doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
woman
I don’t think I would have always called myself a feminist. I often use the word humanist or, as Alice Walker says, a womanist. I believe that anyone, regardless of gender, sexuality, age, physical being, or race, deserves to be equal with anyone else.
Perhaps this sounds like a given to you. Or, perhaps it sounds like something that is totally foreign. Whatever the case, I only know where I stand and why. I haven’t always been treated as an equal within relationships nor do I think that society always treats women as equals.
I want…I deserve…to be paid the same amount that a man would make if I have equal qualifications for a position. Women deserve to be considered as candidates for positions they are qualified for…as equals to men. Women’s bodies should not be legislated any more than men’s. I’m not a woman who wants to go to war, nor am I even remotely interested in being in the armed services, but many women are and because of that, we should be allowed and encouraged to join in any level or segment of the armed forces. We should, in all fairness, be a part of the national draft when it occurs.
We are not always equal in all things. This is a given. I will never have the upper body strength of most men that I know. I can live with that deficit. I do, however, have as much intelligence, patience, stamina, and fortitude as any man. And for that, I think that I should be held on an equal basis as any man for a job or a position that requires those specifications.
I could go on and on about women’s right to choose, about fighting against domestic violence, about supporting the Equal Rights Amendment, about joining NOW or other organizations or other issues that are dear to my heart.
I won’t.
Instead, I will give you links, let you read, and let you choose for yourself. We each have a role to live in life. It is up to us to make of it what we will. This is one step in which I do this. Other steps have been to volunteer for Planned Parenthood, to be an officer in the local chapter of NOW, and working with domestic abuse survivors. I have done all of these things and I think I will always work with these types of organizations. It is who I am.
What matters to you? Search it out.
Then do something about it.
These are links to sites that I find of interest in my quest for more knowledge, more understanding, and more tolerance.