When I think about the resistance to giving women the right to vote, I am reminded that the domination mindset has been part of human civilization, forever… except it hasn’t.
If you study the work of anthropologist and systems thinker, Riane Eisler, who wrote the path breaking book “The Chalice and the Blade” in the 1980s, you learn that human history had a goddess religion era before the era of male domination took over. Riane Eisler is still alive today in her early 90s and survived Nazi Germany by escaping to America as a young child. I believe that Kamala Harris becoming president can finally catalyze the transformation of society from one where men believe their power comes from dominating others to one where men see their true power comes from empowering others. Coincidentally, that’s what a great football coach does… Empowers others. And I love that Tim Walz was a terrific football coach.
The first time I was eligible to vote was in 2014. I voted to re-elect future-President Harris as AG of our state. I actually voted for a few Repubs that year on the state/local level who I judged to be superior candidates (the first and last year for that), but I distinctly remember thinking she was so obviously impressive on both presentation and policy that I didn't need to consider anyone else. I voted for her two years later for US Senate, the same cycle that I cast my ballot for Clinton for President (both in the general and primary - no offense, Bernie lovers.) Two years later, both my top choices in the Presidential Primary were women: Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar (I voted for the former), and in the general I voted gladly for President Biden (who immediately exceeded my expectations) along with making my home Senator the first female VP. Two years later, I am proudly supporting her at the top if the ticket. Her moment has come, and she has met it with gusto and aplomb.
I am a 29-year old man, and so far I have never NOT voted for a woman on a Presidential ticket. I've voted in multiple places and in each I supported women, whether for US Representative, state Assembly, mayor, etc. I have voted for people of various ethnicities and ages.
Thanks to the fights of the heroines in today's Letter, for people my age such a thing is simply *normal.* Thank gosh for that! Speaking bluntly, the idea that someone might have the sharper ideas but be less viable for a position if authority as the result of possessing boobs is ludicrous. When I say it offends me, I do not mean I am offended on behalf of women (who can take care of themselves), but that I am offended on behalf of my own intelligence. Sexism, like all other exclusionary -isms, is - above all else - just plain DUMB. Imagine all the amazing contributions we could have had as a human race if we had spent a bit less time committed to denying people the space to provide their contributions on account of frivolous surface differences and supposed inferiority. Any guys who still feel some sort of threat from a few more women running the show are the real wimps here, and need to grow a pair and get a clue.
Very much looking forward to this week's pomp and circumstance, along with any insider tidbits the Professor may be willing to provide on account of her well-earned invitation. Cheers!
The patriarchy is strong in Islam, the Catholic Church and the Baptist Church. We are reminded of this by stories we read in the MSM. But, it is usually the elephant in the room. It is obvious to most of us when the patriarchy assumes the right to "rule" over women, children, LGBTQ+ and people of color.
But it is rarely explicit in any story even ones written by Jennifer Rubin, Joyce Vance and even Professor Richardson.
Catholics like myself see it clearly, and we want to fight it from within. Many Catholic women don’t like it, and we see many bishops effectively ignoring their flocks and engaging in poor leadership.
I have a cousin who married a Catholic man over 50 years ago. One of their daughters was going to be a nun and a parochial school teacher but she decided to teach and leave the "nun hood??" Her other two sisters are agnostics and they have worked on their sister to see the Catholic Church through their eyes.
As long as the Catholic Church supports celibacy for priests and doesn't allow women to be priests it will always be a patriarchy.
about it. Funny how Baptists openly have men run the show, quoting scripture like a legal document, as if the gender biases of Jewish Paul of Tarsus et al two thousand years ago should be calling the shots.
Do priests really practice celibacy? the standing comment is that priests either have punch or Judy. Obviously I am not religious and definitely not catholic.
Any person who identifies as Catholic and thinks that some people are more important—meaning that other people are less important—is a Catholic in name only, aka a hypocrite. The word Catholic is Greek. It means universal, as in not less than universal.
A person who identifies as Catholic is implying that they are following the commandments of Jesus in the Gospel. When Jesus said, “love one another as I love you” (John 15:12), he didn’t mean “when conflicts inevitably emerge, you should tell each other ‘I’m right, you’re wrong, and this conversation is over.’” Instead, he meant “resolve the conflict.” And he unambiguously intended for his followers to adhere to that UNIVERSAL principle in word, in deed, and in every context.
Jesus didn’t stop individuals in the hierarchy of the Catholic church from violating his commandment. But he did do three things. First, he recognized that they did not know what they were doing, and so he forgave them (Luke 23:34). Second, he did not just let them get away with what they were doing. Instead, he called them—and their spiritual advisors—hypocrites (Matthew 6:5, 23:15, & 23:27). Third, he gave us all a good example by acknowledging when he misjudged others (Matthew 15:21-28). As for me, all I can do is try my best to follow his example.
Full disclosure: I left the Catholic church half a century ago and never returned. But I recognize there are lots of people like you, Kathy, fighting from within. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.
Jesus spoke long and loud against the hierarchy of the Temple and for that reason they aided and abetted the Romans in crucifying him. The Catholic hierarchy did not exist for him. I like your interpretations of what Jesus meant which is also a book by Garry Wills which I have recommended to those who seem to have forgotten what he said.
I don't blame that upstart Jew for how mere mortals have misunderstood his message. Was Paul paying attention? Interesting that he should have been "illuminated" on his way to Damascus... Syria is a terrific example of Paul's misogyny.
Oh Amen. I finally had it with the church and the men who run it. My faith is fine; it’s the all-male fraternity I cannot abide. With their capitulation to the repub agenda, making outlawing abortion their ‘pre-eminent priority’ chalking up the death of women as just another cost of business as usual, their continued protection of predators 23 years after the explosion of abuse, and—because I worked for a bishop and his “men” who could not deal with a professional —even though they hired me for it and I saw corruption first hand, I’d had all I could stand. My several priest friends understood, and they considered my leaving their loss.
In the 40's and 50's every Catholic family wanted at least one son to become a priest and one daughter to become a sister or nun. And in many families it happened. Then in the late 60's and 70's the nuns and sisters started coming home. Looking back, that was the first sign that the institutional Church was losing its grip on its members, a trend which continues to this day.
In many ways, the RCC hierarchy remains a bastion of male domination, however otherwise it is phrased. Almost seems ironic that religious institutions anchor around it, as Paul said, men are made in the image of God, but women in the image of "man". Good luck with seeing the Catholic hierarchy advancing female priesthood, but you never know! If a move took place under the current state of affairs, I suspect an open and total split would take place.
Kathy. the sexism and utter patriarchy are the reasons I left the Catholic Church as a teen. I am glad you are trying to work within it. I have known so many strong and intensely capable women in the church but they were ignored or patted on the head (figuratively, I think) and told "ah there, honey, just help the poor, teach, do your little services and all will be well." That was particularly directed to nuns for whom I have enormous respect. I would have valued a leadership role in the church but knew it would never happen. However, I am a UCC minister and am very happy with the role I have been able to play. I would love to see woman priests in Catholic churches. Unfortunately, so much of the church is trying to go backward and restrict the church to male leadership, women doing the work of the church, and men being seen as superior to women in every way unless the women are virgins like Mary or possibly mothers who don't make demands of anyone in authority. Then there's their fear of LGBTQ persons and lies about them and that hatred of LGBTQ persons being God's will or something. Ugh! You certainly have a continuing challenge. Fortunately you are not alone in the struggle!
Gary, in my elementary school teaching days, my collaborating colleagues and I made sure to teach an inclusive history where we could, including Black, Native, Latinx, Asian, men and women, gay and straight wherever we could. That required a lot of research and some of these people are starting to be represented in books targeted to children. More are needed. These are just the kind of books that are banned. We had a text that talks about how in Seneca Falls, the Haudenausaunee (Iroquois) women had a level of political power in their communities as the people who picked the chiefs and could remove them.
This gave White women in the area the idea that they could have more autonomy and say over what goes on politically, probably no coincidence that the Conference in Seneca Falls began. Also, Frederic Douglas was there and he was a staunch supporter of women's suffrage by all account. Like King, he understood that we are all so free as the least free among us.
I am glad to see Prof. Richardson including Black women in the narrative. During the pandemic a colleague and I took our students to a VIRTUAL exhibit and tour on the right to vote which was inclusive of different group, in NYC. I do not remember the museum. Was a good tour. Here is a story of Latinas in the struggle. https://www.womenshistory.org/exhibits/representation-hyphen-latinas-fight-womens-suffrage
Thank you Linda. Somehow that just wasn't part of any of the history we learned in Nebraska schools.
John Fugelsang hosts a weekly podcast with native Americans and Simon Moya-Smith. It is played on Progress Radio at least twice a week. Progress Radio can be heard on Sirius/XM station 127 or you can stream it.
This week I learned there are 521 abandoned Uranium mines on the Navajo Reservation. Not surprisingly cancer is prevalent among the residents that live on he Res. While Norma Rae exposed the cruel and ruthless corporate greed involved in processing Uranium for power plants it never mentions the mining process and the dangers to the miner's and the residents.
Gary, that show sounds very interesting. I once took a group of Black and Mexican girls to the Navajo reservation as part of a program for Urban children. Our visit was a really powerful experience too. A longer story about that. Many years later, my daughter's class had their eighth grade trip rafting down the Colorado river and then staying with a family on the Navajo reservation where they helped to dig irrigation ditches and to build the foundation for an additional room on the house for the family they were staying with. In exchange the mom, who was a master weaver taught them about weaving. It was a great experience for her. I am in Germany which usually does not have such shows. I am signed up for a publication that informs me on Native American affairs generally. Chicago has been trying to work with local people including indigenous in work that they have done to reclaim the lake front. Actually the poorer South Side is doing a nicer job than the wealthy north side in terms of restoring prairie. A friend who works at the Field Museum of Natural History, who has introduced me to Native Americans he works with and invited me to events at the Museum involving their new Native exhibit, was telling me that there was a tension between White and Native conservationists because White conservationists (which I have experienced too) want to leave a nature preserve pristine, with no trace of humans, where Natives say, we are part of nature we need to fit in too. It has made things like redeveloping rice growing difficult because the White "overlords" are saying that no foods can be removed. Of course you have to tell this to people whose greed knows no bounds, look at our tax dodging Oligarchs in the tech fields, but not to people who have inherited thousands of years of balancing mans needs in nature. So, that is something I taught our students is, that we can learn how to steward the land from people who plan for seven generations ahead to inherit this earth. That is something that so many could be learning from. When the Field Museum of Chicago, which stands on Potawatomi lands, gave the Gunn Lake Potawatomi an award for their conservation efforts, the Gunn Lake Potawatomi gave them their check back and an additional check in honor of the Field Museum's conservation efforts. A colleague of my friend, who is Cree Indian, did a fascinating discussion of the plants in our outdoor classroom. He learned about plants from his mom and aunts and they from their mom's and aunts. When I teach my young students about groups of people that they do not personally know, I try to approach the learning from the agency of the group. Conservation is one of the aspects we look at Native people's as being leaders in. I am constantly learning and growing. My mom and I have discussed how indigenous people's around the world inherit ways of living that are in harmony with the earth, and we would be well advised to seek their wisdom.
Gary Loft…thanks for mentioning informative programming on Sirius/XM 127…I recently discovered it on Sirius in my car. Now I understand how the ubiquitous right-wing radio talk shows that abound have influenced (dare I say, “brainwashed”?) many of our fellow Americans, especially those who listen to old-school radio during their work day.
I tuned in to Sirius/XM 127 on a two hour road trip last week and was thoroughly engrossed by the progressive leaning of the banter and the more serious dialogue like Fugelsang’s program. The miles flew by and I couldn’t remember passing through the towns in route to my destination!
Linda-Speaking at an 1888 conference sponsored by the International Council of Women in Washington DC, Douglass said “her right to be and to do is as full, complete and perfect as the right of any man on earth”.
His whole speech was powerful making the case that women had the right to express ‘thoughts that breathe and words that burn’. He was an unrelenting advocate for women’s rights.
How about Trump walking on stage at the RNC convention to the song “It’s a Man’s World” ignoring the line that “it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman or a girl”.
He had an opportunity to choose a woman for VP-it might have done him some good but he just couldn’t do it. How could anyone elect someone as president who has no respect for more than half of our population???
Gina, I like that Trump chose the sinking ship Titanic theme song for a rally in Montana, although Celine Dion called out his campaign for not getting her permission. I hope that song truly represents his campaign. Today, Robert Hubbell showed a headline from the New York Post calling Kamala's economics Kamunism. https://nypost.com/cover/august-17-2024/
I would like to see someone like The Guardian, with a cover of Trump looking like Hitler titled Traschism. That is how he behaves and where all of his ideas belong. In fact, since my book club is reading and discussing Project 2025, I can say that if she just promised not to undo the good done by Roosevelt, Obama and Biden, she would have a winning platform. Then, she needs to let people know what they have done, that Trump wants to take away. Hard fought battles for changes we needed, can be deleted with the stroke of the auto-signature, and can take decades to reinstate.
I really like being a bit more enlightened by such details in history. I suspect the Project 1776 people would never provide such real historical data.
When I was writing my thesis (I should have been in women's studies, but didn't know that at the time, however I was in fascinating program), I did a fair amount of research about women artists in history (starting in about the 1500/1600's don't remember exactly), and was just fascinated (and pissed off) by the number of women painters, composers, etc., whom the history books just ignored. Oh, also, women business owners. And in reading The Invisible Woman (they made a movie about it - I recommend both the book & the movie), I learned a bunch about how women could own & run theaters (just not appear on stage). (Side note: more about the patriarchy,I guess, the invisible woman was Ellen Ternan, Charles Dickens' mistress for the last 12 years of his life. I'll never see Dickens' in the same light again - he was a total pig to his wife, and forced her to give Ternan a brooch as a gift, if I'm remembering correctly.)
Jocelyn, I am going to see whether my daughter learns this about Dickens on her own, an author I really liked, but if not, I will share this with her. I was going to say that when she was in fourth grade she had to make a cube about a scientist/mathematician with a picture on one sides and then some bibliographical stuff on other sides. So, she and her best friend looked for women scientists. After reading about centuries of women who could only pursue science if their father, brother or husband supported then she chose Emmy Nöther a woman who was at the same university where my Husband got his PhD, the University in Göttingen, Germany, but her portrait was not among that of the famous men of math in the mathematics department. I convinced my husband that he had to say something to his former department for his daughter's sake. Later on we saw her bust included. An afterthought. Einstein considered her ideas critical to the underpinnings of modern physics. Then we learned that Maria Goeppert Meyer, and her husband went to the U of C after they had both been doing research elsewhere. Since the U of C had a nepotism rule to only hire one person in a family for pay, she was unpaid. However, it was her research, not his that won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1963. She also was from Göttingen. In both of my countries she was treated inconsequentially as a scientist, a crime! https://www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/maria-goeppert-mayer
Please share this 1-minute video from the Seneca Project about what Trump/Project 2025 want to do to woman as it highlights men literally saying the silent part out loud…”rethinking 19th Amendment” +
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven is a great book on the Catholic view of women and sex. The church fathers knew the power of sex. My view is that Christianity rose in a milieu where women had no legal standing and always had to belong to some male....as was their status in both Rome and Greece. I just finished a bio of Agrippina, the mother of Nero and for a short time when Caligula was first emperor, he granted to his sisters the same status as Vestal Virgins, who were the only women in Rome who had some legal standing. Of course, the sources are full of misogyny and make her into some uppity woman who flaunted the rules and did not stay quiet all the time. Eventually Nero had her murdered, although it took three tries. It's too bad that Paul prevailed and now we are stuck with his view in Christianity.
"Fuck the Patriarchy." indeed! The truth is that the patriarchy is strong in pretty much all religion: Jewish, Mormon...etc. Essentially, the purpose of religion is to control and having men at the top has been its history. And that's the problem with today's republican women who think they are sanctified by their church, synagogue, or mosque to "carry on" for the sake of humanity. They've, too often, and essentially agreed, to give up their right as full partners in a union between them and a man. And well too often, they've endured abuse in many forms-either intellectual and emotional abuse or physical abuse. Full disclosure: I'm an atheist. However, my nonbelief leaning in a God has nothing to do with preventing others wishing to believe in "a higher power." That's their business, not mine. My concern is outing the religious right (especially) on their hypocritical stances in "freedom." And wrapping all that up in their religion is what brings dangerous, abnormal, and subhuman ideas to the forefront.
Riad - I agree with your analysis. I am non-theist as well. The native Americans look at the Earth as being their brother and sister. We are all parts of the whole and need to be good stewards to the earth.
Compared to many cultures around the world, we are not good stewards.
And it doesn't help to have a patriarchal culture which diminishes the efforts of women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community.
Maybe we should start asking the question, "Were you better off 4,000 years ago (the approximate start of Judeo-Christianity)?" I'd make the argument that patriarchy has brought little else than war, weaponry, climate change, and disparity. Put a woman in charge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FciQeRGYFlw
I think all religions are male dominated. I came to the conclusion in my early 20s that It's the bully system. I'm bigger and stronger so you must obey me. Then it becomes generational conditioning... what I have come to call the belief system. It's what people believe and know is true and if they think about it, they don't know why they think that way.
It's been pretty explicit in these Letters! And especially in HCR's Politics Chats....her explications of the 2025 project alone contain many references to the misogyny and racism embedded in and driving Christian Nationalism...
Evangelize the oxymoron women who would support a candidate like Mark Robinson of North Carolina, who would eliminate women's; rights, including the right to vote, and to MAGAt women who support a molester for president.
Ruth Handler owner of Mattel and creator of the barbie doll, Mother Theresa, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Madame Curie, Susan B. Anthony, Junko Tabei (first woman to summit Mt. Everest and complete the 7 Summits), Amelia Erhart, even Taylor Swift who has broken records in the recording industry. There are so many more. Give us a chance and women can do great things. Remember Ginger Rogers did every that Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in heels.
As usual, Professor, you’ve presented the history of the fight for women’s right to vote in America so clearly. For people who don’t know it, your posts serve an important role in providing a context for the historic moment in which we’re living: a woman - a woman of color - is the candidate for President of a major political party. It’s truly an acknowledgment of the shift away from the power of the patriarchy.
I’ll continue off-topic. About 8 years ago (2015?) after we got rid of our democratic mayor for bonding 90 million dollars to build a ball park for a billionaire minor league club owner and almost needing to declare bankruptcy if not for the state bailing us out, I decided to run for mayor as a republican. I changed my affiliation (Hartford if exclusively democratic city) and my intent was a satirical one as in ole Pat Paulson running for president from the Smothers Brothers show. Often a republican candidate for mayor here is just a show. I was already formulating a position announcing discrimination against short people. Yes the republican town council would have hated me had I been selected. But an acquaintance who runs every cycle (he uses it to further miscellaneous business goals) presented as a cross-endorsement candidate and got the endorsement. I’ll never know the fun I would have had making crazy pronouncements as the official republican candidate for mayor of Hartford, CT.
Martin Luther King, Jr., reminded us that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” It bends when good citizens force the bending. We must go forward, not backwards.
Also a reminder - indigenous peoples did not get the right to vote until the 1960’s - some were again restricted from that right until the last election, and the debate has returned as to whether their universal ability to vote will be secured (part of the 200 state level voting restriction laws past in the past few years).
I'm with you 100 percent. I even have a bias toward women doctors, dentists, lawyers, professors, advisors etc. because I figure women have to work harder and put up with a whole lot more general shit than most men do in order to achieve success in the professions from which they were -- until quite recently -- summarily excluded.
Ever heard of an "old girls' network"? Me neither.
And then while doing their professions, they are still usually -- though not always, by now -- stuck with all the housework and daily childrearing and caring for ailing parents and balancing that with having to remember a million small things, like whose birthday is when and reminding their males not to be so beastly, at least in public.
Good. I'm glad to say all that at one time.
I'm 72, very happily married to my one and only wife (40th anniversary a couple of weeks ago) who has almost always been the principal wage earner in our family. I have always voted for Democrats without exception, and I have always voted for women whenever they seemed to be viable candidates who would be more likely to offer help to the less-lucky among us and less likely to fire off the first nuke.
Women are the greatest, also as President I am quite sure.
Amen or A-women, on women working harder. My wife and I met Donna Shirley, former manager of Mars Exploration at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shortly before the Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner rover landed on Mars. Catherine P. of RAND Corp, another founder member of the Society of Concurrent Engineering that arranged the visit had encouraged bringing my wife since we were short of the group size we had asked to be able to attend. All the men listened to a male presenter while Catherine, my wife and I got to talk with Donna.
In my high school Physics class in 1963, our instructor wouldn't start the class and kept repeating that there was one too many students in the class, glaring at the one young lady that dared to sign up for the class, each of 3 or 4 times he repeated until she finally left. Thinking of that incident, I asked the two PhDs how hard it was for them to get their degrees. Both let out a huge sigh as if they were about to collapse before they started to describe what they had to go through.
Two of my classmates discouraged from science courses to business courses, one ended up as the trustee for the Smith College Endowment fund, the other the manager of purchasing for the Massachusetts Consortium for Higher Education that started from her position at Hampshire College and supported Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and UMass Amherst before growing to support 270 institutions the last I heard.
Makes me think we suppressed a huge amount of talent that could have made us so much better if we gave women (and others) equal opportunities.
Jim-one of my high school classmates in the 1970s forced the school to allow her to take a drafting course instead of home economics. She ended up being a top level engineer for a state’s transportation system.
Too much wasted talent indeed. The same can be said for Black people who were kept out of certain professions. Our nation can’t afford to waste talent!
I grew up in Silver Spring, MD (late 60's/70's) - a stone's throw from NASA Greenbelt and Naval Ordnance Lab in White Oak. It was a breeding ground of technical and mathematical skills of the future in school. Lots of opportunities and lots of varied classes from welding to calculus.
I moved "out to the county" in nearby area and the 30 minute drive was out into the "country" where HS was strongly dominated by sports. Surprisingly, the math classes, esp. the advanced levels, chemistry, and physics had a lot of women in them. In fact, boys were not so much encouraged as the sports were a big factor.
Two of my most influential teachers in advanced mathematics were women that I hold today with very high regard. If only my teenage years allowed me to pay attention more to the schooling and less on extracurricular thoughts.
David Herrick, I appreciate what you say AND I do see an "old girls' network" dynamic in many places although I don't hear it called that. I find it where assemblies of group-think operate to homogenize opinion and make it uncomfortable or impossible for people who ask probing questions. I see it where *some* female leaders gain leadership positions in mostly-male hierarchical organizations but act to fortify males' rule (dare I say egos!). Sometimes I feel this at social gatherings where conversations are dominated by women who do good things for liberal causes for recipients who are unengaged and possibly even demeaned by the system of perceived neediness and providers of relief. For that reason, I especially appreciate Steve Brant's statement, "catalyze the transformation of society from one where men [participants] believe their power comes from dominating others to one where men see their true power comes from empowering others. Coincidentally, that’s what a great football coach does… Empowers others."
Thanks Joan. I, too liked Steve Brant's take on how to transform society, and the rest of your comment is certainly food for thought. It seems it is never enough to simply do good, and getting recognition for one's good-doing is a sort of pay-off, I guess. I'm sure I've fallen into that trap upon occasion. Also, it is sometimes difficult to simplify without over-simplifying. Or discuss LGBTQ things without tripping over pronouns and non-plural plurals and such things.
I guess a little embarrassment is a small price to pay for greater understanding.
Here, hear David ,et al 👏 Well said, thank you. That oppression by control has been the front runners of fragile egos highlights how many wonderful advances , abilities were- ARE! while thwarted , ignored,or silenced .
Equality still has a long road to fruition understanding how marvelously useful -in fact - complimentary the differences are.
Marvelous Letter, the commentary equally fascinating.
Thank you for your words, Will, so full of face validity, and yet the results so hard fought. Equality. I hope and trust that your generation understands this inherently and that we humans move on to more pressing matters, such as saving the planet. Thanks for being here - I wasn’t sure there were any readers of your generation.
I voted for Warren, too. Klobuchar is impressive. Joe Biden exceeded my expectations as well. And while I have never been fond of the Clintons, Hillary would have been an excellent and super capable president. I have always wondered what "Helsinki" would have been like if she had met with Putin instead of the Orange Puppet. I suspect the invasion of Ukraine might not have happened - or unfolded in a different manner.
Thanks for checking in Will, along with sharing your voting history. I, too, have voted for women each time there was an opportunity (starting with Mondale/Ferraro in 1984, our women governors in Oregon, and for Clinton in 2016. I am thrilled to stand in line and vote for Harris this time.
As much as I applaud your post, Will, I don't think boobs are the sticking point. Most if not all misogynists fear women's reproductive systems (the chalice, as Eisler would have it). Whether its the power of the pussy to entice them to their doom or the generative power of the womb, the frightened reaction is to control and suppress females. As Trump was a backlash to our first black president, we can expect the likes of Mark Robinson as a backlash to Kamala. We should absolutely put her in office and at the same time prepare for what will surely follow. I fear Gilead.
You give me hope for the future. I’m older, but not old- a part of GenX that suddenly seems to be emerging from the shadows. I feel like I have one foot in the past due to my parents being baby boomers, and one foot in the very here now thanks to having children who are in their 20’s and 30’s, not to mention being a bit of a rebel myself in refusing to just get old. Anyway, it’s wonderful you spoke up and spoke your mind. I was beginning to think that our country was only rehashing the idea of the “good old days” which were only good for a certain small segment of society. Thank you for getting my day off to a great start and take care!
Thanks Will, from Cal. You seem much more experienced than 29.
About the amazing contributions we could have had: women did make many important and significant contributions. Those contributions were revealed under the name of her husband or employer most of the time. Not even an honorable mention for the woman creator/inventor.
Thank you thank you! I am 74 and while I have a husband who thinks like you, I know a large majority of older white men do not. The times are changing and it won’t be easy but it’s necessary.
I'm 71. My mother had a PHD, her sister had a PHD, and their mother was one of the first four Coloradan women to earn a PHD. As a young kid, occasionally I invoked the traditional male-dominated hierarchy, and the privilege that entailed. My parents made sure I understood that was not how things worked in our house, and it was not how they should work in the world at large.
And I'm quite happy we Democrats are fielding a woman for President this go 'round. I had a HARRIS bumper sticker on my car--which I made--the day after Biden passed the torch.
As a retired educator I have always maintained that we cannot afford to waste any good minds just based on the gender, race or other issues that are used to divide us. It is just plan dumb as you so rightly point out. I have great hope for the younger generation to take us forward to a more perfect union that includes everyone.
I'm glad, Steve -- it's my honor -- to be first to give yours a "like" here.
Yours makes up for mine (posted a few minutes earlier) in that you specify gratitude for the women whose long fight Heather celebrates in hers today.
I'd skipped over that good substance and litany of hers -- but you got to the heart of it: how men will dominate, or so often think they can, and by corruption, by money, by hook or crook will attempt even the most crude, vulgar domination. A pathetic fact to which the orange felon speaks (and gestures his accordion-hands, and as in vaudeville also bing-bing-boing-bongs), also to which the fantastically corrupt Clarence court testifies.,
The US is slow in so much. We falsely brag about our superiority, when mostly we're not. Almost all developed countries have universal health care and support for the elderly and disabled. They have much more vacation time and take it. I could go on, but America needs to work on being as exceptional as it claims.
We are, and it’s shameful at how long we have perpetuated misogyny and racism as a nation. I fear that instead as serving as a beacon to the nations, we are looking more like a cautionary tale as our political institutions fail us. We have to save ourselves, as no one else will do so. Our political institutions are also failing us, and the Supreme Court majority is a primary example.
Correct Kathy. It takes a larger perspective to realize that the USA is not that "greatest Nation on Earth". And it takes more than a Mediterranen cruise to gain that perspective. Many European folks send their offspring to the US for an, oh so important experience to attend school, or to work for a year. Of course they mostly already have, at east, a rudimentary understanding of English. Most of my European work colleagues sent their children to other continents to gain some perspective. There are great American International private schools in most of the big European cities. I went to one in Vienna, Austria. My classmates are doing interesting work all over the world including America.
I so agree. We have 2 former exchange students in Vienna, one of whom is Hungarian applying for Austrian citizenship as he's concerned Hungary may be ejected from the EU due to Orban's aberrant policies. It is so impressive how many foreigners are able to discuss our politics knowledgeably when so few in the US can find other countries on a map. We all must live on this world together and I believe more female leadership may help us sustain the world longterm.
Very unlikely that Hungary will be expelled: "legally speaking, we don't have the apparatus to expel a member state". However, the EU does have other ways to deal with member states that breach its founding values:
Article 7
This article allows the EU to suspend certain rights of a member state if it persistently violates the EU's founding values. In the past, the possibility of activating Article 7 has been debated for events such as the Austrian coalition with the far right in 2000, the French government's expulsion of Roma in 2009, and a political struggle in Romania in 2012.
Expulsion from host member states
EU citizens or their family members can be expelled from a host member state for reasons of public policy, public security, or public health. However, these decisions must be based on personal conduct and comply with the proportionality principle, and cannot be made on economic grounds.
Important to note that it’s not the institutions that fail us since they are only as strong as the individuals who serve them. As flawed as VP Mike Pence has been in so many ways, he very likely became the most consequential VP ever by choosing to perform his specified duty and certifying the states’ electoral votes on January 6, 2020. It could easily have been the official end for this country on that day had he chosen not to.
The Supreme Court might be fine as an institution if indeed the conservative majority chose to abide by common sense, legal precedent, their own purported conservative principles and the Constitution. Sadly these individuals have failed monumentally and repeatedly. In any case, it is We the People as individuals who need to ensure that people of integrity represent these institutions. Vote Blue! The American experiment depends upon it.
America has, at times, been the model for suppression and repression. The Nazis studied the American South to figure out how to repress the Jewish, LGTBQ+, and disabled populations in addition to any they deemed inferior.
Nazis also looked to eugenics movement in some US states in the 20's as a basis for T4 killing of disabled children by Nazis. Right now US and GOP are morphing into a Christian Taliban. So much for being shining city on the hill.
I agree! Of course, when it finally happens here in America, that will be a cultural tipping point for the world, unlike the same occurrence in other countries. I don’t say this out of ego because in many ways, America really is lagging behind the world. So, when it happens here, it won’t be about us leading the world … it’ll be about one of the most powerful countries in the world finally getting to this very special place in its cultural history.
For me, that means teachers in schools in many cultures decide, finally, that more than anything students -- and teachers -- need to get skilled in seeing, quoting, referencing others as individuals.
First in one's own classroom. Then more widely, in other cultures, especially in, from neighboring cultures traditionally seen only through stereotypes.
Promoting the personal in seeing others will also invoke seeing, referencing, quoting humanities, in one's own culture as well as in that of neighbors.
Wonderful thoughts and sentiments, Steve. "I believe that Kamala Harris becoming president can finally catalyze the transformation of society from one where men believe their power comes from dominating others to one where men see their true power comes from empowering others."...I had the same kind of thoughts when President Obama was elected, but look how difficult the aftermath and reaction of racists has been on America. I can't but help that the *f...ing* misogynists will do to women. But you are correct in that there will be an eventual transformation, as there is ongoing in Europe.
If ever there was a time for the women of America to unite, it is right now. No issue on the ballot is more important than gender vs. gender, a female/human rights' advocate vs. a misogynistic misanthrope., a leader of the American Taliban. The idea that they would force a 10-year old girl to carry to term a pregnancy caused by rape is proof that they do not have the tools to govern.
Wow! I'm so glad someone else brought up. Rianne Eisler.
I read the chalice and the blade years ago and a couple of subsequent books by her. She should have been internationally recognized for her scholarship and wisdom.
My concern is that even after all of these struggles for civil rights in this country, we still have so many people who have the right to vote but do not vote.
And probably even more importantly when this decisive presidential election in front of us, we have an electorate with a large percentage of people who will be at the polls, largely choosing ignorance.
As Heather always says, democracy is not an armchair sport. We all need to participate.
I’m happy you know her work as well. And I agree with you that our level of political participation is solo. It’s an embarrassment. I pray that we see a huge amount of first time voters in November!
The decline of patriarchy has been long and painful in coming, one vital statistic is the dramatic rise of divorce rates once equitable laws were put in place the past few generations and women increasingly entered the workforce. Majority of divorces have been initiated by women. Not to forget birth control, family planning and reproductive rights, now a battlefield again.
Nice short course Steve. Thank you. In the book, The Female Brain, author Luann Brizendine, MD, describes differences in male and female brains. Essentially , female brains are simply more efficient. This is primarily due to cell representation in the language generating area, mostly always in the left hemisphere. Perhaps instinctively, men have known this a good long while. Dr. Brizendines work makes for a good read as she has a very engaging 'storytelling style. Good verbal skills can lead to enhanced logic, but, not necessarily always, so don't get too far ahead of yourselves ladies. What's that? Oh, right. You already knew that.
Jim, it’s also interesting that the young female prefrontal cortex is fully wired earlier than the male. Far from being the overly-emotional sex, women’s cognitive abilities exceed male’s at that stage. I laugh when I think how I subconsciously bought into the societal belief in male superiority as a young woman and how shocked I was when I realized it was a myth.
My little nation has a long history in this country. Until the Christians came we were matrilineal and matrilocal, my clan derives from my mother and the entire female line. According to the DNA evidence I am descended directly from a woman who was born somewhere in east Asia about 15 - 18 thousand years ago. Although there is today a veneer of Christianity we still preserve our links to our past - my great grandmother was what we call a ᏓᏅᏫᏍᎩ, an herb doctor who knew the plants and how to properly draw them to you. And of course, we elected Wilma Mankiller as Principal Chief after she succeeded Principal Chief Swimmer who went to Washington, and then re-elected her until her health failed. Our women have always held high positions in our government from the days of the Beloved Women before the Christians came to today when our Principal Chief selected Kimberly Teehee to be our delegate to the House of Representatives. It is the Americans who have denied her seat guaranteed under the Treaty of 1866 and prior Treaties. For us empowered women are simply a fact of life - neither remote nor theoretical.
Steve Brandt I love that you mention how Walz exemplifies the leadership style that empowers rather than dominates. Just finished reading about Shackleton’s expedition to Antarctica and how he kept his men together by empowering and supporting them. Against incredible odds, they all survived. Walz and Harris, when elected, will demonstrate how effective real leadership can be.
I believe if we can keep the democracy/republic we will need all persons of this country to have and be educated to use the rights of the constitution. All people include every adult citizen not only voting but also supporting their rights and the rights of others. Then when there is conflict, change or differences of opinion and there should be, each person will at least have a respected voice. No matter color, age, ability, position, gender, sexual preferences or any other attempt to divide us into ‘us and them’
“They say I’m a dreamer…” but I hope I’m not the only one.
Thank you Steve Brant , “where men see their true power comes from empowering others”! Such a grown up mind set. That is what makes men hard to ignore… being grown up! Very attractive . 🌞🌍🪐
Learning about the goddess religion in grad school changed my life. I felt like I found a part of me that had been dormant. It was transformative. I read Eisler's book at the time but will re-read it again. Thanks for sharing.
Steve, excellent comment. ..... true power comes from empowering others. True of those who do not suffer the endemic of insecurities. It is those insecurities that are rampant in those who need to dominate. It is essentially the pathology that is the core of MAGAts especially their dispicalble leader.
Steve Bryant, thanks for the Eisler link. Re: football coaches, empowering others is one form of effective leadership. At first I was going to say that most good leaders empower others, but then realized there are other forms including charismatic and dictatorial leadership.
A wonderful letter tonight. Yes, Speak their Names! Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Virginia Minor, Mary Church Terrell, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Amelia Boynton, Rosa Parks, Viola Liuzzo, Constance Baker Motley. And countless others.
And Gloria Steinem and other brilliant leaders during the so called, Women's Lib movement of the 1960's and into the 1970's.
My wife pointed out yesterday some of the benefits men achieved from the Movement -- being able to stay at home and look after the kids, not being the primary bread winner, being able to work in traditionally female jobs like teachers and nurses and even clerks and wait staff, etc.
Gloria Steinem achieved so much with the help of many others, but Project 2025 and the Republican in Congress keep pushing the patriarchy on us.
Another benefit was that widowed women with children could finally have a say which allowed women to hold property and wealth, make financial decisions & have credit, and could work to support herself and children. This wasn’t possible for women in every state or at all at some time. This increased the likelihood of a man’s children to survive and thrive instead being at the mercy of a male next of kin’s decisions, the State, or wife’s next husband.
Many Women from that era who fought for equality are still alive today. It feels like it should be over a century ago. But just like American Democracy is in a tenuous position, rights and freedom for many of us can change back to zero.
White men think they’re safe, and they are in many ways, but not from abuse of authority or those who consider themselves better.
Permission to treat one group as less is to give permission for another group to treat them as less.
We either fight together for Equality For All or we eventually end up with Equality For None.
JJ, you can imagine all these ladies rolling over in their graves as they see their female ancestors’ rights being attacked 100 years later just as the right of black men to vote was under attack 100 years after the 14th amendment was passed. It seems that systemic privilege endowed by government or religion is hard to extinguish; like a poisonous snake, it hides in the corner until circumstances allow it to raise its venomous head and strike anew.
Thank you for giving us the full scope of the suffragist movement. My grandmother was one of thousands in the 2016 march in Chicago during the Republican National Convention, beaten with a baton and jailed for two weeks. She was one of the first women to vote in Illinois -- she passed on her passion for the right to vote to our mother who was part of the League of Women Voters in the Bay Area and manned the booth on every voting day. Today, it is more important than ever that we women vote! Mothers, talk to your daughters.....
I was well into adulthood before I put together that my father was born before the19th Amendment was ratified. What that meant to me was that the fully established right of women to vote had only been recognized in relatively recent history. I knew something of this in school. but an age in which everything that occurred before my birth seemed much longer ago than it does now. A lot of doublethink has been recognized and overcome even within my own lifetime. We cannot allow those with personal investments in arresting social progress gain the upper hand.
I recall studying in junior high (and not as part of the curriculum, but as extra credit) that Franklin Roosevelt was the first candidate whose mother could have voted for him for President. Wilson's and Harding's mothers were deceased, and Hoover was an orphan.
Tamara--brava to your grandmother! Misogyny is the last bastion of "acceptable" bigotry and bias in the world. It preceded prejudice based on skin color and religion and I fear it will be harder to eradicate and take more effort and more anger.
I would say that anti-LGBTQ+ bias is all too acceptable in what seems to be an increasing segment of society. Trans hatred as well. And the shaming/hating of fat people is alive and well across the board. It’s not as if progress is linear in these matters. Two steps forward, one back seems to be the pattern. And of course, the patriarchy is still alive and well, with depth and breadth.
I am proud to be a direct descendant of Julia Ward Howe. She accomplished so much, along with all the heroic women you mentioned, and so very many more "unsung".
Shirley Chisholm was a trailblazer in many respects. She was a formidable advocate and people didn’t take her campaign for President as seriously as they should have.
David-Thanks for posting this link. One of the reasons Black women are persistent advocates for equality, justice and democracy is related to HCR’s mention of “intersectionality”.
To be oppressed by gender AND skin color is to truly experience tyranny. We should not forget that too many White women, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton often excluded Black women saying that only “we educated, virtuous white women are more worthy of the vote”.
In 2024 we have a chance to elect someone who wants to represent all of us-no matter our gender or color. For America (and the world) I truly hope we succeed in doing this…the alternative is frightening when we consider that he’s “honored” to be the one who took away women’s rights by appointing lying and corrupt SCOTUS justices.
It is difficult for me to express how profoundly grateful I am to have Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters from an American" in my daily life. I am trying, without success, to recall how I first became aware of them. I wish I could remember who it was who told me so I could thank him or her. (At 73, my mind seems to be tossing off a lot of ballast, no doubt in order to stay afloat.)
I think the nation would be well-served if more political journalists, and pundits, were recruited from university history departments rather than journalism classes.
I know exactly who introduced me to the Letters. He lived, surrounded by his large garden stretching to the woods, from which the occasional bear emerged, on a hillside in Appalachia. He left this life just under two months ago, days before his 97th birthday.
My (now) 99 year-old stepmother recommended HCR to me a few years ago, and I have been hooked ever since. When I wake up in the morning (here in Italy) and turn on the phone, the first thing I check is ESPN to see if the Pittsburgh Pirates have won or lost, then the INGV latest earthquakes page (we experienced several big ones here in Le Marche in 2016) and then Heather Cox Richardson's amazing Letter. Then I can go pee....
On the west coast, I take care of the pee first, then the coffee, and then LFAA. I enjoy the later posts because I end up spending less time on the comments and don't end up watering the yard in the heat...
I love your description of being 73--I turned 73 last week. Definitely harder to stay afloat and so much is going on right now! I’m thrilled to be cognizant and a part of it in ways I haven't in the past.
There are reasons by Republicans rage against "woke" culture and see the universities as bastions of "radical" thinking. USA is in the throws of a major cultural conflict, a concentrated reaction to the advances of cultural liberalism, and dare i say it, DEI. Yes, journalists need more than a good dose of post secondary history / sociology. Not for nothing politicians like DeSantis are endeavouring to strip "critical race theory" or anything that makes whites feel badly about American racist history, from the schools and now post-secondary education. This is all atavistic reactionary extremism writ large.
Ralph, I found her on Facebook, and discovered Substack a short time later. I occasionally share her Facebook posts, but really enjoy this venue for conversation. I had a band friend (career Marine JAG and fabulous flute player) introduce me to the Professor.
Full circle is what you have described so succinctly, Heather. Suffragettes showed women the way to achieve equality. We still aren’t there yet, but almost. Still pinching myself that we have a woman, one of Asian and Black descent, who is running for the highest position in our nation. Kamala resonates with every day people and so does her pick for VP, Tim Walz. They make quite a team. Joe gave us a gift when he realized he needed to step aside. I don’t think I could have more admiration for him as I do. HE is still our president and I believe he will be giving a speech tonight. I look forward to this convention because it will unite all of us.
One of the things that troubles me (as so many things do these days), I worry about what I consider to be "generational awareness". The suffering and tragedy that previous generations were confronted with to earn rights which should be obvious (or self-evident). While you continue to do heroic (sheroic?) work connecting our past with the events of today, readers are connected at a cognitive level, not necessarily at an emotional level.
Generations of today might shrug their shoulders at voting while saying "what difference does it make?" or "I have too much to do" or the obstacles intentionally placed before them from the evisceration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by corrupt and so-called "Justices" like Thomas and Alito, preclude them from voting, whereas previous generations of people who were thought of as "less than white male property owners" were severely beaten or killed.
Much of the racist and/or willfully ignorant reaction to "Critical Race Theory" or, realistically, actual U.S. History is to prevent that emotional connection and awareness that catalyzes and codifies engagement. And as I often write, the three pillars of any attempt at a meaningful democracy are an educated, informed, and engaged society. The racist, misogynist extremists in the United States, represented by Heritage Foundation, Trump, MAGA, and others would like nothing more than an end to any aspirations of democracy in the United States -as they know, if there is anything closely approximating democracy, justice, and equality -they lose and are relegated to the toxic garbage heap of history with the treasonous confederacy where they belong.
As a retired community college contingent professor of ESL, your "three pillars of democracy," creating an "educated, informed, and engaged society" formed the third part of our mission. The first was to give our students the opportunity to gain the skills to pursue the career of their choice, the second was to prepare our students to pursue further higher education, and finally, to prepare them to become thoughtful, engaged citizens. Community colleges join these three opportunities and responsibilities as a way to promote democracy while improving the lives of everyone, on both an individual and a societal level.
Betsy My 23 years as a community college professor (from age 58 to 80) ranked among the most professionally fulfilling in my life. Fortunately, I was permitted to teach a wide range of subjects including SOCIETAL DISCRIMINATION—THE WHAT AND THE WHO FROM PATRIARCHY TO THE PRESENT.
I am appalled that today such a topic could not be taught in an increasing number of state colleges.
Republican-dominated state governments, including my own state government in an Ohio, are becoming increasingly authoritarian. The states are laboratories of authoritarianism and hostility to small d democracy, or self government by, for and of the people. They are actively engaged in censoring books and ideas, but it will be a failure. People are not stupid, and they know what the states are doing.
Kathy, I’m not sure people do know what the states are doing. I’m an engaged consumer of news, and without David Pepper (as you and I have discussed before), I don’t think I would know the depths of corruption we face here in Ohio. I don’t think any of my irl friends know. How do we fix this? I don’t know.
The notion that Husted might be our next Governor is appalling. Ohio should be where Minnesota is. We have all the ingredients. Instead, we are slipping further and further down the rankings of states under our gerrymandered and so far permanent Republican dominance. Let’s hope Issue 1 passes despite its twisted wording.
Kathy Could you imagine my teaching SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EARLY JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, AND ISLAM in an increasing number of American states?
Even suggesting that the Gospels were written at different times for different purposes and were not historically consistent would propel me before an Inquisition and expulsion.
I am reminded of ‘education’ in Stalinist Soviet Union. The starving and killing of over 3,000,000 Ukrainians to fulfill their Five Year Industrial Plan never was taught.
I've had an interesting career, mostly in technology (and have been pleased to devote the last part of my career to writing, speaking, and causing "good trouble"). One of the last things I did as part of my more conventional career was to help modernize the applications, databases, and new cloud-based technology for the California Student Aid Commission. I viewed the effort I was leading as vital to democracy and truly honored to work with many in higher education, at the Community Colleges, Cal State University and University of California systems, all dedicated to providing an important educational experience for hundreds of thousands of students, and the administration of grants -not loans. Any society aspiring toward democracy must prioritize public education unfettered by political or religious extremism. The challenges future generations face with regard to climate and climate migration, natural resources, the rise of authoritarianism, and global security require our best educated and trained minds, not blind so-called patriotic hyper-consumers. Grateful for your work Betsy, Keith's, and all who work to educate students and shape what I hope will be a better, more peaceful, just, and equal future for all.
Thank you, George, for your work, and thanks to all those, whether or not we know them or their names, who have worked to help democracy thrive in our country and our world.
You have accurately summed up our current dilemma. This is the sort of thing you would never see in print or broadcast outlets given their tendency to engage in horse race coverage and their aversion to discussing serious policy issues. My dad mentioned to me yesterday that re-electing Trump would wreck our nation, and Project 2025 is their method to do it.
Still waiting, all these many many many years for the ERA to be passed. It’s the next step in full equality. Not sure what so many are afraid of if it does comes to pass. Sigh. Hope I will see its passage in my lifetime, so we’d better get on it quick!
Amen, Barbara! I have often said that I hope the ERA passes before I do. It was 46 years ago this past July that I marched on the mall with thousands of other women. A contingent from my hometown in Virginia was there, and I was asked to hold the banner representing us. I was surprised the next day to see a full photo of us on the front page of our local paper. The paper made it clear who was holding the banner and the article about it noted that I was Judge Cox's wife. Looking back on it, I realize I was probably set up for this by the paper, which had issues with my husband who was a Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judge. They were unhappy with him for not allowing them in the courthouse with cameras when a juvenile was being tried for committing a crime. (He always judged in the best interest of the child and was protecting the child's identity.) I guess the journalists thought it would embarrass him, but he was quite proud of me for marching. I was always careful about being political in our hometown, and had no idea that I would be singled out at such a large event 50 miles away. A lesson learned. But yes, the ERA is way past due!
If all women and the people that love them voted for Kamala, she would be the next president. After recently meeting several women who don’t believe a woman should be president and who are steadfast in their resolve to vote for trump,(I’m serious as a heart attack) I am frightened and disheartened. It would be the epitome of disaster if women helped put a dictator into office who closed the right to vote.
Patriarchy has regrettably survived because the patriarchy advocates get some women to buy into their systems of control, rather like former Bircher Phyllis Schlafly and real-life versions of Aunt Lydia in the “Handmaid’s Tale.”
Rich-CNN did a segment on White women in Iowa who said they’re voting for Trump. Unbelievable. In 2020 before Roe was overturned, 52% of them voted for Trump. Let’s hope that there are now more “woke” women whose eyes have been opened to how unfettered patriarchy hurts all of us.
Abortion is the key issue for my cousin and her husband in western Iowa. They don't care that DonOLD added $7.9 trillion to the national debt, or that DonOLD totally mishandled the pandemic at every turn. Or that he cost farmers billions of dollars with his Chinese tariffs. Many farmers were forced into bankruptcy because China cancelled grain orders.
And we all paid for the $50 billion ag bailout to try and make up for the loss of income because of the tariffs.
When they throw doctors in jail for up to 99 years for performing an "unauthorized" life saving procedure I'm out. Another party will need to rise from the ashes before I can vote for anyone but a Democrat or Independent.
There were faint whispers of the suffragette movement in my education, mostly photos of women marching in the streets wearing white. What we REALLY heard nothing about was the whole ugly and brutal history of slavery and the near genocide of indigenous peoples. And the multiple times that we came very close to having our democracy turned into a Fascist state (see Rachel Maddow’s “Ultra” podcast). Even the US history professors and high school teachers knew little or nothing about the latter dark episodes. We are once again coming around full circle to an attempted coup and whether successful or not, we must fight against the banning of books and curricula that tell the unvarnished truth about our history.
Read about the recent Broadway hit SUFFS!! Better yet go see the show! It did my heart good to finally see the 19th amendment probably celebrated and The Iron Jawed Angels properly remembered!
So very true, there is very "messy" history there, and much unfinished business. We also need to remember that in many ways democratic government is a recent innovation, and at every stage there was a fight to be fought.
schools by and large are concentrated on skill development, but above all, rally around the flag patriotism, under a nationalist exceptionalism banner.
The great thing about conventions --- this one, too: it’s personal.
Crowd dynamics could enter, but I don’t think that will occur much among our good-hearted Dems in Chicago.
Still, anywhere in the world the personal can be scripted away, so group thinking can rule more. Abstractions can grow, slogans repeat. Life can sink more to the impersonal, in the way standardized testing pushes its rationality, hewing life to the linear, the categorical, simple causality – crowding out the complicated personal, negating individuals, their oddities, vulnerabilities.
When Lewis Powell published his memo, August 23, 1971, he and his far-right colleagues sought dominance of commerce. So first they went to war on humanities in schools. Those arts nurture, buoy the personal – quite opposite the impulses to number, own, control, mechanize, and package as do banks, businesses, religious sects, monarchies, oligarchies.
The rational and the packaged squelch what Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt longed for elsewhere, something he sensed as some “still, small voice.”
If you love, if you enjoy Heather’s history, Kamala and Tim’s America, it can be personal. And when one loves, one never wants to see any loved one hurt.
But an abstracted, rationalized world bids immunity from hurt. This, as that deeply corrupted Clarence court rules immunity for orange criminality, its fountainhead for billionaires buying corruption.
I am so excited to see history being written this week as the Democratic Party officially recognizes Kamala Harris as it's first Black/Asian/American/Female candidate for the highest office of our nation. Indeed, it has been a long time coming. Kamala stands on the shoulders of giants, the famous and the unknown, suffragettes ,and civil rights advocates who paved the way for her to stand as this candidate
Though a number of states had accorded women the right to vote, the Nineteenth Amendment was certainly not a slam dunk.
President Woodrow Wilson, faced with major, prolonged suffrage picketing of the White House, finally ordered arrests. With his acquiescence, a number of women were subjected to forced feeding and other humiliations.
Finally, in 1918, Wilson made a political right face and supported women’s suffrage. At the time, it was reported that he gave up a round of golf to address the suffrage issue.
Tennessee was the 36th state in which the Nineteenth Amendment was submitted for approval. It seemed that the it would be one vote short. A representative for eastern Tennessee had announced his intention to vote against the Nineteenth Amendment. Then he received a letter from his mother strongly ‘suggesting’ that he support her right to vote. Thus the Nineteenth Amendment was approved by a single vote—his.
When I think about the resistance to giving women the right to vote, I am reminded that the domination mindset has been part of human civilization, forever… except it hasn’t.
If you study the work of anthropologist and systems thinker, Riane Eisler, who wrote the path breaking book “The Chalice and the Blade” in the 1980s, you learn that human history had a goddess religion era before the era of male domination took over. Riane Eisler is still alive today in her early 90s and survived Nazi Germany by escaping to America as a young child. I believe that Kamala Harris becoming president can finally catalyze the transformation of society from one where men believe their power comes from dominating others to one where men see their true power comes from empowering others. Coincidentally, that’s what a great football coach does… Empowers others. And I love that Tim Walz was a terrific football coach.
https://rianeeisler.com
The first time I was eligible to vote was in 2014. I voted to re-elect future-President Harris as AG of our state. I actually voted for a few Repubs that year on the state/local level who I judged to be superior candidates (the first and last year for that), but I distinctly remember thinking she was so obviously impressive on both presentation and policy that I didn't need to consider anyone else. I voted for her two years later for US Senate, the same cycle that I cast my ballot for Clinton for President (both in the general and primary - no offense, Bernie lovers.) Two years later, both my top choices in the Presidential Primary were women: Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar (I voted for the former), and in the general I voted gladly for President Biden (who immediately exceeded my expectations) along with making my home Senator the first female VP. Two years later, I am proudly supporting her at the top if the ticket. Her moment has come, and she has met it with gusto and aplomb.
I am a 29-year old man, and so far I have never NOT voted for a woman on a Presidential ticket. I've voted in multiple places and in each I supported women, whether for US Representative, state Assembly, mayor, etc. I have voted for people of various ethnicities and ages.
Thanks to the fights of the heroines in today's Letter, for people my age such a thing is simply *normal.* Thank gosh for that! Speaking bluntly, the idea that someone might have the sharper ideas but be less viable for a position if authority as the result of possessing boobs is ludicrous. When I say it offends me, I do not mean I am offended on behalf of women (who can take care of themselves), but that I am offended on behalf of my own intelligence. Sexism, like all other exclusionary -isms, is - above all else - just plain DUMB. Imagine all the amazing contributions we could have had as a human race if we had spent a bit less time committed to denying people the space to provide their contributions on account of frivolous surface differences and supposed inferiority. Any guys who still feel some sort of threat from a few more women running the show are the real wimps here, and need to grow a pair and get a clue.
Very much looking forward to this week's pomp and circumstance, along with any insider tidbits the Professor may be willing to provide on account of her well-earned invitation. Cheers!
I often think that the cure for Cancer is in an Afghan girl who is denied the education that would bring it to life. (Off topic, but...)
"Fuck the Patriarchy." Emma Watson.
The patriarchy is strong in Islam, the Catholic Church and the Baptist Church. We are reminded of this by stories we read in the MSM. But, it is usually the elephant in the room. It is obvious to most of us when the patriarchy assumes the right to "rule" over women, children, LGBTQ+ and people of color.
But it is rarely explicit in any story even ones written by Jennifer Rubin, Joyce Vance and even Professor Richardson.
Catholics like myself see it clearly, and we want to fight it from within. Many Catholic women don’t like it, and we see many bishops effectively ignoring their flocks and engaging in poor leadership.
I have a cousin who married a Catholic man over 50 years ago. One of their daughters was going to be a nun and a parochial school teacher but she decided to teach and leave the "nun hood??" Her other two sisters are agnostics and they have worked on their sister to see the Catholic Church through their eyes.
As long as the Catholic Church supports celibacy for priests and doesn't allow women to be priests it will always be a patriarchy.
about it. Funny how Baptists openly have men run the show, quoting scripture like a legal document, as if the gender biases of Jewish Paul of Tarsus et al two thousand years ago should be calling the shots.
Do priests really practice celibacy? the standing comment is that priests either have punch or Judy. Obviously I am not religious and definitely not catholic.
I need to squeeze in here and link my song: "There's a Tampon Shortage." And there was on in 2022. One verse goes:
Smog is in said the Court again
Pro-choice dead as a right they said
Women lose and sing the blues
And pay, additional dues
So sad. Enjoy and feel free to post comment on my youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc8uqBvXU7c
Harris/Walz 2024
I’m not sure what celibacy has to do with it, but would like a better explanation.
I saw the sexism in the Catholic Church at 12. Left the church and never looked back. They are also the largest pedophile ring on the planet.
Any person who identifies as Catholic and thinks that some people are more important—meaning that other people are less important—is a Catholic in name only, aka a hypocrite. The word Catholic is Greek. It means universal, as in not less than universal.
A person who identifies as Catholic is implying that they are following the commandments of Jesus in the Gospel. When Jesus said, “love one another as I love you” (John 15:12), he didn’t mean “when conflicts inevitably emerge, you should tell each other ‘I’m right, you’re wrong, and this conversation is over.’” Instead, he meant “resolve the conflict.” And he unambiguously intended for his followers to adhere to that UNIVERSAL principle in word, in deed, and in every context.
Jesus didn’t stop individuals in the hierarchy of the Catholic church from violating his commandment. But he did do three things. First, he recognized that they did not know what they were doing, and so he forgave them (Luke 23:34). Second, he did not just let them get away with what they were doing. Instead, he called them—and their spiritual advisors—hypocrites (Matthew 6:5, 23:15, & 23:27). Third, he gave us all a good example by acknowledging when he misjudged others (Matthew 15:21-28). As for me, all I can do is try my best to follow his example.
Full disclosure: I left the Catholic church half a century ago and never returned. But I recognize there are lots of people like you, Kathy, fighting from within. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.
Jesus spoke long and loud against the hierarchy of the Temple and for that reason they aided and abetted the Romans in crucifying him. The Catholic hierarchy did not exist for him. I like your interpretations of what Jesus meant which is also a book by Garry Wills which I have recommended to those who seem to have forgotten what he said.
I don't blame that upstart Jew for how mere mortals have misunderstood his message. Was Paul paying attention? Interesting that he should have been "illuminated" on his way to Damascus... Syria is a terrific example of Paul's misogyny.
Oh Amen. I finally had it with the church and the men who run it. My faith is fine; it’s the all-male fraternity I cannot abide. With their capitulation to the repub agenda, making outlawing abortion their ‘pre-eminent priority’ chalking up the death of women as just another cost of business as usual, their continued protection of predators 23 years after the explosion of abuse, and—because I worked for a bishop and his “men” who could not deal with a professional —even though they hired me for it and I saw corruption first hand, I’d had all I could stand. My several priest friends understood, and they considered my leaving their loss.
I left in 1958, after 8 years of catholic school. The rule in those day’s was spare the rod. You know the rest.
May I ask in what capacity you were hired? Sounds fascinating.
In the 40's and 50's every Catholic family wanted at least one son to become a priest and one daughter to become a sister or nun. And in many families it happened. Then in the late 60's and 70's the nuns and sisters started coming home. Looking back, that was the first sign that the institutional Church was losing its grip on its members, a trend which continues to this day.
In many ways, the RCC hierarchy remains a bastion of male domination, however otherwise it is phrased. Almost seems ironic that religious institutions anchor around it, as Paul said, men are made in the image of God, but women in the image of "man". Good luck with seeing the Catholic hierarchy advancing female priesthood, but you never know! If a move took place under the current state of affairs, I suspect an open and total split would take place.
Kathy. the sexism and utter patriarchy are the reasons I left the Catholic Church as a teen. I am glad you are trying to work within it. I have known so many strong and intensely capable women in the church but they were ignored or patted on the head (figuratively, I think) and told "ah there, honey, just help the poor, teach, do your little services and all will be well." That was particularly directed to nuns for whom I have enormous respect. I would have valued a leadership role in the church but knew it would never happen. However, I am a UCC minister and am very happy with the role I have been able to play. I would love to see woman priests in Catholic churches. Unfortunately, so much of the church is trying to go backward and restrict the church to male leadership, women doing the work of the church, and men being seen as superior to women in every way unless the women are virgins like Mary or possibly mothers who don't make demands of anyone in authority. Then there's their fear of LGBTQ persons and lies about them and that hatred of LGBTQ persons being God's will or something. Ugh! You certainly have a continuing challenge. Fortunately you are not alone in the struggle!
Gary, in my elementary school teaching days, my collaborating colleagues and I made sure to teach an inclusive history where we could, including Black, Native, Latinx, Asian, men and women, gay and straight wherever we could. That required a lot of research and some of these people are starting to be represented in books targeted to children. More are needed. These are just the kind of books that are banned. We had a text that talks about how in Seneca Falls, the Haudenausaunee (Iroquois) women had a level of political power in their communities as the people who picked the chiefs and could remove them.
https://www.onondaganation.org/government/clan-mothers/#:~:text=The%20Clan%20Mother%20is%20a,leader%20as%20well%20after%20warnings.
This gave White women in the area the idea that they could have more autonomy and say over what goes on politically, probably no coincidence that the Conference in Seneca Falls began. Also, Frederic Douglas was there and he was a staunch supporter of women's suffrage by all account. Like King, he understood that we are all so free as the least free among us.
I am glad to see Prof. Richardson including Black women in the narrative. During the pandemic a colleague and I took our students to a VIRTUAL exhibit and tour on the right to vote which was inclusive of different group, in NYC. I do not remember the museum. Was a good tour. Here is a story of Latinas in the struggle. https://www.womenshistory.org/exhibits/representation-hyphen-latinas-fight-womens-suffrage
These includes typically left out groups. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/vote-not-all-women-gained-right-to-vote-in-1920/
https://www.alicepaul.org/six-influential-aapi-women-in-suffrage-history/
Thank you Linda. Somehow that just wasn't part of any of the history we learned in Nebraska schools.
John Fugelsang hosts a weekly podcast with native Americans and Simon Moya-Smith. It is played on Progress Radio at least twice a week. Progress Radio can be heard on Sirius/XM station 127 or you can stream it.
Julie Francella and Simon https://player.fm/series/the-john-fugelsang-podcast/native-voices-with-julie-francella-and-simon-moya-smith
Every week I learn so much from the show.
This week I learned there are 521 abandoned Uranium mines on the Navajo Reservation. Not surprisingly cancer is prevalent among the residents that live on he Res. While Norma Rae exposed the cruel and ruthless corporate greed involved in processing Uranium for power plants it never mentions the mining process and the dangers to the miner's and the residents.
Gary, that show sounds very interesting. I once took a group of Black and Mexican girls to the Navajo reservation as part of a program for Urban children. Our visit was a really powerful experience too. A longer story about that. Many years later, my daughter's class had their eighth grade trip rafting down the Colorado river and then staying with a family on the Navajo reservation where they helped to dig irrigation ditches and to build the foundation for an additional room on the house for the family they were staying with. In exchange the mom, who was a master weaver taught them about weaving. It was a great experience for her. I am in Germany which usually does not have such shows. I am signed up for a publication that informs me on Native American affairs generally. Chicago has been trying to work with local people including indigenous in work that they have done to reclaim the lake front. Actually the poorer South Side is doing a nicer job than the wealthy north side in terms of restoring prairie. A friend who works at the Field Museum of Natural History, who has introduced me to Native Americans he works with and invited me to events at the Museum involving their new Native exhibit, was telling me that there was a tension between White and Native conservationists because White conservationists (which I have experienced too) want to leave a nature preserve pristine, with no trace of humans, where Natives say, we are part of nature we need to fit in too. It has made things like redeveloping rice growing difficult because the White "overlords" are saying that no foods can be removed. Of course you have to tell this to people whose greed knows no bounds, look at our tax dodging Oligarchs in the tech fields, but not to people who have inherited thousands of years of balancing mans needs in nature. So, that is something I taught our students is, that we can learn how to steward the land from people who plan for seven generations ahead to inherit this earth. That is something that so many could be learning from. When the Field Museum of Chicago, which stands on Potawatomi lands, gave the Gunn Lake Potawatomi an award for their conservation efforts, the Gunn Lake Potawatomi gave them their check back and an additional check in honor of the Field Museum's conservation efforts. A colleague of my friend, who is Cree Indian, did a fascinating discussion of the plants in our outdoor classroom. He learned about plants from his mom and aunts and they from their mom's and aunts. When I teach my young students about groups of people that they do not personally know, I try to approach the learning from the agency of the group. Conservation is one of the aspects we look at Native people's as being leaders in. I am constantly learning and growing. My mom and I have discussed how indigenous people's around the world inherit ways of living that are in harmony with the earth, and we would be well advised to seek their wisdom.
Gary Loft…thanks for mentioning informative programming on Sirius/XM 127…I recently discovered it on Sirius in my car. Now I understand how the ubiquitous right-wing radio talk shows that abound have influenced (dare I say, “brainwashed”?) many of our fellow Americans, especially those who listen to old-school radio during their work day.
I tuned in to Sirius/XM 127 on a two hour road trip last week and was thoroughly engrossed by the progressive leaning of the banter and the more serious dialogue like Fugelsang’s program. The miles flew by and I couldn’t remember passing through the towns in route to my destination!
Linda-Speaking at an 1888 conference sponsored by the International Council of Women in Washington DC, Douglass said “her right to be and to do is as full, complete and perfect as the right of any man on earth”.
His whole speech was powerful making the case that women had the right to express ‘thoughts that breathe and words that burn’. He was an unrelenting advocate for women’s rights.
How about Trump walking on stage at the RNC convention to the song “It’s a Man’s World” ignoring the line that “it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman or a girl”.
He had an opportunity to choose a woman for VP-it might have done him some good but he just couldn’t do it. How could anyone elect someone as president who has no respect for more than half of our population???
Gina, I like that Trump chose the sinking ship Titanic theme song for a rally in Montana, although Celine Dion called out his campaign for not getting her permission. I hope that song truly represents his campaign. Today, Robert Hubbell showed a headline from the New York Post calling Kamala's economics Kamunism. https://nypost.com/cover/august-17-2024/
I would like to see someone like The Guardian, with a cover of Trump looking like Hitler titled Traschism. That is how he behaves and where all of his ideas belong. In fact, since my book club is reading and discussing Project 2025, I can say that if she just promised not to undo the good done by Roosevelt, Obama and Biden, she would have a winning platform. Then, she needs to let people know what they have done, that Trump wants to take away. Hard fought battles for changes we needed, can be deleted with the stroke of the auto-signature, and can take decades to reinstate.
I really like being a bit more enlightened by such details in history. I suspect the Project 1776 people would never provide such real historical data.
That's funny. They are the ones banning this history from being told.
When I was writing my thesis (I should have been in women's studies, but didn't know that at the time, however I was in fascinating program), I did a fair amount of research about women artists in history (starting in about the 1500/1600's don't remember exactly), and was just fascinated (and pissed off) by the number of women painters, composers, etc., whom the history books just ignored. Oh, also, women business owners. And in reading The Invisible Woman (they made a movie about it - I recommend both the book & the movie), I learned a bunch about how women could own & run theaters (just not appear on stage). (Side note: more about the patriarchy,I guess, the invisible woman was Ellen Ternan, Charles Dickens' mistress for the last 12 years of his life. I'll never see Dickens' in the same light again - he was a total pig to his wife, and forced her to give Ternan a brooch as a gift, if I'm remembering correctly.)
Jocelyn, I am going to see whether my daughter learns this about Dickens on her own, an author I really liked, but if not, I will share this with her. I was going to say that when she was in fourth grade she had to make a cube about a scientist/mathematician with a picture on one sides and then some bibliographical stuff on other sides. So, she and her best friend looked for women scientists. After reading about centuries of women who could only pursue science if their father, brother or husband supported then she chose Emmy Nöther a woman who was at the same university where my Husband got his PhD, the University in Göttingen, Germany, but her portrait was not among that of the famous men of math in the mathematics department. I convinced my husband that he had to say something to his former department for his daughter's sake. Later on we saw her bust included. An afterthought. Einstein considered her ideas critical to the underpinnings of modern physics. Then we learned that Maria Goeppert Meyer, and her husband went to the U of C after they had both been doing research elsewhere. Since the U of C had a nepotism rule to only hire one person in a family for pay, she was unpaid. However, it was her research, not his that won a Nobel Prize in physics in 1963. She also was from Göttingen. In both of my countries she was treated inconsequentially as a scientist, a crime! https://www.nobelprize.org/womenwhochangedscience/stories/maria-goeppert-mayer
Please share this 1-minute video from the Seneca Project about what Trump/Project 2025 want to do to woman as it highlights men literally saying the silent part out loud…”rethinking 19th Amendment” +
https://x.com/senecaprojectus/status/1810372496878874790
📣
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven is a great book on the Catholic view of women and sex. The church fathers knew the power of sex. My view is that Christianity rose in a milieu where women had no legal standing and always had to belong to some male....as was their status in both Rome and Greece. I just finished a bio of Agrippina, the mother of Nero and for a short time when Caligula was first emperor, he granted to his sisters the same status as Vestal Virgins, who were the only women in Rome who had some legal standing. Of course, the sources are full of misogyny and make her into some uppity woman who flaunted the rules and did not stay quiet all the time. Eventually Nero had her murdered, although it took three tries. It's too bad that Paul prevailed and now we are stuck with his view in Christianity.
"Fuck the Patriarchy." indeed! The truth is that the patriarchy is strong in pretty much all religion: Jewish, Mormon...etc. Essentially, the purpose of religion is to control and having men at the top has been its history. And that's the problem with today's republican women who think they are sanctified by their church, synagogue, or mosque to "carry on" for the sake of humanity. They've, too often, and essentially agreed, to give up their right as full partners in a union between them and a man. And well too often, they've endured abuse in many forms-either intellectual and emotional abuse or physical abuse. Full disclosure: I'm an atheist. However, my nonbelief leaning in a God has nothing to do with preventing others wishing to believe in "a higher power." That's their business, not mine. My concern is outing the religious right (especially) on their hypocritical stances in "freedom." And wrapping all that up in their religion is what brings dangerous, abnormal, and subhuman ideas to the forefront.
Riad - I agree with your analysis. I am non-theist as well. The native Americans look at the Earth as being their brother and sister. We are all parts of the whole and need to be good stewards to the earth.
Compared to many cultures around the world, we are not good stewards.
And it doesn't help to have a patriarchal culture which diminishes the efforts of women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community.
Maybe we should start asking the question, "Were you better off 4,000 years ago (the approximate start of Judeo-Christianity)?" I'd make the argument that patriarchy has brought little else than war, weaponry, climate change, and disparity. Put a woman in charge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FciQeRGYFlw
I think all religions are male dominated. I came to the conclusion in my early 20s that It's the bully system. I'm bigger and stronger so you must obey me. Then it becomes generational conditioning... what I have come to call the belief system. It's what people believe and know is true and if they think about it, they don't know why they think that way.
It's been pretty explicit in these Letters! And especially in HCR's Politics Chats....her explications of the 2025 project alone contain many references to the misogyny and racism embedded in and driving Christian Nationalism...
I often have similar thoughts - of all the young potential talent squandered in cruel and unnecessary wars throughout the world.
Evangelize the oxymoron women who would support a candidate like Mark Robinson of North Carolina, who would eliminate women's; rights, including the right to vote, and to MAGAt women who support a molester for president.
Reminds me of the joke from 2020 election cycle, "A woman voting Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders."
Sociologically, men at every level, do the killing, handy 100%, that includes suicide. You know the truism, "there will always be war".
Ruth Handler owner of Mattel and creator of the barbie doll, Mother Theresa, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Madame Curie, Susan B. Anthony, Junko Tabei (first woman to summit Mt. Everest and complete the 7 Summits), Amelia Erhart, even Taylor Swift who has broken records in the recording industry. There are so many more. Give us a chance and women can do great things. Remember Ginger Rogers did every that Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in heels.
As usual, Professor, you’ve presented the history of the fight for women’s right to vote in America so clearly. For people who don’t know it, your posts serve an important role in providing a context for the historic moment in which we’re living: a woman - a woman of color - is the candidate for President of a major political party. It’s truly an acknowledgment of the shift away from the power of the patriarchy.
I’ll continue off-topic. About 8 years ago (2015?) after we got rid of our democratic mayor for bonding 90 million dollars to build a ball park for a billionaire minor league club owner and almost needing to declare bankruptcy if not for the state bailing us out, I decided to run for mayor as a republican. I changed my affiliation (Hartford if exclusively democratic city) and my intent was a satirical one as in ole Pat Paulson running for president from the Smothers Brothers show. Often a republican candidate for mayor here is just a show. I was already formulating a position announcing discrimination against short people. Yes the republican town council would have hated me had I been selected. But an acquaintance who runs every cycle (he uses it to further miscellaneous business goals) presented as a cross-endorsement candidate and got the endorsement. I’ll never know the fun I would have had making crazy pronouncements as the official republican candidate for mayor of Hartford, CT.
Seems pretty on-topic to me!
Martin Luther King, Jr., reminded us that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” It bends when good citizens force the bending. We must go forward, not backwards.
Also a reminder - indigenous peoples did not get the right to vote until the 1960’s - some were again restricted from that right until the last election, and the debate has returned as to whether their universal ability to vote will be secured (part of the 200 state level voting restriction laws past in the past few years).
Or any child denied a good education - including American children.
Not off topic, very relevant to women’s rights globally
Great Letter, Will.
I'm with you 100 percent. I even have a bias toward women doctors, dentists, lawyers, professors, advisors etc. because I figure women have to work harder and put up with a whole lot more general shit than most men do in order to achieve success in the professions from which they were -- until quite recently -- summarily excluded.
Ever heard of an "old girls' network"? Me neither.
And then while doing their professions, they are still usually -- though not always, by now -- stuck with all the housework and daily childrearing and caring for ailing parents and balancing that with having to remember a million small things, like whose birthday is when and reminding their males not to be so beastly, at least in public.
Good. I'm glad to say all that at one time.
I'm 72, very happily married to my one and only wife (40th anniversary a couple of weeks ago) who has almost always been the principal wage earner in our family. I have always voted for Democrats without exception, and I have always voted for women whenever they seemed to be viable candidates who would be more likely to offer help to the less-lucky among us and less likely to fire off the first nuke.
Women are the greatest, also as President I am quite sure.
Amen or A-women, on women working harder. My wife and I met Donna Shirley, former manager of Mars Exploration at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shortly before the Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner rover landed on Mars. Catherine P. of RAND Corp, another founder member of the Society of Concurrent Engineering that arranged the visit had encouraged bringing my wife since we were short of the group size we had asked to be able to attend. All the men listened to a male presenter while Catherine, my wife and I got to talk with Donna.
In my high school Physics class in 1963, our instructor wouldn't start the class and kept repeating that there was one too many students in the class, glaring at the one young lady that dared to sign up for the class, each of 3 or 4 times he repeated until she finally left. Thinking of that incident, I asked the two PhDs how hard it was for them to get their degrees. Both let out a huge sigh as if they were about to collapse before they started to describe what they had to go through.
Two of my classmates discouraged from science courses to business courses, one ended up as the trustee for the Smith College Endowment fund, the other the manager of purchasing for the Massachusetts Consortium for Higher Education that started from her position at Hampshire College and supported Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and UMass Amherst before growing to support 270 institutions the last I heard.
Makes me think we suppressed a huge amount of talent that could have made us so much better if we gave women (and others) equal opportunities.
Jim-one of my high school classmates in the 1970s forced the school to allow her to take a drafting course instead of home economics. She ended up being a top level engineer for a state’s transportation system.
Too much wasted talent indeed. The same can be said for Black people who were kept out of certain professions. Our nation can’t afford to waste talent!
I grew up in Silver Spring, MD (late 60's/70's) - a stone's throw from NASA Greenbelt and Naval Ordnance Lab in White Oak. It was a breeding ground of technical and mathematical skills of the future in school. Lots of opportunities and lots of varied classes from welding to calculus.
I moved "out to the county" in nearby area and the 30 minute drive was out into the "country" where HS was strongly dominated by sports. Surprisingly, the math classes, esp. the advanced levels, chemistry, and physics had a lot of women in them. In fact, boys were not so much encouraged as the sports were a big factor.
Two of my most influential teachers in advanced mathematics were women that I hold today with very high regard. If only my teenage years allowed me to pay attention more to the schooling and less on extracurricular thoughts.
David Herrick, I appreciate what you say AND I do see an "old girls' network" dynamic in many places although I don't hear it called that. I find it where assemblies of group-think operate to homogenize opinion and make it uncomfortable or impossible for people who ask probing questions. I see it where *some* female leaders gain leadership positions in mostly-male hierarchical organizations but act to fortify males' rule (dare I say egos!). Sometimes I feel this at social gatherings where conversations are dominated by women who do good things for liberal causes for recipients who are unengaged and possibly even demeaned by the system of perceived neediness and providers of relief. For that reason, I especially appreciate Steve Brant's statement, "catalyze the transformation of society from one where men [participants] believe their power comes from dominating others to one where men see their true power comes from empowering others. Coincidentally, that’s what a great football coach does… Empowers others."
Thanks Joan. I, too liked Steve Brant's take on how to transform society, and the rest of your comment is certainly food for thought. It seems it is never enough to simply do good, and getting recognition for one's good-doing is a sort of pay-off, I guess. I'm sure I've fallen into that trap upon occasion. Also, it is sometimes difficult to simplify without over-simplifying. Or discuss LGBTQ things without tripping over pronouns and non-plural plurals and such things.
I guess a little embarrassment is a small price to pay for greater understanding.
I'M another fan of Steve Brant's perspective on where power should come from.
David Herrick thank you!
Here, hear David ,et al 👏 Well said, thank you. That oppression by control has been the front runners of fragile egos highlights how many wonderful advances , abilities were- ARE! while thwarted , ignored,or silenced .
Equality still has a long road to fruition understanding how marvelously useful -in fact - complimentary the differences are.
Marvelous Letter, the commentary equally fascinating.
Thank you for your words, Will, so full of face validity, and yet the results so hard fought. Equality. I hope and trust that your generation understands this inherently and that we humans move on to more pressing matters, such as saving the planet. Thanks for being here - I wasn’t sure there were any readers of your generation.
The young speak with clarity. Hallelujah
Love your thinking Will. Thank you.
I voted for Warren, too. Klobuchar is impressive. Joe Biden exceeded my expectations as well. And while I have never been fond of the Clintons, Hillary would have been an excellent and super capable president. I have always wondered what "Helsinki" would have been like if she had met with Putin instead of the Orange Puppet. I suspect the invasion of Ukraine might not have happened - or unfolded in a different manner.
Thanks for checking in Will, along with sharing your voting history. I, too, have voted for women each time there was an opportunity (starting with Mondale/Ferraro in 1984, our women governors in Oregon, and for Clinton in 2016. I am thrilled to stand in line and vote for Harris this time.
Will, please thank your mother for me. She has raised an excellent human being!
Bravo!
Men. Women. Vive La Différence. But when it comes to political power? There should be no difference. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Patriarchy? 👎
As much as I applaud your post, Will, I don't think boobs are the sticking point. Most if not all misogynists fear women's reproductive systems (the chalice, as Eisler would have it). Whether its the power of the pussy to entice them to their doom or the generative power of the womb, the frightened reaction is to control and suppress females. As Trump was a backlash to our first black president, we can expect the likes of Mark Robinson as a backlash to Kamala. We should absolutely put her in office and at the same time prepare for what will surely follow. I fear Gilead.
You give me hope for the future. I’m older, but not old- a part of GenX that suddenly seems to be emerging from the shadows. I feel like I have one foot in the past due to my parents being baby boomers, and one foot in the very here now thanks to having children who are in their 20’s and 30’s, not to mention being a bit of a rebel myself in refusing to just get old. Anyway, it’s wonderful you spoke up and spoke your mind. I was beginning to think that our country was only rehashing the idea of the “good old days” which were only good for a certain small segment of society. Thank you for getting my day off to a great start and take care!
Thanks Will, from Cal. You seem much more experienced than 29.
About the amazing contributions we could have had: women did make many important and significant contributions. Those contributions were revealed under the name of her husband or employer most of the time. Not even an honorable mention for the woman creator/inventor.
Remember the Moon Shot and the women who correctly did the math in their heads?
Thank you Will!
Thoughtful and well said Will.
Thank you thank you! I am 74 and while I have a husband who thinks like you, I know a large majority of older white men do not. The times are changing and it won’t be easy but it’s necessary.
I'm 71. My mother had a PHD, her sister had a PHD, and their mother was one of the first four Coloradan women to earn a PHD. As a young kid, occasionally I invoked the traditional male-dominated hierarchy, and the privilege that entailed. My parents made sure I understood that was not how things worked in our house, and it was not how they should work in the world at large.
And I'm quite happy we Democrats are fielding a woman for President this go 'round. I had a HARRIS bumper sticker on my car--which I made--the day after Biden passed the torch.
As a retired educator I have always maintained that we cannot afford to waste any good minds just based on the gender, race or other issues that are used to divide us. It is just plan dumb as you so rightly point out. I have great hope for the younger generation to take us forward to a more perfect union that includes everyone.
As they say…..”fittin’ like a mitten’….
https://youtu.be/nS3l_TwPNRY?si=pMt831vyiqWebMCF
Salad, Will.
🗽💜
I'm glad, Steve -- it's my honor -- to be first to give yours a "like" here.
Yours makes up for mine (posted a few minutes earlier) in that you specify gratitude for the women whose long fight Heather celebrates in hers today.
I'd skipped over that good substance and litany of hers -- but you got to the heart of it: how men will dominate, or so often think they can, and by corruption, by money, by hook or crook will attempt even the most crude, vulgar domination. A pathetic fact to which the orange felon speaks (and gestures his accordion-hands, and as in vaudeville also bing-bing-boing-bongs), also to which the fantastically corrupt Clarence court testifies.,
A number of other countries have had female leaders for years. America is just a bit slow on the uptake!
The US is slow in so much. We falsely brag about our superiority, when mostly we're not. Almost all developed countries have universal health care and support for the elderly and disabled. They have much more vacation time and take it. I could go on, but America needs to work on being as exceptional as it claims.
It's just a myth like so much that's talked about the US - not the shining city on the hill at all...
Military strength is our infamous claim to superiority.
We are, and it’s shameful at how long we have perpetuated misogyny and racism as a nation. I fear that instead as serving as a beacon to the nations, we are looking more like a cautionary tale as our political institutions fail us. We have to save ourselves, as no one else will do so. Our political institutions are also failing us, and the Supreme Court majority is a primary example.
Correct Kathy. It takes a larger perspective to realize that the USA is not that "greatest Nation on Earth". And it takes more than a Mediterranen cruise to gain that perspective. Many European folks send their offspring to the US for an, oh so important experience to attend school, or to work for a year. Of course they mostly already have, at east, a rudimentary understanding of English. Most of my European work colleagues sent their children to other continents to gain some perspective. There are great American International private schools in most of the big European cities. I went to one in Vienna, Austria. My classmates are doing interesting work all over the world including America.
I so agree. We have 2 former exchange students in Vienna, one of whom is Hungarian applying for Austrian citizenship as he's concerned Hungary may be ejected from the EU due to Orban's aberrant policies. It is so impressive how many foreigners are able to discuss our politics knowledgeably when so few in the US can find other countries on a map. We all must live on this world together and I believe more female leadership may help us sustain the world longterm.
Very unlikely that Hungary will be expelled: "legally speaking, we don't have the apparatus to expel a member state". However, the EU does have other ways to deal with member states that breach its founding values:
Article 7
This article allows the EU to suspend certain rights of a member state if it persistently violates the EU's founding values. In the past, the possibility of activating Article 7 has been debated for events such as the Austrian coalition with the far right in 2000, the French government's expulsion of Roma in 2009, and a political struggle in Romania in 2012.
Expulsion from host member states
EU citizens or their family members can be expelled from a host member state for reasons of public policy, public security, or public health. However, these decisions must be based on personal conduct and comply with the proportionality principle, and cannot be made on economic grounds.
The obscene court is corrupt to the core and needs major reform!
Important to note that it’s not the institutions that fail us since they are only as strong as the individuals who serve them. As flawed as VP Mike Pence has been in so many ways, he very likely became the most consequential VP ever by choosing to perform his specified duty and certifying the states’ electoral votes on January 6, 2020. It could easily have been the official end for this country on that day had he chosen not to.
The Supreme Court might be fine as an institution if indeed the conservative majority chose to abide by common sense, legal precedent, their own purported conservative principles and the Constitution. Sadly these individuals have failed monumentally and repeatedly. In any case, it is We the People as individuals who need to ensure that people of integrity represent these institutions. Vote Blue! The American experiment depends upon it.
You nailed that one!
America has, at times, been the model for suppression and repression. The Nazis studied the American South to figure out how to repress the Jewish, LGTBQ+, and disabled populations in addition to any they deemed inferior.
Nazis also looked to eugenics movement in some US states in the 20's as a basis for T4 killing of disabled children by Nazis. Right now US and GOP are morphing into a Christian Taliban. So much for being shining city on the hill.
I agree! Of course, when it finally happens here in America, that will be a cultural tipping point for the world, unlike the same occurrence in other countries. I don’t say this out of ego because in many ways, America really is lagging behind the world. So, when it happens here, it won’t be about us leading the world … it’ll be about one of the most powerful countries in the world finally getting to this very special place in its cultural history.
Love your term, "cultural tipping point," Steve.
For me, that means teachers in schools in many cultures decide, finally, that more than anything students -- and teachers -- need to get skilled in seeing, quoting, referencing others as individuals.
First in one's own classroom. Then more widely, in other cultures, especially in, from neighboring cultures traditionally seen only through stereotypes.
Promoting the personal in seeing others will also invoke seeing, referencing, quoting humanities, in one's own culture as well as in that of neighbors.
I was going to say the same thing. What took us SO LONG????
Wonderful thoughts and sentiments, Steve. "I believe that Kamala Harris becoming president can finally catalyze the transformation of society from one where men believe their power comes from dominating others to one where men see their true power comes from empowering others."...I had the same kind of thoughts when President Obama was elected, but look how difficult the aftermath and reaction of racists has been on America. I can't but help that the *f...ing* misogynists will do to women. But you are correct in that there will be an eventual transformation, as there is ongoing in Europe.
If ever there was a time for the women of America to unite, it is right now. No issue on the ballot is more important than gender vs. gender, a female/human rights' advocate vs. a misogynistic misanthrope., a leader of the American Taliban. The idea that they would force a 10-year old girl to carry to term a pregnancy caused by rape is proof that they do not have the tools to govern.
Wow! I'm so glad someone else brought up. Rianne Eisler.
I read the chalice and the blade years ago and a couple of subsequent books by her. She should have been internationally recognized for her scholarship and wisdom.
My concern is that even after all of these struggles for civil rights in this country, we still have so many people who have the right to vote but do not vote.
And probably even more importantly when this decisive presidential election in front of us, we have an electorate with a large percentage of people who will be at the polls, largely choosing ignorance.
As Heather always says, democracy is not an armchair sport. We all need to participate.
I’m happy you know her work as well. And I agree with you that our level of political participation is solo. It’s an embarrassment. I pray that we see a huge amount of first time voters in November!
The decline of patriarchy has been long and painful in coming, one vital statistic is the dramatic rise of divorce rates once equitable laws were put in place the past few generations and women increasingly entered the workforce. Majority of divorces have been initiated by women. Not to forget birth control, family planning and reproductive rights, now a battlefield again.
Nice short course Steve. Thank you. In the book, The Female Brain, author Luann Brizendine, MD, describes differences in male and female brains. Essentially , female brains are simply more efficient. This is primarily due to cell representation in the language generating area, mostly always in the left hemisphere. Perhaps instinctively, men have known this a good long while. Dr. Brizendines work makes for a good read as she has a very engaging 'storytelling style. Good verbal skills can lead to enhanced logic, but, not necessarily always, so don't get too far ahead of yourselves ladies. What's that? Oh, right. You already knew that.
Jim, it’s also interesting that the young female prefrontal cortex is fully wired earlier than the male. Far from being the overly-emotional sex, women’s cognitive abilities exceed male’s at that stage. I laugh when I think how I subconsciously bought into the societal belief in male superiority as a young woman and how shocked I was when I realized it was a myth.
My little nation has a long history in this country. Until the Christians came we were matrilineal and matrilocal, my clan derives from my mother and the entire female line. According to the DNA evidence I am descended directly from a woman who was born somewhere in east Asia about 15 - 18 thousand years ago. Although there is today a veneer of Christianity we still preserve our links to our past - my great grandmother was what we call a ᏓᏅᏫᏍᎩ, an herb doctor who knew the plants and how to properly draw them to you. And of course, we elected Wilma Mankiller as Principal Chief after she succeeded Principal Chief Swimmer who went to Washington, and then re-elected her until her health failed. Our women have always held high positions in our government from the days of the Beloved Women before the Christians came to today when our Principal Chief selected Kimberly Teehee to be our delegate to the House of Representatives. It is the Americans who have denied her seat guaranteed under the Treaty of 1866 and prior Treaties. For us empowered women are simply a fact of life - neither remote nor theoretical.
Steve Brandt I love that you mention how Walz exemplifies the leadership style that empowers rather than dominates. Just finished reading about Shackleton’s expedition to Antarctica and how he kept his men together by empowering and supporting them. Against incredible odds, they all survived. Walz and Harris, when elected, will demonstrate how effective real leadership can be.
Won't it be great if Riane gets to live to see Kamala as the first woman POTUS!
I believe if we can keep the democracy/republic we will need all persons of this country to have and be educated to use the rights of the constitution. All people include every adult citizen not only voting but also supporting their rights and the rights of others. Then when there is conflict, change or differences of opinion and there should be, each person will at least have a respected voice. No matter color, age, ability, position, gender, sexual preferences or any other attempt to divide us into ‘us and them’
“They say I’m a dreamer…” but I hope I’m not the only one.
Thank you Steve Brant , “where men see their true power comes from empowering others”! Such a grown up mind set. That is what makes men hard to ignore… being grown up! Very attractive . 🌞🌍🪐
Learning about the goddess religion in grad school changed my life. I felt like I found a part of me that had been dormant. It was transformative. I read Eisler's book at the time but will re-read it again. Thanks for sharing.
Steve, excellent comment. ..... true power comes from empowering others. True of those who do not suffer the endemic of insecurities. It is those insecurities that are rampant in those who need to dominate. It is essentially the pathology that is the core of MAGAts especially their dispicalble leader.
Steve Bryant, thanks for the Eisler link. Re: football coaches, empowering others is one form of effective leadership. At first I was going to say that most good leaders empower others, but then realized there are other forms including charismatic and dictatorial leadership.
A wonderful letter tonight. Yes, Speak their Names! Julia Ward Howe, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Virginia Minor, Mary Church Terrell, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Amelia Boynton, Rosa Parks, Viola Liuzzo, Constance Baker Motley. And countless others.
And Gloria Steinem and other brilliant leaders during the so called, Women's Lib movement of the 1960's and into the 1970's.
My wife pointed out yesterday some of the benefits men achieved from the Movement -- being able to stay at home and look after the kids, not being the primary bread winner, being able to work in traditionally female jobs like teachers and nurses and even clerks and wait staff, etc.
Gloria Steinem achieved so much with the help of many others, but Project 2025 and the Republican in Congress keep pushing the patriarchy on us.
"We're not going back!!!" - Kamala 2024
Another benefit was that widowed women with children could finally have a say which allowed women to hold property and wealth, make financial decisions & have credit, and could work to support herself and children. This wasn’t possible for women in every state or at all at some time. This increased the likelihood of a man’s children to survive and thrive instead being at the mercy of a male next of kin’s decisions, the State, or wife’s next husband.
women owning credit cards "in their own name" was only established in Canada in the early 70s. Even then i don't think i realized that.
Many Women from that era who fought for equality are still alive today. It feels like it should be over a century ago. But just like American Democracy is in a tenuous position, rights and freedom for many of us can change back to zero.
White men think they’re safe, and they are in many ways, but not from abuse of authority or those who consider themselves better.
Permission to treat one group as less is to give permission for another group to treat them as less.
We either fight together for Equality For All or we eventually end up with Equality For None.
Lisa, I love what you have written. Thank you.
I am 72, I remember & I'm NOT going back!!!
Here's a Forbes article on this and other discrimination issues. It looks as if Canada piggybacked on the American initiative.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/when-could-women-get-credit-cards/#:~:text=Editorial%20Note%3A%20We%20earn%20a,our%20editors'%20opinions%20or%20evaluations.&text=Although%20we%20may%20not%20think,credit%20card%20in%20their%20name.
JJ, you can imagine all these ladies rolling over in their graves as they see their female ancestors’ rights being attacked 100 years later just as the right of black men to vote was under attack 100 years after the 14th amendment was passed. It seems that systemic privilege endowed by government or religion is hard to extinguish; like a poisonous snake, it hides in the corner until circumstances allow it to raise its venomous head and strike anew.
Thank you for giving us the full scope of the suffragist movement. My grandmother was one of thousands in the 2016 march in Chicago during the Republican National Convention, beaten with a baton and jailed for two weeks. She was one of the first women to vote in Illinois -- she passed on her passion for the right to vote to our mother who was part of the League of Women Voters in the Bay Area and manned the booth on every voting day. Today, it is more important than ever that we women vote! Mothers, talk to your daughters.....
Oh, brother....1916 march during the RNC in Chicago....my grandmother was something else and grandpa supported her all the way to the polls!
I was well into adulthood before I put together that my father was born before the19th Amendment was ratified. What that meant to me was that the fully established right of women to vote had only been recognized in relatively recent history. I knew something of this in school. but an age in which everything that occurred before my birth seemed much longer ago than it does now. A lot of doublethink has been recognized and overcome even within my own lifetime. We cannot allow those with personal investments in arresting social progress gain the upper hand.
I recall studying in junior high (and not as part of the curriculum, but as extra credit) that Franklin Roosevelt was the first candidate whose mother could have voted for him for President. Wilson's and Harding's mothers were deceased, and Hoover was an orphan.
This has truly been a multigenerational story, JL, more than a tough nut to crack.
Tamara--brava to your grandmother! Misogyny is the last bastion of "acceptable" bigotry and bias in the world. It preceded prejudice based on skin color and religion and I fear it will be harder to eradicate and take more effort and more anger.
I would say that anti-LGBTQ+ bias is all too acceptable in what seems to be an increasing segment of society. Trans hatred as well. And the shaming/hating of fat people is alive and well across the board. It’s not as if progress is linear in these matters. Two steps forward, one back seems to be the pattern. And of course, the patriarchy is still alive and well, with depth and breadth.
Tamara, this Auntie is talking to her nieces and great nieces!
Brava! Well put.
I am proud to be a direct descendant of Julia Ward Howe. She accomplished so much, along with all the heroic women you mentioned, and so very many more "unsung".
please do not forget that the first woman of color to be nominated to be the Democratic Party presidential candidate was Shirley Chisholm in 1973.
Shirley Chisholm was a trailblazer in many respects. She was a formidable advocate and people didn’t take her campaign for President as seriously as they should have.
Be sure to check out "Chisholm - I'd Rather Be Black Than Female." It was required reading when I was in college.
https://www.scribd.com/document/170718971/10-Chisholm-id-Rather-Be-Black-Than-Female
David-Thanks for posting this link. One of the reasons Black women are persistent advocates for equality, justice and democracy is related to HCR’s mention of “intersectionality”.
To be oppressed by gender AND skin color is to truly experience tyranny. We should not forget that too many White women, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton often excluded Black women saying that only “we educated, virtuous white women are more worthy of the vote”.
In 2024 we have a chance to elect someone who wants to represent all of us-no matter our gender or color. For America (and the world) I truly hope we succeed in doing this…the alternative is frightening when we consider that he’s “honored” to be the one who took away women’s rights by appointing lying and corrupt SCOTUS justices.
David, wow, impressive, what college and what year?
I was a biography hound during grades 4-10; my birthday present in March of 1973 was Shirley Chisholm's 1970 biography.
It is difficult for me to express how profoundly grateful I am to have Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters from an American" in my daily life. I am trying, without success, to recall how I first became aware of them. I wish I could remember who it was who told me so I could thank him or her. (At 73, my mind seems to be tossing off a lot of ballast, no doubt in order to stay afloat.)
I think the nation would be well-served if more political journalists, and pundits, were recruited from university history departments rather than journalism classes.
I know exactly who introduced me to the Letters. He lived, surrounded by his large garden stretching to the woods, from which the occasional bear emerged, on a hillside in Appalachia. He left this life just under two months ago, days before his 97th birthday.
Sorry to hear of his passing - he sounds amazing.
Right on Ralph!
My (now) 99 year-old stepmother recommended HCR to me a few years ago, and I have been hooked ever since. When I wake up in the morning (here in Italy) and turn on the phone, the first thing I check is ESPN to see if the Pittsburgh Pirates have won or lost, then the INGV latest earthquakes page (we experienced several big ones here in Le Marche in 2016) and then Heather Cox Richardson's amazing Letter. Then I can go pee....
oh, i go straight to HCR almost daily.
On the west coast, I take care of the pee first, then the coffee, and then LFAA. I enjoy the later posts because I end up spending less time on the comments and don't end up watering the yard in the heat...
I love your description of being 73--I turned 73 last week. Definitely harder to stay afloat and so much is going on right now! I’m thrilled to be cognizant and a part of it in ways I haven't in the past.
Here, here, Ralph! I agree. About the history professors as well as the “tossed ballast!”
There are reasons by Republicans rage against "woke" culture and see the universities as bastions of "radical" thinking. USA is in the throws of a major cultural conflict, a concentrated reaction to the advances of cultural liberalism, and dare i say it, DEI. Yes, journalists need more than a good dose of post secondary history / sociology. Not for nothing politicians like DeSantis are endeavouring to strip "critical race theory" or anything that makes whites feel badly about American racist history, from the schools and now post-secondary education. This is all atavistic reactionary extremism writ large.
Ralph, I found her on Facebook, and discovered Substack a short time later. I occasionally share her Facebook posts, but really enjoy this venue for conversation. I had a band friend (career Marine JAG and fabulous flute player) introduce me to the Professor.
I so agree.
Bill Moyers introduced me to HCR many years ago.
Full circle is what you have described so succinctly, Heather. Suffragettes showed women the way to achieve equality. We still aren’t there yet, but almost. Still pinching myself that we have a woman, one of Asian and Black descent, who is running for the highest position in our nation. Kamala resonates with every day people and so does her pick for VP, Tim Walz. They make quite a team. Joe gave us a gift when he realized he needed to step aside. I don’t think I could have more admiration for him as I do. HE is still our president and I believe he will be giving a speech tonight. I look forward to this convention because it will unite all of us.
Thank you Professor Richardson.
One of the things that troubles me (as so many things do these days), I worry about what I consider to be "generational awareness". The suffering and tragedy that previous generations were confronted with to earn rights which should be obvious (or self-evident). While you continue to do heroic (sheroic?) work connecting our past with the events of today, readers are connected at a cognitive level, not necessarily at an emotional level.
Generations of today might shrug their shoulders at voting while saying "what difference does it make?" or "I have too much to do" or the obstacles intentionally placed before them from the evisceration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by corrupt and so-called "Justices" like Thomas and Alito, preclude them from voting, whereas previous generations of people who were thought of as "less than white male property owners" were severely beaten or killed.
Much of the racist and/or willfully ignorant reaction to "Critical Race Theory" or, realistically, actual U.S. History is to prevent that emotional connection and awareness that catalyzes and codifies engagement. And as I often write, the three pillars of any attempt at a meaningful democracy are an educated, informed, and engaged society. The racist, misogynist extremists in the United States, represented by Heritage Foundation, Trump, MAGA, and others would like nothing more than an end to any aspirations of democracy in the United States -as they know, if there is anything closely approximating democracy, justice, and equality -they lose and are relegated to the toxic garbage heap of history with the treasonous confederacy where they belong.
As a retired community college contingent professor of ESL, your "three pillars of democracy," creating an "educated, informed, and engaged society" formed the third part of our mission. The first was to give our students the opportunity to gain the skills to pursue the career of their choice, the second was to prepare our students to pursue further higher education, and finally, to prepare them to become thoughtful, engaged citizens. Community colleges join these three opportunities and responsibilities as a way to promote democracy while improving the lives of everyone, on both an individual and a societal level.
Betsy My 23 years as a community college professor (from age 58 to 80) ranked among the most professionally fulfilling in my life. Fortunately, I was permitted to teach a wide range of subjects including SOCIETAL DISCRIMINATION—THE WHAT AND THE WHO FROM PATRIARCHY TO THE PRESENT.
I am appalled that today such a topic could not be taught in an increasing number of state colleges.
Republican-dominated state governments, including my own state government in an Ohio, are becoming increasingly authoritarian. The states are laboratories of authoritarianism and hostility to small d democracy, or self government by, for and of the people. They are actively engaged in censoring books and ideas, but it will be a failure. People are not stupid, and they know what the states are doing.
Kathy, I’m not sure people do know what the states are doing. I’m an engaged consumer of news, and without David Pepper (as you and I have discussed before), I don’t think I would know the depths of corruption we face here in Ohio. I don’t think any of my irl friends know. How do we fix this? I don’t know.
The notion that Husted might be our next Governor is appalling. Ohio should be where Minnesota is. We have all the ingredients. Instead, we are slipping further and further down the rankings of states under our gerrymandered and so far permanent Republican dominance. Let’s hope Issue 1 passes despite its twisted wording.
Kathy Could you imagine my teaching SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EARLY JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, AND ISLAM in an increasing number of American states?
Even suggesting that the Gospels were written at different times for different purposes and were not historically consistent would propel me before an Inquisition and expulsion.
I am reminded of ‘education’ in Stalinist Soviet Union. The starving and killing of over 3,000,000 Ukrainians to fulfill their Five Year Industrial Plan never was taught.
"History," as they say, is taught by the winners. We are now entering a phase of "herstory" in which we will all be winners.
Keith, I would have loved your classes, I’m sure!
Anne Marie And I would have loved to have you in my class!!!!
I've had an interesting career, mostly in technology (and have been pleased to devote the last part of my career to writing, speaking, and causing "good trouble"). One of the last things I did as part of my more conventional career was to help modernize the applications, databases, and new cloud-based technology for the California Student Aid Commission. I viewed the effort I was leading as vital to democracy and truly honored to work with many in higher education, at the Community Colleges, Cal State University and University of California systems, all dedicated to providing an important educational experience for hundreds of thousands of students, and the administration of grants -not loans. Any society aspiring toward democracy must prioritize public education unfettered by political or religious extremism. The challenges future generations face with regard to climate and climate migration, natural resources, the rise of authoritarianism, and global security require our best educated and trained minds, not blind so-called patriotic hyper-consumers. Grateful for your work Betsy, Keith's, and all who work to educate students and shape what I hope will be a better, more peaceful, just, and equal future for all.
Thank you, George, for your work, and thanks to all those, whether or not we know them or their names, who have worked to help democracy thrive in our country and our world.
You have accurately summed up our current dilemma. This is the sort of thing you would never see in print or broadcast outlets given their tendency to engage in horse race coverage and their aversion to discussing serious policy issues. My dad mentioned to me yesterday that re-electing Trump would wreck our nation, and Project 2025 is their method to do it.
Still waiting, all these many many many years for the ERA to be passed. It’s the next step in full equality. Not sure what so many are afraid of if it does comes to pass. Sigh. Hope I will see its passage in my lifetime, so we’d better get on it quick!
The ERA may get a boost from President Harris.
🤞
The ERA is the Alice Paul amendment. Alice Paul led NAWSA to getting 19 passed!
Amen, Barbara! I have often said that I hope the ERA passes before I do. It was 46 years ago this past July that I marched on the mall with thousands of other women. A contingent from my hometown in Virginia was there, and I was asked to hold the banner representing us. I was surprised the next day to see a full photo of us on the front page of our local paper. The paper made it clear who was holding the banner and the article about it noted that I was Judge Cox's wife. Looking back on it, I realize I was probably set up for this by the paper, which had issues with my husband who was a Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judge. They were unhappy with him for not allowing them in the courthouse with cameras when a juvenile was being tried for committing a crime. (He always judged in the best interest of the child and was protecting the child's identity.) I guess the journalists thought it would embarrass him, but he was quite proud of me for marching. I was always careful about being political in our hometown, and had no idea that I would be singled out at such a large event 50 miles away. A lesson learned. But yes, the ERA is way past due!
🫶🏻
heck yes it has indeed been a long time coming. thrilling times - hope this week goes well in Chicago! woo hoo!
If all women and the people that love them voted for Kamala, she would be the next president. After recently meeting several women who don’t believe a woman should be president and who are steadfast in their resolve to vote for trump,(I’m serious as a heart attack) I am frightened and disheartened. It would be the epitome of disaster if women helped put a dictator into office who closed the right to vote.
Patriarchy has regrettably survived because the patriarchy advocates get some women to buy into their systems of control, rather like former Bircher Phyllis Schlafly and real-life versions of Aunt Lydia in the “Handmaid’s Tale.”
Rich-CNN did a segment on White women in Iowa who said they’re voting for Trump. Unbelievable. In 2020 before Roe was overturned, 52% of them voted for Trump. Let’s hope that there are now more “woke” women whose eyes have been opened to how unfettered patriarchy hurts all of us.
Abortion is the key issue for my cousin and her husband in western Iowa. They don't care that DonOLD added $7.9 trillion to the national debt, or that DonOLD totally mishandled the pandemic at every turn. Or that he cost farmers billions of dollars with his Chinese tariffs. Many farmers were forced into bankruptcy because China cancelled grain orders.
And we all paid for the $50 billion ag bailout to try and make up for the loss of income because of the tariffs.
When they throw doctors in jail for up to 99 years for performing an "unauthorized" life saving procedure I'm out. Another party will need to rise from the ashes before I can vote for anyone but a Democrat or Independent.
I can't like this Rich. Such a sad commentary on the patriarchy.
I understand completely 😢
Great letter but i have to wonder, why am i learning this now? There wasn't a whisper of it in any school I attended. Is that changing?
There were faint whispers of the suffragette movement in my education, mostly photos of women marching in the streets wearing white. What we REALLY heard nothing about was the whole ugly and brutal history of slavery and the near genocide of indigenous peoples. And the multiple times that we came very close to having our democracy turned into a Fascist state (see Rachel Maddow’s “Ultra” podcast). Even the US history professors and high school teachers knew little or nothing about the latter dark episodes. We are once again coming around full circle to an attempted coup and whether successful or not, we must fight against the banning of books and curricula that tell the unvarnished truth about our history.
Read about the recent Broadway hit SUFFS!! Better yet go see the show! It did my heart good to finally see the 19th amendment probably celebrated and The Iron Jawed Angels properly remembered!
So very true, there is very "messy" history there, and much unfinished business. We also need to remember that in many ways democratic government is a recent innovation, and at every stage there was a fight to be fought.
Beyond schools, the Women's Movement and feminism have been around since the 1960s.
schools by and large are concentrated on skill development, but above all, rally around the flag patriotism, under a nationalist exceptionalism banner.
Yes, a long time coming.
The great thing about conventions --- this one, too: it’s personal.
Crowd dynamics could enter, but I don’t think that will occur much among our good-hearted Dems in Chicago.
Still, anywhere in the world the personal can be scripted away, so group thinking can rule more. Abstractions can grow, slogans repeat. Life can sink more to the impersonal, in the way standardized testing pushes its rationality, hewing life to the linear, the categorical, simple causality – crowding out the complicated personal, negating individuals, their oddities, vulnerabilities.
When Lewis Powell published his memo, August 23, 1971, he and his far-right colleagues sought dominance of commerce. So first they went to war on humanities in schools. Those arts nurture, buoy the personal – quite opposite the impulses to number, own, control, mechanize, and package as do banks, businesses, religious sects, monarchies, oligarchies.
The rational and the packaged squelch what Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt longed for elsewhere, something he sensed as some “still, small voice.”
If you love, if you enjoy Heather’s history, Kamala and Tim’s America, it can be personal. And when one loves, one never wants to see any loved one hurt.
But an abstracted, rationalized world bids immunity from hurt. This, as that deeply corrupted Clarence court rules immunity for orange criminality, its fountainhead for billionaires buying corruption.
Well said, Phil.
I am so excited to see history being written this week as the Democratic Party officially recognizes Kamala Harris as it's first Black/Asian/American/Female candidate for the highest office of our nation. Indeed, it has been a long time coming. Kamala stands on the shoulders of giants, the famous and the unknown, suffragettes ,and civil rights advocates who paved the way for her to stand as this candidate
I agree, Nancy. I recently bought a t-shirt on Etsy that says "Rosa sat, so Ruby could walk, so Kamala could run."
Though a number of states had accorded women the right to vote, the Nineteenth Amendment was certainly not a slam dunk.
President Woodrow Wilson, faced with major, prolonged suffrage picketing of the White House, finally ordered arrests. With his acquiescence, a number of women were subjected to forced feeding and other humiliations.
Finally, in 1918, Wilson made a political right face and supported women’s suffrage. At the time, it was reported that he gave up a round of golf to address the suffrage issue.
Tennessee was the 36th state in which the Nineteenth Amendment was submitted for approval. It seemed that the it would be one vote short. A representative for eastern Tennessee had announced his intention to vote against the Nineteenth Amendment. Then he received a letter from his mother strongly ‘suggesting’ that he support her right to vote. Thus the Nineteenth Amendment was approved by a single vote—his.
A woman made it happen
Alice Paul and NAWSA led the final push!!
In the grand sweep of historic events, it’s often a single personal act or event that tips the balance. I find that oddly moving.
Just needed that little nudge to get it done, after so much effort, it is oddly moving
Alice Paul did it!
One of your best, or the finest kind as they’d say in Maine.
Powerfully moving in its clear simplicity.
It's been a long time coming...and you are there. How appropriate!