Contributing Author Maggie S.
In recognition of International Women’s Day, I would like to direct attention to women in third world nations who are treated like animals and worse. There are dozens of organizations which daily lead in efforts to aid and support our sisters around the world who are oppressed (if only there were a stronger word). From clean water to reproductive health and freedom of worship, to the freedom to be treated with dignity and know her girl child will not be sold into prostitution, but can receive a full education and live the life she chooses–women of many developing nations face insecure daily circumstances. To these women we owe a debt of care and nurture. One that cannot be addressed by assigning a day to acknowledge the plight, only to go back to forgetting them on a day that is not assigned. I strongly encourage a connection with a quality organization to minister to the souls of the mothers, sisters, and daughters of the developing world.
However, I also feel a responsibility to point out that as an elderly female of the United States of America, there hasn’t been one day of my life that my ability to exceed, excel, and develop my identity has ever been oppressed in the slightest degree due to my womanhood. I feel as though I received the respect due my effort and achievements. When that has not been the case, it has been a personal slight and in no way indicative of systemic prejudice against women, but boorish behavior and poor home training of the other party (and usually at the hands of another woman).
I challenge the older women of the United States to take the lead in teaching the younger generation…to walk in the dignity of their station…to be generous to those who have less than they…to carry themselves with discretion and self-respect in the area of sexual expression…to demonstrate that we are not kept down by men, but that we are achieving our work while making theirs possible.
We honor women everywhere by being women of honor, dignity, generosity, self-respect, creativity, vulnerability, tenderness, genuineness, self-control, teachability, and nurture as God designed.
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