March is Women's History Month

I am still slowly reading this book:

Separation of Church and Hate is making me think.  It is a rallying cry for anyone who is sick of people using religion as a way to hide their hate.  I blogged about it HERE.

Week in Review

• The subject I chose for TWOsday was games, HERE.
• My Wednesday word was "ubiquitous," HERE.
• On Thursday, I was thinking about Chinese proverbs, HERE.
• My Book Beginning for Friday was from More Than Words, HERE.
• On Saturday I reflected on a signifigant family anniversity, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Women's History Month & International Women's Day

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March 8th is reserved each year across the globe as a day for encouraging everyone to stand up for women’s rights and gender equality.  The first celebration took place in Chicago in 1908.

My most recent book purchase

Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion ~ edited by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, 1979, 1992, women (theology), xiii + 297 pages

This book reflects a movement within feminism that was grappling with the patriarchal aspects of religion and, rather than rejecting religion altogether as so many feminists were doing at the time, these authors were working to retain the spiritual, the mystical, and the ritual parts of religion while still confronting and challenging patriarchy.  The introduction says that some feminists "are convinced that religion is profoundly important.  For them, the discovery that religions teach the inferiority of women is experienced as a betrayal of deeply felt spiritual and ritual experience.  They believe the history of sexism in religions shows how deeply sexism has permeated the human psyche but does not invalidate human need for ritual, symbol and myth.  While differing on many issues, the contributors to this volume agree that religion is deeply meaningful in human life and that the traditional religions of the West have betrayed women.  They are convinced that religion must be reformed or reconstructed to support the full human dignity of women."

I got this book to read during March, which is Women's History Month.

March is Women's History Month

Since many of the women's suffrage centennial celebrations originally scheduled for 2020 were curtailed, the National Women's History Alliance is extending the annual theme for 2021 to "Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to Be Silenced."

Coloring pages ~ about women

As I posted yesterday, March is Women's History Month.  Today, I changed the bulletin board by the elevators on my floor to reflect this (using the image above).  I also gave my friends and neighbors a challenge:

"Color a page, and share it here."

Click to enlarge image

See those words under the image?  I hung the coloring pages I shared in yesterday's post.  Folks can choose any of the five (as of right now).  At top left is the image of Rosie the Riveter that I talked my friend Donna into coloring yesterday.  Gail, who lives on my floor, took a copy of the Jane Goodall picture.  Which one would YOU color?

By the way, Rosalind P. Walter, the original inspiration for "Rosie the Riveter," died Wednesday at the age of 95.  According to NBC News, when the United States was in the midst of World War II in the 1940s, 19-year-old "Roz" wanted to join in the war effort and became a welder at the Sikorsky aircraft plant, a job usually reserved for men.

Women's History Month ~ and a book beginning

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Beginning lines
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Whenever I sit in my favorite coffee place, writing and people watching, I am con-stantly struck by people's shoes.  Not in a philosophical, "where they've been" or "the things they've seen" kind of way, but by the fact that the men walking to work at the court-house are wearing sensible, presumably comfortable loafers.  Shoes that don't wreck your knees and ankles, distort your posture, and generally make you daydream all day about being barefoot.

On the other hand, the women walking to work at the courthouse are mostly wearing stylish instruments of torture.  Because this is what we're told strikes the right balance of sex appeal and professionalism to earn us a seat at the table.
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Resist and Persist: Faith and the Fight for Equality ~ by Erin Wathen, 2018, sexism

Over the past few decades, the roles women play in public life have evolved significantly, as have the pressures that come with needing to do it all, have it all, and be all things to all people.  Misogny has evolved as well, becoming in some ways more subtle and indirect.  But patriarchy is still sanctioned by our institutions:  capitalism, government, and even — and maybe especially — the church.  This is perhaps the ultimate irony — that a religion based in the radical justice and liberation of Jesus' teachings has been the most complicit part of the narrative against women's equality.

Pastor and blogger Erin Wathen navigates the complex layers of what it means to be a woman in our time and place — from the language that we use to the clothes that we wear to the unspoken assumptions that challenge our full personhood at every turn.  This fearless book examines the challenges to women's equality in light of our current culture and political climate and calls women and men alike to break through the barriers that hold us all back.  At the end of each chapter is a set of questions for discussion.

March is Women's History Month
and thus a very good time for me to read Resist and Persist, which is on my list for the TBR challenge.

Today, I'll wear my RESIST tee-shirt encouraging women to RESIST bigotry, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism, misogyny, hatred, fear, lies.

Here are free coloring pages of women who have made a difference:  Rosie the Riveter, Jane Goodall, Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, and Sally Ride.  (Yes, I know Rosie was a poster representing working women who filled the gap when men went off to war.)

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Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click this link for book beginnings shared by other readers.
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