March is Women’s History Month, something worth celebrating.
Let’s be honest. We humans have a less than stellar record when it comes to our treatment of half of the human race. A roomful of us were reminded of that on Feb. 13, during a Keep on Learning session at the Waverly Public Library.
Rebecca Nederhiser, the conductor of the Wartburg Community Symphony, presented a program of mostly unknown female British composers. When she played samples of their works, I was floored. All of them were clearly touched by genius.
The point was made during that presentation that women didn’t surface as serious musicians in England — or anywhere else, for that matter — until anti-woman biases began to crumble. That’s not quite true. Some of them surfaced and thrived when the biases were still blatant. They simply cut through it all and persevered.
What’s wrong with women, anyway? What’s the deal with humanity’s longstanding resistance to giving women the credit — and the standing — they deserve?
I have a theory.
Men have long dominated the social scene, with a few exceptions, because they can. They have treated women with both the best and the worst of intentions. The positive side of this equation includes an understandable instinct. Men want women protected. They don’t want other men brutalizing them. They see them — or have seen them — as vulnerable and unable to protect themselves.
The fear has been that, if women are front and center, they become moving targets. A much more primal instinct that comes into play in all of this is that men don’t want the wrong men procreating with women to whom they are “not entitled.” And, since men often are physically larger and stronger, it stands to reason that they should make it their task to protect women. That, at least, has been the logic.
The other side of the equation is the negative one. Men have used their physical strength to hold women down. They have done so because they can. It has led to treating women as “the lesser vessel,” or, worse, the property of men. It’s about control.
It has created the myth that women are intellectually inferior to men. (The Keep on Learning presentation debunked that myth very quickly.)
Hence, our long, sad history of:
Keeping women out of sight. In classical Greece, women couldn’t go out in public.
And of denying them legal status. In Jesus’ generation a Hebrew man could own property and also divorce his wife; a woman could do neither.
And of denying women the vote. Think about what suffragists went through to change this.
And of paying women less than men for the same work.
The inequities continue.
Much of what is brilliant, boundary-breaking, cutting edge in modern culture is attributable to women. There is grudging acceptance or downright denial of this reality by some, usually men.
An attempt to drag outdated Biblical cultural norms, such as “Women should keep quiet in church,” etc., into the modern era has led some religious folk — male and female — to believe that a woman’s place is probably at home, subservient to her husband.
It’s time to celebrate the progress women have made in human culture. What’s the best way to do that? The simplest answer would seem to be, treat them as individuals who are equal to, but different from, men.
If we figure out how to do that, we might even see women college and seminary presidents. Oh, wait, both Wartburgs already have these. Women pastors. Again, St. Paul’s Lutheran in Waverly has had three. A woman conducting a symphony orchestra. Again, the Wartburg Community Symphony currently has one.
The prime minister of a nation. Too late — the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel, India and Argentina have already done that. And, who knows, maybe the third time will be the charm for the opportunity to elect a female U.S. president. Don’t hold your breath on that one.
What’s wrong with women? Nothing that isn’t also wrong with men.
If you’re a man, celebrate your favorite woman this week. If nothing else, take her to lunch. And, when you do, don’t make her pick up half the tab.