I was one of 11 women who received an email from our dear friend on International Women’s Day.
“Hello my friends,
I miss you all very much today. Would definitely have a get-together if we were allowed and closer!
Next year for sure!!
Love and hugs to you all”
What made this simple correspondence particularly good is that it started a great Women’s Day email conversation, some of which follows:
“Happy Women’s day to you too! Just heard a news story on the radio which ended with ….‘including women and other marginalized genders.’ I didn’t even know I was marginalized. I thought women outnumbered men in our population and marginalizing was spreading something on toast!”
“Ha ha ha! I thought that’s what you do with ‘marginalized’ also!
Happy International Women’s Day to you too! Stay safe and happy girlfriend!”
“…it was fun getting in on the conversation. And it gave me an opportunity to scratch an itch. Have you ever read one of Memorial University’s employment ads? There are probably similar ads elsewhere but Memorial’s always offends me because it’s a university. More like an institute of lower, not higher, learning to me.”
Of course I looked up an ad right away. I was a bit shocked.
“Memorial University is committed to employment equity and diversity and encourages applications from all qualified candidates, including women, people of any sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; Indigenous peoples; visible minorities and racialized people; and people with disabilities.”
Further comments from the sisterhood:
“Employment equity shouldn’t need to be explained. Qualified candidates should include any gender (or species for that matter). Full stop.”
“If they ended it with ‘men are also encouraged to apply’ I might feel a little better. Well, I got that off my gender-neutral chest!”
“How do they get away with it? I see how this gave birth to your rant about ‘margarinized’” people!! Thanks for the humour, I need it in these hard times!”
“How wonderful to see the banter back and forth and know that even though we’re not allowed to be together we can still communicate! I feel a stronger appreciation for your friendships and can’t wait to see you all! Bring on the vaccine!”
That got me to ruminating about the immeasurable challenges to achieving gender balance and about one way, perhaps the only way, in which the balance is weighted firmly on the side of women — sisterhood.
Its many years since Gloria Steinem said “Any woman who chooses to behave like a full human being should be warned that the armies of the status quo will treat her as something of a dirty joke … She will need her sisterhood.”
The reality of the first part of that statement has softened in overt ways but the conclusion hasn’t changed a bit.
While sisterhood is identified with women's rights and the relationship between women who share ideas and aims, I like Encarta’s definition; “Sisterhood is defined as solidarity among women … the empathy and loyalty that women feel for other women who have shared goals, experiences, or viewpoints.”
The key word is experience and I would add understanding to that. Even if we don’t have the same goals or viewpoints there’s an intrinsic familiarity in universal female experience. There are feelings that an illiterate woman in a Third World country can understand in another woman in any country in the world. We speak an internal language that men, husbands included, don’t understand.
Unfortunately, most still don’t fully understand the external language either and so we fight on.
And therein lays another thread in the fabric of women.
Finnish artist and activist Ritta Klint put it well when she said “The female warrior knows how to fight without violence. She knows when not to raise her sword, but instead hold up her heart. Her shield is not a defense against others but a shelter for all.”
If it were only true that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world the world would be a much better place.
Janice Wells writes from St. John’s.
