I never even met in person (Facebook friend) suggested I call 211. I looked it up online and recognized one of the resources listed for help. I am now getting help but so many other people are not so lucky. If I had health insurance, this would never have gotten this far because I'd have been monitored by my primary care doctor, or, failing that, would have been able to go to a covered treatment service. Without it, getting help before I succeeded at ending my life was a shot in the dark. How many people will have their shots in the dark miss and thus end their lives?  This is what the Republicans in Congress would have us live with as they continually attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. They are SO heartless, they do not care if hundreds of thousands of people end up committing suicide because they have no health care. Or that many more will be homeless because of their untreated mental illness...What IS this country becoming that those who are elected to represent ALL the people ignore the pain of the "least of these"?  

So when you think about health care and health care reform, please do not forget about mental health.

Republican Pharisees

I find it fascinating that a government body (The US House of Representatives) which meets for a maximum of 4 days per week (more usually 3 1/2 T-Th) can sit and debate taking away affordable health care from the American people but it has not, in 1 1/2 years, acted to create ONE American job. The Republicans spent all day debating the repeal of the AHCA, which has just been declared to be constitutional by the US Supreme Court. They sit and they waste time while REAL people are REALLY hurting in this country! They allow the CROOKS (banks) of this country to accrue TRILLIONS of dollars while not ONE of them has been jailed for destroying the nation's economy. They sit there and insist that the nation's wealthiest people need their tax cuts while they equally insist on paying for those tax cuts on the backs of the poor. 

The Republicans often identify as conservative Christians. They can call themselves anything they like but their ideology is the furthest thing from any of the teachings of Jesus. They ARE, however, pretty much right in line with those of the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' day. If Jesus were here today, based on the words in red in the New Testament (and the Prophets in the Old), He would condemn the GOP in the strongest possible terms, especially the ones who profess to follow Him. The Biblical record is clear: G-d Judges those who oppress the widowed, the poor and the sick and imprisoned. If those in the Republican party and the 1% who call themselves Christians do not repent and turn away from evildoing they WILL be Judged. Count on it. This IS the Word of G-d (Isaiah through John).

P.S I am NOT the agent of Judgement nor is anyone I know or do not know. Judgement usually comes in the form of the consequences of our own actions, not at the hand of someone else.