Women's Equality Day, August 26, 2007: Here's to you, Bella!

They used to give us a day--it was called International Women's Day. In 1975 they gave us a year, the Year of the Woman. Then from 1975 to 1985 they gave us a decade, the Decade of the Woman. I said at the time, who knows, if we behave, they may let us into the whole thing. Well, we didn't behave and here we are. U.S. Representative, Bella Abzug (D-NY)

According to the Jewish Women's Archive Bella Savitsky was "born yelling" in 1920, the year women won the right to vote.

A daughter of Russian immigrants, she grew up poor in the Bronx. At tuition free Hunter College, Bella was student body president . She won a scholarship to Columbia University Law School, where she became one of the few women law students in the nation.

She married Martin Abzug, raised two daughters, and worked as a lawyer for twenty-five years, specializing in labor law, tenants' rights, civil rights and liberties cases. During the McCarthy era, she was one of the few attorneys who fought against the House Un-American Activities Committee

In the 1960's, Abzug helped start the nationwide Women Strike For Peace (WSP), in response to U.S.and Soviet nuclear testing. After that, she became an important voice against the Vietnam War.

Making a connection between feminism and peace, Bella said: "Sometimes I'm asked when I became a feminist, and I usually answer, 'The day I was born.' If I was born a rebel, I attribute it to my family heritage. My father, Emanuel Savitzky, fled to the United States from Czarist Russia when the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 broke out. He hated war."

In 1970, at the age of 50, Bella Abzug ran for congress in Manhattan and won on a strong feminist and peace platform. She quickly became a nationally known legislator, one of only 12 women in the U.S. House of Representatives. In Congress, she was especially noted for her work for the Equal Rights Amendment, national day care centers, ending sex discrimination, and working mothers' priorities.

In 1971, she instituted Women's Equality Day on August 26th, commemorating the passage of the 19th Amendment, the Woman Suffrage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave U.S. women full voting rights in 1920. This was the culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women that had its formal beginnings in 1848 at the world's first women's rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York. The observance of Women's Equality Day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women's continuing efforts toward full equality.

After three terms in Congress, Abzug gave up her seat in 1976 to run for an all male Senate , but lost the democratic primary by less than one percent.

In 1990, Bella co-founded the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), an international activist and advocacy network. As WEDO president, She became an influential leader at the United Nations and at UN world conferences, working to empower women around the globe.

Bella Abzug gave her final public speech before the UN in March of 1998, and died soon after, at the age of 77.

Celebrate Women's Equality Day this year, and remember Bella Abzug and her words of wisdom: "Women have been trained to speak softly and carry a lipstick. Those days are over."

Comments

[Desiderata]

Try recognizing men are different mentally, physically and emotionally from women; then accept that fact.

This knowledge is the true path to equality, because a fundamental principle of survival comes immediately into play: Know Your Adversary, not what you think, hope nor insist he be.

[lakecat]

We haven't come such a long way baby. Little girls are encouraged to be sexpots, the vast majority of economic and political power is still in male hands and women who do manage to aquire power are demonized (is there any logical reason for the venom Hillary inspires?) 51%, you would think we'd be further along by now.

[Fairfloss]

Little girls are still encouraged to be pretty and male bosses eye's almost always check out those "head-lights" first. So this could be the reason for breast enhancement surgeries being a common practice these days.

We are allowed to fight in wars, even carry a gun. I do suspect the Pentagon secretly hopes that the American women in combat will help to keep the men from fraternizing with the local woman.

As for Hillary, some of her failure to carry more of the female vote is because of her husband, she kept him. The male vote? Maybe her bosom isn't big enough.

[Indiana]

Amen to "We haven't come such a long way baby. Little girls are encouraged to be sexpots...."

That's right. And I'll add that the objectification of the female body is a major part of this sexualized culture that's still keeping women down and providing bad examples to girls. This can be seen in such things as current fashion. I'm modest by nature, so finding clothes I like is difficult--while I wouldn't wear a burka or a nun's habit, I do know there are a lot of styles one can wear that look attractive without making one resemble a hooker looking for business. And lately it's been hard to find them.

And then there are advertising and other places where women are objectified--and here I'm going to make some constructive criticism. On the "Living Now" page I've seen the following photos since Friday: 1. A woman's bare midriff. 2. A pregnant woman's bare belly. And 3. A woman underwater in a bikini, shown from the midriff to the knees. To be frank, these photos bother me. Reason being, I wouldn't say they show women, I'll say they just show women's body parts--which to me is objectification as well as being in extremely poor taste. While I wouldn't request that such photos be replaced by ones of nuns or women wearing burkas, I would feel better about them if, at least, the women's faces were shown.

And I'll add, to be fair, that HuffPost is hardly the only offender, because more often than not on other websites I'll see the following kind of ad, usually for an exercise or weight-loss program, which I find distasteful: A woman's derriere, practically being thrust in one's face. Even though the derriere is clothed, I still find this sort of advertising offensive--again, because it objectifies women.

[mommadona]

Good point, but with burka's in fashion, young ladies, you better WAKE UP and SMELL THAT DARK ROAST COFFEE.

Time is NOT on your side, and right now "some" are more equal than others, and the pressure is from the pater side of the family...."ya gotta GO along to GIT along"....it bleeds over into every facet of an individual's life.

One burka at a time, dears. One burka at a time.

[riverroad]

I'll bet Bella Abzug championed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that would have established equality under the law for females. This measure was DEFEATED in Congress in 1982.

Abzug and the women's liberation movement were against wars, yet there has been a drive in the media over the last decade to push girls and women into the military, where male personnel regularly rape and sexually harass female troops.

If a military draft is enacted, the plan is to remove the female exemption and force girls and women to carry out wars that are of, by and for men.

What other group in society would be expected to perpetrate wars while its members lack legal equality?
.

[SouthpawSass]

Yeah, remember when we had women like that?

[Fairfloss]

We haven't slipped backwards, exactly.
It is just the younger generation of women's values have changed. Their definition of being a feminist is different from what Bella Abzug had in mind.

I remember Bella and her big hats, as well as her big voice. She was a role model.

Now it is just not about young women competing with men in the market place, the polling place and in the government, but they were sold a bill of goods and told they should compete with them in the bedroom as well.

It seems to be more about the latter and the men have not caught up yet. Even if they were the salesmen.

They still "won't buy a cow if they can get the milk for free," Bella is looking down and ringing her hands and yelling, "schmucks!"
She is not yelling at the men this time.

[mommadona]

"Houston, I believe we have a problem"....

Not many of the new crop even KNOW who Bela was.

I feel like it's slipped so desparately backward.

Organized religion is MUCH more of a threat to a woman's individual freedom today.

They just won't realize what they have
until it's gone.
Treading water in the perfect storm
is NOT an option.

I say OPERATION LYSISTRATA.
S.O.S
"Save Our Sisters"

ONWARD.