Seeking the Women's Vote
Posted on Saturday, November 01 @ 00:00:00 CDT
Topic: From the Editor's Desk
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 I have always been an advocate of the individual's right to vote and
what should be their "voice" in government (very lacking in recent
times), and particularly Women's Rights. The latter has been a hot
topic of conversation over the past few years and has been volleyed
around from candidate to candidate in the current Presidential election.
Both the Republican and Democratic candidates have put great effort
into gaining the women's vote. They speak of women's rights as if those
rights are a negotiable part of the issues. They shouldn't be. Women
are not aliens from another planet. We are not some rare form of animal
species. We should share equal rights with men. However, we don't.
Great strides have been made this year with a woman vying for the
presidency (Clinton) and with a candidate choosing a woman (Palin) as
his running mate. But that does not make up for women trying to survive
on unequal pay, unfair consideration for jobs and promotions and the
chauvinistic attitude towards women's health issues. What we need is a
modern day Abigail Adams to speak out for women and life in general.
Some readers may ask what Mrs. Adams has to do with all of this. Yes,
she was a president's wife and achieved her place in history at her
husband's side. However, many people (other than historians and
students) have no idea of what she tried to accomplish and what she
actually did accomplish. I wrote a short piece on her awhile back and
have included it below:
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Abigail Smith Adams, born on November 11, 1744 at Weymouth
Massachusetts, was probably the most influential woman of her day. In
the mid-1700s, only boys received formal education; girls were taught
at home -- useful, practical things like cooking, sewing, and other
domestic chores. However, Abigail's curiosity spurred her intelligence
and she became a voracious reader of everything at hand, including the
Bible, history, sermons, philosophy, essays, and poetry.
At the age of 19, she married John Adams in 1764. Over the next 10
years she bore three sons and two daughters. She looked after their
family when John was traveling and became an avid letter writer.
Intelligent and broad-minded, Abigail wrote hundreds of letters in an
excellent English style that recorded the history of our young country
and the many perils it faced on the road to independence. A terse and
vigorous letter writer, she fearlessly expressed her opinions in
private and in public. Her letters -- pungent and witty -- detailed her
life in times of revolution. They
tell the story of the woman who stayed at home to struggle with wartime
shortages and inflation, to run the farm with a minimum of help, and to
teach their children when formal education was interrupted. Most of
all, they tell of her loneliness without her dearest friend -- her
husband.
She became a trusted and influential political adviser to her husband
and was ahead of her time with many of her ideas. She opposed slavery
and believed in equal education for both boys and girls, and made sure
that
her own daughters received a good education. The American Revolution
could have been a different kind of revolution if things had transpired
as they began. During that time period when our forefathers (and
foremothers) were making great strides towards human rights, Abigail
Adams wrote to her husband, John, in 1776 to ask him to...
...remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them
than
your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the
husbands... If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies,
we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves
bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation...
It seems that John listened to her advice at first. In fact, the early
drafts did include womens rights, but the male writers of this great
do*****ent decided to omit womens rights in the final draft. This single
incident could have changed history for women dramatically. Instead it
was over 144 years before some of these rights were granted. As a
result of
their oppression, women were compelled to join together as a group, and
spend well over a century fighting for their own natural-born rights,
and the fight is still ongoing.
Many of the Abigail Adams letters still exist, informing and delighting
readers today while providing rich clues to the past. Her letters
detail events of the American Revolution. Her words help us better
understand the history of our nation and the current crises. She left
her country a most
remarkable record as patriot, Abolitionist, and early feminist.
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What I find most interesting is that Abigail Adams was a woman of her
time and ours. Many of the problems she faced with issues on economy,
education, employment, agriculture, politics and more are the same
women and their families are facing today. And she, like many of us
today, fought to make her voice heard. However, as women we don't have
to be feminists marching in a unified effort to make changes. As modern
women, we can raise our voices with our vote. This year, this election
is important for all of us and everyone -- each and every one of us --
must exercise your Right to Vote!
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